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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- On the coldest day in the 22-year history of the Spring Fling, the Signal Mountain girls' track and field team frosted its state competition.
With temperatures reaching no higher than 55 degrees by mid-afternoon and dipping into the 40s by the final few events at Middle Tennessee State University, the Lady Eagles defended their Class A/AA state championship in dominating fashion, scoring points in 13 events to finish with 96 points to second-place East Nashville's 72.
A school-record 13 girls scored points for Signal Mountain, including McKenzie Ethridge and Camryn Bowman, who each won multiple events and made this year's title much easier than last year's six-point nail-biter.
"We knew how to strategize better this year, how to score more points," said Signal Mountain coach Beverly Blackwell. "We talked a lot during practice recently about what everybody needed to do, and they all went out there today and, while we expected McKenzie and Camryn to do what they did, we had a lot of other girls do more than they were expected to."
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Signal Mountain athlete Camryn Bowman is awarded 1st place in the girls A-AA discus at the state track and field championships Thursday, May 21, 2015, during the TSSAA Spring Fling in Murfreesboro, Tenn.Bowman put the Lady Eagles in front early by winning the discus and shot put Thursday morning and then turned things over to Ethridge. The junior sprinter returned to the form that made her one of the Spring Fling's biggest stars two years ago.
After a foot injury left her with a disappointing personal ending to last year's state meet, Ethridge made it clear that she was completely healed, easily winning the 100 meters (11.88 seconds) and 200 meters (24.64) with personal-best finishes despite the chilly conditions. She also helped the 4x100 relay to a surprising first-place finish with the fastest time in all classifications (48.86).
"Coming back from what happened last year was very important to me," Ethridge said. "Tonight proves that all the hard work I've put in to get back to this was worth it. It all paid off.
"I had thought about running in tights because it was so cold and it was tough to keep my legs warmed up, but it just didn't feel right. I felt better just running in my shorts, but I had to find something warm to put on right after every race.
"It was really tough to run sprints in this (weather). I just tried to block that out and think more about having (Tyner's) Alexis (Wilson) and (Red Bank's) Elexis Foster right there because they've been awfully close to me all year. That pushed me."
Besides Ethridge's three state titles and Bowman's two, Arts & Sciences sophomore Lennex Walker also had an splendid individual day, winning the Class A/AA triple jump and finishing second in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles and long jump.
Signal Mountain's 4x100 team that qualified for the state meet was seeded fourth behind Tyner, East Nashville and Red Bank. But after Katie Lingle missed out on qualifying in the individual 400 meters at last week's region meet, Blackwell made a lineup adjustment, adding the junior to the group that also included freshman Adira Griffin and fellow juniors Aryn Sanders and Ethridge. The result was a state title in the foursome's first race together.
"Our whole strategy was to just get the baton to McKenzie with a chance," Sanders joked afterward. "I didn't want to have a false start to get us disqualified, and after that I just tried to get us in position to have a shot. We knew if we were close when we got the baton to McKenzie, we were in good shape."
When Ethridge took the baton as the anchor leg, she was in a crowd of competitors, but by the time she hit stride down the straight she was pulling away.
"The whole day went better than we could have ever hoped," Blackwell said. "That 4x100 relay was the best example of that because they went well beyond anything we could have imagined. For that group to win, when they had never run in a meet together before and had just started practicing together earlier this week, we couldn't stop yelling for them."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.
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