Wades’s running Hawks aiming for the top in 2022
Head cross country coach Heather Wade’s 2022 boys and girls squads have lofty goals for the upcoming season.
“We have a lot of athletes putting in the time and effort to have a great season,” Wade asserted.
“The boys would like to improve on their second place finish at state last year, while the girls would like to keep their streak of conference titles going with an eye to making a run for the top in November.”
The boys took second at the state 4A meet last season, edging out Farmington 110-113 to claim the hardware. DeQueen won the title last year with, using great depth to win another state title, having won multiple times before.
The girls defeated Harrison and Gravette at the 4A-1 District Meet in 2021, only to lose second place at state by a mere 6 points to Harrison and Gravette who took second and third respectively. Valley View blew away the field in 2021, winning by a whopping 76 points over second.
The year 2022 will be radically different for the girls with the top two 4A state teams from 2021 being reclassified into the 5A class this year. Both Valley View and Harrison will be gone from district and state competition this year in 4A.
On paper, it would appear that the girls might be a little down with both their All-State runners from 2021 having graduated. Kamree Dye finished 12th among the 161 runners with Liz Vasquez taking 14th as they both earned All-State honors.
Only four girls are back from the 2021 team that competed at state, with no seniors on the squad for ’22. Three juniors are running this season with five sophomores competing to give the Hawks enough to compete but rather short in depth category. Fortunately for the Hawks, there are 12 ninth-graders competing this year, with several coming off great eighth-grade seasons. Ninth graders may move up to compete on the varsity level, and when that happens, the odds of Pea Ridge doing well at state goes way up.
On the upside of things, the Hawks do have Rylee Raines back, who was just 6 seconds from grabbing an All-State berth herself in ’21. Raines is the 10th best returning runner from the 2021 meet and will likely lead the way into the new season.
The sport of cross country teams is a bit unusual in that it takes five good finishing runners to have a chance at a state title. If your first four finish in the Top 10 but your fifth comes in 90th, you likely can’t win.
Last season, a sixth runner decided who won the state runner-up trophy. Last fall, Gravette and Harrison tied for the second place state trophy, and when that happened, the team with the best sixth runner carried the day. Harrison’s sixth best runner Vittoria Gratton came in 49th overall, but ahead of Gravette’s sixth, who came in at 71st.
Based on available data from 2021, Shiloh may have the inside track to the state title, but not by much. They rate just a few points ahead of Gravette as both teams return a lot of their talent from last year. The third best on paper looks to be Farmington, but significantly behind the other two. How much improvement the Hawks get from their sophomore runners and how much impact the freshman athletes have makes the Hawks a dark horse, a wild card.
Over to the boys’ side, things are looking good with three All-State runners back for ’22. Senior Grandon Grant is the second best returning runner from last year’s state meet, with brother Tian Grant coming back as the state’s fourth best back. Troy Ferguson returns as the eighth best from 2021.
DeQueen won the meet last year decisively last season but did lose a couple of their top runners. Based on last year’s returners, the Hawks have an edge on DeQueen through four runners as Sebasttian Mullikin is the 20th best back. It may well come down to the fifth man score, as DeQueen is very deep with a lot of good runners.
DeQueen will be the team favorite this season with Pea Ridge close behind, at least from the outset. There are no other teams seemingly with a chance to challenge for the top. Clarksville and Farmington have some very good runners but not enough to challenge for supremacy Of course, the playoffs in cross county is a 30-minutes affair, a 5,000-meter race with every team in the state in attendance. Sometimes teams that didn’t do well for most of the year gets it all together for that last race in November. On the other hand, sometimes teams that are favored to win, maybe even to win easily, have a bad day and they do not meet their expectations.
The 4A State Meet will be Nov. 4 in Hot Springs at 2 and 2:30 that afternoon. They will run in the 11th and 12th 5K races of the championship round, meaning the field may be a little worse for wear by the time the Hawks get to it. No matter, as cross country runners run in all kinds of conditions in all kinds of weather.
Runners for the Hawks boys varsity team this year are sophomores Trey Bounds, Harper Geren, Jackson Turner, Cameron Smith, Cade Keith, Wyatt Dodson, Preston Wheeless, Parker Tillman, Sammy Wilkerson and Seth Wilkerson.
Junior boys are Tristin Simonds, Drake Satterwhite, Noah Pruitt, Isaac Cruz, Troy Ferguson, Zachary Etzkorn, Tian Grant and Davis Tenney.
Seniors are Garrett Jacobs, Owen Reynolds, Jacob Stein, Grandon Grant, Nickolas Galbraith, Sebasttian Mullikin, Phoenix Edmisson and Nick Reiter.
Girls varsity runners include sophomores Emily Scott, Raelyn Raines, Brylee Hardy, Harley Ingram and Leah Adkins. Juniors include Kylee Tidwell, Rylee Raines and Ava Pippin. There are no senior runners.
Junior high girls team members this year include Paisley Tillman, Alexis Hall, Kierstan Ohler, Bella Myers, Georgia Spears, Leslie Perez, Kairi McInturff, Kenzie Weston, Patricia Thorpe, Lillie Coles, Bailey Walker, Brenna Walker, Lilie Franz, Marlow Kelly, Sadie Christensen, Chaselynn Jacobsen, Ashley Henson, Zoey Hinjosa, Wrynlee Nichols, Hailey Westlin and Zoey Timmons.
Junior high boys runners are Teagan Hackler, Lane Booher, Justin LeRoux, Colin Slocum, Cade Cops, Gavin Ora, Chandon Nichols, Brandon Jacobson, Boston Powell, Evan Wilkerson and Cruz Porter.