County teams prepping for stretch run
Cross country regionals this Saturday as teams try to qualify for state
KHS RUNNERS Kinley Taylor (7447) and Peyton Walker (background) will be two of the team’s key runners as they head into this weekend’s regional meet in Enid. The Lady Jackets enter the postseason ranked No. 2 in Class 4A. [KT&FP Staff Photo]
The run to a state championship gets real this weekend.
The cross country postseason begins Saturday with regional meets being held across the state.
It will conclude with the state meet on Oct. 28.
Every Kingfisher County team will make the shortest trek possible for their respective regionals.
All have been assigned to the meet being hosted by Oklahoma Bible Academy.
That includes Kingfisher in Class 4A, Hennessey in Class 3A and Cashion, Dover and Lomega in Class 2A.
There are three regionals being held statewide in each of those classes.
Others are being hosted by Waurika and Henryetta.
The teams that place in the top-seven at each regional will advance to the state meet.
Also advancing will be the top-seven individuals from non-qualifying teams.
Class 4A
The KHS girls will be the heavy favorites entering their regional.
They’ve won all but one meet this season, including the pre-state meet last month.
The lone time the Lady Jackets didn’t win, they were one point behind 2A’s top-ranked Hooker at Watonga on Oct. 7. That was the second time in as many weeks when KHS was without one of its top runners in freshman Kinley Taylor, who was resting a sore knee.
It was also the last time Kingfisher competed as the team took off last weekend in order to be rested and hopefully - healthy for the home stretch.
“So far, so good,” said coach Kerri Lafferty of her team’s health.
“I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think we’re mostly healthy going in.”
KHS will enter the regional as the No. 2 team in the class, dropping from the No. 1 spot in its off week.
Pauls Valley made the jump to No. 1 after its strong showing at the Elgin High School Invitational last Friday.
Pauls Valley won the meet over Byng, a team that was No. 1 earlier this season, but is now ranked No. 3.
Cache, currently ranked fifth, took third in that Elgin meet.
None of those teams will be joining KHS in Enid this weekend.
In fact, the highest- ranked team behind Kingfisher making the trip to OBA will be No. 10 Cleveland.
Other teams in the top-15 are No. 11 Bristow, No. 13 Cushing and No. 14 Woodward.
Class 3A
While only two teams among the top 10 are in the 4A girls regional, the same can’t be said for Class 3A.
Hennessey is one of five highly-ranked teams among the field.
The Lady Eagles moved up a spot this week to No. 6.
Also vying for spots at state will be No. 3 Chisholm, No. 4 Alva, No. 8 Metro Christian and No. 9 Prague.
The Lady Eagles took fourth last Thursday in the Mooreland Invitational.
They placed behind Hooker, Alva and Laverne (which is fourth in 2A).
Emma Sipe, Tayler Franklin and Jocelyn Matousek all finished among the top-30 in that race.
Class 2A
This regional has three of the top-four teams in the class taking part with Hooker (No. 1), Texhoma- Goodwell (No. 3) and Laverne (No. 4).
Lomega is ranked No. 12. Fairview (No. 13) is another top-15 team in the field.
County Boys Teams
Among the boys teams in the county, only Lomega will field a full team.
The Raiders were ranked 27th in the final 2A poll of the season.
Cashion is expected to field four runners - which is one below the minimum required for a full team.
KHS will have three participants in the 4A boys race.