By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
BETHANY – An impressive showing.
Yukon turned one in on Thursday as the Millerettes had the top four runners and seven in the top 10 in running away with the Paul Parent Jamboree, hosted by Southwestern Christian University, at Eldon Lyon Park.
It was the second team title for the Millerettes in five meets this season. YHS, in the small meet, won the team title with 17 points. Putnam City was second with 66 and the Millerette JV finished third with 70. El Reno was fourth with 70 and Putnam City’s JV team was fifth with 119.
“We had a really good day,” Millerette head coach Rod Zimmerman said. “Yes we won and we had seven in the top 10, 14 of the 25 medalists were ours since the varsity and JV ran together in one race.
“We are happy with how they placed but the biggest part that was the most exciting for us as coaches was the way they competed and not just against the other teams but against the clock,” he said. “We have been talking for a few weeks about how I didn’t see the competitiveness in their eyes during a race and today I saw it and their times reflect that. We challenged them going into this meet to try to take the top eight spots and to run for PR’s and told them if they failed trying and worked hard to get it that was fine we would take it.
“We didn’t get the top eight but we ran 16 girls and 11 of them ran career PR’s and we will definitely take that any day. Cool weather helps a lot, it was a great day to run, but having that competitive look and going out and running well is more important than temperatures.”
Avery Stanley won her second individual title in the last three meets and ran away from the field doing it. She ran the five-kilometer time in 19 minutes and 52.46 seconds, the first time she has broke the 20-minute barrier this season. She took the lead early in the race and was never really challenged, finishing 47 seconds ahead of the field.
Rena Henson ran second in her best race of the year. The freshman ran a time of 20:38.20 to finish second. Elora Jones finished third in 20:56.96 and Kailan Parks ran fourth in a time of 21:39.03. Emily Schneider rounded out the scoring for the Millerettes with a seventh place finish in 22:32.58.
Bri Abbott (eighth in 23:11.19) and Harper Barlow (10th in 23:22.85) rounded out the top seven.
“Avery, Rena, and Elora were out in front and were running against each other and after they started separating from each other it was really just them out there running against the clock, which is hard to do,” Zimmerman said. “When Avery came past me with a little over 200 meters left I told her she could finish in the 19’s for the first time and she accelerated and started catching the gator that was leading them around the course. Rena ran almost a two-minute PR, Elora ran her best race of the year and a season PR, Kailan, Emily, and Bri ran about a minute faster to PR and Harper PR’d by 20-30 seconds.
The Millerette JV had one top 10 finisher and four more in the top 20 on their way to a third place finish.
Lydia Laverty had the best time for the JV, placing ninth overall with a time of 23:19.71. Avery Cunningham ran 11th in 23:33.61, Avery Turner was 13th in 24:04.34, Alexandrea Kunnanz was 17th in 26:02.82 and Lauren Brown rounded out the scoring with a 20th place finish in 27:49.26.
Haley Downing (21st in 28:08.07) and Elizabeth Ketcher (24th in 28:56.07) rounded out the top seven.
“Our Jv team also ran a good race,” Zimmerman said. “Lydia PRd by 20-30 seconds. The two Averys, Elizabeth and Brianna (Vazquez) ran PR’s. Days like these are fun they knew they ran better and there were lots of smiles after a race.”
The Millerettes have this week off from meets and return to the course on Oct. 15 in the Central Oklahoma Athletic Conference meet.
