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Thursday, November 1, 2007
Chile Pepper Spices Up Cross Country
Western Arkansas, AR
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Annual Event’s Proceeds Help Area High School Programs
For some, it's 22 players and 100 yards of pad popping excitement. For others, it's 84 feet of five-on-five with added fines. For hundreds of high school cross country runners, it's a Saturday, running shoes and 3.1 miles of foot-pounding adrenaline.
But for cross country, it hasn't always been an afternoon jog.
Over the years, the sport has found itself in the shadows of other varsity sports locally. At least until 1988, when Joe Fennel, Randy Rhine and Kelly O'Meara, the Fayetteville High School cross country coach, went for a run and decided to add a little spice to the struggling local programs because of little or no budget.
Four years later, the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival was born. Now, almost two decades later, Northwest Arkansas is home to this premier national running event.
"The event benefits Fayetteville, Springdale, Har-Ber, Rogers and Bentonville high school cross country teams," race director Bruce Dunn said. "The Chile Pepper gives high school runners the opportunity to see the best collegiate runners in action and allows them to aspire to take their running to the next level."
The event begins with an open 10K run, followed by the men's and women's collegiate invitational 10K, and finishes with the high school invitational 5K.
"This is a race we look forward to," gasped Rogers junior Henry Wildenborg immediately following the race. "The different experience from regional runners motivates you to run well and learn from the race and get better individually and as a team."
Wildenborg and the Rogers High School boys team finished second overall. Teammate Aaron Hamilton was the top high school runner from Arkansas, finishing seventh and posting a time of 15 minutes, 53.6 seconds. Southlake (Texas) Carroll standout, Colby Lowe, won the event with a time of 14:53.1 and The Woodlands, Texas, team took top honors.
In the high school girls’ division, the Bentonville Lady Tigers finished third overall, behind West Planes, Mo., and Hereford, Texas. Lady Tigers harrier MacKinzie Bloom finished seventh overall with a time of 19:10.4, one spot behind Elkins ace runner Grace Heymsfield.
"It's nice running with the regional competition because it sets a faster pace and makes the race so much better," said Bloom following her race. "It's encouraging to see how our times are comparable to the collegiate runners and makes me believe I can do that."
With approximately 3,500 runners and more than 4,000 spectators each year, the Chile Pepper spiced up a sport that is growing stronger each year. Thanks to event proceeds, high school runners can continue to run out their dreams and potentially take them to the college level.
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