Lady Blackhawks finish 2nd in state meet

In perhaps the greatest team finish in the history of Lady Blackhawk sports, the girls cross country team shocked the 4A field by capturing second place in the Arkansas State High School Cross Country championships, losing the team title by 1 point to DeQueen 55-54 Saturday in Harrison.

In the run-up to the state meet, sports pundits and coaches selected Heber Springs, DeQueen and Shiloh as the teams to beat with Ozark and Batesville Southside considered darkhorses in the race. The addition of three freshman to the varsity lineup turned the trick as the “Hawks just narrowly missed taking the team title.”

“It was by far the toughest, hilliest course in the state,” King said, adding that it’s a brand new course.

There were 10 full teams there, he said, with more than 100 girls.

Two Lady ’Hawks - Natalie Flippo, 8th, and Rilee Patrick, 10th - won medals.

The meet, held on perhaps the toughest terrain in the history of state meets, was nearly all hills with some teams dropping out of the team competition due to the toughness of the course.

The team was led by junior Natalie Flippo who finished 8th in the race, earning All-State honors in the sport. Behind Flippo was a trio of runners who finished 10th, 11th and 12th. Freshman Rilee Patrick earned the 10th place medal with another freshman, Mikhaela Cochrane, right behind her in 11th. Only a second behind Cochrane was senior Kaylee Nivens who took 12th place.

Rounding out the scoring was freshman Anna Morgan who came in 19th among the 85 finishers. Also chosen to run for the state runner-up team was Kayla Wright, senior, who took 48th place, Emma Pitts, a freshman who took 54th just ahead of freshman Gloria Vargas and sophomore Michaela Tuszynski who finished in the 55th and 56th spots, respectively.

One of the favorites in the meet, Heber Springs, took first and third place, looking to dominate the meet. However, their third scorer finished 14th with their fourth and fifth runners coming in 24th and 26th to take them out of title consideration, finishing 5 points behind the ’Hawks. De-Queen won the meet by placing three into the top 10, in 4th, 5th, and 9th. The ’Hawks’ fourth and fifth runners outscored DeQueen by 15 points to almost makeup the 16-point edge that DeQueen had after three runners. Another title hopeful, Shiloh, wound up the day in fourth place, 53 points behind Pea Ridge.

Flippo was the first All-State runner in cross country since freshman Diane Miller was a silver medalist in 2000.

“If they can stay healthy andcontinue to work,” King thinks the girls stand an excellent chance at winning next year. “We do graduate a couple of seniors ... it does take five to make a team.

We’ll have to find more runners.”

“It’s an amazing thing, we went in as an unknown. No one was thinking of us as a possibility of winning, They will definitely be watching for us next year,” he said.

Heber Springs and DeQueen both had young teams this year, as well, King noted.

The boys team does have a state title in its history as the ’Hawks took a title in the mid 1980s. The reigning champion, DeQueen, will have a rosy outlook for 2012 as they had three sophomores and one freshman in their top four scorers. Heber will also be tough in 2012 as they return all but one of their lineup.

Qualifiers for the Arkansas-Oklahoma All-State cross country team are: The meet is set for 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, in Rogers.

Sports, Pages 7 on 11/09/2011