SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Rogers runner Maggie Montoya set a course record at the Missouri State Cross Country Facility in Springfield, Mo., and both Rogers cross country teams finished third at Saturday's Richard Clark Invitational.
Montoya won the girls race in 18 minutes and 57.77 seconds, a record for the 5K course that will host the 2009 NCAA Division I Midwest Regional later this year.
She outran a Springfield Kickapoo runner during the last 400 meters to win.
The Lady Mounties finished third behind Kickapoo and Shawnee Mission South (Overland Park, Kan.).
"We're slowly improving as a team," Rogers coach Carlton Efurd said. "We ran a little better than last week, but I know we have plenty of room for improvement."
Jordan James (11th), Erica Owen (18th), Carlee Rodriguez (25th) and Johanna Casey (32nd) also scored for Rogers.
The Mounties took third behind Columbia (Mo.) Rock Bridge and Kickapoo.
Adam Gibby was 11th overall to lead the Mounties in 17:08 and the next four runners came across in a group. Danny Saldana was 17th and Robert Dorch, Phillip Freeman and Martin Resendiz finished 20-21-22.
"This was more of what I was looking for in terms of our competitiveness and team focus," Efurd said. "Martin is getting stronger and that helped us in our fifth position."◊◊ ◊
The Bentonville girls cross country team won the annual Simmons Foods Cross Country Meet at Siloam Springs on Saturday.
Senior Elena Sanz finished fourth overall and was the Lady Tigers' firs runner. Mary Kate Brelsford, Taylor Estrada, Shannon Sullivan and Lauren Cowgur followed.
"We had some girls run better than they did (last week)," coach Randy Ramaker said. "I was happy about that.
"It was a good team effort. They bunched together and ran real solid as a team."
The Tigers finished third overall - behind Conway and Fayetteville - without three of their top runners.
Ramaker said his top runners were training hard for next week's meet at Oklahoma State University and had a good training run on Friday, so they were held out Saturday.
Travis Diepenbrock was the first Tiger to finish. Adam Irons, Mason McClelland, Dalton Davis and Drew McMurrin also scored.
Sports, Pages 7 on 09/27/2009