ROGERS — Maggie Montoya’s final race on her home course at Rogers High was her finest.
The senior distance runner set a course record Tuesday at the Mountaineer Classic/7A-West Conference Meet, running the girls’ 5K race in time of 18:09.7 to easily surpass the previous mark of 18:17 held by Grace Heymsfield of Elkins in 2008.
For Montoya, who helped the Lady Mounties to a runner-up finish behind rival Rogers Heritage in the team competition, getting the record was the goal all along.
“It felt really good,” Montoya said. “I haven’t had an all-out gutsy race in a 5K this year and I needed that. I had a race at OSU that felt really good, but it hasn’t been a 5K and I needed that. So it was satisfactory.
“I did kind of start out fast but I didn’t let myself down.”
While Montoya further established her dominance among local and regional runners, Heritage might have made its mark as a possible favorite at the state meet. The Lady War Eagles got a runner-up finish from Deirdre Sheets, followed by Hannah Owen in fifth and Kesley Brown in sixth to distance themselves from both Rogers and Bentonville.
“It was an excellent day for us,” Heritage coach Jeff Shaw said. “With us, those fourth and fifth and sixth girls you never know who it’s been. But today they all clicked and did exactly what they should have and we just have to carry that on into state.”
Although Heritage’s convincing win on the girls’ side might have been a bit of a surprise, a Bentonville victory in the 7A-West Conference team race shouldn’t shock anyone at this point. The Tigers scored 33 points to win the conference meet for a third consecutive year on Tuesday, with sophomore Jacob Shiohora leading the charge with a time of 15:54.9 to win the race.
Both Rogers High and Springdale Har-Ber followed close behind Bentonville, scoring 47 and 48, respectively, but the Tigers depth was the difference as four Bentonville runners finished in the top seven spots.
“They’ve been training for this all season long and we had some different guys do different things today,” Tigers coach Randy Ramaker said. “Jack Berry, our number five guy today had never been number five for us and that was a huge surprise. And Jacob, we knew what he was going to do because he always does well.
“So we had a lot of guys step up and we’ve just got a lot of depth.”
The 3A-1 Conference meet was also held Tuesday as part of the Mountie Classic. In the girls’ competition, Elkins won with 29 points with Greenland finishing second with 47. Elkins also won the boys 3A-1 event with 19 points.
The state meet will be held Nov. 10 at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.
MOUNTAINEER CLASSIC/7A-WEST CONFERENCE GIRLS 5K
Team Results
Rogers Heritage 42
Rogers High 71
Bentonville 73
Bryant 74
Van Buren 103
Fayetteville 126
Springdale Har-Ber 174
Springdale High 233
Top Individuals
Maggie Montoya, Rogers High 18:09.7 (course record)
Deirdre Sheets, Rogers Heritage 18:51.3
Rebekah Gibbons, Van Buren 18:58.7
Morgan Spychalski, Bentonville 19:16.2
Hannah Owen, Rogers Heritage 19:31.4
Kesley Brown, Rogers Heritage 19:35.4
Hanah Raney, Bryant 19:39.3
Melinda Murdock, Bryant 19:39.9
Amanda Agana, Fayetteville 19:45.1
Lauren Harrell, Rogers High 19:45.5
MOUNTAINEER CLASSIC/7A-WEST CONFERENCE BOYS 5K
Team Results
Bentonville 33
Rogers High 47
Springdale Har-Ber 48
Rogers Heritage 119
Bryant 147
Fayetteville 150
Van Buren 213
Springdale High 221
Top Individuals
Jacob Shiohora, Bentonville 15:54.9
Dino Andrade, Springdale Har-Ber 16:18.7
Taylor Bryant, Rogers High 16:19.0
Austin Salazar, Rogers High 16:25.1
Austin Hunt, Bentonville 16:31.4
Alex Battaglia, Bentonville 16:36.5
Hector Ramos, Bentonville 16:42.6
Ian Smith, Rogers High 16:43.5
Andrew Simpson, Rogers High 16:56.1
Dallin Fawcett, Springdale Har-Ber 17:01.7