Arkansas High's girls try to remain undefeated at track meets this year as Razorback Stadium hosts the Conference 6A-South relays today.
The prelims begin at 1 p.m. and are followed by the second round of the field events at 3 p.m. The running finals start at 5:30 p.m.
Lady Backs head coach Angela Moody is ready for the competition.
"The girls will go hard in each event and are looking forward to competing in front of their families," Moody said. "We're in the driver's seat."
Arkansas High's toughest rival is Lake Hamilton. Last year, the Lady Backs were trying to catch Lake Hamilton, but now the roles are reversed.
At the Doc Walker Relays on Friday, the Lady Backs' Skylar Bailey was the second-highest scoring female athlete with 32 points. She won the 200-meter dash and was second in the long jump.
Shebria Byrd won the 400 meters and finished with a third-best 25.5 points for Arkansas High.
Aubreyonia Sanders, a senior, won the high jump for the Lady Backs at the Doc Walker Relays.
Moody says that by this point in the season, teams have usually put it all together. The Lady Backs are favored to win.
"The girls have worked hard and have done everything that we've asked them to do," Moody said. "It's nice to be the team that everyone is chasing."
A team usually holds one of two mindsets when it goes into a track meet undefeated-the momentum and confidence helps, or the pressure of being undefeated hurts.
Moody believes that being undefeated is a good thing.
"Being undefeated has given the girls more and more confidence each time they've won," she said. "The kids attacked at the Doc Walker Relays, and their confidence is at an all-time high."
On the boys' side, the Hogs are undefeated in track meets this year.
Head coach Denny Burdine knows his young team will compete hard at the conference meet even though the Hogs have a lot of freshmen.
"We're going to be chasing Lake Hamilton," Burdine said. "We're young, but it's always an advantage to be at home and not have to travel."
For the young athletes, Burdine says the routine will be different-the conference meet has prelims. All of the other teams will have to deal with the shift in the schedule, too.
Timothy Stuckey put up a state-qualifying, first-place time of 10.75 in the 100 meters at the Doc Walker Relays on Friday. Stuckey was second in the 200 with a 22.31.
Stuckey, along with shot put and discus thrower Nicholas McCann and Desmond Martin, is a senior. The senior group has only lost one track meet in the past four years.
Junior distance runner Tyler Braswell won the 800 and 1,600 meters last Friday and scored 28 points for the Hogs.
Arkansas High's Johnathan Gullatt, who runs the 110 and 300 hurdles, racked up 27.25 points last Friday. Gullatt also competes in the high jump, triple jump and long jump.
The Hogs will go for their fourth consecutive state championship after the conference meet.
The athletes who have put up state-qualifying times and scores, along with the top two finishers from each event at the conference meet, advance to the 6A state meet on May 5 in Benton, Ark.