Panthers take 3rd at 5A-West meet
The Siloam Springs boys cross country team knows it has work to do if it wants to reach the winner’s podium this Thursday at the Class 5A state meet at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.
The Panthers finished third with 91 points at the 5A-West Conference Meet held on their home Simmons Course on Thursday, Oct. 27, placing behind Mountain Home 35 and Russellville 60.
Greenwood was fourth with 102 points, followed by Van Buren 106, Greenbrier 131 and Harrison 213.
“We really didn’t run our best,” said Siloam Springs coach Sharon Jones. “I think today I think our kids competed, maybe just a little bit of nerves. But I still think we have something to prove.”
Noah Embrey of Greenwood won the individual championship with a first-place finish of 15 minutes, 57.59 seconds.
Mountain Home placed four runners in the top nine scoring positions, all ahead of Siloam Springs’ top finisher Nathan Hawbaker, who ran a time of 17:37.19 and finished 10th. Hawbaker led early in the race. “Nate, bless his heart, he took off,” Jones said. “He has such guts. A lot of kids won’t take off that fast, but I really appreciate the fact that he’s such a competitor. He’s willing to put himself out there, and I think it caught up with him a little bit in that second mile, but still he finished strong.”
Levi Fox passed two Mountain Home runners down the final stretch and placed 12th overall at 17:50.54, while Chance Cunningham (18:04.55) and Tommy Seitz (18:08.40) finished 20th and 21st respectively.
“Gosh Levi Fox at the end of the race, he gave everything he had,” Jones said. “Chance Cunningham moved up in the pack. I felt like he stepped up today as a freshman.”
Wilson Cunningham finished 29th at 18:41.60 with Billy Samoff 34th at 18:53.03 and Riley Harrison 37th to complete the Panthers’ top seven scores.
Noah Granderson finished 45th at 19:22.17 followed in succession by Jared Brewer 55th at 19:56.76, Zane Pickering 56th at 20:03.57 and Barrett Eldridge 57th at 20:12.83.
Anthony Cruz was 60th at 20:21.95, Caleb Wallace 75th at 21:10.55, Parker Malonson 82nd at 22:23.36 and Rustin Shirley 95th at 23:56.57.
The top 20 finishers overall were named 5AWest All-Conference and the top 10 received medals.
Now the Panthers will try and regroup for the Class 5A state meet, which is 9:45 this Thursday in Hot Springs.
Siloam Springs took fourth last season behind state champion Lake Hamilton, Mountain Home and Russellville.
“I think the boys need to get their heads up and look forward to next week, because I think we can run better than this,” Jones said. “We’re going to rally and see what we can improve on. We’ll look at each of our runners and talk to them and see how they felt during the race and see if we can make some improvements.”
High school girls
Siloam Springs placed fifth out of six teams in the high school girls 5A-West meet.
Greenwood had five runners place in the top nine spots and took first place overall, led by individual champion Carole Werner’s first place finish of 19:33.84.
Mountain Home was second at 67, followed by Russellville 75, Van Buren 86, Siloam Springs 126 and Greenbrier 138.
Siloam Springs freshman Vanessa Frias placed seventh at 21:11.92 to lead the Lady Panthers.
Jones said it wasn’t Frias’ best race but she battled.
“Her legs and her arms were numb,” Jones said of Frias. “I said shake those nerves off a little bit. Breathe a little better during our race and she’ll be fine. She was disappointed. She felt herself failing during the race but she didn’t stop. I mean I could tell during the second mile she was hurting, but she finished.”
The top 15 finishers earned All-Conference in the 5A-West, while the top 10 earned medals.
Claire Jagger placed 20th at 22:54.53, while Haylee Fox was 39th at 24:39.52 and Payton Lesso 40th at 24:40.54.
Faith Harris finished 46th at 25:20.82, followed in 47th by Ava Scarberough at 25:21.79. Avery Carter was 51st at 25:30.04 and Gracie Floyd 53rd at 26:05.98 to complete the Lady Panthers’ top seven scores.
