Lamar junior Erica Smith won the MAIS Class 5A girls 100-meter dash with a time of 13.24 seconds Saturday, May 7, 2022, at Jackson Prep.

Lamar junior Erica Smith was part of a close finish in the MAIS Class 5A state meet’s 100-meter dash, and Smith actually wasn’t aware of how she finished when she walked away.

“I couldn’t necessarily see the finishing line, but I knew she was in the mix,” Lamar assistant track and field coach Jacob Land recalled.

Smith told Land she couldn’t definitively say in which place she finished, so the two waited until the official tally was announced.

“He was making a face like I didn’t place, and then a few seconds later he told me I was a state champion,” Smith said, admitting that she started to cry once it began to sink in. “I didn’t believe him when he first said it, but then he showed me, and I was very surprised.”

Smith finished with a time of 13.24 seconds to win the state championship in the 100 meters, and she was joined by senior teammate Maggie Triplett, who placed first in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:26.62.

It was Smith’s first state championship in any sport, and she said it’s made her want to start doing cross country this fall before switching over to basketball in the winter.

“It was a great feeling,” Smith said.

Lamar track and field head coach Cordera Eason said two individual state champions are an excellent building block for a fairly new track program, especially since one of them, Smith, is slated to return next spring.

“To end the season with two state champions is a big step for us,” Eason said. “We had more people who qualified but didn’t win (at state), and that was good, too. The fact we had two relay teams and a couple of sprinters make it is a big step in the right direction for Lamar.”

Despite a habit of starting off slowly in the 100 meters, Smith said she’s usually able to push forward at the end, which is exactly how things played out at the state meet.

“It’s really satisfying knowing I can use that plan in the future and become great again,” Smith said.

Triplett had a plan in place for the 800-meter run as well, and she credited Lamar’s distance coach, Chip Cowsert, for her success.

“I never try to stay ahead the whole time,” Triplett explained. “I try to get up to second or third in the first 90 meters, and then at the 400 mark I try to get up to second. About 90 meters (before the finishing line) is when I try to kick it in.”

Part of Triplett’s success came from her visualizing the race more than 24 hours before she ran it.

“The day before and up to the moment (it started) I went through the motions in my head, and it worked, so I was really happy,” Triplett said.

Triplett enjoys running the 800 meters due to its blend of both agility and distance skills.

“Particularly with the 800, there’s a lot of speed work because you have to be able to kick in for the last 90 meters, but your base is endurance running,” Triplett said. “I was able to get my time down consistently throughout the year.”

As the school’s new football coach, Land made an effort to get more boys to participate in track and field this spring, and 10 boys qualified for the state meet in addition to both the high school and junior high boys winning their district.

“I found out in the spring a lot of our guys who are playing football really didn’t have a competitive thing to do besides lifting weights,” Land said. “We have the talent here, both boys and girls, to be very competitive. Mainly I wanted our kids to come out, get faster and also compete and learn how to compete and get that confidence about them, which I think happened.”

Eason said the football players were a welcomed addition to the team, as their involvement helped spike interest in the sport at Lamar.

“Without those football guys we’d have been struggling to get people out there and be committed to track,” Eason said. “Coach Land made an emphasis on it with the football players, and that helped us. It laid a good foundation, and from here going forward, (the football players) will be more bought into track, and it will make the track program a lot better.”