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Jays host Cottonwood Flats Invitational
By Chris Evans
The cottonwood flats, on the west side of Guthrie, has seen its share of publicity in the last few days including Saturday when Guthrie High School held their annual Cottonwood Flats Invitational cross country meet. The race was the first of the season for the Jays.
The Cottonwood Creek had overflowed its boundaries and flooded the flats on Monday, but receded just in time for Guthrie officials to prepare the course, again and again. Guthrie cross country coach Clay Tarter said they had to rework the course after the flood, and then another time when more rain came during the middle of the week. Overall, the course was changed three times.
“It was a good turnout. We lost a few teams because some didn’t believe we were going to have it,” Tarter said.
In all there were eight total races from Class 5A to junior high. The first race of the day was the girls Class 4A and below. Lady Jays Rachel Roberts and Amanda Davis had a fine showing in the one mile race. Roberts finished third with a run time of 6:14 and Amada Davis was right behind her in fourth place with a 6:17 time. Madill High School had the top two runners with Heather Dugan, who won the race with a time of 6:08, and teammate Katee Peoples had a second place time of 6:13.
“We have two excellent runners in Rachel Roberts and Amanda Davis, and I thought they ran well,” Tarter said. “We've got a lot of room for improvement, but when you have two really good runners like Rachel and Amanda we can get better.”
Guthrie finished in sixth place with a score of 174 while Madill won the invitational with 34 total team points. McGuiness, Shawnee, and McGuiness B team rounded out the top five. This division showed a lot of competition with McGuiness having won 14 out of the last 15 state championships in 5A and Madill having won four of the last six championships in 3A, including the last two seasons.
“We still have a couple of girls that have not gotten their physicals in yet that would have helped our score, but overall (they) did pretty well.”
“I thought Angie Rundle who was our third girl ran well,” Tarter said. Rundle ran her seventh grade season, but did not run again until now in her senior season. “She is a really good soccer player and I think she is going to come around for us,” Tarter explained.
Meanwhile, in the Class 4A and below boy’s race, the Guthrie men did not fare as well as their lady counterparts with a ninth place finish in the two mile race. Leading the way for Guthrie was freshmen Zack Cates who finished in 33rd place.
Deer Creek, who won the state championship last season, picked up the victory with 28 total points. Madill finished second and Shawnee was third. The individual winner was Deer Creek’s Adam Young with a time of 11:00.
“We are just rebuilding there, big time.” Tarter explained about his men’s club.
Sophomores Jason and Jared Ogan, who are twins and have just moved into the Guthrie school system, were the next Jays to cross the line.
Guthrie was without one of their top runners in James Arkenburgh, who is waiting to turn in a physical. Tarter mentioned that he did not allow anyone to race for either of his teams who had not turned in a physical.
In the men’s 5A race, Tulsa Union won with an overall score of 33. Jenks was just behind with a score of 51 for second place. Taylor Monahan for Union was the boy’s 5A champion with a mark of 11:05.
For the 5A girls, Westmoore came away with the championship trophy by just edging out Jenks and Union. Sara Vaughn was the 5A champ with a 5:57 mark.
As for the course, it held up extremely well considering it was under water just days before Saturday. Tarter said though the course was overall pretty flat it did not mean it is the easiest course they will see this season.
“Some kids like to run on the hills and some people hate the hills. In some cases, this course is tough because of the flatness and so many turns.”