PEARCY -- The Wolves will host the 42nd annual Lake Hamilton Invitational for senior boys and girls beginning at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
"We had the junior high one Tuesday and the senior high one Thursday," Lake Hamilton head track and field coach Brandon Starr said. "Tuesday's meet was considerably smaller than the one Thursday, but there are a lot of other junior high conferences that are already competing for their conference championships or districts."
There were 21 other junior high meets across Arkansas Tuesday.
"Our high school meet is Thursday," Starr said. "Right now, we have got 18 teams coming. It is not quite as big as the one we held last year. Last year's honestly might have been the most competitive overall meet in the state, including state meets. It was a great meet and it just went a little long and being on a Thursday night I tried to limit it to a few less teams."
Lake Hamilton relies on volunteers and parents to help run the meets.
"There is some really good competition, in girls and boys. We have got Vilonia coming, of course, they always bring a good group of boys and girls that are very competitive. Lakeside across town, they are coming and Magnolia is going to be bringing some speed and Texarkana. Arkadelphia has got a good distance girl. I do not know if they are going to bring a team, but she will be here," Starr said.
Senior Emelia Eriksson runs for Arkadelphia's girls team and has run the 3200M in 12:17.05
"I am looking forward to it," Starr said. "I think our distance girls and guys will be pushed. Then definitely there is always some speed whenever you have Texarkana, Pine Bluff and even Sheridan nowadays. Sheridan is stacked with some speed on both sides, boys and girls."
Garland County teams include Hot Springs and Jessieville.
"They normally always come to our home meets," Starr said. "I think that knowing Jessieville head coach T.J. Burk likes to challenge his kids. Last year, they had a really good group of distance boys, especially for them. I think two of them ended up going to OBU and two of them are left. He likes to challenge those kids and, of course, they have got Juliah Rodgers who next to Olivia ... is probably the next best distance runner locally."
Senior Lady Lion Rodgers' prime position is the 1600M where she runs a personal record of 5:01.
Senior Olivia Pielemeier for Lake Hamilton is a four-time indoor state champion, three-time outdoor state champion and 5A cross-country state champion.
"We had a girl sophomore Lani Inman last week at Hot Springs run a 25-second PR," Starr said.
"She pushed Juliah for everything she had. Juliah had to out kick her in the home stretch of the 3200M to beat her. Lani Inman just really showed out last week. We are looking forward to seeing what she has got.
"We were expecting her to develop," Starr said, "but not to make a 25-second jump in one week. That is pretty unheard of. That is great for her though."
The most competitive event of the day for the boys looks to be the 1600M.
"It looks like the lowest time there is a couple of Vilonia kids," Starr said.
"The boys 100 has got several kids sub 12 and one kid sub 11. That is going to be a competitive race. The boys 200 has several that are 23 or under in it. the boys 3200M, we have got a Vilonia kid who has run in 10:07, another Vilonia kid 10:09 so, we have got some good times there," he said.
"I would bet the best races would be girls," Starr said. "Pielemeier is going to run the 1600 and Eriksson is running the 1600 as well. In the girls 3200 Eriksson and Lani Inman is also going to run that. Their times are Eriksson 11:46, Inman is 11:47 and Audrey Harrell is an 11:54."
Lady Wolf Harrell ran a 12:45.82 3200M at the Lakeside meet.
Rodgers has not submitted which races she will compete in and has until Thursday to do so. The girls' races will be even more competitive once Rodgers declares.
"I bet you she runs the 1600 or the 3200," Starr said. "I know for a fact she ran the 3200 last week in Hot Springs. She might hop back in there and if that is the case then she ran in the 11:30s. That would put four girls potentially breaking 12 in the 3200-meter run."
Points in the Lake Hamilton Invitational go toward state qualifying.
"This year we are just hosting one junior high, senior high and we are also hosting the state meet," Starr said. "The state meet is May 4. This is a certified meet. The marks, distances or times and whatever it is that they do will be for Thursday will be certified. It will count toward auto qualifying."