Following weather delay, Coweta wraps up first boys track title by winning 5A 1,600-meter relay
By Michael Kinney
YUKON - Heading into the final day of the 5A/6A State Track and Field Championships, Max Clark knew what had to be done.
With his Coweta squad in contention for the 5A boys state title, he knew without any doubt the crown would come down to the final race of the day.
Because of that, Clark and the rest of his Tigers were prepared to go out and snatch their first ever track and field championship Saturday at Miller Stadium in Yukon.
“It feels amazing,” Clark said. “We knew it would be a battle with us and Bishop McGuinness. Then it was John Marshall that started creeping up in the ranks. It came down to the 4 by 400 and we won it.”
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With just one event left on the schedule, the championships had to shut down due to lightning. All fans and athletes had to leave the stadium for two hours until the storm passed.
When the meet resumed, the 5A boys 4 x 400 relay was up. Coweta held a five-point lead over John Marshall and just seven points over Ada as all three had a team in the relay.
Coweta held on to win after running a 3:21.04 to take first place in the 4 x 400 relay. Ada came in third while John Marshall had been disqualified.
“The mindset was just calm down, don’t let the heart rate get too high,” said Clark, who also won his second 800-meter title. “Just chill out. I can speak for myself, I wasn’t really nervous.”
Coweta tallied 88 total points to edge Ada, who had 73. Piedmont (65) slipped past John Marshall (63) to take third.
Before the storm struck, Tulsa Union had already wrapped up the boys 6A team championship. They had 88 points heading into the relay and no other participant was within striking distance.
Despite that, Union came out and ran a 3:18.61 to take first in the 4 x 400. That brought their final team total to 108.5 points. Right behind Union came Jenks (74), Stillwater (69), Westmoore (56) and Broken Arrow (55).
“It’s been a collective effort of all the coaches and kids,” Union coach Tim Dial said. “We’ve had our mind made up since the beginning of the season on what we wanted to do. We just stayed focused on that plan and went after it.”
Along with being on the title winning 4 x 100 relay team, Union’s Braylon Thompson came away with victories in the 100 and 200-meter dashes as well. That went a long way towards helping Union take home its fourth state title since 2008.
“My performance was pretty good,” Thompson said. “My main goal coming out here was just to put some points on the board for my team so we can secure the win and I think I did that.”
On the girls side, Edmond Memorial took the 6A girls championship with 113 points. That was enough to hold off Jenks by eight points.
Despite a four gold medal performance from Emmanuella Njenje (4 x 100, 4 x 200, 400, 200), Edmond Santa Fe came in third with 91 points. Union (86) and Edmond North (42) rounded out the top five.
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The team championship is the Lady Bulldogs’ eighth in program history. The last came in 2019.
In Class 5A, it was Bishop Kelley who claimed their second consecutive girls title. They rolled up 105 points, which was 22.5 more than second-place Ardmore.
“The key was working together, working as a team,” said Bishop Kelley coach Justin Robinson. “Everybody kind of contributed this year even more. We had a big team this year. It came down to that.”
The Lady Comets once again relied on the dominance of Gwyneth Meyers. The sophomore took home gold in the 1,600-meter run, 3,200-meter run, 4 x 800 relay and the 4 x 400 relay. It’s the second straight season she has ended the year with four gold medals around her neck.
Meyers set a new 5A state record in the 1,600 meter run with a time of 5:08.79. She broke her own record, which she set last season as a freshman.
Bishop Kelley also set a state record in the 4 x 400 relay with a time of 3:56.95. They were three seconds ahead of second-place Lawton Eisenhower.
The rest of the top five included Eisenhower (80), Durant (64) and Glenpool (55).
Eisenhower’s Jakalya Morgan grabbed the state championship in the 300-hurdles (44.86), the first for the sophomore.
Putnam City West’s Caya Smith came back to win the long jump. Her leap of 19-02.25 came on her final jump of the competition. Before that, the junior’s best jump in the final flight had just been 18-feet, which would have placed her in fourth place.
Tyley Dotson of Ada also set a new state meet record in the shot put with a toss of 46-04.50. She beat the old record by more than a foot and was almost seven feet farther than second place in 5A.
