KHS makes strides at pre-state
Faster times.
Better result. Moving up. The Kingfisher High School girls cross country team made a vast improvement in its second two-mile race of the season.
As a result, the Lady Jackets took third place in the Class 4A girls race last Saturday at the North Rock Creek Pre-State Meet in Shawnee.
The race was held at the site of the state meet next month and it will also be two miles.
The Lady Jackets had run just one two-mile race this year and that was just over a week earlier in Bethany.
There, KHS placed fifth behind multiple teams in its class.
On Saturday, Kingfisher made up ground on a lot of those teams.
Second-ranked Byng won the meet with 68 points. (Note: Top-ranked Lincoln Christian did not participate.)
Bridge Creek, which entered the meet ranked fourth, was second with 82.
KHS notched 102 points, six fewer than Sulphur.
Kingfisher entered the raced ranked eighth.
On Monday, the Lady Jackets leapt into the No. 4 slot behind Lincoln Christian, Byng and Bridge Creek.
“We beat some teams that were ranked ahead of us,” coach Stefan Seifried said. “And I hope we keep moving up.”
Sulphur was one of those teams as it was ranked fifth going into the meet. Pauls Valley was ranked one spot ahead of KHS at No. 7 and was among the teams to score better than Kingfisher at Bethany.
Pauls Valley placed sixth Saturday with 136 points.
Scout Snodgrass led the Kingfisher charge with a sixth place finish.
She completed the course in 12:25.94, which was 44 seconds faster than her time at Bethany.
It was a similar trend for Kingfisher’s other scorers in the race.
Addison Price placed 13th in 12:49.87. That was a 30-second improvement.
Harper Evans was 24th in 13:15.32, which was 21 seconds faster than her time at Bethany.
Hinsley Brodrick saw a 59-second jump as the freshman was 37th in 13:35.53.
The Lady Jackets also benefited from having junior Mattie Slezickey in the lineup.
She didn’t run at Bethany, but was 25th at the pre-state meet and crossed the finish in 13:18.04.
Even some non-scorers saw significant improvements.
Lily Lunsford placed 57th out of the 164 competitors in the race. The junior’s time was 29 seconds faster than Bethany.
Molly Weber (82nd) was four seconds better, Maya Haney (88th) ran hers 26 seconds faster, Celeste Charqueño (95th) was 15 seconds faster.
The same can be said for much of the rest of the lineup.
Kingfisher is off this weekend and will compete Friday, Sept. 26, at Newcastle.
••• The top two teams battled for the championship in the 2A girls race.
In the end, No. 2 Southwest Covenant toppled No. 1 Hooker.
The winners had 37 points while Hooker recorded 43.
They swapped rankings this week.
Hennessey made its way to No. 5 by placing fifth in the meet.
The Lady Eagles had 154 points.
They were also behind Watonga (136) and Central- Sallisaw (139). Pacing the Lady Eagles was Emma Copeland, who was 16th in 13:08.07.
Also in the top 30 were Jocelyn Matousek and Julianne Matousek.
Jocelyn was 24th with her time of 13:43.00. That was five spots ahead of Julianne, who finished in 14:05.07.
••• No county schools had a full boys team in their respective races.
Hennessey’s Seth Sims was the top local finisher as he was 13th in the 2A boys with his time of 19:47.75.
Boys ran 5 kilometers at the meet.
Wyatt Long led the KHS contingent with a time of 19:59.10. He placed 84th out of 226 runners.
( Editor’s note: For photos of the Kingfisher High School runners from the race, see the Kingfisher Times & Free Press Facebook page.)