Mansfield School District

Only four times over the last 23 years has Mansfield’s senior girls not won a district track and field championship. This 2025 season was not one of those times. Once again, at the conclusion of last week’s 3A-4 District finals, it was the Lady Tigers that hoisted the league’s top trophy to add to their extensive collection.

According to school records, it was the 2020 season, an aberration when the state of Arkansas suspended high school spring sports due to the world wide pandemic, that Mansfield didn’t win the conference track meet. That’s simply because there was no district track meet. Prior to the Covid pause there was one fourth place outlier, a random runner-up finish, and a magnificent set of eleven straight conference titles on the books. Since the reboot, the Lady Tigers, as of April 28, have extended their newest streak of consecutive conference championships to five with this 2025 version.

Mansfield this season, after rejoining the seemingly more athletic 3A-4 conference after two cycles in the smaller 2A classification, was statistically susceptible to the blue bloods of the newer larger league. Booneville and Lamar according to premeet entries were favored by some prognosticators because they had the most capacity to saturate the points race. Also of note, it was Charleston that was characterized as carrying high quality athleticism into the contest with an ability to disrupt in critical events. In the end, it was the fundamentals of an exuberant group of Tiger track devotees that refused to disappoint the hometown faithful. Mansfield responded in traditional Lady Tiger fashion. A cast of only 14 MHS players peaked performances early and often to construct a monumental 120 point margin of victory.

Mansfield scored 244 total points in only 16 contested events. With the girls division all but finalized, the team scratched out of two of the last three events. Load management was the culprit as a thinly veiled roster was depleted three-quarters of the way through the meet. District participants off the Mansfield register were systematically dismissed to play in the first round of the 3A-4 softball tournament. 

Booneville lost pace as Mansfield dominated the field events and won five of the first six races. The visiting Bearcats stumbled down the stretch scraping together only 124 total points for second place in the team standings.

Lamar put up a fight reaching 97 points through some positive relay production, pole vault prowess, and the long sprint specialty. Charleston shined in the 300m hurdles, high jump, and 4x200m relay totaling 84 points.

Cedarville scored 40 points. Cossatot River rolled up 37. Paris posted 11. And, Lavaca did not score.

MHS senior Laney Wood was the meet’s high point individualist with 42.5 points. The Tiger’s team captain turned in All-District performances in four of her six events. She won the pole vault, triple jump, and anchored the winning 4x400m relay with the fastest split. She finished second in the 100m hurdles, third in the 300m hurdles, and third in the long jump.

“Laney was motivated to have a big meet, this being her very last competition on the home track,” explained John Mackey, Mansfield’s interim head coach and before that Wood’s first track coach when she got started. “Momentum was clearly on her side. She just set a personal record in the pole vault five days earlier, and was not about to be commander of a Mansfield team that didn't win districts.

“Laney was willing and able to do whatever was necessary for us to win this meet,” continued the coach who was working his 39th season. “She willingly adjusted her schedule to five individual events and only one relay to maximize team points. She was prepared to do a sixth individual with the 3200m run if we needed extra points. Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary and she was able to run the final relay. It was the last home lap of the season and she did it in a season best time.”

Wood was not the only Lady Tiger to press the pedal with individual production. Junior Daisy Nelson, the high point winner at the Tiger Relays on April 14, was second on the leaderboard with 40.5 points. The defending class 2A state champion in the 100m dash won three events and placed second in another before clocking out to play in the district softball tournament in nearby Lavaca.

Nelson won the 100m hurdles at 17.57 seconds. She went 13.42, the top time in the women’s 100m dash, to win her next district event. She also anchored the league's best time of the meet in the 4x100m relay after placing second in the pole vault earlier in the day. 

Mansfield sophomore Danielle Lowery added 28 points through a full six event schedule. The potential heptathlete won the high jump at 5’ 0”, handed the baton to Wood in the winning 4x400m relay, and placed third in three events plus a seventh place ribbon in the shot put. Her point total landed her fourth on the high point list.

“Danielle and Laney have been our top two scorers for most of the season,” admitted the Mansfield mentor. “They’re both full time track athletes and had to carry much of the load when a full squad was not possible. They never shied away from stiff competition even when we could only take a handful of athletes to some of the big meets in the area.”

Continuing with the high point production, Mansfield had six individuals land inside the top ten for medalist honors. Dual spring sport athletes Abby Smith, Bailey London, and Rylan Jones joined Wood, Nelson, and Lowery on that list.

“It takes a strong mentality and physicality to produce at such a high level under stressed conditions,” offered Mackey. “It’s incredible how this entire group of fourteen were able to focus on each event as they played out during the day.”

All 14 of Mansfield’s players scored. From two points to over 40 points, production came in all directions. 

Kaylie Ward once again pushed the boundaries with 18 points from the throws. The junior won the shot put and placed second in the discus. Throwing teammates Jones, Lowery, and Addison Howard double dipped from those same two rings to give the Lady Tigers an opening surge.

Trinity Triska, Adeline Godwin, Wood and Nelson moved the needle in the horizontal jumps. Miley Clopton, Smith, Lowery, Nelson, and Wood did the same at the vertical venues.

Triska, Clopton, Smith and Nelson formed the winning combination for the 4x100m relay in 53.46. Summer Lyon, Godwin, Lowerey, and Wood covered the first place 4x400m team in a season best 4:39.18. Then Ashlynn Whittaker, Jones, Triska, and Bailey London made sure the 4x800m relay picked up blue ribbons with a time of 11:49.06.

London was tremendous as the Tiger’s only pure distance racer. Last season’s Freshman Rising Star won all first place markers with the long relay, 1600m run, and 800m run. 

Clopton took All-District honors in the 100m dash with a second place finish of 13.66. Smith found individual All-District honors as well with a second place 300m hurdle time of 53.29.

Mackey, Mansfield’s acting head coach, received the 3A-4 Coach of the Year plaque after the team’s dominant performance. The coach was quick to share the award with returning head coach Kaylie Andrews and assistant Danielle Overton.

“It was a lot of fun and a lot of work getting to know these players again and working with two of my former champions as coaching colleagues,” said Mackey. “The real blessing was the return of Kaylie and Danielle to make the team complete. When they both came back from maternity leave after spring break, we were able to spread out the coaching based upon our individual strengths. That’s when this team really began to mesh.”