PC's Looney finishes 5th in 1A-2A state meet

News-Times
News-Times

Parkers Chapel’s Ali Looney finished fifth Saturday in the 1A-2A Arkansas High School Cross Country Championships at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. The junior, who was 15th in last year’s event, ran a time of 21:07.2 to earn All-State honors.

“I think I ran well today. I felt pretty good during most of the race,” Looney said. “Three weeks ago, running up here I went out too fast and faded at the end. Today, I paced myself much better and was able to run my best time on this course.”

El Dorado’s Jadon Cunningham finished 28th out of 198 runners in the 5A boys race. The junior ran a time of 21:07.2. John David Halstead was 87th followed by Eloy Rodriguez (93rd), Rodrigo Torres (100th), Alvin Gonzalez (107th), Edwin Gonzalez (112th), Calvin Huang (119th), Aleck Ramirez (161st) and Christian Rivas (162nd).

Melanie Miller led El Dorado’s girls, placing 73rd out of 161 runners with a time of 23:53.7. Addy Taylor was 89thfollowed by Eliza Brewster (92nd), Priva Dod (103rd) and Iankel Gonzalez (104th).

The 1A-2A girls' race featured 152 runners. Becca Beard of Maumelle Charter won in a time of 20:11.9 followed by Rural Special's Abbey Linville (20:34.9), Northwest Arkansas Classical Arts' Lillian Hellwig (20:46.8) and Quitman's Taylor Hooten (20:51.).

“Ali had the best race of her career today. And, she picked a good time to do it,” said Parkers Chapel coach Justin Welch. “Fifth overall is an outstanding achievement. I'm so proud of her hard work and dedication to this sport. It was nice to see her smiling after the race was over. She ran a personal best for the Oaklawn course. She keeps getting better every year.”

PC’s Kenlee McAuliffe finished 88th followed by Madison Sullivan (89th) and Taylor Fortune (97th).

The Trojans were led by Korbin McAuliffe, who was 98th with a time of 21:16.5. Spencer Frisby was 124th and Wyatt New finished 165th out of 243 runners.

“Overall, I was very happy with the effort of both my two groups,” said Welch. “Neither boys nor girls had enough to run as team however we had several individuals that ran PRs on this course. Kenlee McAuliffe, Madison Sullivan, and Taylor Fortune all had PRs today.

“Kenlee and Korbin are both seniors so they finished their careers with personal bests. I was thrilled to see that because we're going to miss both of them next year.”

Junction City’s Ty Disotell ran a time of 21:12.8 to finish 49th in the senior boys race. The Dragon’s Ryan Allen (20:16.5) finished 54th followed by Alex Prado (69th), Tray Walker (77th) and Chase Fennell (120th).

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