KHS opens XC season with dominant win

It was a big-time debut in two respects.

The Kingfisher High School girls cross country team opened its 2022 season Saturday by winning the team championship at the Weatherford Invitational meet at Rader Park.

The Lady Jackets had three runners place in the top-10 and seven were among the best 30 runners in a race that fielded 117 total.

They were led by a freshman making her high school debut - Scout Snodgrass.

The underclassman finished the 2,400 meter course in 9:13.96, nearly five seconds ahead of Katelyn Penner of Okeene and almost 20 seconds faster than Watonga sophomore Reese Coleman, who won the race last season.

Snodgrass didn’t lose a race as an eighth grader last year, capping her perfect season with a win in the Junior High All-Star meet.

She carried that momentum into this season as her time was more than three seconds faster than Coleman’s winning time a year ago.

“The kids were committed to running throughout the summer and it showed on Saturday,” said coach Kerri Lafferty.

Junior Chesni Newkirk took fourth in just 9:42.72.

Fellow junior Peyton Walker, who hasn’t run cross country since the eighth grade, was eighth in 9:46.50.

Also scoring for KHS were Harper Evans (18th) and Terry Ann McCully (19th).

Due to some runners not being part of full teams, the team points earned by the KHS runners were lower than their actual placings.

“Scout, Chesni and Peyton set us up well with their lower placings,” Lafferty said. “And then Harper and Terry Ann finished strong to help seal the win.”

Kingfisher had just 37 points, easily beating runner- up Guthrie’s 65. Woodward was third with 92.

The host school took fourth at 104 points and Hennessey came in fifth out of 10 teams with 136 points.

The Lady Eagles were led by Jocelyn Matousek’s 24th-place finish. She ran the course in 10:26.02.

Tayler Franklin was 27th, Jazzy Bullis 37th, Taryn Jech 50th and Emma Sipe 53rd (team point placings, again, were lower than actual placings).

The KHS boys were ninth in a field of 14 teams.

The Jackets were led by Rhett Schlegel.

The freshman was 37th in a field of 154 runners.

He finished the 3,200 meter course in 12:18.73.

Wyatt Long was 34th, Alajandro Cuellar 46th, Connor Askey 47th and Coleman Gilles 88th to round out Kingfisher’s scoring runners.

“I thought both the boys and girls ran well, but we still have so much work to do to prepare them for October,” Lafferty said.

Lunsford wins junior high girls race

Lily Lunsford and Kinley Taylor led the field in the junior high girls race.

Lunsford won the meet as she ran the mile course in 6:02.12. She was just over eight seconds faster than her teammate and eighth grade classmate Taylor.

Hinsley Brodrick was 27th, Rylee Long-Bush 36th and Rystan Jerkins 40th as Kingfisher was second in the team standings.

The Lady Jackets had just 74 points.

OKC Knights won the meet with 50. Okeene was third with 79.

Brantley Johnson was 30th to lead the junior high boys.