Freshmen Extend State Title Streak For Elkins

— Rumors of Elkins’ demise in the Class 3A boys cross country ranks turned out to be highly exaggerated.

The Elks silenced their critics in a big way when they captured their fifth consecutive state title with an impressive showing Saturday afternoon at Oaklawn Park.

Elkins placed all five runners in the top 16 and finished the meet with 36 points, while Bismarck was a distant second at 76, followed by Little Rock Episcopal with 90 and Melbourne with 99.

“A lot of people in Northwest Arkansas didn’t think we could win another state championship,” Elkins coach Beverly Mabry said. “Coming back to win this one is sweet.

“These boys had heard it all year long they didn’t have a chance to win. We actually had kids who chose not to run because they felt the boys couldn’t win.”

The ones that did show up were a trio of talented freshmen to complement seniors Ben Goodnight and Roland Hohnerlein. Michael Harris sandwiched himself between the two seniors and gave the Elks a 4-5-6 finish, while Conner Daniel and Curtis Williams finished 9th and 16th, respectively.

That was more than enough to secure Elkins’ title. Williams, who finished the 5-kilometer race in 19 minutes, 1.3 seconds, turned in a better time than Bismarck’s second through fourth runners.

“Those freshmen have just battled each other in junior high until I moved them up to senior high,” Mabry said. “They were really determined that they were going to run with those seniors.

“They motivated each other. It depended on how well those freshmen could handle the pressure.”

Meanwhile, Shiloh Christian’s Daniel Evans relied on a strategical move to take a lead he never relinquished en route to winning the Class 5A boys individual title.

The move took midway in the race when he reached what was called an inner loop, when the course turned north and put the wind at the runner’s backs. That’s when Evans elected to pass Little Rock Christian’s Ben Fiser, and he never trailed again.

Evans finished the race in a time of 16:31.9, 25 seconds ahead of Fiser.

“My coach had told me to go for it at the 2-mile mark,” Evans said. “I couldn’t remember if the wind would be at my back at that point. The wind was right behind me at that turn, so it was a good place to go.

“It was a great race. I had a lot of fun going out there and running. That’s the way I wanted it to go.”

Shiloh Christian finished sixth in the standings with 168 points. Little Rock Christian nipped De Queen by a 61-63 margin to win the team title, while Greene County Tech was a close third with 71.

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