By Chuck Reherman, Sports Editor MUSTANG – Round one of Canadian County Bedlam went to Mustang as the Bronco and Lady Bronco Cross Country teams ran away with the – annual dual. Literally.
The Broncos had seven runners finish in the top 10 and eight in the top 15. MHS had the top two runners and five of the top six to best the Millers 219-342. Yukon three runners in the top 10 and eight in the top 20.
“For the most part, we did alright,” Miller head coach Matt Parent said.
“There weren’t many stellar performances, but we were adequate.
“I got to see some areas that I needed to see, and the dual allowed me to get a varsity roster set for our first official meet next week,” he added. “I thought Elijah (Ankrom) was solid early in the race, and I was really happy for Kolby (McCoy). We changed some race strategy, and it helped him finish his race stronger than he’s finished in a while.”
It was the second year in a row that Mustang has won the event and the Millers are now 2-5 against the Broncos in the dual.
Ankrom finished third overall in a time of 11:33. McCoy was the second Miller to finish and he was seventh in a time of 11:47. Cade Pope was the other YHS runner in the top 10 in a time of 12:03.
Noah Hanscum finished 11th in 12:13, Kohl Kimmel was 13th in 12:14 and Grant Olander 16th in 12:30.
Landis Scoon finished 20th in 12:41, Aron Tahdoohnippah was 26th in 13:04, Kole Frederick was 28th in 13:16; Benjamin Wilkins was 34th in 13:36; Zachary Lewis was 37th in 13:42; Alexander Strain was 38th in 13:47; Mikael Stamm 38th in 13:48; and Chris Gerber 47th in 14:13.
“Mustang has a very good team this year,” Parent said. “In fact, I believe they are a top five or six team pretty easily right now. We will get back to work on Tuesday and start shaving more seconds off our times.
“We are definitely a work in progress, but it can get done,” he added. “Fortunately, there isn’t much drop off from runners three or four through seven. That will eventually help us.”
The girls’ division wasn’t as close. It was more of a domination by Mustang.
The Lady Broncos had the individual winner, eight finishers in the top 10 and 15 that finished in the top 20.
MHS finished with 138 points and the Millerettes 348.
“I am happy that we got some competition with someone other than ourselves,” Millerette coach Rod Zimmerman said. “Mustang is a pretty good team and getting to compete with them one on one shows our girls that we have quite a bit of hard work ahead of us through the next couple of months before we get to Regionals.”
The one real bright spot for the Millerettes was freshman Elora Jones. Jones finished second overall in a time of 13:12 and was just 10 seconds behind the winner.
Asley Baker was the only other Millerette runner in the top 10, finishing eighth in 15:12.
“Elora ran well on the two-mile course, but the 5k races coming up I think are going to be a good distance for her to compete at,” Zimmerman said. “We were able to see a little into how the varsity team was shaping up.
“Some of the girls I felt would be on it next week looked to be who it would be,” he said. “Of course, again we go up to the 5K the rest of the year and that is a different race from the two-mile so the varsity could end up changing some over the year.”
The Millerettes had only two other runners finish in top 20, Chisten Kupel was 15th in 16:45 and Abby Janka 19th in 16:55.
Also scoring for the Millerettes were 22. Zoe Wilson, 17:01; 23. Lauren Brown, 17:11; 24. Taylor Smith 17:14; 29. Savannah Yancy, 17:35; 31. Maddi Phillips, 17:43; 34. Kayleigh Fisher, 17:48; 35. Savannah White, 18:23; 36. Caleyn Cox, 18:35; 37. Joe Gray, 18:38; 39. Katelynn Fair, 19:36; 40. Karen Billy, 19:50.
The Miller and Millerette teams will open the meet season on Tuesday hosting the Paul Parent Jamboree. The meet will be held at Woodson Park in south Oklahoma City.
The meet had been hosted for years by Putnam City North (under a different name), but when that school elected not to have it, Yukon stepped in and took over the meet, naming it for the late Paul Parent, who coached high school and college cross country and track for nearly five decades in the Oklahoma City area.
The meet will feature Oklahoma City Douglass, Choctaw, Oklahoma City Southeast, Norman North, Southmoore and Oklahoma City Capitol Hill.
The varsity girls will run a 5K beginning at 3:45 p.m. The varsity boys will follow at 4:30 p.m. with a 5K. The junior varsity girls start their 5K at 5 p.m. and the boys JV 5K starts at 5:45 p.m.
