By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Yukon will open the high school track season Friday, competing in the Edmond Santa Fe Open in Edmond.
The meet is expected to draw eight teams including all three Edmond (Memorial, North and Santa Fe, Edmond Deer Creek, Putnam City, Putnam City West, Guthrie and Yukon. The meet will begin at 3:45 p.m.
Both the Millers and the Millerettes have key members returning to their teams for this season but did lose some key people.
“This will be a very tough meet to start the season,” Miller head coach Matt Parent said. “It will show us where we are right now. However, it is just a snap shot since it is so early in the season.
“It definitely is the whole movie,” he added. “We have been adding kids left and right over the last two weeks and missing almost an entire week because of weather didn’t help us. For this meet, we will be putting some kids into their main event, if we know that at this time, and we will be throwing them in to at least one or two more events for training purposes. Our new kids will get the chance to run themselves into shape for a few weeks. We will hopefully be able to solidify our varsity and JV spots after spring break and really get rolling then.”
The Millers did compete in two indoor meets and had solid showings from Kole Frederick in the hurdles and in the distance events with Elijah Ankrom and Kolby McCoy.
The Millers did get their high jump corps out this past week (Tyler Dechant and Carvell McKinley) after basketball. The two will also long jump and run in relay events.
“Right now, we will lean heavily on our distance and hurdle crew along with a few field events,” Parent said. “They were reliable sources of points during the indoor season for us. This will allow the others to round into shape and really get going after the break.”
The Millerettes will field a young team, but still has some key veteran returnees that will add points to the team
“We are always excited to get the season started,” Milleretrte head coach Rod Zimmerman said. “We have a pretty young team mostly freshman lead by a few veteran juniors. It will be nice to get into some competitions and see where we are.
“I feel like we have a lot of potential from what we have seen in practice and at our two indoors,” he added. “Kyla Davis will lead a very good group of vaulters that includes a couple of returning state qualifiers from last year in Kenadi Hamilton and Maycie Reed and another good vaulter in Channa Hines.”
“In the hurdles, Jaycee Willingham joins us and is expected to have a good year, and Elora Jones had a great cross country season and will be the front runner in our distance group, all three of these girls are freshmen. We are also excited to get Hannah Cavin back this year in the 400 and 4×400 relay. She missed last season after a knee injury but is back with us, her experience will be valuable for the team she is our only returning state qualifier on the track having qualified to state in the 400 her freshman year. Desiree Walker will also play an important role in the 400 and 800 this year. I expect and know these girls expect to have a successful year.”
Yukon will host its first meet on March 15, the annual Sundowner and will also host the Yukon Track Classic on April 13.
