Both Sulphur cross country teams continued their strong seasons last week, as the Bulldogs competed at the Pre-State event at Edmond Santa Fe High School and fared well.
The boys had their best finish ever at the event, taking 3rd overall as a team.
The girls were 9th, running well as they also continued to finish well as a team.
Each team had to battle through the elements, as the heat late in the year was a factor.
“The boys ran around noon on Saturday during the heat of the day,” said boys head coach Emile Heitland. “I was really worried all week about having to run in the extreme heat.”
“Between the heat and the fast field pushing our kids, I was really worried about runners going down with heat illness. I was really upset that the meet officials didn’t change the schedule more than they did so we could run earlier in the day.”
But the team battled through and not only competed, but showed out, impressing their coach.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the entire team for how they battled through the weather conditions,” said Heitland. “I really stressed before the meet how it was going to be a mental test today and it would be easy to back off during the race due to the heat. Although I really felt like all 15 of our runners battled through the heat and had great performances.”
The boys finished behind Byng and Plainview to take 3rd, narrowly missing out on a runner-up finish.
“Although even with the heat I thought we ran really well,” Heitland said, “A lot of the top schools in class 4A were at the meet due to it being on the state course. So I felt pretty good about finishing 3rd and only four points out of second.”
Sulphur was led by Kaleb Madron and Korbin Mayo, who finished back to back at 17th and 18th individually.
Madron ran 18:28 and Mayo ran 18:35 in the 5k event.
“Kaleb Madron and Korbin Mayo both had a really good race,” Heitland said. They have been our top two runners all year and continued the trend at pre-state.”
Sulphur also got a medal performance from Calvin Downey and Morgan Brown, as Downey came up huge on the big stage, finishing 20th.
“Calvin Downey had a personal best with a 18:40,” said Heitland. “I really didn’t expect anyone to PR at the meet due to the heat, but Calvin has been working really hard in practice and just keeps getting stronger each week.”
“Calvin is just a sophomore and is just starting to figure out how to race the 5k and I can see his confidence growing each week.”
Brown was 23rd overall, finishing with a time of 19:00.
Zak Kirk ran 19:36 to finish 30th, while Noah Heitland was 36th after running 20:03.
Keaton Seitz ran 20:32 to finish 44th.
On the girls side, Jayden Lee and Paxtyn Hiser continued to lead the way for Sulphur, which edged out Madill and Tuttle for a top 10 finish.
Lee was 3rd overall, running 12:41 to continue her big season. The freshman Hiser was 11th overall, running 13:46.
Alma Rios was 46th with a time of 15:56 for Sulphur.
“This meet gave the girls a chance to run on the state meet course,” said girls head coach Cody Lawson. “Overall it was a great experience and atmosphere. I thought considering the extreme heat, we performed well.”
“Jayden and Paxton each came home with a medal and we finished 9th as a team in a tough field,” Lawson said. “We are of this week and looking to get everyone healthy heading down the final stretch.”