Caroline Dewey placed 54th at 26:07.63 with Elizabeth Humphries 57th at 26:15.08, Laura Fields 59th at 26:42.78, Ava Jones 67th at 28:10.78, Malia Lykins 72nd at 28:56.41 and Anna Floyd 73rd at 29:11.30.
The top nine Lady Panthers will now head to the Class 5A state meet, which kicks off the day at 9 a.m. Thursday at Oaklawn. Siloam Springs finished 10th out of 18 teams in 2021.
“It’s an honor to get to go,” Jones said. “They’re not having the season that they want, but I feel like if we can improve on what we did last year, that’s a success for us. That’s our goal, to be able to finish higher than what we did last year.”
Junior high girls
Siloam Springs scored 35 points overall and won the conference title in the 5AWest junior high girls meet.
The Lady Panthers finished 11 points ahead of Russellville, which was second with 46. Greenwood was third at 91, followed by Greenbrier 99, Mountain Home 113, Harrison 155 and Van Buren 190.
Amelie Seauve placed first overall with a two-mile time of 13:51.73 to win the individual championship.
“Good for Amelie,” Jones said. “She went out and proved something today. It was really impressive.”
Morgan Jones took fifth place at 14:22.63, followed by Hope Nam in sixth at 14:30.43.
“Morgan has been strong for us all year,” Jones said. “She recruited her friend Hope (Nam) who’s been great. We’re excited to have her.”
Amelia Thomas was 11th at 14:44.65 with Saylor Timboe 12th at 14:52.15, Hannah Bergthold 19th at 15:13.00 and Sawyer Smith 20th at 15:24.61.
“Amelia Thomas has moved from the middle of the pack all the way up,” Jones said. “This season we’ve seen her move herself all the way up, and she’s going to be a little runner for us too.”
Hannah Luttrell was 28th at 15:48.97, with Presley LaBeff 32nd at 16:11.59, Natalie Nichols 33rd at 16:14.02, Jane Anglin 42nd at 16:29.86, Bella Shultz 47th at 16:48.57, Sidney Burns 54th at 17:02.48, Anne Claborn 61st 17:22.84 and Brayleigh Scarberough 18:29.11.
The top 17 junior high girls were named AllConference and the top 10 received medals.
Junior high boys
Corbett Stephenson finished first overall and Siloam Springs came in second as a team.
Russellville won the conference title with a team score of 35, followed by Siloam Springs 41, Mountain Home and Greenwood both at 114, Van Buren 121, Greenbrier 152 and Harrison 170.
Stephenson finished in 11:18.85. Stephenson will be called up to varsity roster for the state meet, Jones said.
“Corbett had a little bit on his plate,” Jones said. “Corbett knew he was going to state.”
Gaige Thompson placed fourth at 11:38.93, while Bennett Naustvik was eighth at 11:48.34.
Sebastian Romero ran an 11th place time of 12:09.80, while Blake Kuykendall was 17th at 12:23.65, Cooper Bunker 18th at 12:25.00 and Boone Eldridge 20th at 12:27.77.
The top 20 boys earned All-Conference honors with the top 10 receiving medals.
Sully Christians placed 21st at 12:29.62, with River Hall 28th at 12:44.71, Melvin Chavez 38th at 13:11.90, Morgan Loyd 40th at 13:14.54, Parker Watson 41st at 13:15.55, Nathan Palmer 44th at 13:21.22, Nico Lloyd 48th at 13:27.28 and David Dewey 50th at 13:32.77.
Also running for Siloam Springs were Nathaniel Haak 13:39.57, Kobe Rogers 13:58.94, Sam Wallace 14:23.38, Nathaniel Brenes 14:49.09, Oliver Posey 15:14.32, Jeremiah Castaneda 16:23.41, Efrain Garcia 16:28.63, Jonathan Green 17:18.58, Fernando Jardon 17:42.82 and Drake Turner 18:10.36.
“These freshmen they really bought into the summer program and ran all summer,” said junior high boys coach Daniel Ramsey. “We took them on our Colorado trip. They were eligible for that and put a lot of time in, really did well, really good group. We moved Chance (Cunningham) up out of them, otherwise they probably would have won today. But they’re going to be a really strong group. … Several really good young runners to go with them. Two to three years from now it’s going to be a pretty good group.”