He can still hear the chorus of “I believe we just won” being sung out proudly by the Bentonville Tigers, and it burns the fire in him to come back stronger next year. Sophomore Ethan Carney and the Har-Ber track team came 12 points shy of Bentonville and the 7A state title.

“It was very high intensity, very exciting, and a lot of good competition was there. To win you have to have one of the best meets you have ever ran,” senior Jarrett Newsom said.

The girls team came in fifth place with Fayetteville winning the state title, and injuries played a big factor in both the girls and boys struggles yesterday. Junior Olivia Stumbaugh’s relay team was also disqualified and that cost a lot of points.

“In the four by one a lot of things went wrong, our third and fourth leg dropped the baton so we got disqualified. We really thought we could win so that was crushing. Peyton Copher got hurt in his 100 meter prelim and that lost the boys 25-30 points because he is a strong runner,” Stumbaugh said.

The wind was really strong in the meet and that affected all of the athletes. Although not ideal conditions for some runners, it also helped a few of the runners who had a tailwind for most of their race.

“It actually benefited me, because I had the backstretch so I was actually going with the wind. I know for a lot of the guys running, especially the sprinters, the wind was rough. They had to really drive through the wind, and no one got close to breaking any records that day,” Newsom said.

The wind can affect runners positively by pushing them forward, or negatively by slowing them down. Stumbaugh was one of the runners who had to run into the strong wind in the meet.

“The wind was incredible, when you hit that last home stretch the wind just hits you like a wall, and you are running in slow motion. It was just super tough on everyone,” Stumbaugh said.

Although both teams didn’t win the state title there are still positives to take out of the meet and the season for the runners. They made a lot of history this year including several firsts for the school.

“We won indoor state which is something Har-Ber track has never done before, we got runner up in outdoor state which is really good for us. There are a lot of negative sides to it, but at the end of the day we are all a family, and we grew closer yesterday going through that mess,” Stumbaugh said.