The Russellville High School varsity outdoor track and field teams are halfway through the spring schedule and have just three meets left before the qualifying season is over.
The Golden Tigers have competed in three varsity meets thus far, including one home meet, the Chucky Mullins Classic, held on Feb. 27. The Chucky Mullins Classic was Russellville’s opening meet of the season and saw the boys team take first place out of a field of 10 with 164 points, while the girls team placed second with 92 points.
Some of the top performances from the Russellville-hosted meet included a first-place finish by junior EJ King in the high jump, first- and second-place finishes by Matthew James and Tait Barnes in the shot put, and earning silver in the boys’ long jump was Cash Crumpton.
On the girls’ side, Russellville’s Lourdes Ellis and Aleah Bonman took second and third place, respectively, in the shot put event and Ari Willingham finished second in the 400-meter race. Cesar Felipe, a seventh grader, cruised to first place in the boys’ 3200-meter race with a time of 12:27.56, nearly setting a new school record.
Since the Chucky Mullins Classic, the Golden Tigers have competed at two other meets, one hosted by Muscle Shoals and the other hosted by Florence. Russellville head coach Chris Boatwright said he was pleased with how his teams performed.
At the Muscle Shoals Invitational on March 7, the Russellville girls’ team placed fourth out of 15 and the boys’ team took sixth place in a field of 17 teams. Those team finishes, Boatwright said, signify just how far the program has come over the last year.
“Last year, I don’t think we even had enough athletes competing in events to even get points,” he said. “I chose to do the Muscle Shoals meet to face other athletes at Muscle Shoals and Florence, you know, because when we go to the sectional meet we’re only going to compete against 5A teams.”
“If we go into some of these better meets and compete, that shows me that our kids are buying in,” he added. “For both our teams to finish in the top 10 at Muscle Shoals, I have to admit that I had a smile on my face after that.”
The Golden Tigers took a handful of top three finishes out of the meet, including a trio of gold medals. Peyton Parrish and Isabela Pedro had third-place finishes in the girls’ 1600-meter and 3200-meter races, respectively. In field events, Bonman grabbed second in the discus throw and senior Avery Watts was top of the podium in the girls’ high jump with a mark of 1.42 meters. King came in first in the boys’ high jump and Hunter Kastberg was first in the boys’ pole vault.
In Russellville’s last meet, the Florence-hosted Battle of the Tennessee Valley meet, the Golden Tigers were 10th out of 20 teams in the boys standings and 15th out of 23 in the girls standings. Boatwright said the Florence meet, like the Muscle Shoals Invitational, was not about winning the meet or every event but an opportunity for his athletes to compete against some of the best and see how they fared.
“I had a conversation with my kids to say, you know, we’re running against the clock and we’re jumping against the bar. We’re not trying to outrun Muscle Shoals or outrun Athens, we’re trying to outrun Russellville,” he said. “This was more so to see that heavy-hitting competition and see where we stacked up against them.”
In a very crowded field of competitors, Russellville had a few top five performances. In the girls’ long jump event, Keira Cruse finished fourth with a jump of 4.78 meters and Crumpton placed fifth at 6.10 meters in the boys’ long jump. Russellville’s top performance at the meet belonged to King, who grabbed gold in the boys’ high jump with a 1.93 meter (or 6’4”) jump, a personal record.
One cool moment, Boatwright said, was watching King jump in front of former Russellville track and field athlete Micah McCulloch, who was an official judge for the high jump at the Florence meet. McCulloch holds the school records for the boys’ high jump, long jump, and triple jump, setting all three back in 2009. #222222;">Records like McCulloch’s are used by Boatwright to help motivate the team.
#222222;">"Just in these last couple years—last year as an assistant, this year as head coach—I’ve had five school records set,” he said, specifically citing the new boys’ 3200-meter record set by Pascual Felipe and the boys’ 4x800-meter relay record broken this year. “I really hold that up to them to let them know that some of these records have been held since the early 2000s and haven’t been broken in 15 years and all of sudden they’re starting to make a push to break them. I really try to use that to pump them up and say, ‘Hey, you can do it. It’s right there in front of you and you’ve just got to go get it.’
“#222222;">Cash Crumpton is our junior long jumper that has a PR of 21’3” this season. He says his goal is to jump 22’ by the state meet. Now that he has seen the record he says he wants to try and get that 23’ to grab the school record,” Boatwright added. “EJ King is our high jumper that is closing on the school record in that category. He plans to try and get the record before he graduates.”
#222222;">While motivating the team he has now, Boatwright, going forward, is also trying to increase it. King, Watts, and Parrish represent just a few current team members that are of the type of athlete Boatwright is wanting to attract to track and field: the ones that are already excelling in another sport. King is an all-state basketball player. Watts played on both the girls’ basketball and volleyball teams. Parrish is a standout girls’ tennis player who recently signed to play at North Alabama.
#222222;">Even if a student-athlete is already participating in a spring sport, Boatwright said he’s flexible. Anyone who wants to give track and field a shot should have an opportunity to be involved without sacrificing the sport they enjoy best, he said.
#222222;">“This year I’ve made it very accessible for my dual athletes. I’ve got several playing tennis, several playing soccer and softball that are also competing in track,” he said. “We really want it to be where our kids don’t have to pick and choose which sport they play.”
#222222;">“I’m willing to be that middle man, I guess you could say, who will say, ‘You go play your sport first and you come do track when you’re able to,’” he added. “I think that’s freed up a lot of them and why I’ve got so many—I think I’ve got 11 dual athletes—and they’re playing two great sports.”
#222222;">Parrish was one spring athlete that Boatwright cited. Suffering from an injury that kept her from competing in tennis matches, Parrish would still be able to run in track events.
#222222;">“She came out and said, ‘Coach, I don’t have a match. Can I go run at Muscle Shoals?’ and I said absolutely. She goes to Muscle Shoals and finishes third in her event,” Boatwright said. “Now she’s coming off her shoulder injury and won’t be at (the next meet) because she’s going to be playing tennis that day.”
#222222;">“What I’m trying to do is allow these girls and guys to see that this can be a dual spring sport, you just have to be willing to put in the work,” he added.
Russellville has three more regular season meets left and is hosting its next two, the RVL Invitational on April 1 and the Golden Tiger Invitational on April 15. Most people don’t know, Boatwright said, that track and field has its own home field advantages, just like many other sports. The Golden Tigers should seize those opportunities while they have the chance, he said.
“There’s a difference in jumping in different pits…and even the track surfaces may be a little different from where we go to meets,” he said. “With us being at home these next two meets, I’ve challenged them that if they want to go to sectionals, if they want to make a state qualifier, now’s your chance.”
“I’ve really challenged our kids to step up and I really want us to finish in first place, both boys and girls, because we really do have the athletes to do it,” Boatwright added.
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