Panthers win 5A-West title
■ The Siloam Springs girls finished second to Greenwood.
VILONIA — The Siloam Springs boys cross country team won the 5A-West Conference championship on Tuesday, and the good news for the Panthers is that there is still room for improvement heading into the Class 5A state meet this week.
The Panthers slugged through muddy conditions to finished with 50 total points and in first place. Host Vilonia came in second with 80, followed by Russellville 83, Greenwood 90, Little Rock Christian 110, Greenbrier 119, Beebe 168 and Alma 210.
“It’s exciting to see our boys have that kind of success,” Siloam Springs head coach Sharon Jones said on Wednesday, the day after the race. “We will pump them up today with reminding them that they didn’t run their
best races. The bottom one third of our roster are the only ones that showed improvement. Mountain Home and Lake Hamilton are very good, but we have better races ahead of us. We have the ability to run five guys in the 17s and maybe a couple in the 16s.”
Michael Capeheart paced the Panthers with a third place finish with a time of 17 minutes, 29.7 seconds.
Ricky Montano-Lozano placed fifth at 17:54.4, while Blake Morrison was seventh at 18:02.0.
Levi Fox finished 17th at 18:25.2 just ahead of teammate Wilson Cunningham, who finished 18th at 18:25.6.
Liam Scott ran a time of 19:05.2 and Javier Chavez 19:07.4, finishing 31st and 32nd, respectively, while Jordyn Baskin was 38th at 19:33.5 and Adam Kennedy 45th 19:53.6.
Ben Humphries ran a time of 20:007, Luke Fields 20:05.7, Zach Jones 20:40.9, Daxton Spence 63rd 20:48.8, Nathen Thurstenson 20:55.8 and Cade Gunter 67th 20:59.0
Also running for Siloam Springs was Ben Haak 21:18.6, Tate Broquard 21:26.2, Layton Spence 21:26.5, Joseph Humphries 21:35.5, Truman Janes 21:36.4, Thad Goetz 21:50.0, Blaise Becan 21:51.4, Malachi Becan 21:52.6 and Avrey Della Rosa 22:13.3.
Girls
Siloam Springs had five runners finish in the top 15 in the senior high girls race, but Greenwood had each of the top three runners and won the 5A-West Conference title on Thursday in Vilonia.
Greenwood posted a team score of 39 to finish in first place, followed by five-time defending state champion Siloam Springs with 58, Vilonia 62, Russellville 88, Little Rock Christian 95 and Alma 171.
Greenwood’s trio of Macie Cash (19:47.1), Taylor Koeth (20:04.5) and Madelyn Wilkinson (20:29.1) finished first, second and third, respectively to lead the Lady Bulldogs to the conference title.
“Our girls were disappointed,” Jones said. “We’re not used to losing to conference teams. But you’ve got to hand it to Greenwood. (Their coach has) been developing some good runners and they performed well. I’m happy for them.”
Quincy Efurd finished seventh overall for Siloam Springs’ top finish at 21:15.8.
Rebekah Rodgers was ninth at 21:33.2, with Jacilyn Weilnau in 13th at 21:51.3, Kadynce Frost in 14th at 21:53.8 and Kailey Pentz 15th at 22:00.0.
Candy Dubon was 22nd for the Lady Panthers at 22:57.5 with Claudia Mercado 24th at 22:58.8 and Rachel Rine 30th at 23:29.7.
Jordan Rush finished 34th in 23:52.5, while Bethany Mejia was 37th at 23:58.0 and Shayla Conley 40th at 24:14.5.
Abby Thompson ran a time of 25:05.7 with Emily Brown at 25:46.2, Isabel Carrion 25:52.3, Kendra
Reimer 25:53.8, Sidney Pfeieffer 27:15.3, Leslie Cea 27:21.6 and Mary Grace Green 27:43.8.
“Our girls actually made some great improvements all the way down our roster,” Jones said. “They’re on an upswing and we hope to keep them going.”
The Lady Panthers will now advance to the state meet in hopes of successfully defending their state title, despite coming up short in the conference meet.
“They know how to win,” Jones said. “They will run their guts out trying to prove their still on top. It will be hard to overcome (Greenwood’s) top three runners. They went 1-2-3 (Tuesday), but that won’t happen at state with more displacers. We just have to get our girls up closer to Quincy and close that gap. And hopefully with more girls in the race at state to displace their fourth and fifth, we have a good shot.
“There are several teams that are tough this year. Russellville and Vilonia ran really well yesterday. Mountain Home and Jonesboro will show up. Lake Hamilton turned out crazy fast times at Arkadelphia on Monday. … We will line up and give it everything, and see who comes out on top.”
Up next
Select members of the varsity cross country teams will now advance to the Class 5A state meet on Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. With a new format in place, the varsity boys race will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the varsity girls beginning at 10:45 a.m.