Pictured: Steven Perez places second in the pole vault at Van Buren’s Jr High Track Meet.
Predicted cold temperatures caused Booneville to cancel their track meet for Tuesday, March 5. Scrambling to find another meet later in the week when the weather was supposed to be warmer, Mansfield logged onto the Van Buren Invitational two days later.
With the format allowing up to three competitors per event, Mansfield’s depth on the junior girls’ squad became its strong suit. Behind major contributions from eight grader Madelyn Jones along with a plethora of other team members offering solid performances, the Lady Tigers took runner-up honors in the team race.
Nearby neighbor Greenwood, a class 6A school, took the girls’ team title with 157 points. Mansfield (109), Chaffin (65), Van Buren (64), and Alma (62) rounded out the top five teams among 12 scoring schools.
Chaffin prevailed in the junior boys’ division winning the team title with 124 total points. Alma (73), Trinity (72), Ramsey (63) and Greenwood (62.5) completed the top five boy teams out of 13 scoring schools. Mansfield’s junior boys fell to ninth place overall with 30 points.
Mansfield’s Jones nearly hit for the cycle as she placed in five different events. She was first in the 300m hurdles (59.91), second in the 100m hurdles (18.07), and third in the long jump (13.25) before skipping a place.
As the member of the 4x100m relay team, Jones connected with Kinley Hanfelder, Sadie Roberts, and Alexis Rivera for a
Along with Jones, Mansfield’s 4x800m relay team and individuals Roberts and Skylynn Harris all took blue ribbon honors at the Van Buren meet.
Natalie Allison, McKenzie Griffin, Olivia Bouse, and Faith Rainwater combined to win the girl’s 4x800m relay. Their collective run of 11:56.19 bested Greenwood, the next closest team, by over eight seconds.
Roberts, a freshman, won the pole vault at a jump of 6’ 6”. She also grabbed a
Harris dominated the girls shot put with a massive toss of 38’ 3.5”. The next closet measurement by any other competitor was over seven feet shy of the Mansfield eighth grader’s winning heave.
Allison was second in the girls triple jump. She hopped, skipped, and jumped 29’ 11.25” for a new personal record in that horizontal event.
The Tiger eighth grader was also fifth in the 800m run. She passed the finish line in 3:00.88. Close behind was Tiger teammate Hope Rainwater who came in at 3:05.12 for eighth place.
The Tiger men saw Steven Perez place the highest among their roster. He went 9’ 0” in the pole vault for the silver medal. Ethan Chapman took a fourth place in the 800m individual run and was anchor leg to the fourth place 4x400m relay.
Shawn Brown gave the Tiger’s four points in the shot put with a
Jadelynn Wood covered the 300m hurdles in 1:02.98 for third place. She was also the lead runner in the women’s 4x400m relay for fourth place. That group was completed by Faith Rainwater, Shelby Cole, and Olivia Bouse. Bouse and Cole also scored in the pole vault. The two took fifth and sixth place respectively.
Kinley Hanfelder was sixth in the 100m hurdles (20.18). Brooklyn Adams was seventh in the discus (67’ 2”) as was Cassidy Carlton in the 400m dash (1:15.32). Cole punctuated the Lady
The Tiger’s
