ROGERS — When her record-setting cross country and track year at Rogers High ended last spring, Maggie Montoya looked for another way to take her running to the next level.

She chose to become a triathlete.

Montoya quickly added swimming and biking to her practice regimen to prepare for her senior year and the extra training paid off.

There were a few bumps in the road, but in the end Montoya turned in another record-breaking cross country campaign. After a sixth-place finish at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival, Montoya set a course record at the 7A/6A-West Conference meet before running away from the field to win the Class 7A State Cross Country Meet.

For her efforts, Montoya is the NWA Media All-Big 7 Girls Runner of the Year.

Montoya won the conference meet with a record-setting time of 18 minutes, 9 seconds and the state meet with a record time of 18:16. She has received numerous scholarship offers and is looking at Arkansas, Arizona State and Baylor.

Montoya was battling an illness at the Chile Pepper and her sixth-place finish in that race provided a motivation boost for the conference and state meets.

“I knew I had to do well in order to help my team,” Montoya said. “I knew I had to race hard. Everything seemed to fall into place at the state meet.”

Montoya said swimming and biking this past summer helped her improve her cross country times this past fall.

“Cross training helped a lot,” Montoya said. “I got some strength off the bike but swimming really helped a lot. It helped me stay injury free.”

Rogers cross country coach Carlton Efurd has guided the Mounties (16) and Lady Mounties (5) to 21 state championships and he said Montoya is the best runner he has coached.

“She has been the backbone of our program for the last four years,” Efurd said. “She has the state 5K record, she has broken about every record around here. Maggie is so humble and I just love her character and her work ethic. I’m definitely sad to see her go.

“It’s going to be impossible to replace her. Her strength is her speed.”

Efurd, however, was a bit apprehensive when Montoya added bike riding to her practice routine.

“I was hoping she didn’t have a bike wreck,” Efurd said. “When you start biking, it’s not a matter of if you are going to have a wreck. It’s a matter of when you are going to have a wreck. That’s the thing that you worry about, but mixing up the training in the summer is good.

“It’s just not all about pounding miles and that keeps you healthy over the long run.”

Montoya will now set her sights on the upcoming track season, where she is the defending state champion in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs.

“We are hoping to win a state championship because we have a really good team,” Montoya said.