Sikeston's Cal Lane leaps 21-2 1/2 to win the long jump Tuesday afternoon. Lane also was a winner in the high jump. (David Jenkins/Standard Democrat) [Click to enlarge]

SIKESTON -- On a cold and windy Tuesday afternoon, the Sikeston Bulldog boys and girls track and field teams got underway in their first scored contest of the year against the Poplar Bluff Mules. The Bulldogs took care of the Mules in the dual event meet, 79-63 (boys) and 79-57 (girls).

"The kids are coming along," Sikeston head coach Jerry Dement said. "We're starting to compete better and we're starting to get into a little bit of condition. We got a way to go, but right now I'm pleased with the way it's going so far."

Dement said he was also pleased with the field events for today, which will probably be their strongest event down the road

"Our field events are getting better, particularly the jumps. We're really strong on the jumps this year and those kids continue to improve. We going to really make some serious noise there."

The Bulldogs took home first in all three of the jump events on the boys side with Cal Lane winning the high jump with a 6-0 jump and he also won the long jump with a 21-2 1/2. Dominic Fondon was the triple jump winner with a jump of 44-6 1/2.

Sikeston's Keyarra Blissett clears the last hurdle in her 300-meter low hurdle win. (David Jenkins/Standard Democrat) [Click to enlarge]

The girls field events were also a highlight for Sikeston. Ja'Mayrah Ware won both the discus and shotput events with a 79-10 throw on the discus and a 26-6 on the shotput.

"I'm also pleased with our relays on both the boys and girls side and we're making some progress in the distance events which we have been lacking for the last couple of years. We got some kids that are starting to work hard and we made big improvement in some of those areas today."

The Bulldogs have had problems trying to get in practices due to the poor weather recently, and have been using the dual events to try and get better, as well as compete.

Sikeston's Josh Cooper throws the shot put Tuesday afternoon. (David Jenkins/Standard Democrat) [Click to enlarge]

"We're like a lot of teams," Dement said. "We've been struggling getting decent practices in with the weather so we use these duels meets as kind of a practice for the big invitational tournaments on the weekend."