SCOUT FOR GOLD

With 200 meters to go in the girls 800 meter run of the 2025 Class 4A state track and field meet, Kingfisher’s Scout Snodgrass was well behind Amidat Olokunola of Cache and Isabella Gutierrez of Pauls Valley.

It wasn’t necessarily a shock.

That duo consisted of two-thirds of the runners who beat Snodgrass in the same event at the 2023 state meet.

After about 500 meters on Saturday at Plainview High School, Snodgrass was fighting Broken Bow’s Haylie Brantley for third place.

As they approached the final turn, Snodgrass had surpassed Brantley, but Olokunola was nearly 15 meters ahead and Gutierrez another five meters beyond that.

But on the curve, something happened.

Snodgrass made a kick and chewed up the distance between herself and the Cache standout runner.

As they hit the homestretch, Gutierrez was suddenly within reach.

Thousands in the packed stands and along the fence line were screaming.

Snodgrass’ mind, like her legs, was racing.

And then, something else happened.

“I felt like I was running how I always run,” she said.

“But at the same time, I just thought everyone else was running slower.”

••• Success is nothing new to Scout Snodgrass on the track.

In both her freshman and sophomore seasons, she qualified for state in four events.

In 2023, she medaled in two events as she was third in the 800 and part of the sixth-place mile relay team.

It got even better during her sophomore campaign.

Snodgrass placed fourth in both the 400 and 800.

Her mile relay team placed fifth and the twomile relay team claimed a silver medal. Both of them set new school records at the state meet.

After deciding to turn all of her focus to running over the summer, she had a stellar cross country season and finished ninth at the state meet.

Once this track season hit, Snodgrass was once again in fine form.

As a junior, she qualified for state in four events yet again.

Her first event was Friday and it was a big one.

Snodgrass was joined by Mattie Slezickey, Harper Evans and Addison Price in the 3,200 meter relay.

The quartet not only won a bronze medal, but their time of 9:47.86 beat the school record of 9:48.17 set a year earlier.

But through all those successes, one thing had eluded Snodgrass.

A state championship.

••• One of the two teams to beat KHS in Friday’s twomile relay was Pauls Valley.

The team repeated as the state champ in the event and was anchored by none other than Isabella Gutierrez.

Gold was nothing new to the Pauls Valley senior.

Her cross country team won the state title in 2023.

After finishing as the state runner-up in the 800 as a freshman, Gutierrez owned the event in both 2023 and 2024.

She entered Saturday’s race as the two-time defending state champion in the event.

Gutierrez staked her lead during the first lap and appeared to have a stranglehold on a third consecutive gold medal in the event as the runners were on their final turn.

Little did she know at the time that Snodgrass was making ground.

It started on the turn, but continued into the homestretch, the final 100 meters that separates good from great.

It’s the 100 meters that can dash dreams or make legends.

It’s a gut check. And in that gut check, Snodgrass found something.

“After I passed the girl from Cache, I just had straight determination,” Snodgrass said.

“And a new strength came over my legs.”

As it turned out, everyone else wasn’t running slower.

Snodgrass found a gear that not even she had ever felt before.

She caught Gutierrez with 50 meters to go, then passed her.

But the race wasn’t over. Gutierrez didn’t become a multi-time state champion by folding and she didn’t against Snodgrass.

With 30 meters to go, Gutierrez also kicked into another gear and made one final push to the finish line.

It wasn’t enough. Snodgrass crossed first in 2:13.74.

Gutierrez was more than on her heels as she finished in 2:13.76.

Scout Snodgrass was a state champion.

“When I passed her and when I won, I couldn’t believe it,” Snodgrass said on Monday morning.

“And I am still in shock with my performance.”

For good reason. Snodgrass didn’t just win a state championship, she shattered her own personal record (PR) of 2:18.21 set at state in 2024.

Not only that, it broke the 21-year-old school record of 2:15.5 held by Brittania (Long) Schroeder.

Snodgrass also made Gutierrez better.

The Pauls Valley star ran a 2:15.45 to win as a sophomore and 2:16.88 in winning gold last year.

Her Saturday time was well ahead of that pace and was three seconds faster than what she ran to win the regional the previous week.

Snodgrass and Gutierrez had pushed each other well past the race pack as well.

Vinita’s Lauren Fraley closed strong to win the bronze medal, but she was more than three seconds behind at 2:17.39. Sulphur’s Jayden Lee was fourth in 2:17.86. Those times were PRs for both of those runners.

Once the race was over, Snodgrass was hugged by coach Stefan Seifried.

Clutching a cup of water, she kept raising her hands to the sky and repeated: “Thank you, God. Thank you, God.”

Soon, teammate Reese Roof raced over to share a hug, emitting nothing but joy for Snodgrass and her accomplishment.

After taking some time to gather herself, Snodgrass knew she’d done something big, but was still in a state of disbelief.

As it was time to head to the medal stand, she asked Seifried: “Do you think I beat her?”

“Yes!,” Seifried exclaimed. “You beat her. You’re going to get your gold medal!”

That was the good news for Snodgrass.

The not-so-good news was there was a limited window before Snodgrass had to return to the track for the 400 finals.

Snodgrass didn’t have quite the kick left in her legs down the homestretch in that event, but still ran a 59.20 to finish fourth for a second consecutive year.

Three events. Three medals. That left the mile relay, the last event of the day.

The team of Snodgrass, Abbie Myers, Roof and Slezickey were just one second off the school record in the event at the previous week’s regional.

They didn’t get the record on Saturday, but did medal with their sixthplace finish in 4:06.22. (Note: The school record was set at the 2024 state meet and is 4:04.41.)

Snodgrass had medaled in four events for the second straight year.

As a team, KHS notched 44.5 points and placed ninth.

Snodgrass played a role in 33 of those points.

Freshman Ela Hartman got Kingfisher its first point of the meet.

She placed eighth in Friday’s long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 4 inches.

Hartman returned Saturday to notch more points.

She cleared 5-feet in the high jump and tied for fourth, earning her a spot on the medal stand.

Making a second consecutive trip to the medal stand in the 100 meter hurdles was senior Talor Mecklenburg.

A three-time state qualifi er in the event, Mecklenburg placed sixth for a second consecutive year.

Her time of 16.25 seconds was a half-second faster than her time at the 2024 state meet.

Mecklenburg and Roof also qualified for the 300 hurdles finals.

Both scored points for KHS as Roof placed seventh and Mecklenburg eighth in Saturday’s finals.

“I’ve been coaching now for 32 years and this may have been one of the best,” Seifried said.

“With 10 kids qualifying and eight of them medaling along with a state champion and a school record…what an awesome weekend!”

Seifried pointed out that of all the state qualifiers, only Mecklenburg is a senior.

“I’m so proud of all these kids,” he said. “And there are great things to come in the future.”