Shelton doesn’t sweat weather this time
CONWAY — Carter Shelton dropped out of a cross country meet in Memphis two weeks ago because of the searing heat.
Running in much cooler temperatures Saturday, the Valley View junior blistered the field and the Lake Beaverfork course to win the Wampus Cats Invitational.
With the temperatures in the mid to high 60s, Shelton completed the 5K course in 16:00, winning the event by 12 seconds over runner-up Brock Ballard, a senior from Heber Springs.
“I’d much rather run in this weather than what it has been the last few weeks,” said Shelton, who had been scheduled to compete in the Memphis Twilight Cross Country Classic on Aug. 31. “I’d rather run when it’s freezing than when it’s boiling.”
The victory was Shelton’s second in the previous five days. He won at the Josh Park Memorial meet in Heber Springs on Tuesday with a time of 17:25. Shelton’s time on Saturday was a personal record, beating his previous best by two seconds.
“I saw I had a chance to beat it, so I went for it,” Shelton said.
Russellville, paced by top- 10 finishes from Joseph Shirley (16:55) and Mason Rhodes (17:02), won the team event with a score of 55 points. Catholic picked up top-10 finishes from Matt Tully (16:58) and Kieran Taylor (17:08) and finished second with 83 points.
Mary Agnes Reding of Jonesboro also reaped the benefits from the cooler weather to win the girls individual race. Her time of 19:52 was nine seconds better than runner-up Micah Huckabee of Cabot.
“I love running in cooler weather, so this was great,” Reding said. “I thought it was perfect race weather.”
Reding placed 39th in her division at the Memphis meet with a time of 21:18, but Saturday at Conway the Jonesboro junior set the pace.
“I’m very happy with my race,” Reding said. “What I’ve been working on is learning how to race the full 5K and not running out too early. My main goal was to run even splits and hopefully break 20 minutes, which I did.”
Mount St. Mary was an easy winner in the team competition. Alex Ritchey (20:44), Claire Kane (21:04), Andrea Nunez-Garcia (21:33) and Cally Cochran (21:35) all scored in the top 10. Conway was second in the team standings with 114 points.