Testing, Testing
KHS cross country teams take on challenge of loaded conference meet; girls are 4th in field with state’s best
KINGFISHER’S Terry Ann McCully runs during the KHS home meet earlier this season. McCully was among Kingfi sher’s top-five runners during last week’s conference meet in Elgin. [Photo by Chris Simon/www.simon-sports-photos. smugmug.com]
On the schedule for the 2022 cross country season, Kingfisher High School coach Kerri Lafferty gave herself some options.
For last Friday, Oct. 14, it read “Mooreland or Elgin.”
Eventually she chose Elgin and for good reason. The girls race featured five of the seven top-ranked girls teams in Class 4A.
“We knew that offered more overall competition and would give us an idea of where we stood and where we need to improve over these last couple of weeks,” Lafferty said.
The Lady Jackets eventually finished fourth in what served as the Western Conference Cross Country Meet. The talented field that was tight at the top.
It was so tight that only three points separated first from third place.
In fact, there was a tie for first before the tie-breaker was used.
Second-ranked Pauls Valley and No. 3 Cache both recorded 67 points.
Point totals are accumulated by the placing of the top-five runners for each team.
The tie was broken with the sixth-best finisher for each team.
In this case, it was Pauls Valley, whose runner was nine spots higher.
Byng, which is ranked No. 5 in 4A, was third with just 70 points.
KHS tallied 83 points. The Lady Jackets are ranked seventh.
Fourth-ranked Anadarko was fifth with 102 points.
Leading Kingfisher’s charge once again was junior Chesni Newkirk.
She finished the two-mile course in 13:06.51.
She was the first of three consecutive Lady Jackets to cross the finish line.
Scout Snodgrass was next in 13:08.16.
She was just .10 second - less than a step - ahead of Harper Evans.
That trio earned all-conference honors for finishing in the top-15 individually.
Peyton Walker took 21st overall, but was 19th among runnerswhosescorescounted for their teams.
She crossed in 13:30.43 while Terry Ann McCully’s 13:41.98 was good for 27th (25th).
“We were so close. We felt like this was the first time all year that all the girls truly competed,” Lafferty said. “We’re very proud of the way they ran and hope to see that again the next couple of weeks.
“As we all know, anything can happen at state.”
The boys field was also chock-full of ranked teams.
That five-kilometer race saw the Yellowjackets finish 12th.
Kingfisher notched 364 points.
Altus won the meet with 79.
Byng was runner-up with 87.
Conner Askey led the Kingfisher contingent with a 57th-place finish. He was 53rd among scoring runners.
Askey finished in 19:55.34.
Wyatt Long was second among KHS runners in 67th (63rd) place.