With the district competition concluding Tuesday (weather permitting), the Hawks will be heading into state competition next week leading in three girls’ and three boys’ events.
Senior Lady Blackhawk Blakelee Winn is the current leader in both hurdles events, the 100-meter hurdles (15.5) and the 300-meter hurdles (47.21) while also having the top long jump (18’2”). Winn is also just behind the leader in the 100-meter and 200-meter in the person of Ozarks’ Anna Woolsey who has marks of 12.52 in the 100-meter and 25.99 in the 200-meter. Winn is one hundredth behind Woolsey in the 100-meter and .87 behind in the 200-meter. Of course, the two have not competed against each other this season with Winn not having a challenger all season locally.
Blackhawk senior Josiah Small is leading the boys’ 400-meter and 800-meter teams with times of 51.0 and 2:03.1 respectively. The 4x100-meter relay is leading the state’s best with a time of 43.67. Junior Patrick Elliott has the runner-up ranking in the 100-meter and 200-meter to Ladanian Hendrix of Nashville. Hendrix leads 10.74 to 10.94 in the 100-meter and 22.1 to 22.4 in the 200-meter over Elliott with neither athlete having too much of a problem besting local competition.
It was 2017 when any girls team in Arkansas won a state title besides Pea Ridge. The Hawks were working on five consecutive titles in indoor and outdoor state track championships until the covid-19 response ruined the 2020 outdoor season and 2021 indoor competition. The Hawks’ all time most valuable track and field performer Winn has never competed on a team that did not win the state title. Here’s to hoping she goes out the way she came in, leading the way to a championship.
Arkansas high school baseball media rankings
Though I have never heard of them, the Arkansas High School Baseball media ranking have the only ranking readily available to the reading public. Here it is:
4A High School Boys
State baseball rankings
Nashville^17-2
Brookland^17-1
Valley View^19-2
Farmington^13-4
Harrison^14-5
Shiloh^12-5
Arkansas still atop NCAA Baseball rankings
Though it is no surprise, nearly half of the Top 15 teams in Division 1 baseball reside in the Southeastern Conference. All seven are in line to host a regional playoff with four of them in line to host a Super Regional before the NCAA College World Series this June.
For the uninitiated, the NCAA has 16 regionals set up with four teams in each region. They play a double elimination format to determine the champion of each region.
Two region winners will be paired in a super regional with the two teams playing a best two of three format to send a winner to the CWS.
The first week of the CWS will see the eight-team field broken into two brackets, with the four teams to play a double elimination format to determine a winner. The two winners will then play a best of three format to determine the 2021 national champion.
Arkansas^32-7
Vanderbilt^28-6
Texas^30-8
Mississippi State^27-8
Texas Tech^26-8
Tennessee^29-8
Louisville^22-11
Texas Christian^26-9
East Carolina^26-5
Notre Dame^18-7
South Carolina^24-10
Ole Miss^26-10
Florida^25-11
Arkansas softball having historic season
With a superlative record of 36-5 in one of the country’s top softball conferences, the Hawgs are on top of the league and are holding the No. 8 ranking in the latest poll.
The rankings are:
NCAA Softball
Oklahoma^33-0
UCLA^25-2
Florida^32-6
Washington^34-6
Alabama^33-7
Oregon^28-8
Florida State^31-6
Arkansas^36-5
Texas^31-6
Arizona^27-8
SEC Baseball/softball standings
Baseball
West Division
Arkansas^13-5^32-7
Mississippi State^11-7^29-10
Ole Miss^10-8^28-12
Alabama^8-10^24-15
LSU^6-12^24-15
Texas A&M^5-13^23-19
Auburn^3-15^17-20
East Division
Vanderbilt^13-5^31-7
Tennessee^12-6^32-9
Florida^11-7^28-12
South Carolina^11-7^25-12
Georgia^9-9^26-13
Kentucky^9-9^24-13
Missouri^5-13^12-25
Softball
Arkansas^16-4^37-7
Florida^14-4^35-7
Missouri^12-5^34-10
Alabama^12-6^36-7
Ole Miss^12-9^31-16
LSU^10-8^28-15
Tennessee 8-7 35-8
Texas A&M^8-10^31-14
Kentucky^7-11^32-12
Georgia^7-11^29-14
Auburn^6-12^26-16
South Carolina^3-15^24-20
Mississippi State^1-14^25-21
•••
Editor’s note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].