Runners perform well at state meet
The Siloam Springs girls cross country team finished 10th overall at the state meet last Friday, but the Lady Panthers ran well at the end of the year.
“We only brought back two girls from last year’s state team,” said head coach Sharon Jones. “The girls ran solid races and finished the season well.”
Jaclyn Weilnau was the Lady Panthers’ top finisher in 17th place. From the first meet of the season, Weilnau stepped up, Jones said.
“She had her best season ever and showed real leadership in practice and at the meets,” Jones said. “I think both Jaclyn and Shayla (Conley) are looking at running in college next year. These girls brought a lot of leadership and work ethic with them every day.”
Another pleasant surprise this season was newcomer Claire Jagger.
“Claire Jagger has been a breath of fresh air since the day she showed up,” Jones said. “She is fun, smiles all the time. She was a Godsend after Rachel Rine moved. She not only filled in a gap, but proved to be much more valuable. We depended on her to run well and she kept improving.”
Jones said freshman Haylee Fox and Estela Gonzalez helped down the stretch, which bodes well for next season.
“Estela usually ran faster than Haylee in the junior high races, but it was Haylee that ended up making the bigger impact on the varsity team finishing fourth for the team,” Jones said. “Estela came in sixth for us behind Kadynce (Hilburn-Frost). Kadynce started out much slower than she was last year, but made consistent gains all seasons and was there when we needed her. Faith (Harris) has been our fifth or sixth girl all season. She took the last displacer spot for us.”
The Siloam Springs boys finished fourth overall at state, which Jones said was a little better than they were predicted.
“We knew Lake Hamilton and Mountain Home were solid,” she said. “They’ve been turning in fast times all season. Our boys had been making great strides and we thought early on we might have a shot at the title, but those other teams were just too fast.”
Levi Fox and Nate Hawbaker,
placed 17th and 18th, respectively and earned all-state honors.
“All our guys should be proud of their effort,” Jones said. “They ran well. We had hoped to have three or four in the 16s again and all nine to go under 18, which we were close to at conference. It just didn’t come together.”
Jones said the Panthers will lose strong leaders in Liam Scott and Javier Chavez. Danilo Polo will go back to Spain, but six of the nine runners return.
“We are very excited about these guys that ran on Friday,” she said. “Our leaders next year will be Levi, Nate, Wilson (Cunningham), Tommy (Seitz), Billy (Samoff), and Noah (Granderson). They have a lot of heart. It’ll be fun to see who works the hardest to be up front.”
Jones said that runners Riley Harrison and Jared Brewer also made good progress and will have a shot at making the state team next season.
“We have big plans for next summer and how we can get both the guys and girls over the hump and back on the podium,” she said. “For us, running should just pause for a week or two, then we have to go back to work. We encourage all our runners to stay active by either swimming, playing basketball this winter or going on to track or soccer. We need them to stay in shape and keep building on the progress we’ve made thus far.”