Pictured: Mansfield Lady Tigers start post-season tour. Participating at the Southwest Regionals are cross country runners Cassidy Carlton, Faith Rainwater, Jadelynn Wood, Katlynn Moore, Darby Jones, and Alyssa James
Pre-season began in July. The regular season just ended. Now, Mansfield High School’s long-distance runners have entered phase three of their 2020 cross country season. It’s postseason time for the Tigers and they are working to go the distance.
Mansfield started the opening round of postseason play with a trip to Mena’s Lion Club for the Tom Stuthard Top 25 Southwest Regional on October 21. Hosted by Acorn, the regional meet gathered teams from class 4A through 1A.
It was the first stop of a three-pronged schedule the Tigers and Lady Tigers will enter in a 15-day span. The other two legs include the 2A-4 Conference meet and the Class 2A State Championships.
Because of their quality finish at the Stuthard Top 25, Mansfield could have added to their postseason plans. An invitation to the Southern District’s 1A-2A Regional on October 28 was on the table but declined. According to Mansfield coach John Mackey, the high school squad did not want to tackle such a compact schedule.
“It was flattering to get another meet,” said Mackey on the team’s invite. “For the high school runners, that would mean three meets in nine days. We already have a quick turnaround from district to state. The recovery time just wasn’t there. Our focus has to stay on the state prize.”
Mansfield’s junior high will however attend the Southern District Championship. As the coach explained, the junior high race is a much shorter distance. According to him, they would have run the 1.5-mile marker or more anyway on a normal practice day. Therefore, they decided to attend with a chance to pick up extra hardware.
The senior high Lady Tigers earned a lion’s share of the awards at the Lion’s Club race to start their season-ending tour. Five of the MHS girls landed inside the top 25. Because of their placement, Faith Rainwater (9), Jadelynn Wood (10), Darby Jones (13), Alyssa James (23), and Katlynn Moore (24) walked away with regional medals.
As a group, the Mansfield 5K runners secured third place in the team standings. Only Class 3A Waldron and Class 4A Clarksville bettered the class 2A Tigers.
“The results were close to expectations,” confessed Mackey. “Waldron and Clarksville have two of the top runners in the state. Their supporting cast is pretty good as well. Waldron Is the defending 3A state champs, and Clarksville’s Chloe Weathers made the Arkansas-Oklahoma All-Star meet last season.”
“I’m proud of our progress however,” continued the coach. “Even DeQueen’s coach complimented our girls. He basically said he didn’t notice us much in the early season but now he thinks we are one of the hottest teams around, headed to the finish.”
Rainwater as she has done for much of the season was the Tigers’ lead runner. The junior held steady among a crowded field of contenders. She crossed the 5K finish in 23:50.0. It was her third fastest time of the season.
“Faith has been taking the lead by voice as well,” announced Mansfield’s head coach. “She has been imploring her teammates to stay with her. You can hear her calling for the team to stay in a pack and come with her when making a move. She knows that means one of them could potentially beat her. But more importantly, she knows that means the team can win.”
One of those connected teammates is Wood. Remarkably, Wood seems to be recovering from a car accident she had a few weeks ago. The sophomore runner is slowly shedding the soreness left by a passenger seatbelt and airbag to gain ground in the last few races. She went a season-best 24:01.0 at the Stuthard Top 25.
Another is Jones. Jones, at the 2019 Top 25 Regionals, started making strides as a reliable runner for the Lady Tigers. That finish which happened to be her personal best at the time seemed to push the junior runner to a different level.
Fast forward to this year’s regional championship, Jones once again landed as a top tier Lady Tiger trying to stay connected to the pack. She clocked in at 24:42.9 at the Mena course. It was one of her top three times of the season.
James was a pack runner at least for the first portion of the race. She stepped up her game in a large way especially in the absence of Hope Rainwater and McKenzie Griffin. Two Lady Tigers the team hopes to have back Monday.
James pulled off a personal record of 26:03.3 at Mena. It elevated her to the team’s number four runner on the night and gave her a regional medal. With the new standard, the sophomore has cut a minute to a minute and a half off her time over the last three consecutive meets.
Moore, a typical top-five performer for Mansfield, fell behind her usual pace this past week. Not feeling well, the junior could only muster a 26:17.9. It was good enough for a top 25 medal but off her season-best eight days earlier at 24:53.0.
For the Tiger men, John Branche reduced his time again. The junior cross country athlete who also plays football during the week ran a time of 21:04.7. That bettered his previous season-best by 37 seconds.
Ethan Streets and Cassidy Carlton also participated in the Mansfield men and women’s teams respectively at the Tom Stuthard Top 25 Southwest Regionals.
Mansfield will now focus on the 2A-4 Conference Championship as phase two of their postseason tour. It will be held at Magazine on October 31 at 10 AM. From there the Tigers go into phase three, the Class 2A State Finals in Hot Springs on November 5 at 11:30 AM.
