On Saturday Oct. 15 Har-Ber Cross Country competed in one of the biggest cross country races in the south, The Chile Pepper Festival.

The boys were led by junior Dino Andrade, who finished in 69th place with a time of 16:45, which was considerably higher than the rest of his teammates.

Andrade was then followed by junior Dallin Fawcett and sophomore Austin Fox. Fawcett finished with a time of 17:21, and Fox finished seven seconds behind him.

Despite a great effort from the Wildcats front runners, Cale Wallace from Cyprus Ranch, Texas dominated the field finishing in 15 minutes flat.  For team placement, Har-Ber finished a middle-of-the-road 27th out of 50; again losing to Cyprus Ranch, who had seven runners in the Top 20.

“It’s a very fun race that I look forward to every year,” said senior Elias Campuzano. “As a team we did alright, but we certainly could have done better.”

As far as the girls, senior Valerie Reina, defending Chile Pepper champion, led the Wildcats as she’s done the last three years for them.

Reina finished with a time of 19:19, placing her in 29th, finishing one minute and 35 seconds off junior Maggie Montoya’s pace from Rogers High.

“I didn’t have that great of a race, but it was fun, and the girls did really well for the amount of people in the race,” said Reina.

Finishing after Reina, for the Wildcats, was Abbey Foreman who finished 126th, with a time of 21:13.

The Lady Wildcats as a team would end up finishing 31st out of 49.

“The Chile Pepper has always been my favorite, and I’m going to miss doing it with this Har-Ber team next year,” said Reina.