Lafferty unfazed by Lady Jackets’ 2nd place finish

It would be logical to assume Kerri Lafferty was disappointed in the results of the Watonga Cross Country Invitational.

It would also be incorrect.

“Even though we didn’t win the meet, we were pumped when we finally saw the results,” said Kingfi sher High School’s cross country coach.

For the first time this season, the KHS girls weren’t crowned meet champions.

Class 2A’s top-ranked Hooker edged the Lady Jackets by a mere point to take first.

It was a reversal of the meet held Aug. 26 at the same location when KHS bested the Lady Bulldogs by four points.

But last weekend’s meet featured twice as many teams, 61 more runners and was the full 3,200 meters as opposed to 2,500 the first time around.

“Watonga is one of the toughest courses we run and everyone still ran their best races of the year,” Lafferty proclaimed.

Kingfisher’s top five placers combined to run 18 seconds faster than the previous week at Norman, which was a much flatter, wide open course.

Those runners were Lily Lunsford, who was fourth overall with a time of 12:40; Scout Snodgrass, sixth in 12:49; Peyton Walker, ninth in 13:02; Liberty Starr, 16th overall, but 15th among those who scored points for their team in 13:15; and Harper Evans, 22nd overall and 20th among scorers in 13:19.

That gave KHS, which is ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, 54 points. Hooker’s placers were third, eighth, 12th, 15th (14th) and 17th (16th).

But, for Lafferty, it was more about the times as well as getting over mental hurdles on a tough course as the postseason approaches.

“We really wanted to see if the girls would go out and race because we knew they could push themselves further,” Lafferty said.

“They finally did it. Something just clicked on Saturday.”

Kingfisher was without freshman Kinley Taylor, who has been among the team’s top-five placers all season.

Taylor missed her second straight meet as she was resting a knee injury.

“We need her a lot more in two and three weeks than we need her today,” Lafferty said before Saturday’s race.

Kingfisher also saw Emmy Lunsford and Chesni Newkirk medal.

Lunsford was 27th (22nd) and Newkirk 28th (23rd).

There were 156 total runners and 16 full teams.

Mount St. Mary, ranked second in Class 3A, was a distant third with 101 points.

OKC Knights, a team of home-schooled students, took fourth with 144.

Alva, fourth in 3A, was fourth and Chisholm, third in 3A, took fifth.

Lomega finished in 11th place with 294 points.

The Lady Raiders were paced by freshman Claire Myers, who was 30th overall and 24th among team scorers. She ran the course in 13:35.

Junior Kate Myers was 71st (49th) in 14:51.

The team’s other scorers were Averi Walker in 105th (69th), Monse Rivera in 109th (73rd) and Jackie Penaran in 115th (79th).

Kingfisher originally wasn’t slated to take part in the meet and instead was scheduled to run in last Thursday’s Oklahoma Baptist University Challenge in Shawnee.

Lafferty made the switch early in the week and it proved to be the right one.

The 4A girls race in Shawnee only had two teams and 13 runners.

“This was such a better meet for us,” Lafferty said “The competition was so much better and the course was a great test. We definitely made the right choice.”

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Lomega was 13th out of 16 teams in the high school boys race.

Hunter Russell led the Raider pack as he finished 78th out of 194 total competitors.

He was 58th among the team scorers in the race and completed the 5,000 meter course in 20:28.

Also scoring for Lomega were Logan Zielinski in 85th (61st), Austin Chestnut in 116th (71st), Trevor Lentz in 132nd (79th) and Noah Lentz in 135th (80th).

For KHS, Conner Askey was 43rd in 18:54 while Wyatt Long took 52nd place in 19:10.

“They ran their fastest times of the year, so it was great to see,” Lafferty said.