High school cross country teams preparing to take part in Oklahoma state meets

By Christian Potts 

Cross country season is into its literal homestretch, with state meets in Classes 2A through 6A set for Saturday at Edmond Santa Fe High School.

All five classes will run at the same site, starting with 6A girls and then 6A boys at 8:30 and 9:15 a.m.; 5A girls and 5A boys run back-to-back at 10:15 and 11; 2A runs are 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.; 4A races are at 1 and 1:30; and 3A finishes the day with girls running at 2:15 and boys at 2:45.

Hundreds of teams and individuals have qualified in their respective divisions. Here's a class-by-class breakdown of what took place in last week's regional meets and what's coming up this weekend.

Class 6A

If the West regional at Mustang last weekend was any indication, the team title for 6A will be closely contested. Edmond Memorial and Mustang wound up in a tie, with 51 points apiece, to pace the boys squads punching their ticket to the state meet.

Graham Mitchell, a junior from defending state team champion Edmond Deer Creek, scored the individual victory by 1.6 seconds over Edmond Memorial senior Josh Cherry. The Antlers were a close third in the team competition with 61 points.

Edmond North has a squad with hopes to run away from everyone, as they were able to do at the Ponca City regional, where they won the team title by a comfortable margin. They were led by the race's top two individual finishers, juniors Colby Moore and Zac Rutherford.

On the girls side, sophomore Natalie Duggan will have a home-course advantage for Santa Fe, and she'll come into the state meet off a four-second win in the Mustang regional. Edmond Deer Creek placed three runners in the top 10 to take the team title at the regional, with Edmond Memorial second and Yukon third.

The girls side in Ponca City also ended in a tie between Owasso and Edmond North, again each with 51 points.

Edmond North did have the top two finishers, including the dominant winner, sophomore Liesel Kehoe, who was 18 seconds better than her teammate and runner-up Morgan Kirkland. Kehoe finished fifth at the 6A state meet last year behind four now-graduated seniors.

Jenks, the defending state champion in 6A girls, ran third at the Ponca CIty regional. The Lady Trojans had six seniors in their lineup in winning last year's state championship.

Class 5A

Piedmont's girls and boys squads both finished second in last year's state meet, but right now each looks the part of a favorite after they scored dominating performances in the regional at Mustang.

Lily Scheck, Emily Caldwell, Rachel Caldwell and Claire Collins finished second through fifth in the race, leading Piedmont to a dominating victory.

Scheck, a sophomore, was barely beaten out for the individual win, falling by .05 seconds to Elgin junior Audrey McElhaney.

On the boys side, Piedmont had its top five runners all place in the top seven of the race, led by race winner Dade Humes, a junior, and freshman Nelin Kimery, who ran second.

The top eastern challenger to the Piedmont boys and girls looks to be Tulsa Bishop Kelley, which comfortably won the Ponca City girls regional behind sophomores Gwyneth Meyers and Malana Eureste, who ran second and third place behind individual champion McKenna Hood, a junior from Tahlequah. Meyers was last year's 5A individual state champion.

The BK boys are defending 5A state team champions, and started their title defense by winning the regional title, led by a trio of runners in the top eight finishers. Guthrie junior Mason Mayer was the individual champion.

Class 4A

Byng's girls took the regional title at Oklahoma Bible Academy in Enid in a race controlled by Cleveland's Mazee Southward, who ran as an individual but won by more than five seconds.

At Waurika, Cache edged out Pauls Valley in a great battle, with the top six finishers coming from those two schools.

And in the Checotah regional, Jay's girls placed two of the top three finishers to cruise past Lincoln Christian for the team championship.

Three top-10 performances helped Bethany win the boys regional at OBA, while the defending state champion Cache boys picked up the title at Waurika and Lincoln Christian won by a wide margin at Checotah, led by senior Andrew Smithwick's win of more than 17 seconds. Smithwick was last year's 4A individual runner-up.

Class 3A

Chisholm took the boys team and individual title at OBA, with junior Malachi Hisey picking up a 2.6-second win over Holland Hall freshman Andrik Ramirez.

OKC Heritage Hall edged out Bethel's boys for the victory in Waurika, and Regent Prep edged out Rejoice Christian by one point to win the Checotah regional title.

Defending 3A girls state champion Regent Prep was solidly the best in its regional in Checotah. The Alva girls, paced by five finishers in the top 20, showed consistent form to take the OBA regional, while Bethel scored three top-six finishes to dominate the regional at Waurika.

Class 2A

Hooker won by a wide margin in both the boys and girls regional runs at OBA. The girls from Hooker are defending state champions, while their boys squad finished a close second to Timberlake last year.

The Riverside girls edged Goodwell-Texhoma at Waurika and Colcord claimed the girls team title at Checotah. The other two boys events saw Riverside and Meeker bring home regional team championship trophies.