Arkansas HS XC Weekly Review (week ending Sept 15, 2012)
Below is a review of AR HS XC meet results available on-line. If a meet was not covered that you coached a team, or as a parent or athlete were in attendance, please submit a short write-up. If available provide a link to the results.
Heber Springs Josh Park Memorial Cross Country Invitational – Tue, Sept 11, 2012
Links to race results: http://www.directathletics.com/results/xc/3963.html
This mid-week meet has been around for a while with several quality teams and individuals participating, this year being no exception. The result from directathletics.com come up in a nontraditional scoring format, perhaps folks at Heber Springs can shed some light.
In any event, the Vilonia and Melbourne girl’s teams fought to a tight battle with Vilonia edging Melbourne 47 to 55. Vilonia showed some upfront strength as did Melbourne, but both teams fall off a bit at #5, and Melbourne at the #4 position. Greene County Tech (91), host Heber Springs (105), and Beebe (117) round out the top 5 of the 10 scoring HS girls teams. Individually Madison Fires (JR - Heber Springs) led the way in a solid 20:26 5K time winning by well over a minute to Addy Swaim (Jr – Vilonia) in 21:57. A couple freshman (Madison Stave, Batesville) and McKenzie King (Southside Batesville) look to make an impact on post-season races.
There were a total of 15 boys HS XC scoring teams with host Heber Springs (44) pulling out the victory over Greene County Tech (64), Vilonia (79), Searcy (79), and Greenbrier (141). Again, the number 4 and 5 runners for Heber Springs were the difference in bringing home the meet title. For those tracking freshman for their inclusion during the championship season, Heber Springs had a couple (Drexler and Hill) who could factor in their final state squad. Senior Danny Moss (Greene County Tech) established himself as one of the early season 5A front runners going 17:30. About 30 seconds behind was Andrew Powell (Sr – Heber Springs) leading the chase pack in 2nd place going 18:05. Dover’s Carson Miller (Sr – 18:09)), Searcy’s Rhett Raibley (Sr – 18:11), and Vilonia’s Zachary Rail (So – 18:12) followed closely behind.
Hornet Invitational (Bryant HS – Thu, Sept 13, 2012)
Links to race results: http://www.arkansasrunner.com/race_results.htm
Some weather caused a change in course at the annual Hornet Invitational (Bryant HS). This resulted in a HS distance of less than a 5K as the reported distance was 2.8 miles. Check directly with meet directors to determine how to best interpret individual and team race results.
The leading boys times when converted to a 5K were in the low 16s with the top 2, Noah Findlay (Sr - LR Catholic) and Elijah Knight (Sr – Russellville) going sub 16 minutes. Officially these two gentlemen went 14:12 and 14:25. They were pursued by Catholic’s William Lamberts (14:43), Episcopal’s Zack McGinnis (Sr – 14:45), and Catholic’s Brendan Taylor (Jr – 14:49).
On the women’s individual side, Cabot’s Micah Huckabee (So) won the individual title in 17:30 (2.8 miles) with a 5K converted time of about 19:23. This was nearly 30 seconds over Bryant’s Hannah Raney (Sr) who went 17:57 (19:51) and her teammate, Melinda Murdock (Jr – 18:17 – converted to 20:11). Claire Kane, who has shown some nice speed on the track in the middle distance events (i.e. 800) finished closely behind Murdock going 18:20 (about 20:15) and ahead of Cabot’s Marlene Sheehan (Sr – 18:28; cv 20:23). Bryant and Cabot both had some 9th grade boys and girls who like they might be able to step up and help at season’s end.
Regardless of the actual distance raced, all runners completed the same course, thus team results are quite telling. The Catholic HS boys put on a clinic totaling 22 points, putting all 5 scorers in the top 10 (1,3,5,6,7). Bryant finished in the runner-up position (91) with DeQueen competing well with the schools from larger classifications ending up in 3rd (98) followed closely by Russellville (102). Cabot rounded out the top 5 boys teams scoring 139 points in the 15 team field.
Twelve girls teams competed for the Invitational title, and host Bryant did not disappoint the home town fans winning 47 – 58 over Cabot. Bryant went 2,3,7,15,20 while Cabot went 1,5,11,14,27. If Cabot can close the gap on the #5 position, these two teams will likely be neck and neck the next time they meet. Mount St. Mary (85) put in a solid performance followed by North Little Rock (121) and Russellville (132).
Wampus Cat Invitational (Conway HS – Sat, Sept 15, 2012)
Links to race results: http://www.stearnsracetiming.com/Results/Results%202012.htm
While temperatures and race conditions at Heber Springs Tuesday and at Bryant Thursday may have been a bit toasty Tuesday, the temps were cool but rainy at damp at the Wampus Cat Invite held at Beaverfork Lake Park on Saturday morning. The course was soaked from showers Friday evening and overnight into Saturday morning causing a muddy course and streams to flow through the ditch areas traversed by runners. A light to moderate rain fell throughout the morning races. It appears the weather may have kept a few teams/individuals away in this typically large weekend invitational. Despite these challenges, many fine team and individual performances were turned in.
