Fayetteville's Fischer smashes 800 record

Camren Fischer's first time to run the 800 meters this season turned out to be a race for the record books. The Fayetteville junior finished the distance in a blistering 1 minute, 55.06 seconds and broke the only meet record Thursday during the 7A-West Conference track and field championships at Gates Stadium. "I honestly felt a lot better than I anticipated," Fischer said. "I ran the 4x800 (relay) earlier, and I felt a little tired. I really didn't know how this race would play out because of that, but I did a lot of stretched and got in a good cool-down. I think I really mentally prepared myself for this race." Fischer -- who has the state's best times in the 1,600 and 3,200 this year -- opted out of those races to focus on the 800 because he had automatically qualified for the Class 7A state meet in both events. His performance broke the previous meet record of 1:56.44 set by Fayetteville's Stephon Farriel in 2007. He had to run in the slower heat because he didn't have a time registered, but he quickly left the rest of the field behind. The closest competitor in his heat was more than 17 seconds behind, and Fischer finished more than 4 seconds faster than second-heat winner Ethan Carney of Springdale Har-Ber. "If I had run the 1,600, I wouldn't have done it," Fischer said. "I definitely couldn't have run this time. That was the plan coming into this -- to get a good 800 time." The rest of the meet belonged to Bentonville High, whose girls compiled 213.5 points to win the team title while Rogers High finished a distant second with 133 points, followed by Fayetteville at 112. The boys' division was much tighter as Bentonville scored 180.5 points, followed by Har-Ber with 152.5 and Fayetteville with 119. Sydney Suggs took high-point honors with 29.5 points, but Bentonville's girls owned a slim 63.5-59 lead over until the second portion of the field events. Sophomore Lexi Matlock won the high jump by clearing 5 foot, 2 inches and teamed up with freshman Sydney Billington and Sterling Thomas for a 1-3-4 finish as the Lady Tigers began to pull away. "In that second half of the field events, we placed three in the high jump, three in the top six in the triple jump and two in the top six in the shot put," Bentonville coach Randy Ramaker said. "That's the secret, and I saw some other good things, like in the 800. We qualified four girls there, so that was pretty good. "I have a young team and a lot of young girls on this team. They knew they had to get themselves in position for next Thursday. The only way to do that was to get a few things done here, and that was the focus. Some of them stepped up and did that." Bryant Parlin led Bentonville's boys with his high-point performance as he accumulated 20 points with wins in the shot put (50-1) and the discus (161-9). The Tigers, however, had to make up for a double-digit deficit to Har-Ber over the early stages. Bentonville never led in the point totals until the 1,600, when Coleman Wilson (4:30.16) and Colton Simmons (4:31.36) gave the Tigers a one-two finish and 18 points to take the lead for good. Bentonville solidified that lead when the trio of Zerai Belai, Patrick Bell and Dylan Smith gave the Tigers a 1-3-6 finish in the 400 for another 19 points. "In this conference, you have great teams like Har-Ber, Fayetteville and Rogers, and some great individuals," Bentonville coach Mike Power said. "You always have to be on your toes, and in a championship event like this, it's a long day. "We tried to chip away with a few points here and there. We missed out on a couple of goals we had in the meet, but once the got deeper into the afternoon, and we started getting our traction. We're strong in the distance events, and they've taken ownership of those events, and that was the catalyst to our points."

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FAYETTEVILLE'S FISCHER SMASHES 800 RECORD

HENRY APPLE

Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette | 4/27/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: J.T. Wampler