I've seen this on a number of other boards. In the 'last post' section, there could be also the subject line of the latest post.
There is plenty of space in the cells at the moment.

On the front page, this would give a quick glance at the latest topics from each section.

Also, perhaps a 'most active topics' box could be added to the front page, giving headers of say the 5 most active topics. Again I've seen this on a number of other boards.