Lady Tigers Take Win At Senior Tiger Relays

Posted Date: 04/05/2023

According to their coach, Mansfield’s senior girls start every track season with the same three goals in mind. Those include winning the indoor state finals, winning the home meet, and winning the outdoor state meet. As of Tuesday, March 28 count those first two goals checked off.

Mansfield had already won the 2023 ATCA Indoor Track State Championship back in February. This past week the senior girls kept the Mansfield Tiger Relays Championship plaque in town with a 23 point victory over the closest of 14 scoring schools.

The hometown Lady Tigers cobbled together their biggest roster so far this season for their home debut. Dual spring sport athletes took a night away from the softball diamond to fortify the squad’s pursuit of goal number two. The addition of five throwers and one horizontal jumper made a difference as Mansfield’s solidified squad scored 128 points.

Nearly 20 schools registered for the 19th edition of the senior high version of the Tiger Relays. Outstanding performances abound from Mansfield athletes. Count MHS senior Seven Sanderson and Tiger sophomore Carter Whiley off the women’s team among them. Count MHS seniors Ashton Hinkle and junior Dakota Langford off the men’s team among them. 

Sanderson was the first of the Lady Tiger throwers to punch her ticket to the outdoor state meet. The senior did so by exceeding the AAA qualification standard in the discus event. Sanderson hurled the 1kg disc 97’ 2” to take the individual win and surpass the state standard 89’ 8”.

Whiley toughed out a sore insole on her none jumping foot to take the blue ribbon in the high jump. Her 4’ 10” leap on a second attempt equaled the state standard and qualified her to the early entries to the state outdoor finals in May.

“We wanted foremost to win the home meet,” announced John Mackey, the only meet director the Tiger Relays have had since the event was established 19 season’s ago. “This was our first opportunity to qualify in any field events since the outdoor season started. It feels good to have the outdoor finals team taking shape.”

Hinkle didn’t win his favorite event but he inched closer to the outdoor benchmark in the pole vault. The homeschool senior cleared 11’ 0” for second place. He needed only three more inches to reach the state minimum for early entry to the outdoor state finals.

Langford also placed second in one of his primary events. His mark in the discus went 20 feet further than any previous attempts from earlier in the season. This time Langford’s red ribbon toss allowed him to reach the 100 foot club at 103’ 8”.

Mansfield senior Jadelynn Wood was close to meeting her state standard in the 300m hurdles. The All-State hurdler from the 2022 season was within 0.72 seconds of the mark. Wood pushed hard in her heat to take second place in a time of 51.97.

Wood was the home team’s leading scorer with 31 points. She was third leg on two winning relays. She posted a trio of third place marks in three individual events along with the second place hurdle race.

Mansfield girls scored in 15 of 18 total events. Two of those non-scores were due to a coaching decision. Whiley, one of the area’s top sprinters, was shelved from the 100m and 200m dashes to rest her sore foot. 

Of the 15 scoring events, the Lady Tigers took victory in four. Those included the 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, discus, and high jump.

Laney Wood, Carter Whiley, Jadelynn Wood, and Azlynn Stover rounded the one lap 4x100m relay in 56.23 for the win. Stover and Wood joined Addison Stover and Trinity Triska in the first place 4x400m relay team. That grouping edged rival Waldron by 3 seconds.

Natalie Allison came over from softball to give Mansfield a boost in the long jump and triple jump. With limited practice time the senior went 13’ 9” in the long and 29’ 7” in the triple for a seven point Lady Tiger surge.

Sanderson, Skylynn Harris, Kaylee Ward, Brooklyn Adams, and Kaylie Lowery all came over from the softball diamond to bolster the Lady Tiger shot put team. The five all had marks inside the top 8 but only Sanderson and Harris were allowed to score per games committee rules. 

Sanderson was second in the shot at 31’ 7.5”. Harris was third at 31’ 5.5”. Unofficially Ward would have finished fourth, Adams sixth, and Lowery eighth. The games committee set up the rules to allow only two scorers from each school.

The same five Mansfield throwers did similar good at the discus ring. Again, only two participants per school were allowed to score. That left Sanderson with the win. Ward took sixth at 78’ 5”. Adams, Lowery, and Harris followed in near consecutive order to round out the top 10.

Addison Stover, Raine Hecox, Trinity Triska, and Azlynn Stover took second in the 4x200m relay. They fell just 0.43 seconds shy of Mountainburg’s winning time of 2:04.01.

Laney Wood gathered with Azlynn Stover, Hecox, and Triska to take another second place in the 4x80m relay. Ashley Martin scored in her two distance races, the 1600m run and 3200m run. Saylor Steward, Summer Frazier, and Carissa Vaughan competed in the 200m, 400m, and 1600m respectively. 

Austin jumped 10’ 0” in the men’s pole vault to score for the Tigers. He was fifth. Trey Powell also took fifth in the men’s 100m dash. His time of 11.61 seconds was near the 11.46 state qualifying mark.

Team results in the girls division had Waldron (105), Greenwood (87), Ozark (85), and Mena (60.5) in the top five behind Mansfield (128). Waldron (171.5) did win the boys division with Nashville (133.50), Greenwood (104), Mountainburg (47), and Dover (36) rounding out the top five.