Mecklenburg, Stephenson, York jump to regional gold

Ally Stephenson is a regional champ and Madeline Loosen is a state qualifier in four events after last Saturday’s Class 4A track and field regional in Chisholm.

Stephenson continued to excel in the high jump as she won the event after clearing 5-foot-2, which no other competitor could do.

The freshman holds the school record in the event at 5-6 and also automatically qualified for this weekend’s state meet in the 100 meter dash and the 1,600 meter relay, placing third in both.

The top-three placers in each regional automatically move on to state and then the four next best finishes of all the regionals combined move on.

Loosen was an auto qualifier in four different events as she’s set to cap her stellar career at the state meet in Catoosa.

Individually, she finished second in the 800 and in the mile runs.

She also anchored the second-place 3,200 meter relay team and the third-place 1,600 relay squad along with Stephenson.

She was joined by Katon Lunsford, Ashtin Witt and Zoey Evans on the two-mile relay.

Witt and Rayland Garner also were on the mile relay team.

Freshman Makina Frost took third in the 300 hurdles as well.

Combined, that group helped KHS score 76 points and place third in the regional behind champion Weatherford’s 191 points and runner-up Tuttle’s 126.

Mecklenburg golden in high jump

A breakthrough performance had been lurking for freshman high jumper Braxton Mecklenburg.

He got it at the biggest meet to date.

Mecklenburg jumped 6-feet Saturday to win the high jump competition at the Class 4A regional at Chisholm.

His best jump of the season prior to his gold medal performance was 5-8, which earned him fourth place at Kingfisher earlier this month.

Mecklenburg was one of three regional champs for the KHS boys, who took third in the meet’s team standings.

Weatherford dominated with 160 points, twice as many as runner-up Tuttle.

KHS was next with 63.

The Jackets were bolstered by senior Colton York’s long jump gold when he flew 20 feet, 11 1/4 inches.

Reece Lafferty added gold to his arsenal by winning the 300 hurdles in 41.56.

York qualified in three events as he was a part of the fourth-place mile relay team and took sixth in the 100. Times in both events were good enough to qualify for state.

He was joined on the relay team by Stone Snodgrass, Mason Mecklenburg and Lafferty.