PREP CROSS COUNTRY: Bentonville sweeps Chile Pepper titles

FAYETTEVILLE -- Dawson Mayberry took his biggest chance on the one spot he believed he could pull ahead of his competition.

The Bentonville High senior made the most of that opportunity Saturday morning as he won the Class 5A/6A boys individual title during the 32nd annual Chile Pepper Festival at Agri Park.

Mayberry was in a tight race with Springdale Har-Ber's Reuben Reina and Fayetteville's Jack Williams for the majority of the 5,000-meter course. Mayberry, however, made his move with about 800 meters remaining and pulled away from the other two runners.

"I knew I had one shot to win, and I was banking it all on this hill," Mayberry said. "I stayed up with them up to this point, and I was banking on getting a big enough gap on this hill to finish it out, and it ended up working.

"It felt amazing out here. The course was in great condition, and the temperature was amazing. I think it was pretty much perfect conditions."

Mayberry turned in a winning time of 15 minutes, 15.8 seconds and became the first Bentonville runner to ever win the Chile Pepper, which was limited to just runners from Washington, Benton and Carroll counties this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Reina was next at 15:29.1, slightly more than 4 seconds faster than Williams.

Mayberry also led Bentonville to a narrow 56-57 victory over Fayetteville in the Class 5A/6A boys standings as both teams were missing key runners because of quarantine issues. Fayetteville led by five points through the first three runners, but Bentonville took the lead when its No. 4 runner, Wyatt Manus, finished 14th while Fayetteville's Oz Brewer was 21st.

"We always preach that, in a cross country race, it comes down to those 4-5-6 guys," Bentonville coach Mike Power said. "They performed well when it counted against some strong competition, and now we're looking forward to continuing our season."

Bentonville, meanwhile, put on a more dominant display en route to winning the Class 5A/6A girls team title. The Lady Tigers compiled 30 points while Fayetteville was a distant second with 55, followed by Rogers High with 64.

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Bentonville placed five runners among the top 10 finishers, and all 10 of its runners placed in the top 25.

"I have to give props to the Chile Pepper people for having this meet," Lady Tigers coach Randy Ramaker said. "Because we couldn't have been able to do this without them. We have all 10 in the top 25, and I'll take that.

"We train hard, and there are one or two races we look forward to running. The Chile Pepper is one of them, regardless of how it's held, then it's conference and state. Props to the girls for putting the work in. If you don't put the work in, then you don't do it and they did."

Senior Emily Robinson, who Ramaker said is looking to running cross country on the college ranks, captured the individual title and led Bentonville's runners to a 1-4-6-9-10 finish. That group included sophomore Madison Galindo, junior Sophia Hinkebein and freshmen Kayla Hurley and Macey Hurley.

Robinson set the tone early and finished her run in a personal-best of 18:30.8, almost 9 seconds ahead of runner-up Mia Loafman of Rogers. She also did it while suffering a bloody nose sometime during the race.

"I knew Mia was in really good shape," Robinson said. "I just wanted to sit on whoever was leaning for a little while and feel the race out, seeing how I was feeling. Then when I thought it was a good idea, I just picked it up a little bit and took it.

"Whenever we branched off and took that left on the final way down, I decided I was going to pick it up and break away from Mia. I was super worried because she has some speed to her, so I started checking behind me a little bit on that stretch, just to make sure I didn't slow down at all."

Pea Ridge made a sweep in the Class 1A/4A team titles as its boys finished with 38 points to Haas Hall-Fayetteville's 51 points. The Lady Blackhawks, meanwhile, compiled 31 points while West Fork was a distant second to 72 points.

Haas Hall-Bentonville's Jacob Tyburski captured the 1A/4A boys individual championship in impressive fashion as his time of 16:52.9 was almost a minute faster than second-place runner Jacob Braswell of Huntsville. On the girls side, Farmington's Carson Austin was the individual winner with a time of 21:03.9, almost 9 seconds faster than runner-up Joyce Ferguson of West Fork.