FAYETTEVILLE -- Haley Loewe has made an immediate impact in girls cross country after moving to Bentonville from Wisconsin in June.
Loewe turned in a personal best while winning the "El Caliente" high school girls 5K race Saturday morning at the annual Chile Pepper Festival. The college portion of the Chile Pepper Festival was held Friday night at Agri Park, where Arkansas swept both the men's and women's divisions.
Loewe enrolled at Bentonville for the fall semester after her family moved from Hudson, Wisc., which is near Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. The junior won at Shiloh Christian to start the season and her second victory came at the prestigious Chile Pepper Festival against nationally ranked competition when she crossed the finish line in 17 minutes, 20.5 seconds.
Bentonville (145 points) placed fourth in the girls team standings behind Lucas (Texas) Lovejoy with 67, Carroll (Texas) (75) and Olathe West (Kan.) (132).
Loewe, who said her family moved to Arkansas after her father accepted a job at Walmart, ran behind the top two early in the race. She then made her move and passed the leaders to the finish just ahead of Haley Parker with the Lady Running Wolves in second place (17:22.5).
"About a mile and a half, I was just feeling good and I knew I had to keep up my pace," Loewe said. "I just kept going and then, at 2 miles I felt a girl behind me and I knew I couldn't let her pass me. I'm so happy because my time (17.20.5) is like a 40-second PR for me."
Connor Burns of Southern Boone County, Mo., also turned in a top performance in winning the "El Caliente" high school boys race in 14:32.3. That time was 53 seconds better than the time he turned in last year while placing second at the Chile Pepper Festival.
"I had a lot of fun here last year and ran a good race," said Burns, a senior who'll run cross country in college at Oregon. "But I wanted to run a faster race and that's what I did. Consistent training and more volume in practice shows on the course."
Southlake Carroll, Texas, compiled 86 points to win the boys division while Bentonville (163) finished second and Fayetteville (245) fifth in the team standings. Hudson Betts of Fayetteville finished fourth (14:55) behind Burns, Noah Embry of Greenwood was eighth (15:12.3) and James American Horse of Bentonville 12th (15:21.3).
Loewe said she wasn't happy with the second part of her race when she finished third (18:44.1) at the Garmin MileSplit XC Invitational in Denton, Texas, last weekend. But she came through Saturday with a big-time performance for Bentonville, which has won three of the four meets the Lady Tigers have competed in.
"It was nice to see [Loewe] had some gas in her to finish strong," Bentonville girls Coach Randy Ramaker said. "She did really well and beat her PR by 40 seconds. She won Shiloh but this is a much bigger race against national competition. It was good to see an Arkansas kid win, which doesn't happen often in this meet with top teams coming in from all over."
Changing schools while still in high school, especially from states as distant as Wisconsin and Arkansas, can be difficult. But Loewe said her new friends and teammates at Bentonville have helped her make the transition.
"I love this team," Loewe said. "They're all super supportive and super nice, and I love our coach."