Mansfield hosted a small junior high track meet on Tuesday, March 18 with four other schools. Booneville, Charleston, Magazine, and Mena all made the trip for the specially designed format that allowed unlimited entries for its contestants.
“There wasn’t a close meet for our kids to attend just before spring break,” announced Mansfield coach John Mackey. “We made a couple of calls to schools in the same situation and decided to host the event. It was a good opportunity to get a lot of kids into action without having to be restricted by the two entry limit most meets install.”
Although no official results were kept, many of the Mansfield Lady Tigers showed superiority in their respective events as well as recognizable grit in others. It was in several different areas that Mansfield’s team production showed significant measures. Those marks will certainly help with roster evaluations moving forward through the remaining month of the schedule and the upcoming 3A-4 district track meet.
Among the bright lights for Mansfield was its distance core, relay races, and throws. The strengths in those areas provided value for the junior squad that on this night also included its seventh grade players.
Lillian Porter made a huge splash in the 1600m run. Running alongside the men milers, it was the diminutive eighth grader that stood tall by out-racing several of the boys. Porter rounded the four lap race in a career best 6:28 to take top honors against the women and many of the men.
Porter also clocked in with the second fastest split (3:05) in the 4x800m relay for the winning Tiger team. Hadley Shores, another eighth grader, ran the fastest split (2:50) as the opening leg of the race that also included the boys for the brevity of time. Once again Mansfield’s girls bettered the entire field of girls as well as some of the boy groupings.
Abbigail Adams and Rylan Jones completed the distance relay for the Lady Tigers with Porter and Shores.
It was Jones that also found the winning ways as the best shot and discus thrower in those women’s events. The freshman hurler sent the 6 pound shot 33’ 4” and the 1kg discus 81’ 1” for the two victories.
Mansfield was more than solid in the relays winning three of the four contested cooperatives. Payton Meyers, Bethany Mounts, Bentley Hoover, and Natlee Moore took the 4x100m turn in 56.62 for the win. Porter, Hoover, Jones, and Mounts took the concluding 4x400m series in 4 minutes exactly. Mansfield’s second unit also did well in the 4x400m relay with a 4:14 clocking. That lineup included Meyers, Adams, Mayce Phillips, and Shores.
Phillips, Ellah Heydenreich, Adams, and Moore took second in the 4x200m relay. Autumn Staton, Rylie Moore, Eva Buchanan, and Vivi Sylva came in fourth as an extra Mansfield relay option.
Phillips, Shores, and Mounts each made their debut in the 300m hurdles. It was Phillips that was near the front with a first time measure of 58.09. Mounts and Shores came across in near identical times of 1:00.
Kamryn Bolin, a seventh grader, continued to build her case for a spot on the district team as a thrower. Her mark of 32’ 7” in the shot put was just five inches shy of second place. Kaylynn Piyapho, Abbi Neal, and Jalee Edwards also had strong showings as their respective shot put throws landed them in fourth and tied for seventh among 20 registered throwers.
Mansfield newcomers Allie Hattabaugh and Paris Cervantes made noise in the women’s high jump. Both first time jumpers cleared 4’ 2”. That marked landed them just under three leapers from Mena and a Charleston competitor.
Mansfield will host its junior high ribbon meet on March 31. The seventh grade will host their ribbon run the following night on April 1. All Mansfield regular season meets will begin field events at 3:30 with races to begin approximately at 5:15.
