Evans Looking For More
Posted: November 12, 2009 at 5:27 a.m.
Shiloh Christian senior runner Andrew Evans won the 4A state championship last week and will compete Saturday in the Arkansas-Oklahoma All-Star Challenge at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
SPRINGDALE — Andrew Evans’ quiet, easy-going demeanor belies a competitive spirit.
The 6-foot-2 Shiloh Christian senior with a smooth stride wrapped up his second consecutive Class 4A state cross country title over the weekend. That came less than three weeks after he won the 4A state singles tennis title in a tough three-set match in the finals.
Evans enjoys both sports, but prefers the solitude of running.
“There’s not as much pressure,” Evans said. “You just go run.”
Shiloh track and cross country coach Godfrey Siamusiye said Evans has many strengths.
“He works hard, never complains,” said Siamusiye, a two-time Olympian and two-time national cross country champion at Arkansas. “It’s a bunch of things, work ethic, coachability, endurance.
“He’s probably going to be more of 5 or 10K guy (in college),” Siamusiye added. “He’s got the speed but not quite as fast as the 800 guys. He ran a 4:29 mile last year.”
Evans will look for improvement this week with the strong competition at the Arkansas-Oklahoma All-Star meet in Fayetteville on Saturday.
“I ran my best time and my best race here last year,” Evans said. “It was really cold, but I beat a lot of guys that I had beaten during the season in this race last year. Hopefully, I can do that again.”
Evans specifically mentioned Fayetteville’s Austin Simkins, the 7A state runnerup.
“I beat him in the all-star meet last year, but he’s beaten me every time this year,” Evans said.
Simkins has the second-fastest 5K time (16:02.95) this year according to the Web site www.milesplit.us., while Evans ranks seventh at 16:13.49.
In addition to the Arkansas-Oklahoma meet, Evans and his teammates will run at the Nike South Regional meet on Nov. 21 in The Woodlands, Texas.
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