Pictured: Mansfield’s senior girls finish their regular season cutting down times

For cross country kids, the clock is the enemy. The Mansfield senior girls are well aware of that fact. Now that championship season nears, the Lady Tigers are approaching it with a collective mission to shave time.

Mansfield’s oldest and most experienced long-distance team made a slight shift in practice last week. Transitioning from high mileage and building conditioning, the group turned their attention to faster paces and speed training. Those formulated practices led to a half dozen season-best just a few days later. 

Mansfield mirrored those practice plans to gain ground at the Magazine Rattler Run on October 13. The results were a runner-up team trophy and new standards for six individual runners.

Led by Faith Rainwater’s 22:55 mark over the 5K, Lady Tiger teammates crossed one by one with season-best performances. Darby Jones sprinted by in 23:57. Jadelynn Wood wheeled past in 24:35. Hope Rainwater rolled for 24:40. Katlynn Moore clocked 24:53, and Alyssa James crossed in 28:32.

“They’re starting to trust their conditioning,” stated Mansfield coach John Mackey. “Cooler temperatures gave them an invitation to run fast and they responded.”

The Rattler Run was the opening frame of a two meet week. The second stanza occurred a few days later with another 5K race in Van Buren on October 17.

The Van Buren Cross Country Classic didn’t quite produce the same speedy results as in Magazine, but there were still solid numbers on a slightly more difficult course.

“Saturday’s course was a little more diverse with ups and downs,” confessed the coach. “We’re still excited for the progress especially since three of our runners got back very late from Lincoln after cheering the previous night’s football game.”

Again, Faith Rainwater led the pack. The tiny junior navigated the three-loop course in 23:30. Jones (24:43), Wood (25:01), and Moore (25:36) followed in their typical top-five team order. This time James (27:38) who cut nearly another minute off her meet measure was in the scoring five. Hope Rainwater was unable to make the trip.

The Lady Tigers weren’t the only ones to make gains or rather losses for the week. The two senior boys, John Branche and Ethan Streets, also posted their most effective runs of the season.

Branche pushed past the pain for a 21:41 clocking at Magazine. It was his season-best. Then at Saturday’s Van Buren 5K, the junior nearly equaled that time by running 21:43.

“Again, we’re pretty happy with the effort,” said Mackey. “John (Branche) played football the night before, rolled in at 1 AM, then jumped on the cross country bus at 7 AM to go run another 3 miles.”

Streets, who has been building his stamina since joining the team in August, was able to complete his first career 5K at Magazine. The senior was excited to finish the 3 lap course in 28:12. He did not attend the Van Buren meet.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will begin their championship series starting Wednesday, October 21. The long-distance runners will travel to Mena’s Lions Club for the Tom Sturthard Top 25 Regionals hosted by Acorn. They will run the 2A West Conference meet on Saturday, October 31 back at Magazine. Then, the series will conclude with the 2A State Championship on Thursday, November 5 in Hot Springs.

Pictured: Trinity Triska and Laney Wood (from L to R) lead the Mansfield junior girls along with Aidan Fildes, Azlynn Stover, Summer Frazier, Addison Bowman, and Rileigh Parker

Over the years, Mansfield runners have established great credentials. District, regional, and even a state champion have emerged from the Tiger Den. That list looks to grow as a pair of Mansfield middle schoolers have quickly established names for themselves.

Laney Wood and Trinity Triska have pulled away from the pack to become contenders each week for the Mansfield cross country team. As the two toe starting lines race after race, their confidence grows knowing they have a chance to be among the best there.

In eight cross country meets this season, Wood has five Top 5 finishes including two small school wins. She was also the overall winner at the Buck Fever Invitational in Mena on September 29.

Through seven regular-season meets this year, Triska also has five Top 5 finishes. She was an eyelash away from having another Top 5 score in Van Buren on Friday. She was the Southwest Regional Champion in 2019 as a seventh-grader.

On Friday, October 16 both runners were again in contention against small-school rivals at the Van Buren Classic. Triska led the Mansfield roster for nearly the entire 2-mile race until teammate Wood caught her in the final stretch. 

Wood crossed the blue matted chip sensor in 14:02.59 for fourth place among class 1A-4A contenders. Triska stepped across in sixth only 1.31 seconds behind her teammate and 0.26 seconds from the fifth place achiever.

Three days earlier at the Rattler Run in Magazine, Wood took sixth place. The race was only 1.5 miles and Wood finished in a time of 10:03. Triska was excused from that race as she stayed in Mansfield helping the undefeated volleyball team secure a semi-final win in the 2A West District Tournament.

In Magazine, the Lady Tiger supporting cast consisted of Addison Bowman, Aidan Fildes, Azlynn Stover, and Summer Frazier. The four did their best by reducing their collective times by an average of 2 minutes and 14.5 seconds. That was in comparison to their first race of the year also staged at Magazine. 

Newcomer Rileigh Parker contributed as the fifth Mansfield scoring member at the Rattler Run along with Bowman, Fildes, and Stover. The latter trio meshed with Wood and Triska in Van Buren to produce the team’s score.

For the junior boys, Rylan Nichols and Joseph Carter also saw marked improvement. Nichols cut his Rattler time by 1:10 while Carter reduced the clock by 1:25.

The two seventh graders were joined by newcomer Joey Fildes for both races last week. Fildes turned in a 10:05 along the 1.5 mile Rattler race. He went 13:44.98 for the 2-mile Van Buren stretch. It was at Van Buren he earned his first career medal with the 15th best time among class 1A-4A runners.

Wood, Triska, and the rest of their running party look forward to another Mansfield product making history with a postseason victory. The middle school team is scheduled to attend Mena on Wednesday, October 21 for the Tom Sturthard Top 25 Regionals. Ten days later they will attend the 2A West District Championships in Magazine.