Loosen finding her form

Madeline Loosen wouldn’t trade her senior cross country season for anything, but she admittedly wasn’t at her peak when it ended.

Loosen finished 14th in the Class 4A race, but her time was about 13 seconds slower than the year before when she was fifth overall.

She missed much of the season with an ankle injury, one she battled with to the very end.

Still, with Loosen fighting through the injury, KHS won its first-ever cross country state championship, a feat unattainable without her performance.

Fast forward six months and Loosen is much closer to the form that earned her All-State in cross country and a state championship on the track.

That ability was on display last Friday when she won three gold medals at the Kingfisher High School Invitational, the last home track and field meet of her career.

Loosen was on the winning 3,200 meter relay team and also won the 800 and mile runs.

The latter, her last race of the day, saw her pull away from Cashion’s Kaitin Taylor and Marlow’s Korie Kizarr in the final 200 meters.

That was a kick she didn’t have in the fall.

Part of that is due to time and the other a lesser load.

“I feel much more confident during track than I did in cross country,” she said. “This year I chose to drop the two-mile race and focus solely on the 800, 1,600 and the two-mile relay.

“In doing so, my times have improved and it has given my body time to rest.”

At last week’s Canadian Valley Conference meet, Kizarr beat Loosen down the stretch in the mile. Cash-ion’s Taylor, a junior, has consistently been at or near the top of the mile run in her meets this season.

“Going into the mile on Friday, I knew I had some competition,” Loosen said, reliving her loss to Kizarr at conference.

The trio of frontrunners led the pack the entire race, but neither Taylor nor Kizarr could match Loosen at the end.

Loosen finished in 5:35.41. Taylor was second in 5:37.88 and Kizarr was more than two seconds behind her.

“I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again, so my mindset going into the race was a lot stronger,” Loosen said.

In the 800, an event in which she was state champion as a sophomore, Loosen beat runner-up Haley Whiteneck of Cheyenne by more than five seconds.

The 3,200 relay team that also featured Zoey Evans, Katon Lunsford and Ashtin Witt, was nearly 15 seconds better than Tuttle, which took second.

Loosen’s times are solid. Her best in the 800 this year is the fourth-best so far in 4A. Friday’s mile is the fourth-best by a 4A runner and Kingfisher’s two-mile relay team has the third-best in the state so far.

She knows, however, she can be better.

“I’m staying consistent with my times, however they’re not where I want them to be,” she said. “Considering we’re only one month into the season, I’m still confident I have time to improve and give my best performance at the state meet.”

Loosen helped KHS to a runner-up finish in the team standings.

Tuttle won the girls title with 133 points. Kingfisher pocketed 104 points while Jones was third with 91.

Cashion was fourth with

74.

• Cashion was solid in the relays, taking first in the 400, third in the 800 and fifth in the 1,600.

•  Tatum Robertson also helped Cashion in the field with a gold in the shot put and bronze in the discus.

•  Taylor also took second in the 3,200 for Cashion.

•  Kingfisher freshman Ally Scammahorn set a new PR with a jump of 14-5.25 in the long jump, which placed her fourth.

•  Ally Stephenson once again broke her own school record by clearing 5-6 in the high jump (see related story).

Girls Team Standings

Tuttle 133 Kingfisher 104 Jones 91 Cashion 74 Marlow 65 Thomas 49 Anadarko 39 Newcastle 32 Guthrie 25 SW Covenant 14 Cheyenne 12 OKC Storm 4

Local Girls Placers

400 relay - Cashion, first, 52.06; Kingfisher, fourth, 53.78

3,200 relay - Kingfisher, first, 10:15.9

100 hurdles - Sara Delatorre, Kingfisher, third, 17.85

3,200 - Kaitin Taylor, Cashion, second, 12:14.78; Maddie St. Cyr, Kingfisher, fourth, 12:57.06

800 relay - Cashion, third, 1:52.49; Kingfisher, fifth, 1:53.89

800 - Madeline Loosen, first, 2:28.76; Zoey Evans, fourth, 2:38.69

300 hurdles - Bella Schenk, Cashion, third, 51.33; Makina Frost, Kingfisher, fourth, 52.95

200 - Rayland Garner, Kingfisher, third, 28.75

1,600 - Loosen, Kingfisher, first, 5:35.41; Taylor, Cashion, second, 5:37.88; Evans, Kingfisher, fifth, 5:52.93

1,600 relay - Kingfisher, third, 4:21.39; Cashion, fifth, 4:24.26

Shot put - Tatum Robertson, Cashion, first, 35-9.5

Discus - Roberston, Cashion, third, 96-6

Long jump - Ally Scammahorn, fourth, 14-5.25

High jump - Ally Stephenson, first, 5-6