The Mountain Home Bomber and Lady Bomber cross country teams traveled to Fayetteville this past weekend to compete in one of the largest high school races in the country, the Chile Pepper Festival, which hosted thousands of runners and spectators. Both teams competed in the “El Caliente” sections, the most competitive high school divisions. The Bomber boys placed third out of 88 teams, while the Lady Bombers finished 25th out of 75.
Jackson Free led the Bomber boys with a personal-best time of 14:44, breaking away in the final 400 meters to set a new all-time Arkansas high school boys #1 mark. Free became just the second Bomber to win the Chile Pepper, joining Hall of Honor member Eric Gross from 2000. Garrett Barr continued his strong senior season with a ninth-place finish in 15:14, ranking second in 5A behind Free and fourth across all Arkansas classifications. Trenton Smith and Simeon Costner worked together to post personal bests, and Wave Simmons closed out the scoring to help the Bombers secure the third-place team finish behind Olathe North of Missouri and Bentonville, Arkansas. The boys are now the second-ranked team statewide across all classifications and remain atop the 5A standings.
The Lady Bombers were led by Lucy Koehn, who broke the 20-minute barrier for the first time with a 19:42 finish. Cisily Goettler and Savannah Costner both ran season-best times, followed closely by Camilla Johnson and freshman Brook Bertalotto. With only 1 minute and 29 seconds separating their first and fifth runners, the Lady Bombers finished ahead of both the 2025 and 2024 state champions, Russellville and Greenwood, showcasing why they remain at the top of the 5A rankings.
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