By Donna Lampkin Stephens
Lonoke Democrat
Swimmer Kayla McGee was again the highlight of the 2015-16 athletic year for Lonoke High School.
McGee won her third individual title in the Arkansas State High School Swimming Championships in Feb. at the Bentonville Community Center. Thejunior successfully defended her 5A/1A title in the 100-yard breaststroke, covering the course this time in 1:07.09.
“That was slower than last year, but it was still good,” she said, referring to her winning time of 1:06.49 as a sophomore.
McGee also finished runner-up in the 50 freestyle in 24.49. She had been third in that event as a sophomore in 24.68. McGee won the 50 free as a freshman in 25.34.
Nathan Morris, outgoing athletic director, said the year had been “another great one.”
“Football, volleyball and baseball made their state tournaments and great individual performances were had in swim, golf, and track,” he said. “Kayla McGee added to her state titles in swim. We are proud as a district of all of our student-athletes, coaches and parents for the many hours that go into a successful year.”
A chronological look at the year for the Jackrabbits and Lady Rabbits:
BOYS GOLF — LouAnn Howell’s Jackrabbits finished seventh in the Class 4A State Championships with a team score of 270 at Cooper’s Hawk in Melbourne. Baptist Prep and Fountain Lake finished 1-2 at 242 and 244, respectively.
Ryan Robertson led Lonoke with 85. Evan Kyzer had 87; Will Armstrong 98 and Nathan Langley 112. While they improved on their ninth-place finish in 2014, the Jackrabbits were disappointed in their score.
“Certainly that’s seventh out of 12 teams, not including all the people who didn’t have the opportunity to play at the state tournament,” said Howell, whose team qualified for state by finishing runner-up to Heber Springs at the 2-4A District Tournament. “We did want to finish better than last year, but I went back and figured out some things.
“We played three matches there — in the regular season, district and state, and two practice rounds. I added up their scores, and had they shot their best scores that day, we would’ve finished third. I keep telling them they don’t know how good they can be, and that is how good they can be.”
At the district tournament, the Jackrabbits fired 258, second behind only Heber Springs’ 239. Robinson again led Lonoke with 82, good for a tie for fourth. Other Jackrabbit scores included Kyzer, eighth with 87; Armstrong, ninth with 89; and Langley, 113.
All four will return in 2016.
GIRLS GOLF — Maggie Hill qualified for the Class 4A State Tournament again with a seventh-place finish in the 4A-2 District Tournament. Hill shot 93 at Cooper’s Hawk in Melbourne. Bayleigh McCloud shot 117 to finish 13th. At the state tournament at the Country Club of Arkansas in Maumelle, Hill shot 110 to tie for 33rd. That score was four strokes better than her state showing in 2014.
VOLLEYBALL — Lonoke’s 14th consecutive appearance in the state volleyball tournament ended after one match.
Laura Park’s Lady Rabbits closed 11-10 overall after falling to Mena, the defending state champion that went on to the state final, in the opening round of the Class 4A State Tournament at Mena, 25-5, 25-15, 25-9.
The Lady Rabbits were the fourth seed from the 4A-Central.
“We did enough to qualify for state, but we’re going to have to do a better job this week,” Park said. “This will be 14 years in a row getting to state, but we’ve never gotten past the quarterfinals, and most years we haven’t gotten past the first round.
“One of the goals I try to instill is not just to make it to state; we want to win state. We’re trying to get over that hump. It’s impressive to get there so many times, and the girls have done a good job year after year, but I’d like to have a few championships in there somewhere.”
Lonoke finished fourth in the conference race and survived a five-setter with Baptist Prep in the quarterfinals of the district tournament to assure the state tournament berth. The Lady Rabbits lost to Clinton in the third-place game.
FOOTBALL — Doug Bost’s Jackrabbits rallied again to make the Class 4A State Playoffs as the fifth seed from the 4A-2. They lost at Gosnell, second seed from the 4A-3, in the opening round, 54-34.
Lonoke won three of its last four regular-season games to finish 5-6. Gosnell was the second seed from the 4A-3.
Overall, the season was injury-plagued and a bit disappointing.
“Probably in my seven years (as head coach), we haven’t had that many injuries at one time,” Bost said. “We probably had a total of six people who were starters who missed significant playing time. Just before we got on the bus last week, we were comparing our 11th game to our first, and we had nine new faces that were going to start. Those kids had their numbers called, and they responded.
“We were kind of down and out there for a while, but in the second half of the season when we had to win, the kids competed hard and worked hard. I was proud of them.”
