Mansfield’s seventh grade girls are getting experience on the fly. Many of the crew serve two teams as part of the junior girls squad and the seventh grade team.
On Thursday night, the roster returned to Waldron after a Wednesday night junior high meet. The results were good as the seventh grade team brought home the Bulldog Relay Runner-Up plaque.
“There just aren’t that many girls to complete a seventeen event schedule,” announced John Mackey from the Lady Tiger track staff. “We ask some of these to help out in needed junior high events and then return for their own team. It’s a bit exhausting but we try to give them a break on a back to back night.”
The young Tigers needed some load management when Waldron was forced to change their junior date to the night before the seventh grade meet. Already short-handed by lack of numbers, the rookies had to skip out on some extra events the next night above their usual deletions.
Despite filling only 14 of the 17 events, Mansfield’s girls still accumulated 129 points for the second place prize. All-around athlete Abby Smith led the charge with high point honors.
Smith tallied 37.75 points over six events for the individual award. Her best marks came off a pair of first place hurdle races. The growing star won the 100m hurdles with a time of 18.54. She won the 300m hurdles with a winning time of 57.36.
Smith was part of the winning 4x400m relay team that included Adeline Bray, Miley Clopton, and Rylan Jones. The four first timers actually ran the same combination the previous night as the junior high relay squad. Miraculously, the core four ran 7 seconds fastest as the second place trophy hung in the balance.
Clopton was fast in each of her sprint events. She took second in the 100m dash and was the second leg in the second place 4x100m relay. That group was only 0.41 away from the win. Payton Meyers started that relay with Clopton, Bray, and Smith completing the baton passing.
Lily Young came back from a sprained ankle to offer value in the 400m dash. She took third in the race and anchored a fourth place 4x200m relay. Addison Howard, Bailey Quick, Kerrington Quick, and Young populated that combination.
Jones won both shot and discus. She was second in the 800m run. Adding the relay points, her individual score was in the rankings for high point honors at 30.5 points.
Hunter Whittaker was the leading scorer for the Tiger seventh grade boys. He accumulated 18 points off the long jump, high jump, triple jump, 4x100m relay, and 4x400m relay.
Colton Pruitt scored in the 110m hurdles. Drake Brunson and Trevan Hattabaugh placed in the horizontal jumps.
Clayton Garrison won the discus at 91’ 6”. Michael Carter and Garrison each placed top 8 in the shot put.
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