The two Greenwood High School cross country teams, girls and boys, are preparing for the 2022 postseason which begins in just a few days with the 5A West conference meet at Siloam Springs on October 27th. As usual, the 5A state meet will be held at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs on Thursday, November 3rd.
GHS Head Coach Jim Andrews is hopeful about both of his squads in different ways. The coach believes his Lady Bulldogs are capable of winning a state championship, while his Bulldogs are poised to take a major step forward in building a future title winner, led by one of the state’s top male distance runners, senior Noah Embrey.
The two GHS squads competed in five varsity meets this season, starting September 3rd at Arkadelphia and ending last Saturday at Lake Hamilton. Coach Andrews purposely scaled back the schedule to allow his runners more rest and practice time, and the strategy seems to have paid off, especially for the Lady Bulldogs, who finished either first or second in three of their meets and in the top four against all competition.
Arkadelphia
Ouachita Baptist University hosted the Bob Gravett Invitational on Saturday, September 3rd, which drew 32 junior and senior high teams mostly from the western half of the state. Among varsity teams, the GHS girls finished first in the meet with 28 points, far ahead of second place Lake Hamilton with 48. Points were determined by the order of finish of the top five runners from each school. The lower the score the higher the order of finish for each runner included. Due to on-campus construction, the normal course was unavailable, and a makeshift route was designed through the campus using paved surfaces rather than grass, starting and ending at the OBU football stadium.
Sophomore Carol Werner led the way for the GHS girls with a fourth-place time of 19:47.60, just under two minutes behind the first-place time of Olivia Pielemeier of Lake Hamilton. Right behind Werner was Greenwood freshman Piper Ames in fifth place with a time of 20:34.00. In eighth place was Lady Bulldog and freshman Julia Witherington with a time of 20:47.00. Nine seconds behind her was senior teammate Kaitlynne Elmore (20:55.90) in ninth place, followed by junior Paige Andrews (21:07.40) in tenth place.
Camryn Coston finished 11th with a time of 21:15.90, Haylee Young was 15th (21:44.20), and Madelyn Wilkinson was 16th with a time of 21:56.70. Five other GHS girls competed in the meet, including Annalise Johnson (25th), Elizabeth Moy (26th), Ashley Koeth (31st), Amelia Morgan (48th), and Maddie Cash (60th). Altogether, 116 runners took part in the 5K race.
For the GHS boys, Noah Embrey ran away from the field of 141 runners, winning the meet by well over a minute with a leading time of 15.31.50. Cabot’s Brandon Waller was second at 16:47.50. Greenwood senior Joshua Johnson was sixth with a time of 17:26.60 and sophomore David Coggin was ninth (17:47.30). Sophomore Rhett Williams earned points by finishing 13th with a time of 18:11.00 and sophomore teammate Ashton Neece placed 27th (18:53.60) to round out the GHS top five.
Other Bulldogs to run at Arkadelphia included Westin Rushing, Braylon Neece, David Ambriz, Jameson Stewart, Landon Alexander, Raeden Rosas, William Rupert, Hudson Trice, Pablo Ambriz, Lucas Wittig, Kobe Lewis, Carson Thornberry, and Issac Myers. Overall, the Bulldogs finished second with 51 points behind Cabot’s 36.
“We did really well at that meet,” said Coach Andrews, referring to the opening race of the season in Arkadelphia. “It let us see how things were progressing, and [the kids] were really happy with the way that meet went as a whole.
Siloam Springs
The Panther Classic was up next for Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs on September 17th in Siloam Springs. More than 50 junior and senior high teams competed and once again the two GHS squads acquitted themselves well. The Lady Bulldogs notched another first-place finish while the GHS boys placed third overall competing in a field of seven teams in their division.
“We had a really good meet,” said Coach Andrews. “It was a little warm that day, but they performed pretty much as we thought they would. The course was a little different than normal, so I think some of them were a little off their best times. Noah [Embrey] ended up second in that meet behind a Bentonville kid that he later beat in other meets. It was our first race of the season on grass.”
The top five runners for the Lady Bulldogs included Carole Werner (1st, 20:24.90), Julie Witherington (4th, 21:14.09), Paige Andrews (5th, 21:23.96), Piper Ames (7th, 21:35.24), and Camryn Coston (10th, 22:08.84). Madelyn Wilkinson ran 14th, Kaitlynne Elmore 16th, and Jaylee Young 19th to all finish in the top 20. Greenwood’s Elizabeth Moy and Ashley Koeth ran 24th and 25th, respectively.
For the Bulldogs, Noah Embrey outpaced the field, including most of his GHS teammates. David Coggin ran 16th with a time of 17:55.74, ahead of Rhett Williams (25th, 18:27.39), Joshua Johnson (34th, 18:55.77), and sophomore Andrews Rye (46th, 19:12.60). Thirteen other GHS runners competed with just over half of them finishing in the top 100 out of 126 runners. Bentonville won the boys event with Siloam Springs second and Greenwood third.
Chile Pepper, Fayetteville
One of the top events each cross country season is attending the annual Chile Pepper Festival held in Fayetteville on the University of Arkansas campus. This year’s event was held on Saturday, October 1st, featuring over 125 high school teams from Arkansas and surrounding states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, and Louisiana.
