The future of track and field at Pine Bluff High School is as bright as the sun beaming on Albert S. Alexander Field.
That was the case Monday when Pine Bluff’s boys and girls 4×200-meter relay teams were prepping for the 5A state championships, scheduled for Thursday at Vilonia High School. Pine Bluff has at least one athlete in each grade level that’s qualified for the state meet, helping the Zebras and Fillies reclaim their place among the state’s contenders in the sport.
The Zebras will carry an experienced 4×200 team to state: in leg order, seniors Paul Sonny and Davonte Wallace, freshman Kyeran Culclager and senior Kaleb Dunbar, with freshman Darrick Dunn as the alternate. Junior Chase Farris has also qualified in the 110-meter hurdles.
“Coming here, competing as a senior, it means a lot,” Wallace said. “We have a lot of experience. We’re the leaders of the team. We practice every day to get faster.”
One girl represents each grade level on the Fillies’ 4×200: senior Wy’Naeja Cabine, junior Paris Fisher, freshman Mariah Ford and sophomore Samaria Williams, from first to anchor legs. The team took fourth in this year’s 5A-South Conference championships at 1:46.88 to make it to state.
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“We’re trying to send the senior out with a bang,” first-year Fillies head coach Henri Murphy said. “That’s the plan. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Asked how the wide range in grade levels helps the team, Cabine wasted no time speaking highly of the freshman, who will also compete in the 300-meter hurdles, 400-meter dash and high jump after placing third in each at conference.
“She came in going crazy, like she already knew what to do,” Cabine said.
Pine Bluff has won 16 boys and six girls team state championships, but none since the Fillies won back-to-back 5A girls titles in 2001 and 2002. (Watson Chapel’s girls also went back-to-back in 4A in those years.) The Zebras won four of five between 1997-2001, but have not been back on top since.
That’s something Murphy, a multiple state champion at Dollarway a decade ago, would like to change in the near future.
“From day one we’ve been working,” he said. “Of course, we came short in previous years, but they stayed the pace and stayed the course and trusted the process, and here we are today, getting ready for the state meet Thursday.”
Pine Bluff qualified in the boys 4×200 last year and finished 10th with a time of 1:32.07. The quartet will need to improve on their third-place time in this year’s 5A-South meet (1:32.22) to have a shot at the podium in Vilonia.
The Zebras had to rely on Dunn for the anchor leg with Dunbar out because of injury. Murphy said Dunbar is expected to run Thursday.
“When push comes to shove, we can be faster,” Dunbar said. “The only thing we’ve got to do is push ourselves.”
Farris finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles (15.75 seconds) in the 5A-South, but Murphy is sure that time will be lowered at state.
Murphy won championships in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and the 4×100-meter relay at Dollarway in 2014-15, so his experience helps Pine Bluff’s teams gear up for what’s to come on the state level. Although Donald Robinson is the Zebras’ head coach, Murphy also works with the boys on their technique and mentality, according to Wallace.
“Coming from where I come from, there are no excuses to be made,” he said. “Just get it done.”
Murphy also credited other teammates who didn’t qualify for state, adding that the ones who will compete Thursday plan to take care of business for them. For now, just as a new high school is under construction in the background of Alexander Field, that could be the same for Pine Bluff’s long-awaited return to track prominence.
“I feel like after I leave, more people are going to come help the team,” Cabine said. “They’re going to be something serious next year, way better than this year.”
