The Watonga Lady Eagles weren’t given the chance to defend their 2019 track & field state title last spring, though everyone on the team thought they could have. Watonga entered the 2021 season with something to prove – and some of its fastest seniors ever.
Ṫhe Lady Eagles capped their comeback Saturday with a definitive state championship victory at the OSSAA 2A track & field finals in Ardmore.
Battling warm and windy weather, the Lady Eagles were pushed by Stroud but pulled away at the end with yet another relay victory, sending them over 100 team points for the day and ultimately defeating Stroud by almost 30.
Watonga won the meet with 105 team points, followed by Stroud at 75.5, Regent Preparatory at 73, Hobart with 72 and Luther with 64.5. Several Watonga boys also competed at the state m e e t , which was won by Rejoice Christian.
As has been the standard this season, Watonga excelled Saturday at the longer relays and the middle-distance runs. Riley Coleman, Natalie Walker, Caitin Parker and Jocelyn Turney started the day with a victory in the 4x800, finishing six seconds ahead of the competition at 10:04.40.
Turney, Rai McMillen, Kiyla Cooper and Jaiden Alexander also earned second in the 4x200 relay, finishing less than a second off the winners from Hobart at 1:48.00.
Coleman and Turney kept adding points for the Eagles later in the day. Coleman notched a third-place finish in the 800m run (2:24.74), followed by a second-place showing in the 1600m (5:33.41). Turney won the 400m run in the afternoon, the only girl to finish in under a minute at 59.88.
Turney ran the final leg of the 4x400 relay, the last event of the day. Turney, Walker, Coleman and Mary Barton won the event with a time of 4:10.41, earning 20 more points for the Eagles and putting them over 100 for the day.
Looking on from the stands was Jim Coleman, Watonga’s former track coach and father of its current coach, Jim Bob Coleman. After the meet, Jim Bob Coleman talked about what it meant to win another championship with his father looking on and his daughter, Riley, competing.
“This is the first time my dad’s been able to make it to a state meet,” Coleman told the Watonga Republican. “He’s always been coaching.”
Jim Coleman is currently the head track coach at Chisholm High School in Enid.
“He coached me at Watonga,” Jim Bob Coleman continued. “He’s had every cross country championship and track championship before I got there, it was all his. Now, I’ve got two with the girls in cross country and two in track. This just happened to be the year that things are a little different with the way the meets go, and it was great that he could be here.
“His advice to me on certain things – he’s been around a lot longer than I have. I know he liked that he could see his granddaughter run her last high school race before she goes to college.”
Coleman said Saturday’s victory was “very important” for his senior girls. “That group of girls right there,” he said, “were sophomores the first time we won it, and they were ready for another one.”
The boys’ top finishes in Ardmore included a fourthplace showing for Deondre Dunn in the 300m hurdles (41.60) and Cy Walters’ fifth-place run in the 3200m (10:58.73).