With two meets left before the 5A South Track & Field Championships, El Dorado girls’ coach John Koonce can be found doing his mad scientist routine. Or, perhaps he’s imitating one of those math nerds … uh, I mean geniuses.
With pencil and paper in hand, Koonce is currently adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing to see how many points it will take for the Lady Wildcats to repeat as state champions.
HOT SPRINGS - El Dorado’s DeAndra Burns Jr., won a pair of events and led the Wildcats to the championship Thursday in the Joe Reese Memorial Track & Field Championships.
El Dorado’s Davin James was the only competitor left in the high jump area during the Oil Belt Relays. The senior easily cleared 5-foot to win the competition.
When asked if she wanted to keep jumping, she nodded and moved the bar to 5-foot-2, which she cleared on her first attempt. She bowed out at 5-foot-4, narrowly missing on three attempts.
“I don’t think I performed the best I could. I mean, I did qualify for state but it wasn’t … I could’ve done better,” said James. “It was very windy and cold. I triple jumped for the first time and I felt like my legs were kind of dead.”
El Dorado coach John Koonce said her performance would probably rank James among the top five in the state. When asked her goals, rankings weren’t on her mind.
After seeing the first two track meets of the season washed out, El Dorado was so determined to have the Oil Belt Relays this week, it moved it up a day from Thursday to Wednesday.
That proved to be a good move for the Lady Wildcats, who opened the season with the Oil Belt championship.
El Dorado’s girls’ track program won its first state championship last season. The core of that team graduated and now Coach John Koonce will try to keep the Lady Wildcats on the right track with new faces.
Koonce said the team has been working out all year in the weight room but has been on the track since December. The varsity squad has 31 girls participating this season.