12:55 AM CDT on Sunday, March 16, 2008

That ol' Lancaster swagger had been missing throughout the team's last few meets, and coach Greg Williams was determined to bring it back in time for the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays on Saturday.

So he gave the team a set of instructions that were simple, yet stern: Run fast and turn left.

"That's how we've run our workouts all week long," Williams said. "We went back to the basics, and it worked out really well."

Lancaster walloped the 4A field at the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays at Haggar Stadium with 133 points. The team posted convincing wins in all three sprint relays, which accounted for 60 points.

Freeman Kelley was part of two winning relays – the 4x100 (42.21) and 4x200 (1:27.90) – and said Lancaster is working harder than ever to regain its form.

"My coach hasn't been lightening up on us at all because he wanted us to come here and make a statement," said Kelley, who was joined by fellow juniors Demontre Hurst and MarQuis Frazier and sophomore Quentin Harris in the victories. "I feel as though we made our statement today – and we're not through yet."

Lancaster also fared well in field events, as Kelley won the long jump (22-8) and sophomore Tre Lynch was victorious in the triple jump (46-¼ ).

Garland captures 5A team title: Two seniors, Jacques Caldwell and Jarrett Ben, were part of three victories that propelled Garland ahead of the 5A field with 72 points.

Caldwell won the 200 (21.63) and ran the first leg on the first-place 4x100 (41.81) and 4x200 (1:28.06). Ben won the 100 (10.74) by a hundredth of a second over his teammate, senior Alex Williams, and was also on the winning sprint relays.

Dark horse emerges as throwing champ: Whitesboro's Hayden Baillio captured the discus (185-10) and shot put (62-4) titles in 5A, topping a competitive field that included Colleyville Covenant's Alex Adams, who owns the nation's top discus throw at 209-8.

Red Oak's Corwin Pace battled the elements en route to third place with a throw of 178-10. He was sixth in the shot put at 56-0.

"I was trying to get my discus throw up as high as I could to get a tailwind on it," said Pace, whose season best is 183-6.

Adams finished fifth in the shot put (56-1) and ninth in the discus (137-9).

Spinks wins duel: Flower Mound senior Jack Spinks outlasted Plano East junior Toddrick Allen to win the high jump at 6-8. Allen's second-place jump was 6-6.

Spinks entered the weekend with the best jump in the nation, 7-0, achieved three weeks ago at the Justin Northwest Texan Relays. Spinks, a Rice signee, said he was thrown off by the wind as well as a six-inch change in elevation as he made his approach to the bar but was satisfied with the victory.

Briefly: Southlake Carroll's Hayden Clark matched his season-high and area-best height of 15-6 to win the 5A pole vault. Arlington's Boston Spiva placed second, also at 15-6, and exceeded his previous season-high by six inches. ... Crosby's Chance Casey won the 4A 110 hurdles (14:08), exceeding the nation's fastest time. Entering the weekend, Spring Westfield's Jamele Mason owned the top time at 14.11. Casey also won the 300 hurdles (37.03).