Track: GF freshman wins 3 events at district meet

Green Forest’s Lydia Russell put on a show at the 3A-1 West conference track and field championships on Monday, April 25, at Lincoln High School.

Russell, a freshman for the Lady Tigers, competed in six events and won three of them. She took first place in the 100-meter dash (13.13), the 100-meter hurdles (17.18) and the triple jump (32-10).

Russell didn’t fare badly in other events, finishing second in the 200-meter dash (28.53) and the long jump (15-10) and third in the 300-meter hurdles (52.72).

Russell’s big day highlighted an outstanding overall performance by Green Forest’s freshman class. Classmate Haddasah Reyes took sixth place in the 800-meter run (3:11.06), while Kadence Kilbourn was seventh in the 400-meter dash (1:22.04).

Other top-10 performances for the Lady Tigers’ freshmen were Elena Quiroz finishing eighth in the 1,600-meter run (7:59.94) and ninth in the 800-meter run (3:40.12), Carmelia Arnold taking ninth place in the 400-meter dash (1:23.04), Johneese Smalley finishing ninth in the shot put (22-10) and Alivia Norris taking 10th in the discus (63-3).

On the boys side, Green Forest athletes won three events: Freshman Arauny Reyes took first place in the 1,600-meter run (4:59.54), senior Paco Rangel won the 3,200-meter run (10:52.78) and junior Jason Lopez won the discus (121-9).

Reyes finished second in the 400-meter dash (55.47), seventh in the triple jump (35-11.5) and ninth in the long jump (18-1).

Paco Rangel finished second in the 1,600-meter run (5:01.57) and third in the 800-meter run (2:18.75). His brother Alonzo, a junior, took second place at 800 (2:16.07) and 3,200 meters (11:14.84) and finished third in the 1,600-meter run (5:07.59).

Lopez finished second in the shot put (38-10) while junior Joel Salgado was fourth (38-2).

Other top-10 performances for the Green Forest boys were sophomore Fernando Gonzalez taking eighth in the discus (86-1) and senior Kenry Gaspar finishing ninth in the pole vault (6-6).

Green Forest finished second in the 4X800 meter relay and fifth in the 4X200.

The Class 3A state championships will be held Tuesday, May 3, also at Lincoln.