Gravette Boys Set Their Sights on a State Championship

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Gravette High School has it going on. Coach Wood has a strong focus on the boys' team with a strong top seven. With a spread just under 3 minutes for the top five, the team has their sights set on a state championship. Wood is hoping to tighten the gap for his first five runners. 

Coach Wood is in his fifth year of coaching and pulls his expertise from constant study and his own racing experiences at University of the Ozarks.

Paxon Chernota (senior) explains that during his sophomore year, just before track season, the previous coach left, leaving the team without a dedicated distance coach, creating uncertainty about the upcoming cross-country season. Paxon says, “we were a little scared for the upcoming cross season.” But this anxiety soon turned to excitement when the team got word that Wood was coming.

Wood brought structure to the distance team and gave them focus. Wood’s philosophy in coaching is to give purpose behind each practice and each race. Wood explained, “I try to teach them about the sport, why we are doing what we do; I feel like if athletes understand the why, there is a lot more buy-in.” Isaac Nichols (junior) stated that "Coach Wood is a good coach - [he] gets us right back where we need to be, he definitely does a good job."

When it comes to racing, Chernota explained that he has really come to appreciate and gain a better understanding of the 5k race, saying that he has learned to run fast and be “consistent, especially for the last two miles.” Paxon further explained how he thinks about racing: “After a race, you sorta study it and you decide, I have to change it or it has to stay the same. You have to ignore the pain… and try to make that last mile a little faster.” 

For regular season meets, Wood spoke highly of Bentonville’s Sugar Creek Showdown: “Sugar Creek is the best race we go to… I mean there is some of the best competition in the country at Sugar Creek…Bentonville’s Coach, Mike Powers really knows what he is doing.” Sugar Creek features hills, but it's still a fast course, “right there in your backyard.” Wood said that this is the meet that most of his team will hit a PR. In fact, four of his top 5 ran their personal bests at Sugar Creek, with the exception of Nichols, who earned his top time at Chile Pepper, despite the dreaded uphill climb to the finish. 

Nichols stated that that his season “has been pretty good... I think I have definitely seen some pretty good progress, starting the year off.”  Despite an early-season health scare, both Coach and Nichols agreed that he bounced back. Coach Wood described Nichols as his “high mileage guy...[he is an] even runner…consistent.”

Paxon Chernota

The top five times this season for Gravette: 

Isaac Nichols

When looking ahead to the Conference and State meets, Coach Wood also recognizes Pea Ridge as a team to watch. With strong front-runner Brandon Jacobson and a team that tends to pack race, the team could pose a challenge at both the conference and state meets. However, Coach explained, “We set realistic goals… we are focused on state.”  Wood explained that the team is working on on closing that gap between Chernota’s 15:43.64 and Franz's (junior) 18:32.64; both of these times came at Sugar Creek Showdown. Wood did say that the number five position changes between Franz and Aaron Ellis (sophomore) whose current PR is also from Sugar Creek at a 18:42.09.

According to the 2026 Arkansas Boys Cross Country Team scores on October 17, the contenders for 4A are as follows: 

Team	No. 1 runner	Time	No. 2 runner	Time	Top-five avg.	Spread
Shiloh Christian	Brice Allen	15:23.60	Cooper Sudduth	16:42.60	16:52.54	2:23.40
Gravette	Paxon Chernota	15:43.64	Isaac Nichols	16:16.40	16:54.25	2:49.00
Pottsville	Eli Moudy	15:29.46	Jackson Blalock	16:20.50	17:14.97	4:44.85
Farmington	Trail Holloway	16:30.99	Damian Eyre	16:53.00	17:29.12	2:05.01
Pea Ridge	Brandon Jacobson	16:23.98	JD Frazier	17:59.25	17:48.90	1:53.48