Stephenson, Stone grab 4 medals

Personal records and even school records were achieved last Saturday by the Kingfisher High School track and field teams.

Both the KHS boys and girls took third in the team standings at the Class 4A regional meet in Plainview.

Along the way, nine boys qualified for state in 12 different events while eight girls did the same in 10 events.

“It was a really good day for us,” coach Kerri Lafferty said. “We saw some of our kids have incredible days.”

Matthew Stone qualified for state and medaled in four events for the boys.

Ally Stephenson also won four medals and will compete at state in four events.

That includes the high jump and long jump as she won gold in both.

The junior even bested her own school record in the long jump…although she didn’t know it for a while.

Stephenson was sitting in second place behind Cache’s Madisyn Crandall going into her final jump of the day.

Stephenson’s best jump had been 17 feet, 1 inch and Crandall had soared 17-5.

“We talked about the importance of speed in her approach and how she needed to use her upper body more to help with height and distance,” Lafferty said.

Stephenson did her best to put it all together… though she wasn’t sure she had when she landed in the sand pit.

“I honestly thought it was going to be the same measurement as all my oth-er jumps,” she said.

But she wasn’t able to stick around to find out.

As soon as she made the jump, Stephenson had to sprint over to the high jump area to complete that competition.

As it turned out, Stephenson had jumped 17-7, which was not only good enough to win the regional title, but break her own school record by three inches.

“I had no clue for about 10 minutes,” Stephenson said.

Said Lafferty: “She was able to put all the pieces together for one amazing jump.”

Stephenson’s jump of 5-4 also won the high jump.

She also was second in the 400 and third in the mile relay along with Emily Myers, Andrea Becerra and Katon Lunsford.

Zoey Evans and Makina Frost also made trips to the medal stand.

Evans was second in the two-mile run and Frost earned silver in the 100 hurdles.

KHS scored 89 team points.

Cache won the girls regional title with 158 and Bethany was second with 90.

Stephenson wasn’t the only track KHS athlete to break a school mark.

The boys 800 relay fell for the third time this year as Max Washington, Dynton Townsend and Mason Mecklenburg joined Stone to run to the silver medal.

Their time of 1:30.26 battered their own mark of 1:32.40 set recently in Watonga.

All told, the school record has seen nearly three seconds shaved off the mark going into the season.

Stone also won the long jump and was second in the 400 and part of the bronze medal mile relay team.Mason Mecklenburg, Connor Hine and Townsend also ran that relay.

Braxton Mecklenburg joined Stone in claiming gold for Kingfisher.

The junior sailed 6 feet, 4 inches to set a PR and win the high jump.

It’s his second regional title as he also won the high jump as a freshman in 2019.

Mason Mecklenburg will compete at state in three events as he was also the runner-up in the 200 meter dash.

Jayden Newkirk set PRs in both the 800 and 1,600 as he took third place in both.

“He had an incredible day,” Lafferty said. “I’m so proud of him.”

Newkirk’s time of 4:43.06 in the mile was just four seconds off the school record.

Ben Reherman will also compete in two state events.

He was second in the 110 hurdles and fifth in the 300 hurdles.

The senior’s time in the 300 was good enough to qualify.

The Jackets’ 76 points edged Cache by one point to take third.

Weatherford was the regional champion boys team with 161 points while host Plainview was runner-up with 132.