Bentonville’s Shiohira no shoo-in
While it may appear everyone will be chasing Jacob Shiohira in today’s Class 7A boys cross country meet, Bentonville Coach Randy Ramaker doesn’t seem to think that the defending champion will have an easy time.
Shiohira was the only participant in any class to break the 16-minute mark in last year’s state meet. As a sophomore, Shiohira cruised to a 23-second victory. Like last year, today’s race will be held on the infield of the Oaklawn Park race track in Hot Springs.
“I don’t think he’s a shooin to win it,” Ramaker said. “I think the competition is a lot better this year, and it won’t be as easy as it was last year.”
Shiohira is, however, the favorite to repeat as the 7A champion. The junior won the 7A-West meet with a time of 15:41.5, which was 23 seconds better than runner-up Christian Liddell of Rogers.
“Jacob is very disciplined,” Ramaker said. “He shows all the traits of being an excellent runner and he’s doing everything he can to be the best.”
Brendan Taylor, a senior at Little Rock Catholic, won the 7A-Central meet by 65 seconds and is expected to be one of Shiohira’s main competitors. Taylor finished sixth in Class 7A state meet in 2012.
Rogers, which has won 16 state cross country titles since 1988, won the 7A-West team title last month is expected to continue the conference’s streak of 11 consecutive state titles by teams currently in the 7A-West Conference. Catholic, which has dominated the 7A-Central in recent years, is hoping to break that streak.
“Obviously, [winning] state has been on our minds,” Taylor said after the Rockets placed five of the top seven runners to win the conference meet Oct. 29.
“If we come out and run strong like we did [in the conference meet], we’ll have a chance. Hopefully, everybody will be feeling good when we run the state meet.”
Shiohira won last year’s state meet with a time of 15:37.8.
The Oaklawn course record is 15:30.1, set by Aaron Hamilton of Rogers in 2007. That mark, Ramaker said, could be “in jeopardy” today.
“The weather is expected to be nice, cool and sunny,” Ramaker said. “It should be a perfect day to run and fun day to watch.”