It was a big day for Lincoln cross country Saturday at the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Ark.
Not only did star senior Ellery Lincoln set a course record to top a field of 367 runners in the El Caliente girls division, but the Cardinal boys lived up to their lofty national ranking by finishing first out of 66 teams.
Lincoln covered the 5,000 meters in 16 minutes, 13.0 seconds to beat Hadassah Beshears (16:15.7), a high school junior from Arkansas. The reigning 6A champion improved on her previous best of 16:28.5.
What made the victory especially meaningful for Lincoln is that she was running where her parents competed for the University of Arkansas. In fact, her father, Dan, won the Chile Pepper Festival college race in 2001.
Lincoln had plenty of support from her extended family at the meet.
“I haven't been out to Arkansas since I was like under the age of 10.,” Lincoln told DyeStat. “It's really cool to be here and have all my family here. It's so fun to feel like I had a little cheering section.
“It's just wanting to like, I guess, carry a legacy a little bit. It's just fun to feel like I'm a part of something that's beyond myself.”
Lincoln and Beshears were part of a lead pack that covered the first mile in 5:26 before they separated in the second mile. Lincoln pushed the pace and Beshears matched as they arrived at the 3,500-meter mark in 11:22.
With 400 meters left, Lincoln gained a step on Beshears and pulled away down the stretch. She ran the last two miles of the race at a 5:12 pace.
Lincoln coach Eric Dettman said the performance showed how Lincoln has matured as a racer during her high school career.
“Her freshman year, she was still trying to figure out, 'What is cross country?'” Dettman said. “Sophomore year, she was sick. Junior year, there was a level of understanding the 5K and how to race it. This is the first time where I truly feel like she attacked it for 5,000 meters.
“A big piece of it is confidence, just believing she can run with anybody in the country. It's consistency. That's one of her superpowers. She's just been really consistent for a long period of time now.”
Lincoln has emerged as one of the nation's top high school cross country runners.
“I feel like I have a lot to prove on the grass this season,” she told DyeStat. “I had my breakout in track, and I'm excited to continue to kind of show the country what I'm capable of.”
Lincoln's boys team, ranked No. 12 in the country by DyeStat, took first place by an 82-106 margin over No. 23 Bentonville (Ark.). The Cardinals' scorers were seniors Jack Denton (sixth-14:51.5), Peter James (eighth-14:59.8) and Malcolm Dimoff (13th-15:04.9) and juniors Seth Kugel (14th-15:09.6) and Desmond Conser (48th-15:40.5).
The performance was particularly impressive considering the Cardinals arrived in Arkansas at 2:30 a.m. Friday – six hours later than scheduled – due to air travel delays.
“A big reason why we went to Arkansas is we wanted to, one, be in a really gigantic field, and, two, we wanted to go race people that we really didn't know,” Dettman said.
“We felt like last year we did a really good job racing some of those other top teams in the Northwest, but when we got to NXN, we were in just a sea of people and we didn't necessarily know who they were. I don't think we responded really well to that. We wanted to go somewhere and have to go beat people that we didn't know.”
Lincoln, the 6A runner-up team in 2022 and 2025, is chasing its first state championship since going back-to-back in 1954 and 1955. Saturday's win showed why the deep Cardinals are so dangerous.
“It certainly gives us confidence that we can run with anybody in the country,” Dettman said. “But we're still hungry for more.”
Flight 7 meet
South Eugene sophomore Eva Johnson Hess earned her third win of the season Saturday by taking the Flight 7 meet Saturday at Richardson Park in Eugene.
Johnson Hess clocked 19:12.2 to overcome Crater freshman Emma Wigelsworth (19:20.3) and Corvallis sophomore Anna Betts (19:12.2). Johnson Hess previously won the Ultimook Race and Ash Creek Invitational this season.
South Eugene junior Khalil Sabzalian won the boys race in 15:18.8. Sheldon junior Caleb Daniels (15:45.4) edged Crater junior Sawyer Hutton (15:46.1) for second place.
Oxford Classic
Caldera senior Maddie Carney, the reigning 5A champion, captured the Oxford Classic for the third year in a row Saturday at Drake Park in Bend.
Carney won in 18:05.4, the top time in 5A this season. She had a comfortable cushion over the runner-up, Redmond sophomore Abigail Davis, who finished in 19:18.1.
jerryu@osaa.org
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