Bentonville senior Johnathan Prince outraced two-time state champion Noah Eskew to win the Lake Hamilton Invitational cross country meet Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
On the site of next month's state high school championships, Prince ran the 3.1-mile infield course in 16 minutes, 1.44 seconds while Eskew, a Jessieville junior, was clocked in 16:02.34. Lake Hamilton sophomore Colby Swecker placed third in 16:20.75.
Bentonville breezed to the team title 36-118 over Lake Hamilton, Springdale Har-Ber (138) placing third.. The Class 7A Tigers had three other top-10 finishers besides Prince with sophomore Coleman Wilson seventh in 16:35.48, senior Kimball Owen ninth in 16:43.69 and senior Hayden Townsend 10th in 16:43.74.
Lake Hamilton's second-fastest finisher, junior Cody Weldon, placed 23rd in 17:10.09, teammates McKree Martin finishing 26th and Skylar Davis 27th. Thirty-six teams and 263 individual runners entered the varsity boys' race.
Bentonville sophomore Tori Willis edged Lake Hamilton junior and two-time Class 6A champion Josie Carson for the varsity girls' title as underclassmen took the first six and 11 of the top 12 spots. Willis ran the 5k course in 18 minutes, 58 seconds while Carson followed in 18:59.07 and Batesville freshman Jillian Jones placed third in 19:43.85. Ninth-graders Charissa Helms of Russellville and Sara Holman of Conway completed the top 10.
Bentonville won the varsity girls' team title 29-98 over Lake Hamilton, 22 teams and 208 individuals competing. Jessieville junior Alina Homan placed 17th in 20:56.27, Lake Hamilton junior Morgan Pruitt 20th in 21:16.10, Lakeside freshman McKaila Davis 24th in 21:28.68 and Lake Hamilton freshman Anacaron Ramos 25th in 21:30.82. Lake Hamilton's other counters were junior Anna Cole and freshman Jessica Jennings, 35th and 36th overall.
Bentonville's Colton Simmons won the boys' junior varsity race in 17:40.72, Har-Ber sophomore J.T. Weiss and Bentonville sophomore Wells Atkins completing the top three. Lake Hamilton's top finishers were sophomore Christian Silvar, seventh in 18:37.01; junior Dylan Stephens, ninth in 18:48.58, and sophomore Nick Davis, 10th in 18:55.53.
Bentonville contestants finished one-two in the girls' junior varsity division, junior Kaitlyn Christensen winning in 20:48.52 and sophomore Erica Ostendorf next in 21:34.30. Lake Hamilton had five of the top nine finishers with freshman Meighan Mears fourth in 22:59.95, sophomore Paige Wacaster fifth in 23:15.02 and freshman Madison Mears (23:31.44), Mallory Mitchell (23:33.12) and Jenna Allemand (23:45.55) seventh through ninth.
Bentonville ninth-grader Daniel Graham (11:17.26) won the junior boys' race, Lake Hamilton eighth-grader William Swecker placing seventh in 11:45.29, and Vilonia freshman Bryn Westby (12:58.01) the junior girls' division.
Two Garland players
star for OBU volleyball
ARKADELPHIA -- Lake Hamilton's Kori Bullard tied a career high with 17 kills and had five blocks in Ouachita Baptist's 3-1 victory over Southwestern Oklahoma State here Saturday, moving the Lady Tigers into a first-place tie in the Great American Conference.
Fountain Lake's Ashley Wake had a team-high 22 digs for Ouachita, 16-5 overall (8-3 in conference) with a 9-2 home record. Stormy Leonared finished with 40 assists, eight digs and four blocks.
The Tigers hit .233 in the match with Bullard (.455) committing only two attack errors on 33 attempts. She hit .800 in the fourth and final set, scoring Ouachita's final three points on two kills and a solo block.
Scores were 25-22, 25-12, 17-25, 25-20.
The GAC lead is on the line when Ouachita plays Harding Thursday in Searcy.
Muleriders run over
Reddies in El Dorado
EL DORADO -- Southern Arkansas gained 508 yards in 41 minutes of possession time and crushed Henderson State 50-24 Saturday in the Murphy USA Classic at Memorial Stadium.
Barrett Renner passed for 318 yards and two touchdowns and Michael Nunnery ran for three Mulerider scores. Coming off a 40-37 loss to Ouachita Baptist in quadruple overtime, Southern Arkansas scored 37 points in the middle quarters Saturday and led the Reddies 30-17 at halftime and 43-24 after three quarters.
Henderson led 7-6 on Jaquan Cole's five-yard run after SAU missed the conversion attempt on its first touchdown and 10-9 after Houston Ray's 25-yard field goal early in the second quarter. It was 17-16 HSU before Renner fired touchdown passes of 18 yards to Jaylon Dews and 17 yards to Darrion Ardoin in the last 1:42 of the first half.
Andrew Black's second touchdown pass of the game, 31 yards to Al Lasker, pulled the Reddies within 30-24 before Southern Arkansas scored twice in the last 6:12 of the third quarter. Stacy Lawrence returned a punt 25 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown.
Black passed for 266 yards and two touchdowns but was intercepted twice. Black and Cole each finished with 20 yards on the ground as Henderson lost more yards running than it netted (36-35).
Both teams are 6-2, Henderson losing for the second time in three weeks. The Reddies play Southern Nazarene at 1 p.m. Saturday in Bethany, Okla., before the regular-season finale against Ouachita Nov. 12 at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium. Southern Arkansas is home next weekend for a 2 p.m. agame against Southeastern Oklahoma.
Boll Weevils edge
Ouachita at home
MONTICELLO -- Jamal Chevis' 92-yard return of a Ouachita Baptist kickoff gave Arkansas-Monticello a fourth-quarter cushion that the Boll Weevils maintained in a 34-26 victory Saturday.
Chevis' return made it 34-23 with 8:42 to play. Cole Antley's 34-yard field goal, his third of the game, pulled Ouachita closer with 3:37 left but a later Tiger drive into UAM territory stalled.
Ouachita dropped to 4-4 and faces Oklahoma Baptist on the road at 2 p.m. Saturday. UAM is 3-5 with East Central visiting at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Cole Sears passed for 254 yards and three UAM touchdown while Deountari Brown ran for 89 yards and caught a 20-yard touchdown pass that tied the game 7-7. Sears passed 17 yards to Nathan Crouch for a 14-10 lead in the second quarter and connected with Jalen Tolliver for 26 yards and 27-16 in the third quarter.
OBU, playing without quarterback Austin Warford and running back Kris Oliver, got two rushing touchdowns from Shun'cee Thomas. His eight-yard burst made it 7-0 with 9;24 left in the first quarter and his 70-yard TD run in the fourth quarter preceded Chevis' kickoff return for a score.
Sports on 10/23/2016