STATE CROSS COUNTRY: Galindo, Bentonville dominate 6A girls cross country

HOT SPRINGS -- Madison Galindo admitted she had to take a few peeks behind her Thursday morning, just to make sure her lead against the rest of the competition remained a safe one.

The Bentonville junior pulled away from a cast of runners that included defending state champion Carson Wasemiller and won the Class 6A girls cross country individual title at Oaklawn Park. Galindo ran the 5,000-meter course in 18 minutes, 30.63 seconds, more than 18 seconds ahead of Wasemiller.

"I was just trying to stay ahead of the two girls behind me because I know they can run super fast," Galindo said. "I was really trying to stay focused on what was ahead of me instead of what was behind me.

"I pretty much used the same strategy that I had at the [6A-West] conference race because I felt like it was going to work, although it didn't play out how I planned last week. I was just going to go up to the front and stay with whoever was up there and hope I can win the race in the last half."

Galindo, a third-place finisher at the 6A-West Conference meet, ran next to Bentonville West's McKenna Terrell near the early stages, but she was comfortably ahead of everybody by the time she reached the midway point and didn't let the lead slip away. Wasemiller's time was 18:49.25, well behind her record pace last year, while Terrell was third at 18:58.38.

Galindo's victory was just the beginning for Bentonville's girls, who ran away with their fourth consecutive state championship. The Lady Tigers, who were disappointed after a second-place finish in the 6A-West meet, had their five runners finish among the top eight and compiled 27 points to 48 for second-place Fayetteville, who had two runners in the top 10.

"This has happened to us before -- lose conference then win state," Bentonville coach Randy Ramaker said. "These girls were not happy about last week, and I wasn't happy. Take took care of their business, and I left it in their hands.

"Sophia Hinkebein, a senior, had meetings with them and said this isn't the way we run. We had run much quicker all year long, so it was a matter of them hitting it and sacrificing for each other. Did this surprise me? No. Today, we ran well, and we deserved to win."

CLASS 1A

Aubrey Henderson gave Kingston the boost it needed to slip past Greers Ferry West Side and win the team title.

Henderson, a junior who was last year's state runner-up while running at Jasper, turned in a winning time of 21:24.72. Peyton Macejewski of Mount Ida was second at 22:10.49, while Kadence Dilks of Greers Ferry was third at 22:52.85.

Kingston had all five runners finish among the top 14 individuals and had 26 points to 29 for Greers Ferry, which also had its five runners finish between third and 13th. Hillcrest was a distant third place with 91 points, one less than Western Yell County.

CLASS 2A

Cedar Ridge's Kate Provence successfully defended her championship with a 14-second victory over second-place finisher Mariam Garcia or Acorn.

Provence finished with a time of 20:15.02 and cut almost 35 seconds off last year's winning time. Garcia's time was 20:29.22, more than 22 seconds ahead of Bigelow's Allison Weaver.

Quitman earned the team title with 36 points to 52 for second-place Mansfield. Quitman had four runners -- Allison Cater, Katelyn Black, Kaylee Hobbs and Taylor Hooten -- take the seventh through 10th spots, respectively, while Chloe Liles was 13th.