El Dorado’s most successful cross country season in school history will come to an end Thursday at the 5A State Cross Country Championships, which will be run at Oaklawn in Hot Springs.
The 5A girls’ race will start at 2:30 p.m. with the 5A boys scheduled for 3:15 p.m.
The Lady Wildcats claimed third at the 5A South Championships last week behind Lake Hamilton and Lakeside. Freshman Jazmine Aguirre and junior Ainsley Colvin both earned All-Conference. Aguirre was eighth in 22:04.11 and Colvin placed 10th in 23:06.20. They were followed by Sarahi Rodriguez (13th) and Abby Mitchell (15th).
Senior Zachary McMillon earned All-Conference honors, finishing second in the conference meet with a time of 16:33.11. Freshman Julian Marquez was 11th followed by Charlie Conner (15th) and Logan Nutt (21st).
“I felt that I ran good at conference considering it was hot,” said McMillon. “My goals for state are to get in the top five.”
The field will be loaded, including 5A South champion Diego Martinez of Lakeside, who ran 16:26.02. Little Rock Christian’s Isaac Ortega was the 5A Central champion with a time of 16:46.78.
The real competition will come from the 5A West, which had nine runners break 16:30 last week. Mountain Home’s Jackson Free (15:28.92), Russellville’s Paul Rivera (15:35.80), Mountain Home’s Conner King (15:37.88), Harrison’s Hunter Frickle (15:46.97) and Mountain Home’s Garrett Barr (15:53.99) all ran faster than 16 minutes last week.
The Wildcats finished fourth in the 5A South meet last week behind Hot Springs Lakeside, Benton and Lake Hamilton. El Dorado will move up a pair of freshmen. Jackson Smith won the junior high title and Grant Dorcy finished fifth in the junior high race.
“It was great to see Jackson get the win,” said El Dorado coach John Koonce. “He had finished runner-up in three other meets this year where it was neck and neck at the end. He ran a very smart race pacing off the guy from Lakeside, who had just beat Jackson at the Lake Hamilton Invitational and he used a surge at the end to get the win.
“Grant has been a guy that has really found another level this season. He ran for us last year but he was still figuring it out then. He started the season off solid but through hard work at practice, he has turned solid into fantastic.”