FAYETTEVILLE — Heber Springs surpassed its coach’s expectations.
The Panthers put a thorough whipping on the field to win the 1A-4A indoor state track and field championship Friday at the Tyson Track Center.
Heber Springs ended up with 131 points to easily outdistance runner-up De Queen, which finished with 56 points.
Waldron won the girls’ title with a victory in the final event, the 1,600-meter relay. Waldron finished with 60 points, ahead of Ashdown, which was second with 551/2 points.
Four-time defending champion Mansfield led the girls’ race early but finished tied for third with Heber Springs with 48 points.
A year ago, Heber Springs boys finished second, 11 1/2 points behind Nashville.
“I thought we were capable of doing a good job, but I didn’t know we would do this well,” Heber Springs Coach Dale Cresswell said. “I did not think we would dominate that well. I didn’t see this coming at all.”
His runners did.
After the Panthers failed to win the cross country title in 2009, the runners came up to Cresswell and vowed to make amends this year. Heber Springs’ boys won the cross country title this fall, so a victory outdoors would give the Panthers the triple crown for winning all three in a single school year.
The indoor victory was a true team affair. Heading into the final events, the Panthers had placed 16 individuals or relay teams in the top five, accumulating bundles of points even without victories, although Heber Springs also won four events.
Sophomore Ethan Bly typified Heber Springs’ scoring with a second-place finish in the 200 meters and third place finishes in the long jump and 60. The Panthers went over the 100-point mark when three runners finished in the top five in the 400.
“We’ve been runners-up a few times indoors,” Cresswell said. “My distance runners, after cross country last year, came up to me and said, ‘We will not lose this year.’They’re looking for a triple crown. I said we have to take it one race at a time.”
Cresswell said the Panthers benefited from their indoor facility, which allows workouts during bad weather. Many schools have to train outdoor, even for indoor meets, and bad weather this past month has restricted training.
The Panthers also had muchneeded depth. Cresswell said most of his athletes were able to concentrate on just a couple or three events.
“Lord, no, it’s not coaching,” Cresswell said. “It’s the kids wanting it. They work hard.”
Waldron led much of the time in the girls’ race but was only ahead of Ashdown by one half point entering the 1,600 relay. Coach Chris Lipham was nervous because his relay team had two freshmen, but the team executed flawlessly, winning in 4 minutes, 33.20 seconds while Ashdown finished third, nine seconds behind.
Two years ago, Waldron had finished runners-up in the team race to Mansfield by more than 100 points.
“I knew we were good,” Lipham said. “I told the girls, ‘There ain’t nothing like it coming down to the last race.’
“I told the girls if we could score 50 points, we can win this thing. I told them every point matters.”
Waldron was led by senior Taylor Farmer, who won the high jump and ran a leg on the 1,600 team. Farmer also finished fourth in the triple and long jumps, and Kaylie Lassiter (high jump) and Joani Powell (400) had secondplace finishes.
Powell anchored the titleclinching relay team.
Sports, Pages 25 on 02/19/2011