For the girls, Greenwood’s Carole Werner led the field with a first-place time of 18:53.20, helping her teammates place second overall in the standings behind Texas’ Lucas Lovejoy High School. Greenwood’s Julia Witherington was 14th overall with a time of 20:14.60 while Paige Andrews was 17th at 20:24.40. Piper Ames ran 23rd in the field with a time of 20:32.80 and Camryn Coston scored points with a 36th place finish and a time of 20:56.20. Eight other Lady Bulldogs competed in the field of 436 runners, with four of them finishing in the top 100, and all but one finishing in the top 200.
“This was the biggest meet we would attend,” said Coach Andrews. “Carol [Werner] finished first [by one second], but she made it look really easy. We had two other girls finish in the top twenty. Among our [varsity] runners, girls and boys, I think we had 25 personal bests, which I think is unbelievable. We had great weather and conditions were really good. The course was really fast that day. There were some really good times.”
For the Bulldogs, they were without the services of Noah Embrey, who competed in the elite classification, finishing in eighth place among over 500 competitors with a time of 15:12.30. “He [set] a personal record for himself. He ran a really good race. I was glad to see him execute as well as he did,” said his coach.
The rest of the team ran 15th overall, led by David Coggin in 30th place with a time of 17:04.60. Joshua Johnson finished in 118th place with a time of 18:06.10 and Andrew Rye ran 142nd with a time of 18:18.90. Rhett Williams was fourth for Greenwood and 153rd overall (18:25.40) while teammate Ashton Neece rounded out the team scoring in 168th place (18:33.30). Eleven other Bulldogs also competed.
Greenwood Invitational
Up next was the highlight of every cross country season for the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs, hosting their own meet at Bell Park, this year on Thursday, October 6th. Fittingly, Greenwood had both the top runners in each category, but also won the overall team competition. Schools were broken up by classification, so Greenwood competed only against other Class 5A or 6A schools. The meet also included junior high runners by classification and Greenwood finished second among the boys and third among the junior high girls.
Incredibly, running on their home course, the Lady Bulldogs dominated the race by capturing eight of the top ten finishes, including 1-7. Leading the way was their standard bearer, Carole Werner, in first place with a time of 21:08.60. Julia Witherington was second (21:40.70), Kaitlynne Elmore third (22:28.20), Paige Andrews fourth (22:30.00), Madelyn Wilkinson fifth (22:45.30), Piper Ames sixth (22:59.50), and Camryn Coston seventh (23:09.80). Elizabeth Moy came in ninth for the Lady Bulldogs at 23:43.00. Ten other GHS girls competed as well, all finishing in the top 31 runners out of 49 total participants.
The Bulldogs were nearly as dominant, capturing the top two places and spots 8-10. Noah Embrey was first with a winning time of 16:33.40, followed by David Coggin in second place at 18:01.40. Andrew Rye was eighth for Greenwood at 19:29.60, Westin Rushing was ninth (19:33.70), and Braylon Neece was tenth at 19:35.90. There were 16 other Bulldogs in the race, and five of them finished in the top 20, including Ashton Neece, Rhett Williams, William Rupert, Jameson Stewart, and Joshua Johnson.
“It was still a bit warm that afternoon,” said Andrews of the weather conditions, adding, “and it was really dusty like it is everywhere else. It’s not a fast course, but we had a good overall competitive meet. Our guys and girls ran really well and got in a lot of good work.”
Lake Hamilton Invitational
This past Saturday both GHS teams traveled to Hot Springs for a meet sponsored by Lake Hamilton High School, which has one of the top cross country programs in the state. It was a chance for Greenwood to compete against a team that will likely challenge for the state championship in early November, and the Lady Bulldogs excelled, finishing fourth overall and one spot ahead of the Lake Hamilton girls in fifth place. The GHS boys placed 12th overall in a field of 25 teams.
For the Lady Bulldogs, Carole Werner finished 11th with a time of 19:55.48, with Julia Witherington not far behind in 19th place (20:28.24). Piper Ames ran 27th (21:03.01), Camryn Coston 34th (21:31.07), and Paige Andrews 35th (21:33.34) to round out the team scoring. A dozen other runners participated for the GHS girls. The three schools ahead of Greenwood in the team standings were Bentonville, Ruston (LA), and Fayetteville. The race was held on the infield at Oaklawn Park, the same site of the state meet in November.
For the Bulldogs, Noah Embrey was seven seconds off the lead, finishing second with a time of 15:33.92. Greenwood’s next best finish among the boys was David Coggin in 49th place with a time of 17:33.42. Joshua Johnson ran third for the Bulldogs and 88th overall with a time of 18:15.85. Andrew Rye finished 119th (18:51.06) and Westin Rushing ran 133rd (19:18.98). Fourteen other Bulldogs competed in the race as well. Seven of the nine Arkansas teams that finished ahead of Greenwood in the boys competition were Class 6A schools, mostly from Northwest Arkansas.
“We’re still fairly young as a girls team, and even the boys team,” said Andrews when asked to reflect upon this season and his team’s prospects moving into the post-season. The coach now has the responsibility of choosing his top nine runners of each gender to compete in the state meet, so the next several days of practice and the conference meet is very important for runners to make a last impression.
“I’m pretty hopeful,” said Andrews. “[The kids] have worked really hard to get where they’re at now. So I’m hopeful, especially for our girls. I think we have the tools to get us to that podium, but we just execute like we should. But I also think our guys can really make a move to get closer and maybe disrupt the top. I think the guys can make a big step forward. I think we’re going to have a good finish to the season.”