The regular season ended on a high note as Mansfield’s junior high track teams are now headed to the 2A-4 District Championships. A significant hurdle was cleared as conference teams are now scheduled to converge on Mansfield on April 18. That hurdle was getting a regular season title. The Tiger junior boys did just that as they grabbed the Mena Junior Bearcat Track Championship.
Mansfield men parlayed nine event victories into a runaway win. Adding high caliber points from all 17 events, Mansfield totaled 190 points for the first place prize. Waldron gave chase but their bark was worse than their bite. The Bulldogs finished with 131.5 points and second place. Host Mena came in third with 108 points among 10 scoring schools.
On the girls side, Waldron flipped the script to pull away from the Lady Tigers with a 170 to 150 win. However, it was Mansfield’s Daisy Nelson that headlined the show with a perfect score for high point honors.
Nelson, a freshman that’s already gaining attention at the state level, turned in five individual victories and anchored a relay team to another win. All told, Nelson carried home six blue ribbons and 52.5 points.
“Once Daisy started her meet schedule, it was basically non-stop for four straight events,” emphasized her enthusiastic coach, John Mackey. “From the pole vault to the long jump, she was on the go. Sandwiched between the two field events were the 100m hurdles and 100m dash back to back.”
Nelson won all four before taking a rest. Midway through the meet was the 4x100m relay followed by the 200m dash later in the night.
“Daisy was on fire,” explained Mackey. “After hitting a PR (personal record) in the long jump at 15-3, she was not going to be stopped.”
Nelson went on to anchor the winning the 4x100m relay in a come from behind victory. She knocked out the perfect score with a season best time in the 200m dash at 29.16 for her sixth win of the night.
As Nelson kept winning, so did the Mansfield boys. In particular, it was Dominic Shores that dominated his side of the standings. The freshman took first place honors in the 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles, 4x100m dash, and 4x200m dash. He was second in the high jump at 5-2 to close out his near perfect night.
Top honors was the theme as Tiger Braxton Bartlett also saw nothing but blue in his four events. The Mansfield ninth grader won the 100m dash, 200m dash, and anchored both the 4x100m and 4x200m relays.
“It was a good night to be a Tiger,” said Mansfield’s mens coach Ethan Bowman. “The boys have been gaining confidence. We’ve started fitting the right pieces into the right places. The boys are understanding their roles and covering the needed areas as we approach the conference.”
Cadien Ore continued his string of discus victories. The freshman launched the 1kg discus 124’ 11” for the win. Twin brother Logan Ore duplicated that point total by winning the 4kg shot put. His toss of 38’ 7” just edged his brother’s shot by six inches for a one-two scoring punch.
Bryson Elmore added to the throws party with a sixth place spin of the discus at 97’ 6”.
Alex Hecox pushed his training partner, Shores, in both hurdle races. The pair were less than a half second apart in each of the two barrier events.
Shores clocked in at 18.80 in the highs while Hecox was within his shadow at 19.00. In the intermediates, Hecox led after five hurdles. Shores squeaked by down the stretch over the final three hurdles topping the charts at 47.88. Hecox was less than a step behind at 48.31.
Zander Walters brought home the other blue ribbon for the Mansfield boys. He went 17’ 11” in the long jump to take the win. He also cleared 35’ 8” in the triple jump to take a third place mark.
Walters, Shores, Bartlett and Dawson Robinson teamed together for both sprint relay victories.
For the girls, Madison Hearron continued her traditionally high marks in the triple jump. She went 29’ 2” for second place. She was also the third leg on the blind relay with Kayla Bieker, Miley Clopton, and Nelson.
Abby Smith brought another strong finish in the 300m hurdles after finishing high point in the Waldron seventh grade meet a few days earlier. Smith also joined Adeline Bray, Rylan Jones, and Clopton in the third place 4x400m relay.
Jones won the girls discus. She was second in the 1600m run and shot put as well as fourth in the 800m run.
“It’s not very often your best thrower is also your best distance runner,” commented Mackey. “Rylan has a range of talents. She even hurdled early in the year.”
Mansfield now turns their attention to the 2A-4 junior high conference championships. Both junior teams are the defending district champions. In fact, both are seeking their third consecutive district titles.
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