Discus throwers shine at McDonalds Relays

FORT SMITH — Mason Clark saved his best for last during the McDonalds Relays.

The Gentry junior threw the discus 146 feet on his final attempt and won the event during Thursday’s meet at Jim Rowland Stadium. The throw was almost 4 feet farther than his previous best this spring, and it came after two of his first three attempts were scratched.

“My first three attempts were bad,” Clark said. “I went out there and decided to just take this easy. I’ve done it a thousand times, so just do it again.

“I went real easily in the back of the ring, drove to the middle and the last rotation felt really smooth. I hit a big throw, and it felt really good.”

Clark’s winning toss was almost 5 feet farther than second-place finisher Bryant Parlin of Bentonville High, and his performance moves him into sixth place among the state’s top performers and the best thrower in the Class 4A ranks. He believes there are bigger throws in the future, but the next thing on his list is next week’s 4A-1 Conference meet at Pea Ridge.

“Right now, I’m just focusing on getting conference done and seeing where that takes me as far as distance goes,” Clark said. “I’m aiming to be number one in both the shot put and discus, but I know there are some really good throwers out there.

“I’ve hit some big throws in practice — 160- pluses. Hopefully I can bring that to a meet some time.”

Clark wasn’t the only discus thrower to have a season-best performance. Fayetteville junior Jasmine Franklin needed just one throw to surpass her personal-best this season, and moved her into the state’s best performance in that event.

Franklin, already the state’s best performer in the shot put, turned in a toss of 129-5 on her opening throw and beat second-place finisher Autumn Miller of Pryor, Okla., by 9 feet. It surpassed her previous-best by more than 12 feet and makes her the state’s leader, passing previous leader Eden Crow of Genoa Central by more than 6 feet.

Franklin said she needed a throw like that in order to automatically qualify for the Class 7A state meet. She will miss next week’s 7A-West Conference meet at Fayetteville because she will be out of town that day.

“I threw the shot put first and didn’t do too good,” said Franklin, who also won the shot put with a toss of . “So I guess I put all that anger in the discus and threw a PR.

“I guess I was just feeling it, and I caught the wind, too. It was really on my side, and while I was practicing, it was feeling really good too.”

Springdale Har-Ber’s boys continued their winning ways by capturing the team title with 108 points while Conway finished second with 94 points. Conway claimed the girls title with 122 points, while Fayetteville took second with 89, followed by HarBer with 82 and Bentonville with 81.