Bentonville boys win in Hot Springs

Bentonville placed three runners in the top 10 Saturday morning and claimed the boys team title during the Lake Hamilton Invitational at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.

The Tigers finished with 43 points while host Lake Hamilton was a distant second with 83 points, edging Springdale Har-Ber by one point. Bentonville West was fifth at 181, while Springdale was ninth at 296.

Har-Ber had the only two runners to finish the 5,000-meter course in less than 16 minutes. James Eslick was the individual champion at 15:58.09, while Jonathan Mendez was next at 15:59.54.

Eli Seavey led Bentonville with his fourthplace finish and a time of 16:26.30, while Thomas Henry was fifth at 16: 29.78 and Aidan McDaniel was ninth at 16:39.36. Simon Piscotta just missed top-10 status by less than 2 seconds, finishing in 16:44.25.

In the girls division, Bentonville earned a second-place finish with 52 points. Baton Rouge (La.) St. Joseph’s Academy won the team title with 36 points, while Bentonville West was third at 102 and Har-Ber fourth at 141.

Madison Galindo led the Lady Tigers with her second-place finish and a time of 18:57.95, 9 seconds behind indidual winner Olivia Pielemeier of Lake Hamilton and 9 seconds ahead of West’s McKenna Terrell. Macey Hurley gave Bentonville another top-10 runner as she finished seventh at 19:26.79, just ahead of Springdale’s Esperanza Trejo.

Ava Sawyer of Har-Ber rounded out the top 10 with her time of 19:34.39 as she edged Bentonville’s Sophia Heinkbein, who finished at 19:34.48.