FAYETTEVILLE -- Fayetteville's Camren Fischer knew his starting position among a mass of 815 runners in the boys Chile Pepper El Caliente 5K would be vital if he wanted to place.
He opened the race toward the front of the pack and, coming into the final stretch, was sitting in seventh place. Then he kicked it in gear, finishing third and edging Jed Helker of Edmond (Okla.) Memorial High School by .08. Fischer finished with a time of 15 minutes, 20.07 seconds.
"Leading up to this run this week, we took it a little easier knowing it was a big race, so we had a fresh start," Fischer said. "We were really warmed up and loose. We had that adrenaline rush, and I never really got fatigued throughout the race. I kind of flowed through it, and I maintained my spot and finished good at the end."
As a team, Fayetteville finished fifth, highest among area schools. Bentonville High and Rogers High came in 11th and 12th, respectively. Bentonville's Johnathan Prince came in 20th with a time of 15:49.57.
Southlake (Texas) Carroll's Reed Brown (14:41.56) took first place, coming in nearly 30 seconds ahead of second-place Matt Young of Jenks, Okla.
On the girls side, Keller (Texas) High took first place overall thanks to three top-10 finishes. Keller was paced by Abbey Santoro, finishing third with a time of 17:38.61. Julia Black and Isabel Van Camp then finished fourth and eighth, respectively, with times of 17:39.28 and 18:11.25.
"We ran well," Keller coach Brian Zaring said. "Our front four were where we wanted them to be, and we kind of dropped off a little bit after that. You have that every once in a while. Our top two ran phenomenally, which is a big deal."
Saturday was Keller's first trip to the Chile Pepper as team. Zaring was very impressed with the event and has plans of bringing his teams back in the future.
"We've sent a couple of boys individually in the past, but this is the first time bringing the whole team," Zaring said. "It's a great event, and it's great they get to run with this many (runners/teams). It gives us a good idea of how we need to get out, and how we need to move up in a congested area."
Overall, Bentonville High's girls finished fourth with a score of 303. Fayetteville came in eighth as a team, and Rogers placed 16th.
Sports on 10/02/2016