Results
Girls Chile Pepper All-Time List
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Fayetteville, Arkansas - Ellery Lincoln (Lincoln, OR) travelled to Fayetteville and battled with Arkansas star Hattie Ray Beshears (Har-Ber HS). It would be both girls first true test of the season after impressive solo opening races. Beshears ran 16:38 at Rogers State Distance at Dark a month ago, and Lincoln a 16:50 5K at her local conference meet two weeks ago. Lincoln had an extended track season after taking 5th place in the World Athletics U20 Championship 1500m in early August.
Lincoln and Beshears would be somewhat conservative through the opening mile going through in 5:26 joined by Maggie Bishop, (Providence Academy, AR) who was fresh off a big win at Gans Creek a week ago, and Nolan Catholic's (TX) Georgia Giesinger and Haley Fernandez.
The next mile, they'd pick things up breaking off into the two girl battle we expected just before 2 Miles. Lincoln looked to be the one picking things up as Beshears would match each change over pace. The two would go through the 3.5K split, 300m beyond 2 Miles, in 11:22 with 16 seconds on Bishop who was in third.
As they got to around 400 meters to go Lincoln got a step on Beshears as both girls began to push for the finish line. Lincoln would have the finishing speed to pull away down the homestretch running 16:13 with Beshears just behind in 16:15. After going through the opening Mile in 5:26, the two would finish the race on 5:12 pace as they rolled the last two miles of the race!
Lincoln's mark is a new personal best, and breaks the Chile Pepper meet record set by Hattie Ray's older sister Lilly Beshears in 2024 of 16:40.
Bishop would take 2nd in 16:49 as Flannery O'Daniel of Bentonville would take fourth in 17:01. Nolan Catholic's duo of Giesinger and Fernandez would place fifth and sixth in 17:13 and 17:14 respectively.
Heading into this weekend we had Lincoln ranked 7th and Hattie Ray 8th in the COROS MileSplit50 rankings. With less than two months for Lincoln off wrapping up her track season showing this fitness in the early stages of her XC season is really impressive. As a junior Lincoln was 102nd at Nike Cross Nationals after running 4:37.37 for 1600m in the previous track season. She's proving that she's much more than a 1500m runner and that she'll be a threat on the national stage in cross country as well this fall!
Girls El Caliente Heat 1 Results
