Ward, THS boys place first at Tiger Invitational

By TRAVIS METCALF

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS — Tahlequah High School’s Ethan Ward didn’t run into much resistance on Saturday morning during the Tiger Invitational cross country meet.

Ward won his second race of the season by almost 20 seconds, leading the Tigers to first place, edging out Sequoyah High School boy two points.

Adair won the girls competition. The Lady Indians placed second while the Lady Tigers placed sixth.

“Now we’re midway through the season and now we’re starting to get into his faster workouts,” THS coach Jason Proctor said. We’re hoping the next three weeks he turns into form so he can compete really, really tough with anybody.”

Ward finished the race with a time of 17:07, well ahead of Quinter’s Josh Murray, who came in second with a time of 17:25. Tahlequah’s Rusty Fowler finished third with a time of 17:27.

“For Rusty, that was his best 5K (Saturday),” Proctor said. “Most of our guys set (personal records Saturday).”

The Tigers had all of its varsity runners finish in the top 30 as Christian Hooper finished seventh, Julio Gonzalez 12th, Derrick Young 21st, Michael Nichols 27th and Kevin Busch 29th.

“All of them, we’re training far better than we were last year,” Proctor said. “That’s the goal. We’re training hard and we’re training for the end of October.”

The Tigers finished with 35 points. Sequoyah finished with 37 points.

Sequoyah’s No. 1 runner was Robert Ketcher with a time of 17:34 in fourth place. Right behind him was Traven McCoy who finished fifth with a time of 17:39.

The rest of the Sequoyah team included David Lewis in 10th, Reilly Sevenstar in 13th, Brandon Gibson in 16th, Matt Hooper in 18th and Laramie Fixin in 20th.

“We ran really good, (Tahlequah) just beat us,” SHS coach Sam Horsechief said. “I knew they were a pretty good team.”

On the girls side, Sarah Hix was the overall second place individual with a time of 12:55. Jay’s Talissa Budder won the event with a time of 12:24.

“Sarah let (Budder) get out on her and she just didn’t have enough to come back on her,” Lady Tiger coach Elzy Miller said. “(Budder) is a good runner. She could win the state championship. Sarah has been coming along real well lately. She’s getting tougher.”

The Lady Tigers finished with a total of 146 points, 14 points behind fifth place Vinita and 18 points ahead of seventh place Claremore.

Behind Hix was Amanda Wood in 21st place, Madison Carey in 41st, Melanie Paris in 42nd, Amanda Woodward in 56th, Olivia Mercer in 88th and Jennifer Bilon in 113th.

Adair won the meet with a total of 52 points, 11 points ahead of second place Sequoyah.

Ashley Ross came in third for the Lady Indians with a time of 12:56. She was followed by Shakota Cutnose in seventh, Jodi Hooper in eighth, Krissa Goodrich in 23rd, Jacinda Pettit in 24th, Krissa Wildcat in 28th and Tara Comingdeer in 33rd.

“I think Adair had a really strong position at the start of the race and they held on to it,” Horsechief said. “We were trying to catch up during the whole race and we just didn’t catch up.”

Both Sequoyah and Tahlequah next run at the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree on Oct. 4 in Stillwater.