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Watonga's Shawn Johnson takes the handoff from Whitley Johnson during the 1600m relay event at Cherokee on Saturday, April 30. -
Landri Hussey
CHEROKEE – The Watonga Lady Eagles are going to State after a second-place team finish at the Cherokee track and field Regional this past Saturday, April 30.
Led by their always-dangerous distance relay teams, the Lady Eagles racked up 109 team points Saturday while the Cashion girls won the meet with 116 points. Minco, Crescent and Merritt rounded out the top five in Cherokee.
Watonga’s boys finished fifth overall at Cherokee, with 65 points, but boasted some impressive individual performances. Star senior Deondre Dunn won four events Saturday, including the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, the long jump and the high jump.
Fairview won the boys meet with 110 team points, followed by Merritt, Tonkawa, Minco and Watonga.
The Lady Eagles’ victories Saturday included first place in the 3200m relay. Landri Hussey, Julien Roman Nose, Shelby Miller and Reese Coleman combined to finish the race in 10:56.31, just a second ahead of secondplace Minco.
Alyssa Bay and Carson Reyburn took the top two spots on the pole vault Saturday, as Bay’s 9-foot championship vault was 1.5 feet higher than second place.
Though the girls didn’t pick up any more event wins, they picked up points with third-place finishes in the 400, 800 and 1600m relay events.
Individually, other big performances for the girls included Jaiden Alexander’s third-place showing in the 200m dash at 26.67 seconds. Coleman finished fourth in the 800m run (2:40.01) and later second in the 1600 (5:48.54). Miller, meanwhile, placed fourth in the girls 300m hurdles (54.58).
Ady Hightower placed second in the discus throw, hurling it 101’4”. Crescent’s Kinzie Bell blew away the field with her first-place throw of 117’7”.
Over on the guys’ side, Joe Jackson had a big day like his friend Dunn. Boys top finishers included:
•Jackson, second, 100m dash (11.45)
•Jackson, third, 200m dash (23.33)
•Nicholas Walker, second, high jump (5’10”)
•Octavian Brown, fifth, discus (119’8”)
Geary sent one student to the Regional. Raul Espinoza competed in the 100m dash, placing 11th in the preliminary round with a time of 12.01, but found more success in the long jump where he finished fifth at 19’5.25”. Espinoza’s jump qualified him for the Class A State meet at Western Heights.
Now the qualifying Eagles and Lady Eagles move on to the State meet, which will be held over two days this Friday and Saturday in Catoosa. The field events are scheduled for 10 a.m. both days, while the track events will start approximately at noon.
On Saturday, the Academic State Champion presentation is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. and the team awards presentation will be about 4 p.m.