On a history-making Friday, Shawnee’s girls put themselves in position to make a run for their first-ever state track championship.
Fueled by a 1-2-3 sweep in the pole vault, Shawnee heads the Class 5A state meet with 45 points. Ardmore is second with 24 and Tulsa East Central has 22.
No girls team had ever swept the pole vault competition before Shawnee’s Nicole Lane, Chrissy Chavez and Alina Carter accomplished that feat Friday.
Lane won the state championship at 11-6, matching her best effort of the season. Chavez was second at 11-0 with Carter third at 9-6.
That sweep put 24 points in Shawnee’s corner. The Lady Wolves also received 20 points by successfully defending their 3,200 relay title with a school-record time of nine minutes and 46 seconds.
The old school record, 9:49.7, was established at last year’s state meet. Comprising this year’s team were Mary Tiger, Javen Bucy, Allison Burger and Alexis Taylor.
Shawnee trailed at the halfway point of the 3,200, but Burger and Taylor were strong in their closeout roles.
“Allison did a phenomenal job of closing the gap on the competition,” SHS assistant coach Kendra Ray said. “And Alexis is just such a dynamic athlete.”
The 3,200 relay and the pole vault were run concurrently.
The Lady Wolves of head coach Scott Wilkinson also received one point via a sixth-place finish by Carissa Curtis in the two-mile run (12:50).
Shakira Hobbs of Shawnee didn’t place but was eighth in the high jump (4-8).
East Central and Ardmore, both heavily loaded with quality sprinters, will have numerous placement-point opportunities today.
But Shawnee still has a number of remaining events in which it could post top-four finishes: 400-meter relay, 1,600 relay, long jump, 100, 200, 400 and 800.
“We still have a lot of points out there we could get,” Ray said. “It should come down to us and East Central. We have the best chance in school history to win a girls state title.”
For Wilkinson, today’s mission is easy. “We are half way to our dream season,” he said.
SHS BOYS IN FOURTH PLACE
Thanks to two second-place finishes and a sixth-place finish, Shawnee
accumulated 25 points in the opening day of action.
Host Ardmore heads the team standings with 32 points, followed by Duncan with 28 and Deer Creek with 26.
Junior Cam Kesler, who finished fourth in the pole vault last year, improved to a runner-up finish Friday with a 14-0 effort.
Also garnering a runner-up finish was the 3,200 relay unit of Ted Dockery, Russell Saunders, Andrew Brown and Jordan Robbins in a time of 8:15.09. Shawnee had a fifth-place 3,200 effort last spring.
Shawnee also qualified a number of entrants to today’s finals.
“I feel like our team for the most time is show time,” Shawnee head coach Mark Betterton said. “Show-time athletes always come through in the big show and don’t quaver in the fire.
“We’ve preached to our kids all season — go big or go home. We went big so we didn’t have to go home.”
Today’s field events will begin at 10 a.m. with the running events at 1 p.m.
