One similarity between every player or team who claimed a state championship at last week’s annual Spring Fling is toughness. As the weeklong event wrapped up Saturday, two lasting images I brought back from Murfreesboro were the grit shown by Grace Academy pitcher Lacye Walker and McMinn Central runner Dianna Eddington.
Walker was the picture of physical fortitude as she walked away from the softball complex after practically willing the Lady Golden Eagles to the Class A championship game. The senior left-hander pitched 45 innings in four days as the Lady Golden Eagles finished runner-up again and after the win that advanced her team to the title game, she limped away with six ice bags strapped to her body. Walker had one bag of ice on her left forearm, two on her left shoulder, two on her lower back and another on her right knee from a bruise she sustained in the second game of the tournament, as well as a brace on her right ankle for a third-degree sprain and a large scab on her right elbow.
“Of all this, my feet hurt worse than anything,” Walker said. “Wearing metal cleats on that hard dirt field has killed my feet and ankles. I got through the week mostly on adrenaline. I just didn’t want to let my team down.”
Walker struck out more than 330 batters this season, breaking her own school record and also had a key triple the helped Grace rally to tie the game in an eventual win over Cornersville in the loser’s bracket final. Walker was scheduled to begin her summer league season on Sunday.
“She can’t leave the field unless she knows she’s left everything she’s got out there on the field,” Grace coach Tina Walker said. “She’s always been a fighter, and she’s okay with the result of the game – no matter what it is – so long as she believes she gave every ounce of energy to try her best.”
Similarly giving her all, and becoming an inspiring example of mental perseverance, was McMinn Central’s Eddington, who won three individual championships at the track and field event.
After crossing the finish line first in the 3200-meter run, claiming her first state championship of any kind, Eddington raised her finger toward the sky, in honor of her late brother, David, who died in a motorcycle accident one month before last year’s Spring Fling. She followed that state title with two more Thursday, winning the 1600 and setting a personal-best time in winning the 800.
When she took the track for last year’s 3200, Eddington had tears streaming down her cheeks. She somehow managed to finish third in that event and wound up second in the 1600, but admitted she was never mentally into either race.
“I was emotionally drained before I ever ran last year,” Eddington said. “My brother was supposed to be there to watch me run and that’s all I could think about. I felt alone last year when I ran, but this year I felt like he was there with me, cheering me on.”
Eddington began running simply to stay in shape for basketball, but soon realized she had a talent for the distance events and began concentrating on track and cross country after her sophomore season.
In the 800, she came from third place heading into the final curve to win at the finish. She won the 1600 by more than 13 seconds to complete a grueling sweep of all three distance events.
“I wanted to win it for my brother this year,” said Eddington, who has signed to run cross country and track at Mississippi State. “He was my motivation. Last year remembering him hurt me too much to run, but this year his memory pushed me on to win. To win all three events, words really can’t describe how that felt. I had trained all year to do my best in those, and to win them was just incredible.”