Elkins’ Grace Heymsfield hopes to lead her team to its second straight state title.
Photo by J.T. Wampler

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ELKINS — Grace Heymsfield may be the heavy favorite to claim her fourth consecutive individual state cross country championship, but she’s more interested in leading Elkins to its second straight Class 3A team title.

“There’s a purpose for every race, and Saturday at the state meet is getting another state championship for our team,” Heymsfi eld said.

Heymsfield has not been totally satisfied with her season,despite running the secondfastest 5K time in the state this season. However, her time of 18minutes, 24.48 seconds listed on the Web site www.milesplit.us is way o◊her personal best of 17:50.

“I feel like I’m in really good shape and my training’s been going well,” Heymsfield said. “Different weird things have come up. Before the Elkins meet I had a fever, and the day of district I had a fever, too.”

Elkins cross country coach Beverly Mabry said illness in the school and team has been a problem much of the season. She also pointed out the unusuallywet fall has led to poor running conditions and therefore hasn’t been conducive to fast times.

Heymsfield admits she’s not a real vocal leader, but Mabry said her work ethic speaks volumes to her teammates.

“They see her at every meet and she does her best at every meet,” Mabry said. “... They realize if we want to win a team state championship everybody has to contribute. ... Grace is number one, but that eight or nine runner is just as important, they can make a big di◊erence.”

The senior has put the small Washington County town on the map as she’s dominated her classifi cation on the track and in cross country.

Heymsfield finished seventh at the Nike South Cross Country Invitational and was 44th at the Nike Cross Country Nationals as a junior. She also became the first female athlete in Arkansas to break the 5-minute barrier (4:59.51) in the 1,600 meters at the Meet of Champions in the spring.

Despite the big accomplishment on the track, Heymsfield prefers cross country.

“It’s just more interesting to run in fields than run circles,” Heymsfi eld said.

Heymsfield now trains quite a bit at the Arkansas cross country course at Agri Park in Fayetteville, but she still trains at times closer to home. “I usually do a lot of my training runs on my dirt road outside my house and on a road in Greenland,” Heymsfi eld said.

She also has a good relationship with her regular training partner. That’s her brother Christian, who carried on the family tradition by finishing second at the state meet last year as a freshman.

“It’s nice to be able to train with him,” Heymsfi eld said. “He pushes me a lot.”

Now the Heymsfields could carry Elkins to multiple state titles.

Sports, Pages 7 on 11/05/2009

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