Montoya, Gonzalez Favorites In 7A-West Meet

ROGERS HIGH SOPHOMORE ON HOT STREAK; SPRINGDALE HIGH STANDOUT AIMS TO RETAIN TITLE

— Rogers High sophomore Maggie Montoya has been untouchable the past two cross country meets, and that is good news for the Lady Mounties heading into today’s 7A-West Conference Cross Country Meet in Fayetteville.

Montoya won the Mountie Invitational on Oct. 5 and she then ran an impressive 17 minutes, 56 seconds to win the Chile Pepper Festival race on Oct. 16. That makes Montoya the runner to beat today.

“Maggie is running real well right now,” Rogers coach Carlton Efurd said. “Her confidence is way up. She just needs to keep doing what she has been doing.”

But Montoya will have a lot of competition today. Springdale Har-Ber’s Valerie Reina finished a minute behind Montoya at the Chile Pepper, but the Lady Wildcats junior finished second at the state meet in 2009. Hope Burrell of Rogers Heritage ran fourth at the Chile Pepper and should be in the lead pack.

“Valerie will be back, it will be a good race,” Efurd said. “Hope will be up there, too.”

Rogers placed five runners under the 20-minute mark at the Chile Pepper and a repeat performance would probably give the Lady Mounties the team title today. The state cross country meet is Nov. 6 in Rogers.

“You want to win your conference meet because it is a great confidence booster heading to the state meet,” Efurd said. “I feel we have a good shot at winning the conference meet.”

Gabe Gonzalez of Springdale High will be the favorite in the boys race after winning the Chile Pepper with a time of 15:24. But Bentonville’s Will Aenchbacher finished fourth behind Gonzalez in his first race of the year after suffering a stress fracture. Mounties Drew Storment and Phillip Freeman should also contend in the boys race.

Gonzalez won the conference meet last year with a time of 16:31.

Bentonville ran a strong race at the Chile Pepper and coach Randy Ramaker thinks the Tigers can win the conference meet with another strong performance.

“We are looking strong if we run well,” Ramaker said. “They had a great race at Chile Pepper. (Will) is still a work in progress but he still ran a good race. But he is not quite all there yet.”

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