Thursday, March 28, 2024

Red Hot: Carroll Teams Earn Titles At Chile Pepper Event

Dragon cross country runners Regen Hatcher (left) and Matt Odneal compete in the Chile Pepper Invitational last week in Arkansas.

The Carroll Dragons took first in the Boys’ and Girls’ divisions at the Chile Pepper Invitational held last weekend at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. In its 24th year, the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival is now one of the premier running events in America. Each year over 80 college teams and 120 high school teams run at the University of Arkansas’ grassy, rolling off road course perfect for hot competitors.

With 54 schools and 410 runners in the competition, the Lady Dragons Varsity-I ran away with first with only 22 points to the runner-up, Lady Dragon Varsity-II with 170.  Five Lady Dragon runners finished in the top 10.

The Boys’ competition included 64 teams and 494 runners ready to run. Not to be out done, the Dragons Varsity-I were on fire with six runners in the top 10, the boys scored 19 points to beat Bentonville’s (Ark.) 115 points for second. The Dragon Varsity-II grabbed 6th place.

“All teams did well this weekend,” Carroll coach Justin Leonard said. “The Chile Pepper Festival is a great course and racing environment for our runners to compete.  The teams wanted to have a good race to propel them into the championship portion of their season and I feel they did.”

Both Carroll teams are ranked No. 1 in the state.

Girls Varsity – Top 7

1st – Courtney Kriegshauser     17:55

2nd – Tig Archer                         18:00

7th – Elena Arriaza                    18:39

8th – Shelby Chapin                  18:46

10th –Katie Burnham                 18:50

16th -Taylor Ullmann                 19:16

18th – Sarah Cory                      19:17

20th – Maddie Keen                    19:23

23rd – Lauren Berry                     19:30

24th – Laura Lashus                    19:35

25th – Sam Young                      19:39

42nd – Vicki Borttoff                   20:05

89th – Kate Brekken                    20:55

97th – Rianna Randolph               21:02

100th-Morgan Baulier                  21:04

Boys Varsity – Top 7

1st –  Joe Sansone                    15:06

2nd – Nate Sullivan                    15:19

3rd – Trevor Gilley                     15:26

4th – Connor Hendrickson         15:27

9th – Alec Garner                      15.58

10th –Jacob Pickle                    16.01

15th –Eli Canal                          16:13

30th – Chase Wichman                16:34

41st – Luke Lanham                    16:35

55th – Joeseph Zapinski             16:46

64th – Regen Hatcher                  16:54

66th – Brent Aydon                     16:56

70th – Matt Odneal                     16:58

86th – Matt Carson                     17:09

90th – Eric Vetere                       17:12

202nd-Timou Toure                              18:10

An image of a family bowling and dining

Photo of a solar eclipse