Bentonville’s Will Aenchbacher is ready to challenge Class 7A’s top cross country runners in Saturday’s state championships.
Photo by Justin Wedgeworth

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BENTONVILLE — Will Aenchenbacher knows what he can do differently this year.

A slow start at his first appearance at the Class 7A State Cross Country Championship left the Bentonville runner in the middle the pack.

Now a sophomore - with increased knowledge and decreased times - Aenchenbacher is ready to run with the lead group at Saturday’s state meet.

“I know what to expect,” Aenchenbacher said. “I’m going to go out a lot faster. I can’t let that happen again.”

Aenchenbacher and the Tigers will be in contention for the state title at Mountain Home, along with Fayetteville and Rogers. “It’s going to be a tough race but I think our team can do it,” Aenchenbacher said. “We have what it takes.

“I think we’re all pretty even. It’s just going to come down to who’s willing to hurt the most. It’ll be a good race.”

Aenchenbacher was third overall at last week’s 7A-West Conference meet in Rogers, leading the Tigers to a second-place team finish. He was also the first Tiger to finish at last year’s state meet, finishing 10thas Bentonville took third overall.

Aenchenbacher and senior Scott Compton have been out in front all year for Bentonville, and coach Randy Ramaker expects the same for Saturday’s race.

“We would like Will and Scott both to race with Rogers’ andFayetteville’s No. 1 runners,” Ramaker said.

“We’d like to see them in the top five and stay in that pack. (Each team member has to) get out and race where they need to be at and that’s where they need to be.”

The Tigers expected bigthings from Aenchenbacher - who started running in the seventh grade at Bentonville’s Lincoln Junior High - and Compton after a solid o◊season.

“We knew they were going to be at the front of the pack all year long. They put a lot of work into it,” Ramaker said. “It’s good because those twopush each other in practice.”

Aenchenbacher said he’s learned a lot from his senior teammates, and that’s helped him put up impressive races this year - 11th place at Missouri Southern, 12th at Oklahoma State and personalbest time of 16 minutes, 15.52 seconds for 14th place at the Chile Pepper Festival.

Sports, Pages 7 on 11/05/2009

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