Keiss overcomes odds, recently completes in half-marathon event
Tyler Keiss, of Watson, Oklahoma, has been overcoming adversity his entire life. He was born prematurely, weighing in at a only 2 pounds 10 ounces. He spent the first part of his life in the hospital, fighting to live. Later in his childhood, he learned that he had scoliosis, which gave him another hurdle to overcome. By the young age of 12, he had undergone three surgeries and had 12 vertebras fused together.
It was at that time that he began to work with Larry Wood, at what is now known as Ouachita Wellness and Sports Center. On April 14 of this year, he did something that a lot of people thought he would never do — completed his first half marathon in Fayetteville.
Ladycats lose heartbreaker 1-0 against Central Arkansas Christian
The Ladycats’ soccer team faced Central Arkansas Christian school (CAC) last Thursday and fell 1-0. The Ladycats played a very good game on defense and CAC was the only other team in the conference that was undefeated in conference play. The winner of the game would have a hold of first place.
The Ladycats played hard and it looked like the game would end in regulation at a 0-0 tie, but with only about a minute left in the game CAC put a goal in. The Ladycats made a strong push in the final minute trying to tie the game up, but fell just short of making a goal.
Ladycat Softball finishes undefeated in playing Conference
The Ladycats faced Pottsville last Friday afternoon in Pottsville. What was on line for the Ladycats was a chance to be undefeated in regular season conference play. The Ladycats, getting exactly the amount of runs they needed, came from behind and defeated Pottsville 6-5.
Pottsville was the first team to strike scoring a run in the bottom of the third inning, but Mena came right back with two runs in the top of the fourth. In the bottom of the fourth Pottsville put four runs up on Mena to take a 5-2 lead. The Ladycats made another push and scored four runs in the sixth inning. The runs came courtesy of a two run homerun from both Lexi Hansard and Bailey Bunch. The four runs were enough to secure the win with Ariel Hartin closing on the mound for the Ladycats.
Bearcats lose first conference game
4-1 against Central Arkansas Christian
The Bearcats’ soccer team faced Central Arkansas Christian (CAC) last Thursday and fell 4-1. The Bearcats faced a very hot CAC team that had not lost a game in their previous ten played. In fact, CAC’s record coming into the game against Mena was 10-2-1 with both of their losses coming much earlier in the season. The Bearcats held their own through much of the game, but didn’t have enough to beat CAC. The Bearcats’ Marcio Giosuelli scored Mena’s only goal on a free kick.
After the game, head coach Craig Bentley commented saying, “I was proud of our team. The game was closer than the score indicated. We held our own against one of the best teams in the state in any classification. We are not satisfied by any means, we want to finish the season out 3-0 , finish 2nd in conference, and set ourselves up with good seeding in the playoffs. One more victory will ensure a playoff birth. If we win out, we should finish 2nd in conference.”
Acorn Middle School Archery team qualifies for National Tournament
The Acorn Tigers Middle School succeeds again! Acorn Middle School Archery team participated for the first time this year at the State ANASP (Arkansas National Archery in the Schools Program) Tournament. This year, High School principal Sean Couch started an Archery Team with the Middle School age bracket. Twenty-one students made up the team. On Feb 9, 2013, Acorn took 2nd place in regional tournament qualifying for the state tournament.
For the Full Articles, please pick up the April 18th issue of The Mena Star
Two big things happening this week... the NBA play-offs and the upcoming NFL draft, and I don’t which one I want to rant about more. So I may delve into both. And here’s a fair warning: I will probably go into more detail on both next week.
Let me start with the NBA playoffs. I usually do a preview article with the paper’s editor Andy, but with deadline and how it played out, we didn’t do one this year.
