By Rich Brown
rbrown@joplinglobe.com
WEBB CITY, Mo. — The Carthage High School boys and Neosho girls left no doubt as to the No. 1 track and field teams in the Southwest Conference on Thursday night at Cardinal Stadium.
The Tigers outdistanced the boys field by a large margin, piling up 141 points, compared to runner-up Webb City with 65. The host Cardinals were followed by Neosho 63, McDonald County 62 and Nevada 44.
Neosho, behind distance runner Courtney Wood, collected 120 points. Carthage edged McDonald County 70-68 for second place, followed by Nevada 61 and Webb City 56.
Wesley Smith won two of the nine boys’ events claimed by Carthage. Smith finished first in the 300-meter hurdles in 42.27 seconds, nearly seven-tenths of a second faster than his season best. He also won the triple jump at 42 feet 81/2 inches, beating his earlier best of 41-8.
Andy Youngworth, in his 18th year of coaching at Carthage, said the Tigers knew they were the boys favorite going into the meet.
“We tried not to look at that,” Youngworth said. “We have always tried to build our team around being consistent through all events.”
Consistent was the word of the day for the Tigers, who, in addition to Smith’s two firsts, won the 100-meter dash, 1600 run, 3200 run, 4x100 relay, 4x800 relay, 110 high hurdles and long jump.
Neosho coach Harry Lineberry seemed just as excited about the girls’ championship as his boys’ third-place finish. The boys were just two points behind runner-up Webb City.
“What a day to have our boys do great as well,” he said after the meet. “It is a shame we both couldn’t have won it together but there have been years that we did. I am really happy for both squads. They were focused. This is just a great way to finish our Southwest Conference.”
Wood paced the Neosho girls with wins in the 1600 run (5:38) and 3200 (13:00). Other Wildcat firsts came in the 4x800 relay, 4x400 relay, 100 hurdles, 800 run and triple jump.
Although the Neosho girls lose a substantial number of seniors this year, Lineberry seems not too disheartened.
“We have a lot of seniors but most of our points this season have been coming from our freshmen,” he said.
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