ROGERS — Rogers High cross country coach Carlton Efurd has been hauling mail from his office at the school to the fieldhouse on a pretty regular basis.
That load will likely be even greater in the coming months.
The mail is for Lady Mounties junior Maggie Montoya, and it is coming from some of the best college cross country and track programs in the nation.
Schools such as Arkansas, Stanford and Vanderbilt are all interested in Montoya’s services, and the junior’s stock only improved this past fall.
After a dominating spring on the track, she didn’t miss a beat in cross country. She easily won the Class 7A state championship after winning the 7A-West Conference meet and the prestigious Chile Pepper race in Fayetteville.
Montoya also finished fourth at the Nike South Invitational and second at the Rim Rock Classic in Kansas. Against a regionally strong field at the Foot Locker South meet, she finished 14th.
For her efforts, Montoya is the NWA Media Big 6 Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.
“As long as she stays healthy, the sky is the limit for her,” Efurd said. “She has so many letters from schools, I feel like the mail delivery person. ‘Here is another letter Maggie, here is another letter Maggie.’
“Maggie has a lot of options.”
Efurd has been the cross country coach at Rogers for 24 years, and he has guided the Mounties and Lady Mounties to a combined 33 state championships. Along the way, more than 50 runners have gone on to compete at the collegiate level. Efurd said Montoya is one of the best he has coached.
“Incredible year,” Efurd said. “Maggie is such an awesome individual and runner. Best girl and maybe the most athletic runner that I have coached. It’s amazing what she can do. She does workouts that push our varsity guys.”
Despite all her individual success, she said the highlight of the year was being part of a Lady Mounties team that won the Class 7A state championship. She won the 7A meet in a time of 19 minutes, 12 seconds and she crossed 61 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
“We were the underdogs all year, and to come back and win was great” Montoya said. “We won by a lot, and it was a huge effort by everybody on the team to do that.”
PROFILE
Maggie Montoya
SCHOOL: Rogers High
CLASS: Junior
NOTABLE: Won the Class 7A and 7A-West Conference cross country meets while helping Rogers to a state championship. ... Defended her title at the Chile Pepper and finished second at the Rim Rock Classic in Kansas. ... Is being recruited by many of the top college cross country and track programs in the nation.
Her best individual race came in October when she defended her title against a strong field at the Chile Pepper.
She pulled away from the field of 327 runners with a mile to go and easily defended her girls title with a time of 17:34.0. Montoya’s time was a personal best, and she finished 25 seconds ahead of Mountain Home’s Samantha Mohler.
When Montoya crossed the finish at the 23rd annual Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival, she turned around to see who would finish second. She didn’t see anybody.
“It was a fast race, but it was a really easy race,” Montoya said. “It was just a good day. I thought people would be closer because it is such a high-quality race. There were a lot of good runners.”
But none as good as she is.