Girls Track: UCA Presents Bentonville's Sellars With Good News

STAFF PHOTO HENRY APPLE Madison Sellars, second from left, of Bentonville signs her national letter of intent to run track and cross country at Central Arkansas during Wednesday’s ceremony at the Tiger Athletic Complex. She is joined by her father Mike Sellars, from left, her mother Kirstin Sellars and her brother Nathan Sellars.
STAFF PHOTO HENRY APPLE Madison Sellars, second from left, of Bentonville signs her national letter of intent to run track and cross country at Central Arkansas during Wednesday’s ceremony at the Tiger Athletic Complex. She is joined by her father Mike Sellars, from left, her mother Kirstin Sellars and her brother Nathan Sellars.

BENTONVILLE -- Madison Sellars thought she would be the bearer of good news after the 7A-West Conference track meet, but something better was actually headed her way.

The Bentonville senior distance runner qualified for the state meet in the 3,200-meter run, and she received a phone call from Central Arkansas assistant track and cross country coach John Jones. Sellars then relayed to him the accomplishment, and Jones had a wonderful response.

Sellars, who had planned to walk on at UCA, was given a scholarship offer, and she signed her national letter of intent during Wednesday's ceremony at the Tiger Athletic Complex.

"It was really loud, so I had to sit on the floor of the bus," Sellars said. "When he offered the scholarship, of course I accepted. I was really excited.

"After I got off the phone, I yelled to (Bentonville assistant) coach (Jaclyn) Evans that I had earned a scholarship and I would be signing. The whole bus went crazy. People were screaming, and I was getting a whole bunch of texts. It was really fun."

Sellars, buoyed by injuries for the first two years with Bentonville's girls track team, benefited from being at full strength throughout this spring. As a result, she became one of the Lady Tigers' most improved runners this season.

As a result, she was able to cut her 3,200 time down to 11 minutes, 55.8 seconds at this year's 7A-West meet, more than a minute faster than she ran it last year. Now she will turn her attention to UCA, where she is expected to run cross country in the fall and turn her attention to the 5,000 in the spring and possibly to the 10,000 when she reaches her junior and senior years with the Sugar Bears.

"Some kids, when it comes to their turn senior years, they finish strong, so to speak," Bentonville coach Randy Ramaker said. "She's one that couldn't hardly break the 13s, and this year she broke 12. You don't really see that much of a mass improvement from a girl.

"There's a couple of reasons for that: she wanted to, and she was healthy. I think, for her, that determination carried her through a lot of things, and she didn't have to worry about being injured. She just had to worry about running, and she could go out there and do it."

Sports on 05/15/2014

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