The Bentonville High School Cross Country team traveled to Fayetteville over the weekend in order to compete in the 28th annual Chile Pepper cross country festival. Each year this festival brings $447,000 to the Northwest Arkansas school cross country programs. 120 high school teams and 90 college teams competed for the Chile pepper awards from all over the regional area, including Texas, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Bentonville teams competed in 6 teams throughout the afternoon.

The Bentonville High School Boys “El Caliente” division finished in 11th place out of 99 teams. This is the varsity division. Finishing in 20th place out of 757 runners, Jonathan Prince was the fastest Tiger with a 15:49.57 minute 5k. The team was 2nd for Arkansas teams.

The High School Girls “El Caliente” division saw the Tigers in 4th place out of 86 teams. Tori Willis’ 5k time of 19.10.22 minutes landed her a 31st placing. The team was the top Arkansas team.

The Boys Open division saw over 500 runners finish the race. The boys finished in 5th with Carter Quandt the first Tiger across the line in a new personal best 17:06.

The Girls Open division saw the Lady Tigers finish 2nd with Trinity Walker leading the team with her 21:07 5K performance.

In the 9th grade boys division the Tigers finished in 2nd place out of 46 teams and 714 runners. Luke Pabst ran a 17.30.52 minute 5k which was good enough for 2nd place.

The 9th grade girls division won 1st place out of 36 teams. Ashley Owen finished in 16th place with a 20.55.92 minute 5k. The team remain undefeated on the season.

Overall, the Bentonville High School cross country teams did very well. The Chile Pepper foundation donated $5,000 dollars to support the BHS cross country program.

The teams will continue to prepare for the upcoming Van Buren meet on Saturday, October 15th.

- Cameron Nell (Freshman Athlete) / Coach Power