by Ashton Eley.

The girls track team finished in eighth place out of 16 teams at the 7A State Track & Field Championship in Rogers, May 3. Bentonville won the state title with 168 points.

“Individually, I thought Melinda Murdock had an outstanding state meet,” coach Danny Westbrook said. “As for as our team performance, it was not the outcome we thought we could accomplish. We really had a promising start to the season, winning four straight meets. The end of the season turned into a train wreck with all the injuries and sickness we’ve had.”

The team competed without the services of two of its top scorers. Junior Alexis Royal went out with a season-ending hamstring  injury at the conference meet and sophomore Leah Ward did not compete because of the stomach flu.

Despite the loss of its top-performing competitors the team managed to place in several events.

Sophomore Melinda Murdock led the team with 14 points. Murdock placed fourth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 24.5 seconds, sixth in the 100-meter hurdles at 17.2 seconds, and sixth in long jump with a jump of 15 feet, 4 inches.

The 4 by 800-meter relay team of senior Stacy Emmerling, sophomore Sam Macchi, junior Hannah Raney and sophomore Anna Smedley finished fifth with a time of 10 minutes, 19 seconds.

Raney finished sixth in the 3200-meter run at 12 minutes, 18 seconds. The 4 by 100-meter relay team, which included junior Sarah Evans, sophomore Mekeylah Muhammad, junior Gabby Allen and Murdock, also finished sixth with a time of 51.5 seconds.

Although the team did not obtain the season end the girls hoped, they will have another chance next year as most of the top competitors return.

“A big positive we can take away from this season is that we have most of this team coming back next year and our freshman class has some really good track talent in it,” Westbrook said.