GIRLS BASKETBALL — Nathan Morris’ final girls basketball squad — he resigned in the spring and will become the superintendent at Two Rivers School District — finished 17-9.
The Lady Jackrabbits tied Heber Springs for third in the 4A-2 conference race, but with the tiebreaker drew No. 5 Central Arkansas Christian in the elimination game in the district quarterfinals. After the 50-44 win there, CAC got hot in the postseason and went all the way to the state championship game, where it fell to undefeated Riverview.
Morris had said heading into the district tournament that Lonoke, CAC and Heber Springs were all state tournament-quality teams, but with Riverview and eStem as the conference’s top two seeds, one of that threesome would be left at home for the East Regional.
“Unfortunately, we were the odd man out,” Morris said. “It was a perfect storm. The ending was definitely not what we wanted — it was a little disappointing. We thought we were a regional tournament team. In fact, I think we’re good enough to be a state tournament team.”
Morris, 40, compiled an overall record of 230-113, including the last 11 seasons atop the Lady Jackrabbit program, and spent the last four as AD. He will begin his new job July 1.
Heath Swiney, 35, who spent five years at Lonoke as an assistant before leaving for the Newport boys basketball job a year ago, was hired in May to replace Morris. At press time, the new athletic director had not been hired.
BOYS BASKETBALL — Dean Campbell’s Jackrabbits finished 15-12, including a 7-9 run through the 4A-2 conference, after losing a heartbreaker to CAC in the quarterfinals of the district tournament, 52-50 in overtime.
Lonoke, the seventh seed, was one game shy of reaching the East Regional.
Campbell said his Jackrabbits were playing their best basketball when the season ended.
“I was really looking forward to trying to make a run in the regional,” he said. “For the most part, we did everything we needed to do. We just allowed an open door, and CAC took advantage of it and got it to overtime.”
GIRLS TRACK —Sophomore Keiunna Walker placed among the top five in four events last at the Class 4A State Girls Track and Field Championships at Nashville.
Walker finished second in the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 2.5 inches; third in the triple jump (34-3) and high jump (5-0) and fifth in the 100-meter dash (13.25 seconds). She was also 10th in the 400 (1:06.02).
Lonoke coach Angela Watson said Walker’s long jump was good enough to qualify her for the Meet of Champions, but she did not compete there.
Walker had won all five of those events at the 4A-2 conference meet.
Walker’s efforts gave Lonoke a ninth-place team finish in the state meet with 24 points.
BOYS TRACK — Senior Justin Meadows came close to successfully defending his triple jump title in the Class 4A State Meet. A year after setting the Class 4A state record with a performance of 46-6.5, Meadows, despite being injured for much of his senior year, took second with a leap of 44-11.25. He also finished eighth in the long jump (19-8.75).
Lonoke’s Steven Barrett won the discus at the conference meet, throwing 128 feet, to also qualify for state.
SOFTBALL — Park’s Lady Rabbits finished 12-11 after a quarterfinal loss to eStem in the 4A-2 District Tournament, one win short of advancing to the Class 4A East Regional. As the sixth seed, they hammered No. 7 CAC in the opening round, 15-0.
BASEBALL —The Jackrabbits endured a topsy-turvy season but returned to the Class 4A State Tournament, where they lost the opening game to Hamburg, 10-0.
The Jackrabbits, led by interim coach Nick Smith after the abrupt resignation of head coach Darrick Lowery in mid-April, finished 14-10. They were the third seed from the East Regional and fell to the third seed from the South.
Smith led the Jackrabbits to a 4-4 mark that included an extra-inning 7-6 loss to CAC for the conference championship and a 2-1 mark in the 4A-East Regional that put them third. In the opening round of the regional, Lonoke knocked off Brookland, third from the 4A-3, to secure the state tournament berth, 5-4. The Jackrabbits lost the semifinal to Gosnell, winner of the 3, 3-0; but responded with an 11-9 come-from-behind victory over Jonesboro Westside in the third-place game to go into the state tournament on a winning note.
Lowery was in his seventh year atop the Jackrabbit baseball program, which he led to conference titles in 2012, ‘13, ‘14 and ‘15. Last year, Lonoke finished 17-4, shared the conference title with Stuttgart, won the district championship and the Class 4A East Regional for the first regional title in school history. The Jackrabbits returned to the state tournament for the first time since 2012. He won his 100th game at Lonoke earlier in April.
At press time, Lowery’s replacement had not been hired.
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