Welcome, friends of Batesville High School and Junior High School cross country, to this comprehensive unofficial 2026 report. Official results may be found by date and race name at ar.milesplit.com/results.
Yearly results list season-to-date times for all runners, with matching times from past years for returning runners. Junior high races range from 1.55 to 2 miles, and may vary from meet to meet and sometimes from year to year at the same meet. The tables generally make note of that.
2026 Season Preview: New and Improved!
Excitement is in the air for 2026 cross country with new coaches, new courses, newcomers — and that age-old undaunted Pioneer spirit!
Coach Russ Stumpenhaus steps in to lead the Lady Pioneers in cross country and basketball, with Stan Fowler moved on. Pioneer alumnus Luke Tate takes the reins for the boys teams with Isaac Middlebrooks departed.
Two of the top six from the undefeated junior high boys move up to strengthen the senior roster (at right) this year, with Hayes Yarnell having come up for state last November to finish first Pioneer as a ninth grader. Classmate Luke Swanson steps up to join older brother Samuel, who ran third most of last season. They’ll accompany senior Alan Aguilar, who has been team leader since coming up himself in 2023 to lead the Pioneers at state as a freshman. Veterans Carsten Byers and Reece Wixson provide midpack depth and their improvement will be key to the squad’s chances.
The junior boys look to have reloaded to actually be faster top to bottom than last year’s undefeated crew, even though three of the 2025 top six are now in senior high. The rest of the first 10 are a year older with leader Will Henry Hogue, Rees Brown, Nate Mason and Dash Carpenter now freshmen. They are likely to bolster senior high at end of season if not sooner. All were typically top 25 finishers at meets last year, with Hogue individual champ at a couple. Mason and Hogue topped the charts in the 800 in spring track, with Brown closing in from week to week.
Jude Swanson looks ready to follow in his brothers’ footsteps as an eighth grader alongside classmate Braden Grant, who usually finished top 30 at meets in his first season. And Grant’s 2025 debut was faster than that of his older brother Brandon, who went on to win the district championship a few years back. These family ties hint at great promise for the program.
Also back a year stronger are Risley Walker and Graydon Harn, both just behind Grant last fall. Several other siblings, friends, recruits from basketball, and freshmen new to the sport joined summer practice. Summer runs have featured an even bigger front-running pack than last year’s seven or eight who were usually in the top 30.
The senior girls will miss 2025 leader Taylor Bishop, but the rest of the team returns with another year’s experience and some swift sophomores rising from the 2025 junior high group (list at left). Sophomore Aurora Tickner ran second to Bishop as a ninth-grader running senior high all of 2025, and she’ll be chased this year by classmate JulieAnna Chunn, part of a strong junior high pack in her 2025 debut with the program. Veteran seniors Ava Jeffery and Lydia Montgomery improved throughout the 2025 season and then gained speed and challenging race experience in spring track. Junior Darcy Nikkel, last year’s third, closed strong with Tickner by season’s end. They give the ladies prospects for a tight competitive pack to be further strengthened at state with a solid ninth-grade bunch. Twin Scarlett Tickner and swim recruit Milly Newton-Crowe add depth as sophomores new to senior high. Scarlett did step up for state in 2025 and has been a valuable coach on the run for younger runners in spring track and summer practice.
Ninth-graders Lea Wilson and Tess Gunter return from the 2025 junior girls top three to lead the way for another group of promising newcomers and improving returnees. Classmate Jalyn Insell brings in good wheels from soccer, along with returnee Leann Chandler and Litzy Dionicio from spring track. Eighth-grader Astrid Seely returns even stronger from spring track after a good seventh-grade season as fourth scorer. Viga Morales-Szulga, Scout Nappi, and Kenzie Rogers come back supplying midpack depth, with soccer recruits Keneley Thorne and Kambryn Rogers and cheerleader Layla Cunningham bringing multisport athleticism to the mix.
The first meet is September 8 at Melbourne. Cedar Ridge puts on its first invitational September 22 at Newark City Park, and the Pioneers return October 13 to Bald Knob for the first time in a few years. Cave City has campus construction near their course, so the Pioneer Invitational at Sulphur Rock shifts this year to October 6 replacing the canceled Caveman Open. We await the 5A East championship schedule.
FIRST UP: Melbourne Bearkatz Invitational, Tuesday, Sept. 8, junior girls first at 4:15.