Wolves claim sixth straight state cross country title
Lake Hamilton won its sixth straight cross country state title Friday in the infield at Oaklawn Park, besting Mountain Home by 36 points for the school’s 11th overall state title.
Colby Swecker, who led the Wolves’ sweep of the 5A-South conference meet held at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia a week ago, took third overall with a time of 17:09.30 to lead the team behind Greenbrier’s Dominic Ward with a 16:46.1 and Nettleton’s Kazdyn Chandler in second with 17:02.80.
“There’s been some things I’m going through,” he said. “I’m definitely not upset.
It just makes me want to get ready for track. I just hope we came together as a team and won this.”
Despite the sloppy course, Swecker was able to best last week’s winning time of 17:12.30 and last year’s state meet finish of 17:09.80. The senior Wolf had surgery this season that has hindered his performance somewhat.
“I tried my best to stay in,” he said. “I had a surgery this year in the middle of the season, and my breathing has been off ever since. I’m ready to recover fully and get ready for track.”
Lake Hamilton head coach Karl Koonce said he was pleased with Swecker’s performance.
“Colby has had struggles. He had to have a nose surgery in the middle of the season, and I think that hurt him some,” he said. “I feel like under the conditions, with the ups and downs that he’s had, I am very pleased with him. He’s a real team guy.”
Ward, a sophomore, said he was pleased with his performance at the meet after winning the 5A-West title last week in Little Rock. As a freshman, he was fourth overall with a time of 17:19.70.
“I knew I was going to be up there somewhere,” he said. “I knew who I obviously had to watch out for. I definitely did my research.”
Koonce noted the course was not in great shape due to the rain, which slowed the runners down quite a bit.
“All that rain we had the day before yesterday and all that night, it didn’t dry out any yesterday,” he said. “It was drizzling rain on it all day getting the course ready. The course is not conducive to great times.”
Following Swecker to round out the Wolves’ scoring were William Swecker in ninth
(17:29.50), Skylar Davis in 11th
(17:34.60), Omar Ramos in 16th
(17:53.90) and Levi Stratton in
19th (17:57.40). Lakeside finished seventh and was led by senior Gideon Drake in 34th place with a time of 18:21.40. Brandon Otwell, Nick Sowerbutts, William Mims and Hunter Dorathy rounded out the scoring for the Rams. Cole Martinez led Hot Springs, which was 24th in team scoring, with a time of 20:37.20, followed by Rene Portillo, Alex Salto, Josue Hernandez and Wilmer Martinez.
5A girls
Jonesboro’s Sara Steimel claimed the Class 5A girls title, leading her team to a 5A state runner-up finish behind Siloam Springs.
Steimel completed the course in 20:03.50 with Greenbrier’s Presley Roberts (20:39.00) and Mountain Home’s Marcie Cudworth (20:45.60) completing the top three.
“I think I could have run a little faster, but considering the course and it was muddy, I’m happy with my time,” Steimel said. “I expected to be up there, but I wasn’t sure what place I was going to finish in. It was a strong field.”
Natalie Jennings, who won the 5A-South title last week at Ouachita Baptist, led Lakeside to a ninth-place finish with her time of 21:40.40 for 13th overall.
“I thought I had a pretty decent standing with what my times are,” she said, noting that early in the race several runners got bunched up near the front of the pack. “There were some girls going into the race that had minutes faster times than people in the middle of the path.”
Hope Drake (22:53.10), Emma Belic (23:53.50), Lilly Eye
(24:02.30) and Montana Cramer
(25:16.20) rounded out the Lady Rams’ scoring.
Lake Hamilton took a sixthplace finish with 157 points with Meighan Mears leading the way with her 15th-place finish in
21:45.10.
“I feel pretty good,” Mears said. “Obviously, it was not my best, but that’s OK. I came out here and did my best and tried my hardest. My team tried our hardest. We pushed as hard as we could and did the best we could.”
Mears said that the condition of the course did cause some problems for her, especially after finishing second at the 5A-South conference meet a week ago with a time of 21:44.16.
“I could definitely tell a difference,” she said. “I slipped up a couple of times, but you’ve got to push through.”
Anacaren Ramos (22:19.10), Katherine Scalzo (22:50.90), Maylin Reyes (23:19.20) and Madison Mears (23:32.10) rounded out the team’s scoring.
3A boys
Bismarck finished ninth, Centerpoint 13th and Jessieville
16th Friday in the Class 3A boys state cross country meet.
Green Forest’s Lexington Hilton took the individual title with a time of 16:38.80, and Cave City took second and third with Fischer Miller (16:45.80) and Luke Walling (16:50.20) rounding out the top three.
Alex Ventress led Bismarck with an eighth-place finish with a time of 18:32.70. Criss Ramos (20:37.00), Andrew Webb (20:37.90), Wayne Porterfield (21:02.80) and Brooks DePriest (21:03.60) rounded out the team’s scoring.
Centerpoint was led by Luis Morales with a 19:00.30 finish with Patricio Ramirez (19:54.30), Kevin Medina (21:46.80), Taylor Garner (22:14.90) and Luis Felix (22:51.70) rounding out the team’s top five.
Noah Zetts led the way for Jessieville with a time of 20:07.80. Lawson Wideman (20:08.00), Dakota Carl (22:42.90), Joe Ouyang
(23:01.40) and Nicholas Waggoner (24:01.50) rounded out the scoring for the team.