Greenbrier girl excels on track — and field
GREENBRIER — Autumn Russell has been a busy young woman this spring.
Russell, 15, a sophomore at Greenbrier High School, has doubled up on softball and track and field for the Lady Panthers.
While softball is her main sport, she burned up the track in her only regularseason appearance, the Vilonia Relays, where she won the 100-, 200- and 400meter dashes, setting personal bests; took second in the long jump, with another personal record; and helped the Lady Panthers’ 4x100 team to a runner-up finish.
“There were 24 schools represented there, and most were of a higher classification,” Greenbrier boys track coach Todd Langrell said. “This girl can fly.”
Russell won four individual events at the 5A-west Conference meet at Greenwood on April 26, taking the 100 in 12.75 seconds, the 200 in 26.46; the 400 in 59.19, bettering her personal best, and the long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 2.5 inches. She also anchored the 4x100 relay team to a state meet qualifying time of 51.56.
The top four finishers in each event advanced to the Class 5A State Meet at Hot Springs on May 3.
At the state meet, Russell won first place in the 100 with a time of 12.34 seconds and the 400 with a time of 59.72 seconds. In the long jump, she matched her conference jump in the preliminary and then took third place in the final with a jump of 17 feet, 10.75 inches. The 4x100 relay team finished seventh with a time of 51.08. Green did not make it out of the preliminaries in the 200.
Russell finished second in the 100 at the state meet last year as a freshman. Her time qualified her for the Meet of Champs, which brings together the best performances from all the state meets, but Greenbrier was in the state softball tournament, so she wasn’t able to compete.
She won the 100 and 200 at the conference meet last year, setting league records.
Her freshman success surprised her more than this spring’s performances.
“I had started doing a speed- training clinic in Conway starting in the fall of my ninth-grade year, and I didn’t realize how much faster that had made me until last spring,” she said. “This year I was hoping to improve.”
She said she continued to work out at the Fieldhouse Sports Training Center about once a week year-round.
Softball gets the priority. She goes to softball practice from 2:30 p.m. until about 5, then joins Nathan Moreland’s track team, along with Ashley Anderson, another sophomore who is participating in both sports. Moreland stays to work with them until about 6:30.
When there’s a conflict with a softball game, Russell goes there, which is why she only got to compete in the Vilonia Relays during the regular season.
“She’s just gifted with the ability to run,” Moreland said. “She has speed, but she’s also a great competitor. She can’t stand to lose. That drives her to come work after practice. She’s got the desire to do it.
“She’s got a God-given ability, a gift to run, and she uses it and works hard to improve it.”
Russell said her goal for her sophomore track season was to beat the records she set last year — and better that runner-up finish at the state meet.
At Vilonia, she set her personal bests of 12.29 seconds in the 100, 26.16 in the 200 and 16 feet, 6 inches in the long jump. She ran anchor on the 4x100 team that also included Anderson, Catie Metcalf and Samantha Tillman and finished in 51.51 seconds.
“She decided she wanted to run the 400 and long jump this year,” Moreland said. His predictions before the meet that she would have a good chance at winning the 400 and finishing high in the long jump were accurate.
According to the most recent high school best performances as reported in the Arkansas Democrat-gazette, Russell’s 12.29 in the 100 would tie her for the fifthbest showing in any Arkansas classification this year. Her 59.19 in the 400 would rank her sixth.
Moreland said she started training earlier this track season than she did last year.
“She does some speed training on her own, and that’s made a difference,” he said. “She has gotten stronger, so that has made her better as a sprinter. She hates losing. She doesn’t want to be second. She shows up ready to work every day with a good attitude.” Langrell agreed. “She doesn’t think she is all that,” he said.
Butler, her softball coach, called Russell “not only a great athlete but also a wonderful girl.”
“Her speed is unbelievable and is a great asset to our team,” he said of his third baseman. “I know when she gets on base, she will be in scoring position in a couple of pitches. I was a little skeptical about her running track and playing softball at the same time, but after watching her run and the success she has had in track, I think it’s only fitting that she compete in both.”
He called her the fastest girl he has ever seen in softball.
“And I have coached fast-pitch for 14 years,” he said.
Russell, who plays softball for the Germantown (Tennessee) Red Devils tournament team during the summer, also plays basketball for GHS. She sports a 4.03 grade-point average.
And she loves her busy schedule.
“It’s nice to have a break now and then, but I love doing it,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do with my life if I wasn’t doing [that].”
Luckily for the Lady Panthers, she’ll be with it for a while.