The Greenwood High School and junior high cross country teams are running well this season, according to Head Coach Jim Andrews, who just organized and oversaw the annual “Thrill of the Hill” race at Greenwood’s Bell Park on October 7th. The event is held on one of the toughest courses in the state because of its hilly conditions. The course was also very dry due to lack of rain and the temperature on the afternoon of the race was in the 80s.
As per the GHS head coach, “We had 26 different teams from junior and senior high schools with approximately 600 runners in grades 7-12, both boys and girls. We separated [them] into two different divisions, 1A-4A and 5A-6A,” he explained. “This is one of the toughest [courses] in the state with all the up and down hill work.
“We did awesome though,” said Andrews. “Our junior high girls and boys both won their division, and the senior high girls were runners-up, but only behind a tough Rogers team. We are having a great season so far and now our focus turns to the final tune-up heading into the conference and state meet in three weeks.”
In recent years the ladies have led the way for Greenwood, the varsity girls winning the 5A state title in 2019 and finishing as runners-up in 2020. The junior high girls have also excelled in recent years and are unbeaten in 2021, which bodes well for the future of the varsity program.
“The junior high has won every meet they have attended,” said Andrews. “Carole Werner has led the charge, winning all but one meet this season. She has been great, but has had tons of help from Piper Ames, Elizabeth Moy, Julia Witherington, Ishita Kanitkar, Lexi Gordon, and Haliey Young. This is a real deep, talented girls’ team that is ready to help continue the success we’ve had with girls’ cross country.
“The varsity girls are also running well as we near the championship part of the season,” the coach continued. “Paige Andrews is starting to put some good races together. She finished second at the Chile Pepper Open [in Fayetteville] with a time of 20:36 – a new personal best.” Paige is the daughter of Coach Andrews.
“The girls’ team has started putting up a lot of good times. I feel the Chile Pepper race was a great test to see how fast some of these girls really can be, and they ran well. We won at Ft. Smith, Mansfield, and were runners-up at Greenwood. The girls finished fourth at both Siloam Springs and Chile Pepper, but it was the larger schools that beat us. We’ve been close all season and hope that we can put it all together to finish near the top.”
But the Greenwood boys, both junior and senior high, are not to be forgotten. The Bulldogs have one of the top male runners in the state in senior Noah Embrey, though the team itself has been hindered somewhat by injuries. The Junior ‘Dogs have won three meets so far and hope to continue their winning ways as the regular season comes to an end. They will also compete in the River Valley Conference meet and the 5A West Junior High conference meet.
“The junior high boys have won at Ft. Smith, Greenwood, and Mansfield this year,” said Coach Andrews. “They are led by David Coggins, but like the girls, they are deep in talent. Other runners include Pablo Ambriz, Rhett Williams, Braylon and Ashton Neece, Andrew Rye, Weston Rushing, and William Rupert. They have been impressive at all their meets and even won at Mansfield with a perfect score, finishing 1-5, but actually were 1-8, 10-13, and 15th.
“The varsity boys have had a good season [too],” said their coach. “Noah Embrey has run well and is one of the top runners in the state. We are hoping to get back on track in the next couple weeks, getting people back from injury. Some of the runners we were counting on early have either been nursing injuries or just getting over them. The best thing about this team is how positive they are and how hard they work, which will pay off soon.
“Both the girls and boys have three more meets this season including at Van Buren [this weekend]. We hope to finish the season well, and the last meet will be a big test,” said the coach. “All these teams are special and have had good seasons. We are getting close to the end and want to keep up the good work.”
At Van Buren this past Friday (junior high) and Saturday (varsity), all four GHS teams ran their final regular season event. The junior high River Valley Conference meet will be held this coming Thursday, with the conference meet for both junior and senior high runners on Tuesday the 26th. Hopefully, Greenwood will also be well represented at the state meet in Hot Springs on November 5th at Oaklawn Park.
Late results from the Van Buren Invitational were very encouraging. Both the junior high and senior high girls placed first, while the junior and senior high boys placed third overall. However, GHS senior Noah Embrey won first place among all male runners on the varsity level.
Among senior high boys, Embrey ran first for Greenwood, followed by David Coggin 12th, and Christian Wheeler 15th for a team finish of third place. Among the varsity girls. Madelyn Wilkinson finished second for the Lady Bulldogs, followed closely behind by Kaitlynne Elmore 3rd, Paige Andrews 5th, Haylee Young 6th, Elizabeth Moy 7th, and Ashley Koeth 11th, good enough for first place overall.
In junior high boys’ competition Greenwood had three runners finished between 10th and 14th to claim third place as a team. They were Ashton Neece in 10th place, Braylon Neece in 11th place, and Andrew Rye in 14th place.
The Greenwood junior high girls took seven of the top 12 places for a dominating victory. Piper Ames ran first, Julia Witherington ran third, Lexi Gordon ran sixth, Ishita Kanitkar was seventh, Myah Lawrason ran eighth, Annalise Johnson was 11th, and Bailey London finished 12th.