Cross Country girls take second, boys third at State Meet

John King’s girls and boys cross country teams achieved the greatest tandem success in school history, with the girls repeating their second-place finish from a year ago at the Arkansas State High School Cross Country Championships held in Hot Springs over the weekend.

The boys surprised the field by claiming third, just a single point from earning a runner-up trophy.

Both teams went into the meet as the 4A-1 District champions, and the girls’ district proved to be the power league of the state.

The Pea Ridge girls’ secondplace total led a parade of three other conference members who claimed the third through fifth spots overall.

As expected, Heber Springs grabbed the team title in both divisions. The Panther girls’total of 56 wasn’t as good as the Lady Blackhawks total of a year ago, but it was good enough to win by 12, besting the locals 56-68. In third place was Gentry, far behind with 112, edging out Ozark who finished fourth with 116. Close behind them was Berryville who finished fifth with 121.

The girls were led by senior Natalie Flippo, who earned a medal and all-state honors for her seventh place finish with a time of 21:49.6 among the more than 100 girls who started the race. The Blackhawks’ second runner was freshman Kerstin Hobbs who came in 15th with a time of 22:59.1. The other top 20 runner was Mikhaela Cochrane, a sophomore, who was close behind Hobbs, finishing 17th with a mark of 23:06.9.

Other scorers for the ’Hawks were sophomores Rilee Patrick, 23rd (23:21.1) and Anna Morgan,26th (23:34.2). Completing the team finish was: Sophomore Emma Pitts, 33rd (24:08); junior Michaela Tusynski, 62nd (27:33.4); junior Natalie Cordoza, 67th, (27:57.6); and Alleri Brown, 94th (33:04.4).

Heber Springs placed their top two runners in the second and third overall finishes and picked up a 14-point lead on the ’Hawks with two girls in. The ’Hawks bested the Panthers’ numbers three through five runners 47-49, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit. In 2011, the Panthers also had a big advantage at the same spot in the meet, but the ’Hawks third through fifth runners overcame the advantage to take second from the then third place Panthers.

In the boys race, it came down to the fifth runner before the ’Hawks were edged out of second place by Valley View 89-90.

The Blazers had the overall winner of the meet, Carter Shelton, which gave the Valley a 6-point lead over Pea Ridge after one runner was counted. The ’Hawks second and third runners came up big for Pea Ridge as they outscored the Blazers 21-33 to give the team a 28-34 lead at that point in the race. However, the Blazers fourth runner picked up 4 points on Pea Ridge with the fifth runner gaining another 3 points to provide the narrow margin of victory.

Heber placed four of its six runners in the top 10 and won the meet by 63 points, 26-89 over second place Valley View.

Two other conference members placed high with Berryville finishing fifth with 130, while Gentry came in sixth with 144.

Two Blackhawks were mere seconds from all-state status with sophomore Nick Hardy finishing in 11th place while junior Justin Stamps was close behindin 13th position. Hardy’s time of 18:30 and Stamps’ clocking of 18:35 were just off the all-state time of 18:28, earned by Sam Humphrey of Ozark. All-State status was conferred to the top 10 finishers in the more than 100-runner race, with Humphrey taking the last spot.

The third through fifth runners for Pea Ridge who were the official scorers for the meet were: senior Evan Tillman, 18th (19:02); junior Gage Kelso, 42nd (20:27); and sophomore Blake Sheppard who was 44th (20:33).

Other runners competing for Pea Ridge were: sophomore Zach Davis, 49th (20:49); junior Hunter Sill, 54th (21:15); senior Dusty Morgan, 56th (21:31); and junior Wyatt Holtgrewe, 81st (24:00).

The meet concluded an exceptionally successful year for the building cross country program with a record number of trophies and awards won this year.

Sports, Pages 7 on 11/14/2012