When people talk about the excellent success of Mansfield’s Track and Field program, it is assumed that they are speaking of the Lady Tigers. The Lady Tigers have completely owned the State Indoor Track podium over the past two decades. So much so that it has been questioned as to if there is enough space to put their next State Title on the trophy wall. The Mansfield boys track program on the other hand has had a long history of getting close to the Indoor State Meet trophy podium, but not once has any group brought home a trophy. It wasn’t until Saturday, February 3rd at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, that Mansfield boys track history was made. The Mansfield Tigers were able to finally cross the threshold of the trophy podium as the Tigers won their first ever Indoor State Track trophy in the form of the 2A State Runner-Up award.
The Tigers battled all day for points against the reining and defending Indoor Champion Quitman Bulldogs. At the halfway mark, Mansfield held a 46-44 lead over the Bulldogs with Yellville-Summit holding a distant third place with 66 points. The two programs scratched a point here and bit at a point there but still remained close as nightfall began to fall with the Tigers still leading 60-51. With result still being tallied and a few races to go, the Tigers knew they would be trophy bound as Mansfield and Quitman had pulled away from the pack to turn things into a two-team race to the finish. Unfortunately for Mansfield, Quitman was able to pull away late and finish with 147 points on the day to win the championship. The Tigers ended their day with an impressive 128 points which still blew the rest of the field off the track as the closest competitor was Yellville-Summit who finished with 46 points.
The Tigers not only brought home the hardware, but Mansfield also set the stage for a bright future in the boys’ track and field program. Sophomore, Braxton Bartlett, was the team’s overall points leader as he scooped up a total of 28 points for the Tigers. Bartlett literally outran himself by setting personal records in his 2nd place 60-meter dash, 5th place 400-meter dash, 1st place 200-meter dash, and in his team finish of the 4×400 meter relay. Junior distant runner, Josiah Williams, was just one point shy of Bartlett by rolling out with 27 points. Williams dug down into his Cross County skills bag to pull away with 2nd place in the 800-meter run, 4th place in the 3200-meter run, 5th place in the 1600-meter run, and was a big assist in the Tigers 1st place win of the 4×800 relay. Normally, Mansfield leans heavily on speedster Trey Powell on these kinds of big stages. Although Powell was dinged up with an ankle injury, the Tigers Junior was determined to leave his mark on this historic run by scoring 26 points in the 4×400 relay, 200-meter dash, the triple jump, and the long jump. Cooper Edwards and Zander Walters joined Powell in the distance jumps to add another 5 points. The solo Senior of the boys’ team, Peyton Martin, is known more for his baseball, football, and basketball skills by most people but Martin brought track shoes with a pivotal first place win in the pole vault and then closed out his night with an impressive performance in the 4×400 meter relay. Sophomore’s Dominic Shores and Alex Hecox stepped up big bringing in a combined 15 points in the 60-meter hurdles while fellow tenth graders Ethan Martin and Logan Ore threw a total of 10 points into the ring with their shot-put performances.
Although Mansfield came up short from winning an overall Championship, the Runner-Up spot still sent waves through the history books. If you look round the walls of Mansfield’s basketball gymnasium, you’ll see the walls are plastered with Championship and Runner-up teams. All but one are from the Lady Tigers in volleyball, indoor track, outdoor track, cross country and basketball. That sole one framed picture that the boys in Mansfield look to is the Tigers only State accolade from Mansfield’s epic baseball State Championship in 1978. It took 46 years for a Tigers team to do it but clear some space and get a frame because the 2024 Mansfield Tigers are ready for their close up.
