Hard work pays off

Kerri Lafferty knows the grind that is the life of a cross country runner.

You train for hours to run for minutes.

So the Kingfisher High School cross country coach doesn’t hide her emotions when she sees her runners rewarded on the course.

Such an example came mid-Saturday morning at Briscoe Park during the annual KHS Cross Country Invitational.

Senior Jacee Mueggenborg placed eighth overall in the 89-person high school girls race.

She was the fourth Lady Jacket to cross the finish line and teammate Ally Stephenson was just a few steps behind her.

Mueggenborg ran the two-mile trek in 14:10.47 on a hot, breezy morning.

“She was amazing,” said Lafferty of Mueggenborg’s run. “She’s put in so much extra work and so much extra time.

“Seeing her finish the way she did brought me to tears.”

It was, by far, Mueggenborg’s best time and best placing at her home event in her four-year career.

For Mueggenborg, the laborious hours for this year’s payoff began even before her junior season.

“It started when we were lifting in the offseason,” she said. “I had become a better runner last year (2020) than the year before and noticed how much that helped.”

The proof is in the results.

As a sophomore, Mueggenborg ran the same KHS course in 15:07 and placed 43rd and wasn’t a part of Kingfisher’s contingent at state.

Last year, Mueggenborg improved her KHS course time by six seconds and was 27th overall.

She also earned a spot on the team that competed at state and, once there, ran the same distance in 14:16.31 to help the Lady Jackets to a third-place finish.

Mueggenborg opted to run track last spring. Coaches placed her in the mile and two-mile races and - sometimes - even the 800.

She told them if she had a choice, she’d prefer the two-mile run.

“I was thinking I would be better prepared for my senior year,” she said.

The work didn’t stop there.

Mueggenborg had a workout routine over the summer, but pushed herself beyond that.

“I made sure to try to run on my off days,” she said. “Even if I didn’t want to.”

Mueggenborg paid a toll for all the miles, physically and even, perhaps, mentally.

“I was so drained from the last year that I wasn’t even sure about this year,” she said.

Then came the team workouts early in the preseason.

“I realized how much better I had gotten,” she said.

A rejuvenated Mueggenborg had a strong showing in the season-opening race at Weatherford a week ago.

Then Saturday she shaved nearly a minute off her best time in her final home race.

“And this was a tough course this year,” reiterated Lafferty.

Mueggenborg was Kingfisher’s fifth runner to cross the finish line a week ago and was able to crack the top-four this week.

“Jacee has been putting in extra time on long days and it’s paying off on race days,” Lafferty said.

“She has been a true leader this season.”

For the second straight week, it was a freshman leading the dominant KHS charge to a first-place team finish.

Liberty Starr was second overall to Laverne’s Kamryn Baggs, also a freshman.

Baggs led from the start and finished in 13:12.28.

Starr crossed the line in 13:37.66, 10 seconds ahead of the third-place runner.

Katon Lunsford was fifth in 13:54.75 and Chesni Newkirk seventh in 14:08.84.

All five of Kingfisher’s scoring runners were among the nine best finishers overall. Since three runners in the top-10 were from schools without complete teams, Kingfisher’s scoring placings were 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The Lady Jackets posted just 19 points, which was 80 points better than runner-up OKC Knights, a team consisting of home school students.

Chisholm was third with 104.

Cashion was among the schools without a complete team, but freshman Addison McCracken finished sixth. She ran the course in 14:02.56.

Lomega had multiple runners, but also not enough for a team.

The Lady Raiders were paced by freshman Aubree Geisler, who was 13th overall.

Hine paces KHS boys

The KHS boys proved to be the sixth-best team and had two medalists in the mix.

Senior Conner Hine ran fifth as he crossed the line of the 5K race in 19:17.06.

It’s his best time in the annual race at Kingfisher.

Connor Askey, a freshman, was 22nd in 21:15.31.

Coleman Gilles was 34th overall and 30th in the score placing.

KHS had 174 points.

OKC Knights won the meet with 73 in a tight threeway race.

Heritage Hall was the runner-up with 78 and Elk City third with 84.

“It’s exciting to watch the boys improve week to week,” Lafferty said.

The varsity and junior high teams run Saturday at Watonga.

Snodgrass leads KMS girls to victory

Though not as dominant as the varsity girls, Kingfisher’s junior high girls team was also impressive in victory.

The Lady Jackets scored only 69 points to out-pace Alva by 13.

Scout Snodgrass dominated the pack as she ran the mile course in 6:15.09, 17 seconds faster than the runner-up.

Lily Lunsford was seventh overall and Harper Evans eighth.

Lomega was the fourthplace team and was led by Bree Yost. The eighth grader took 11th overall, which was ninth in the score placing.

Claire Myers and Paige Wheeler were also among the top-20.

Cashion was led by Khloe Kastner’s 26th-place finish and Dover by Nahomi Soto, who was 46th.

JH boys

No local schools had enough runners for a team in the middle school boys race, though it did feature local runners.

Rhett Schlegel led Kingfisher’s contingent as he was 18th.

Cashion was paced by Cole Baustert (24th).