HEBER SPRINGS — Only four schools have ever won the Arkansas boys high school triple crown — a sweep of the cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field titles in the same school year:
• Rogers in Class 7A;
• Russellville in Class 6A;
• Heber Springs in Class 4A; and
• De Queen in Class 3A.
Dale Cresswell’s Heber Springs Panthers have done so three times.
The Panthers accomplished the feat during the 2010-11, 2012-13 and 2014-15 school years, but the latest one was the least expected.
“This year, I didn’t think we had a chance to win anything,” Cresswell said. “We were rebuilding. We’d lost a lot of seniors. I knew we’d have a few good distance runners.
“I thought we’d be second in cross country, and lo and behold, we won. The indoor meet, we won it on the last race. And in outdoor, we backed into it. I didn’t think we’d win hardly anything, and we win a triple crown.”
Heber Springs was awarded the outdoor title earlier this month a few days after the meet when Dollarway was disqualified after it was discovered that the Cardinals had entered a couple of athletes in five running events — one more than the four allowed per runner.
Senior distance runner Malachi Cannon called the outcome “divine intervention.”
“I’m going to go ahead and say all glory goes to God for this one,” he said. “It was a miracle that we won. This whole season was just a huge success for us, and it was divine providence and intervention.”
Going into the 4x400 relay (the final event of the meet), the Panthers led Dollarway by two points, but Dollarway had the best qualifying time in that event. Cresswell said he knew if the Panthers could finish second to the Cardinals, they would tie for the championship, but on the second leg, a Shiloh Christian athlete knocked down Heber’s runner in the second curve — dashing those hopes.
Cannon said he told his teammates, “’No matter what, we’re going to give glory to God and pray afterward,’ and that’s what we did. Later on, when we found out [about the disqualification], you could call it coincidence, even though I don’t believe in coincidence. It was divine intervention.”
Cannon was an eighth-grader for the Panthers’ first triple crown, but he was an active part of the second and third titles.
“It’s very humbling to know that so many people have gone on before you and set this up to make it possible,” he said. “It’s been an awesome, awesome experience, and I wouldn’t have wanted to do any other sport at Heber except track and cross country.”
Although the celebration was delayed, that didn’t make it any less joyful, Cresswell said.
“Oh no, it doesn’t change that a bit,” he said. “We won a triple crown with 66 points, all from the distance events. That’s what the kids worked for all year.”
The 800 made the difference.
“We were behind (in sixth place) when we came to the 800, and I told [the Panthers], ‘I don’t care what order, but I want 1-2-3-4,” Cresswell said. “And that’s what we got. [With 29 points in the event], that put us up.”
Cannon then added, “By the time we went around the first lap, we grouped up and outkicked everybody. We were all within about four seconds of each other.”
The Panthers scored in only five events, including the 1-4 sweep in the 800:
• 400 — Cannon, fourth, 51.58 seconds.
• 800 — Sophomore
Jesse Applewhite, first, 2:06.84; freshman Richie Matthews, second, 2:08; junior Patrick Hill, third, 2:08.86; and Cannon, fourth, 2:09.14.
•1,600 — Cannon, first, 4:39.83; and Applewhite, third, 4:44.72.
• 3,200 — Applewhite, fourth, 10:58.35; and senior Jon Ogle, eighth, 11:15.43.
• 4x800 — Senior Grant Childers, Applewhite, Matthews and Hill, first, 8:39.47.
“Everybody asks what I do with my 800 runners, and the answer is, we just run,” Cresswell said. “We have kids who like it. You go to some schools, and kids want to be on the 4x100 relay team, but when you come around to Heber, they want to be on the 4x800. I’ve got kids that could be sprinters, but they want to be 800-meter runners.”
Cannon, who had run a personal best of 1:57.00 in the 800 in the second meet of the year, agreed.
“Our program has had a long history of running distance events, and especially the 800,” he said. “We like to make sure we have a solid 4x800 [relay team].”
Cresswell, who has been at Heber Springs since 1992, has built quite the Panther program after taking over cross country and track in 2005. Since then, Heber Springs has been first or second in all three state championships every year, except for a third-place finish in the 2009 cross country meet and another third in the 2013 outdoor meet.
In fact, he doesn’t even know off the top of his head how many state titles his teams have won.
“Indoor, we’ve won five in a row, I think, and cross country, we’ve won every even year since 2004,” he said. “Outdoor, this might be like the fourth one.”
Cannon said, “He doesn’t even know the number of rings he’s got. We’ve asked him before.”
This one, though, may have been the most rewarding.
“Outstanding,” Cresswell said. “I don’t know what to tell them — what am I supposed to tell them? I’m so proud of them for working hard all year. It’s great that you can have distance runners score that many points. Elated. Wonderful.”
And it may not be their last triple crown.
“Next year, we’re going to have some sprinters come up who should be able to help us, and next year, we should have a better chance to do it again,” Cresswell said.
That news will be hard for the rest of Class 4A to hear.