A change from the typical schedule may have caught a few teams off guard as the HS girls started the day off on the muddy, but not yet over-run course. Monticello’s Sarah Claycomb (So) challenged Nettleton’s Kyandra Chandler (So) early. While Chandler was able to pull away shortly after the mile for the win (19:31), Claycomb finished a strong second (20:29) and sent a message to the 5A ranks that she will be someone to contend with this season up front. Little Rock Christian’s Randi Ferguson (Sr – 20:40) ran well coming off her injury from the Spring 2012 track season to finish 3rd. Jonesboro’s Mary Agnes Redding (So) ran well in finishing 4th (20:58), and will undoubtedly draw some attention among top 6A runners. Finishing 5th out of the 136 person field was Little Rock Christian’s Erin Woodward (Fr) in 21:10.
While the Little Rock Christian girls finished with the best team score (35), perhaps the surprise of the day in this race came from the Melbourne girls who finished second (76). Melbourne does not have a long and storied XC program, but this small north central Arkansas school has quickly put itself on the map with continued improvement, and they showed how well they can compete. Rounding out the top 5 girls teams were Conway (142), Harding Academy (142), and North Little Rock (162) in the 15-team field.
While the individual girls HS race was over relatively early, the HS boys individual race was worth the price of admission (if one had been charged)! LR Christian’s duo of Ben Fisher (Jr) and Austin DeWitt (Sr) led early, but Valley View’s Carter Shelton (So) gradually inserted himself into the mix. By the mile and a half mark Fisher and Shelton had separated some from DeWitt and the rest of the pack and the race was on. Shelton followed within a few strides of Fiser over the next mile and pulled even as these two matched one another stride for stride until the last 400-600 meters where Fiser put a surge on one of the muddiest corners of the course. This created enough separation that the LR Christian junior pulled away winning in a solid rain-soaked muddy course time of 17:04 over Shelton (17:11). DeWitt maintained 3rd place finishing in 17:24 followed by Episcopal’s Zack McGinnis (Sr - 17:39) and Brock Ballard of Heber Springs (Jr – 17:56).
Like their counterpart, the Little Rock Christian young men captured the team title, but in a very tight battle with Heber Springs, 72-76. LR Christian went 1-3-6-27-35 while Heber Springs went 5-9-12-17-33. Where LR Christian got ahead on #s 1-3, Heber Springs made up for it at the #4 position, and the #5 runners finished 1 second apart. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics play out between these two teams the rest of the season. Vilonia finished 3rd (94) followed by Greenbrier (131) and North Little Rock (148).
Missouri Southern Stampede (Joplin, MO – Sat, Sept 15, 2012)
Links to race results: https://mo.milesplit.com/meets/121283-missouri-southern-stampede
North and Northeast Arkansas individuals and teams from Fayetteville, Har-Ber, Heritage, Mountain Home, Rogers, Shiloh Christian, Siloam Springs, and Van Buren (apologies to any individuals/teams missed) traveled north to Joplin, MO to take part in the mega XC meet known as the Missouri Southern Stampede.
In addition to the 36 HS girls teams and 43 HS boys teams, there were 37 college men’s teams and 41 women’s teams divided in two divisions (smaller colleges and JCs in one race and larger universities in a second race). Like the Wampus Cat Invitational this course experienced overnight rain that resulted in mud, puddles, and small streams throughout the course, which likely significantly slowed times.
Despite the challenging racing conditions the competition level was high with several Arkansas individuals and teams doing very well against foes from Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
While Herculaneum’s Kaitlyn Fischer (Sr) won the individual title going 18:11 a week after taking part in the contemporary epic Forest Park XC Festival race where she finished 3rd (17:51) to Taylor Werner (Fr – St. Genevieve – 16:59) and Hannah Long (So – Eureka – 17:07), Maggie Montoya (Sr – Rogers, Ark) turned in a fine performance (18:36) in the runner-up position. In addition to her individual success, Montoya, led her Rogers teammates to victory in the team standings where they finished with 125 points (2-14-26-39-43), 18 ahead of runner-up Jenks HS (OK). Jordan Maas (So – 20:13) ran as their #2 runner and Lauren Harrell (So) as their #3 to show quality depth in addition to the front running Montoya. Heritage HS, led by Deirdre Sheets (19:51) who finished 11th place overall, was the 5th place team with 196 points (8-21-27-60-79) trailing Olathe – Northwest, KS (176) and Manhattan, KS (151). In addition to Sheets, newcomer Kelsey Brown (Fr – 20:21) and sophomore Hannah Owen (20:41) show great promise. If Heritage can shore up positions #4 and #5, they will be a major team to contend with in AR as the season progresses. Van Buren slipped into the 10th team position to show a little muscle and depth from the state of Arkansas led by the 1-2 punch of Rebekah Gibbons (Sr – 21:09) and Maria Valente (Jr – 21:21).
On the boys side Rogers HS flip-flopped with Jenks HS as the team from Oklahoma notched a 128 (13-18-25-32-40) to 140 (5-17-33-41-44) victory over the Mounties. Christian Liddell (So), who may be a new addition to the team this year, led the Rogers boys by finishing 5th overall in 16:42. Fellow sophomore Taylor Bryant completed the rain-soaked course in 17:24 finishing in 17th place overall. Har-Ber was the only other AR team to work their way into a top 10 team finish (385 with 6-80-89-90-120) led by Dino Andrade’s 6th place finish in 17:01. If the 2-5 runner pack can narrow the gap with Andrade, this could be a team looking to finish on the podium come November. Other AR individuals finishing high in the standings include Shiloh Christian’s Daniel Evans (Sr) in 10th place going 17:15 and Mountain Home’s Josh Kruse who finished 20th in 17:44.
Overall it appears many AR individual and team harriers availed themselves and the Natural state well in the mega-meet known as the Southern Stampede!