By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
EDMOND – Yukon took its youngest team to the Central Oklahoma Athletic Conference cross country championships since the formation of the conference.
And the Millerettes came home Tusday with their best finish since the inception of the conference.
The Millerettes placed third overall in the meet, tied with Moore with 135 points. Edmond Deer Creek won the meet with 64 points and Edmond Santa Fe was second with 120.
“I was pleased with how the girls competed, that was our best finish in the COAC since it started,” Millerette coach Rod Zimmerman said. “It had been just over a week and a half since we raced and we really wanted them to duplicate the results we had at Southwest Christian, where we had several personal bests and for the most part we did. We had several girls run PR’s again.
“Avery (Stanley) ran well and was just a little off of her best time at the finish and Rena (Henson) was just ahead of previous best,” he said. “Both girls finished in the top 15 to win all conference honors.”
Stanley did run out to the lead early and was in the top three through the first half of the race. She finished sixth with a time of 20 minutes and 7.48 seconds over the 5-kilometer course.
Henson also had her best time, running 12th in a time of 20:22.80. Kailan Parks had the third best time for YHS, finishing in 21:32.80.
Elora Jones ran a 32nd place time of 21:34.52 and Lydia Laverty rounded out the scoring with a 54th place finish in 22:41.81. Bri Abbott (60th in 23:01.62) and Emily Schneider (67th in 23:30.09) rounded out the top seven.
“Kailan, Lydia, and Bri also pr’d in the varsity race,” Zimmerman said. “Elora, and Emily had a rough time in the middle of the race but both kept fighting to rally and get the best finish for their team they could.
“We are really happy with the work these girls have put in and the way they have progressed throughout the year and felt like they were one of the best groups we have had,” he said. “I think we are starting to see that in the meet results . We have felt like they should have had more respect in the rankings than they have received and should get it now.
“They ran against 10 of the top 15 ranked teams in the state and finish third so that tells us a lot about where we are, going into regionals.”
The junior varsity team finished eighth in the meet with 203 points and had one runner finish in the top 15.
Deer Creek won the meet with 21 points, Norman was second with 58 and Edmond North third with 73.
Harper Barlow, who has run with the varsity all season, had the best time for the JV runners and may have earned her spot back in the varsity for the regionals. She ran 15th in 23:16.28.
Avery Turner finished 38th in 24:19.32, Avery Cunningham was 43rd in 24:29.40. Lauren Brown was 49th in 25:12.45, Alexandrea Kunnanz was 58th in 26:11.67 and Elizabeth Ketcher was 67th in 27:56.84.
“Harper has ran on our varsity this year as well and ran in the JV division in this meet,” Zimmerman said. “She ran a hard race as well and had a personal best as did several other girls of ours in the JV race.”
