By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
To say Crystal Smith had a solid afternoon at Saturday’s Class 1 district championship meet would be an understatement.
A really big understatement.
The Jasper senior captured four individual titles in the 100 hurdles (14.55), long jump (5.36), high jump (1.57) and javelin (38.62).
A three-time state champion in the 100 hurdles, Smith has worked diligently this season to improve her feature event.
“I’ve just been getting better ever since the start of the season,” Smith said. “It’s been going good. I’ve been working a lot on my hurdles and getting that quick stuff to make me faster and working on my block starts – that gets me a head start.”
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While Smith keeps tabs on her fellow competitors, she also knows the key to her best performance is running within herself and not worrying about what’s happening in the other lanes.
“I kind of keep an eye on who’s around me, and most of them I’ve worked against already previously,” Smith said. “So I kind of know my competition and try to just push myself and not make sure not to watch anyone.”
Should Smith qualify for state in all four events this season, she will have made state in seven different individual events (100, 200, 300 Hurdles) during her high school career.
“I’m hoping to at least get first in my 100 hurdles,” Smith said. “I want to get all four – and those gold – and then hopefully I can get four gold. But if not, I’m just gonna aim to do my best.”
Smith’s teammate Chloe Storm swept the sprint events to make it seven gold medals between the two Jasper Eagles.
