Mansfield’s junior girls sprinted into the 2025 track season against 23 registered schools at the Ozark Hillbilly Relays on March 6th. Blending the strengths of a select set of freshmen and an emerging core of eighth graders, the Lady Tigers finished with a respectable fourth place standing in the final team results.
Class 5A Russellville and class 4A schools Pottsville and Waldron were the only teams to bettered the Tiger thinclads in the overall points race. Mansfield, intentionally limiting the talents of its freshmen foundation as they just recently joined the squad after an extended basketball season, topped all other schools in attendance.
Lady Tiger freshmen Miley Clopton, in only two events, stole the sprints show with personal records in a pair of premium races. Clopton, measurably Mansfield’s fastest female among all junior high Lady Tiger athletes, took home two blue ribbons in two tries.
A 13.26 second clocking in the 100m dash saw the freshman pull away from two Russellville Whirlwinds, a Waldron Bulldog, and a Heavener Wolf in a loaded heat among seven total heats of the short sprint. Clopton also won an instant classic against a very fast Russellville rival in the 200m dash. Mansfield’s top sprinter surged in the longer sprint with a 27.98 second crossing to take the clearcut decision by 5/100ths of a second.
“Miley just recently came out of basketball and has been logging double duty with the high school softball team,” noted Mansfield’s interim head coach John Mackey. “She’s really progressed through the weight room and speed building sessions in Coach (Whit) Overton’s midday class. I was super excited to see her come out on top with so few actual track reps this early part of the season.”
Clopton, who normally joins both sprint relays and the high jump, scored 20 points for the Tigers in the reduced role.
Teammate and fellow ninth grader Rylan Jones put up a 20.5 point performance of her own with four events. Jones competed in two individual events and a pair of relays to amass her meet total. In an unconventional combination of events, her unique skill set saw her take care of business in the shot, discus, one distance relay, and one sprint cooperative.
It was from the discus ring that Jones placed first overall with a meet high toss of 73 feet. That was quickly followed by a second place mark of 35 feet 11 inches from the shot put ring. That combination of throws carried her to 18 individual points before an added share of outcomes from the two relays boosted her score.
A solid fourth place 4x800m combo with Hadley Shores, Lillianna Porter, and Adeline Godwin increased Jones’ net take on the night. Another fourth place team performance in the closing 4x400m relay moved that needle even further.
Eighth grader Bethany Mounts, another breakout performer for the Tigers at the Hillbilly track, started the closing 4x400m event with an outstanding 1:09 split as the leadoff quarter miler. Bentley Hoover, another eighth grader, kept the Lady Tigers in contention with a solid second lap exchange within that battalion of baton passes. Jones went third carrying the stick to the anchor, outgoing freshman Abby Smith.
Smith, a typical six event participant based upon her past two track seasons, anchored the 4x400m squad in only her second event of the evening. Smith, one of those types of athletes that regularly make the list of high point contenders, was intentionally placed on a ‘pitch count’ because of her limited track practices. She came over to track fresh off a gig as the starting point guard on the high school basketball team.
Godwin, another key athlete in the Mansfield freshman foundation, was on a limited schedule as well for similar basketball related reasons. A high production track athlete like Smith and Clopton, the Lady Tiger’s best mid-distance runner, Godwin, anchored the opening 4x800m relay. Her split was a team best 2:59. Later, the freshman high school basketball starter edged out a personal record of 1:07.74 in the 400m dash. It was her only individual event of the night.
Peyton Meyers, an All-State freshman off of Mansfield’s indoor track team a few weeks ago, produced in the pole vault and 4x100m relay. It was Meyers who resumed her familiar role as the sprint team’s lead leg. Newcomers Mounts, Hoover, and Natalee Moore showed Mansfield’s depth on the 4x100m card to complete the opening day sprint relay lineup. With Meyers, the three underclassmen finished third as a unit for the Tiger relay.
Kaylynn Piyapho posted seventh place points in the shot put with a 29 feet 9 inch landing for Mansfield. Porter placed eighth in the 1600m run with a new PR of 6:48.88. That was followed closely by Shores’ new individual standard in the same distance race with a time of 6:49.00.
Three days earlier, the Mansfield seventh grade girls team also went to Ozark for the Hillbilly Ribbon Run. In an intimate gathering of only six teams, the Lady Tiger rookies banked a bag full of individual ribbons. No team scores were recorded as participants only competed against individual members of their specific heats.
Mansfield’s Kamryn Bolin brought the oohs and ahhs as she let fly the longest discus throw in the seventh grade discus competition. Her mark was the only measure in the girls competition to surpass 60 feet. She was also one of the only contestants in the shot put to have the tape measure stretched beyond 30 feet. For her efforts, Bolin brought home two blue ribbons.
Teammate Abbi Neal also won her flight of the girls discus with a toss of 54 feet 10 inches and placed in the shot put as well. Bryanna Urban, Mykenzie Pollard, and Paityn Eubanks all received ribbons as part of the Tiger throws team.
Elly Ling, Annabelle Buchanan, Izabella Childs, and Hope Fury passed the ‘blind’ baton better than most in the women’s 4x100m relay. Their unofficial time of 1:08 placed them second among all competing schools in the race. It was Ling, Fury, and Enya Trinh that handled most of the shorter individual races for the first time Mansfield track athletes.
Fury, Trinh, Jaiden Black, and Peyton Kazy covered the horizontal and vertical jumping events for the Lady Tigers. It was Fury and Black that garnered the most attention at the long jump pit with first and second place measures respectively. Trinh worked her way past four bars as Mansfield's highest placing high jumper.
Kazy and Bella Wallace brought back 4th and 5th place ribbons from the women’s 800m run.
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