Fayetteville–Fayetteville High sprinter Sydney Conley doesn’t have to look far when seeking advice for how to handle the pressure in this weekend’s Texas Relays. Her dad Mike Conley is a former Razorback who competed many times in Austin, Texas. In 1985 he helped Arkansas win a national championship there.
So what did Mike Conley tell Sydney Conley about the challenge she faces?
"He just tries to boost me up," Sydney Conley told 5News. (he says) "Ahh, the Texas Relays. They're going to be calling your name. Thousands of people. Dah, Dah Dah."
Conley and three of her teammates shaved over a second off the Fayetteville High School record time in the 4x100 relay a couple of weeks ago.
That time of 47.7 will be one of the better times among a field of 80 teams that are entered in the high school girls 4x100 relay at the Texas Relays.
Fayetteville track coach Drew Yoakum had his own advice for Conley and her teammates at Tuesday's practice: Don't hold back in the prelims.
The field of 80 will be reduced to nine for the finals. Yoakum wants to make sure his girls are one of those nine teams. He knows how excited they are just to be in the field.
"It's going to be unbelievable," Yoakum noted. "These girls are excited about having the opportunity to compete down in Austin and they're looking forward to see what they can do, you know, and we've had some great competition so far with the weathe, and the 4x 100 in Spring Break, so we're hoping that continues in Austin this week. "
Conley says the fact that her dad is an Olympic gold medalist doesn't keep her from being nervous before the biggest meet in her track career to date.
"Yeah, I expect everybody to be nervous," Conley predicted. "I'm going to be nervous just as much, but you know, I feel like we're going to hold it together in the end, and our first leg, Cornesha, this is her first big, big track meet that she's ever been to, so, I feel she's going to hold it well for us, and just get out and go. "
Yoakum told his girls that they might need to shave a full second off their school record time to have a shot to win in Austin.They responded by telling him that they still have plenty of room for improvement especially with their handoffs which they are working on this week.
