The Tom Stuthard Top 25 Southwest Regional Championships were up for grabs for local cross country teams on October 20 at the Mena Lions Club. With no pun intended, Mansfield got its lion’s share by taking two of three contested titles.
The Mansfield junior girls team followed quickly by their senior high teammates both claimed the first-place plaques at the Southwest Regionals hosted by Acorn. Mansfield’s junior boys were close in their division with a runner-up plaque.
The breakout star of the day had to be Mansfield’s Laney Wood. The freshman phenom won the opening 2400m junior girls race followed by a move up to the senior high ranks to take fifth in the longer 5K race.
Wood heard positive cheers from meet officials once they realized the dynamic runner pulled double duty. The motivated freshman pulled away in a tightly contested junior high race to win by 7 seconds with a time of 10:55.10. After a short 30 minute break, she rounded the prescribed course two more times for an All-Region marker, a senior high top 5 medal, and her first official 5K time of 22:49.50.
“Laney said she could hear the timers and scorekeepers cheering for her,” said Mansfield coach John Mackey. “It’s pretty cool to win over the respect of others when attempting a feat such as this.”
For the Tigers, the precedent wasn’t too far removed from a similar accomplishment senior Faith Rainwater made when she was a freshman four seasons ago. Rainwater ran two races at the 3A-1 West Conference race, taking second in the younger division before moving up to finish fourth in the older group.
“Mansfield prides itself on having players with that type of toughness,” continued the coach. “Laney fits the mold modeled by many outstanding players from our past. That includes Megan Rose who just finished her senior year of college with her team’s top time at their conference championships.”
Behind Wood’s efforts, the Lady Tigers took home the two team titles in the two divisional races for the women. The junior team scored 37 points to outpace Waldron’s 62 and Acorn’s 69 out of the top three scoring teams. The senior team scored 32 points to edge Acorn’s 43 and Waldron’s 56.
Darby Jones, Mansfield’s top runner on the senior team all season long, continued her terrific pace at the regionals. The senior posted a 21:28.20 5K time for second place behind foreign exchange student Miriam Garcia of Acorn at 20:41.80.
“Darby may have felt the hills a bit more than Miriam today,” confessed Mackey. “Those two have built up a good rivalry over the last few weeks. Miriam may have had a slight advantage being on a more familiar terrain.”
In order of scoring, Mansfield’s senior squad placed Jones (2), Wood (5), Jadelynn Wood (8), Rainwater (10), and McKenzie Griffin (11) as their top five. Hope Rainwater (12) and Katlynn Moore (14) came across as displacers but still within the Top 25 All-Region rankings.
For the junior team, Wood (1), Trinity Triska (5), Aidan Fildes (10), Danielle Lowery (12), and Addison Bowman (15) formulated the winning score. Ashley Martin (18) and Azlynn Stover (21) figured into the blocker positions and earned Top 25 All-Region medals like their teammates.
In the boy’s 2400m race, Josiah Fildes nearly went wire to wire for the win. The eighth-grader looked determined to close the deal but fell short by less than seven seconds to finish runner-up. Acorn’s Chance Reagan found his second wind in the final 100 meters to move ahead down the stretch.
Fildes did go 9:17.90 for the silver medal. Teammates Gunner Williams (13), Rylan Nichols (13), Holden Powers (18) and Joseph Carter (21) populated the final team margin to give the Tigers second in the Regional team standings.
All five Tigers received Top 25 All-Region medals. Braxton Bartlett (29) and Leland Powers (37th) offered blocker points.
Scott County rival Waldron took the junior boys team title with 39 points. Mansfield finished second at 68 points. Centerpoint (88) Booneville (95) and Cossatot River (102) completed the top five scoring schools.
Mansfield now moves to the 2A-4 District Championships to be held at Magazine High School on October 30 at 10:00 AM. The season ends there for the junior high teams. The senior high and qualifying freshmen advance beyond districts to the class 2A State Finals in Hot Springs on November 4.
