DUNCAN — While most of Oklahoma was covered in rain for the better part of Saturday, it didn’t stop area cross country teams from reeling in success at regionals.

Lindsay Golf course was the site for this year’s regional championship meet, as Velma-Alma, Marlow and runners from Waurika were all in action.

In the class 2A competition, the Lady Comets finished 3rd as a team, qualifying for the state finals.

Leading the way was Cailyn Wright, who turned in a solid second place finish individually, just seven seconds behind Baylee Warnke of Canute, who finished with a time of 12:52.

Emily Combest clocked in at 14:23, which brought her 12th overall, while teammate Bita Humphries was 27th (15:34), with Eme Lewis 72nd (27:03).

“Cailyn ran her best race of the season,” V-A coach Jerry Loveall said. “Emily didn’t get off to the best start but she made up about 12-13 spots which was huge for her. We had a feeling about what to expect because we had seen some of those kids before. I’m very pleased with how we ran.”  

It was an even better day on the boys side for Velma-Alma.

Ty Hobbs claimed the individual championship with a time of 18:39, with teammates Jose Torres in 3rd (18:43) and Lucas DeArmond 5th (19:08) as the Comets also qualified for state with a second place team finish, just six points shy of first-place Silo.

Other finishers for V-A included Trey Guthrie in 25th (21:01), Jaydon Harper in 38th (22:21), and Zac Waldrop in 54th (25:00).

“I was really impressed with the way the boys ran,” Loveall said. “They had been working really hard, and I felt like they were capable of finishing strong. Ty ran a great race, and Jose has just been getting better all season. I thought Lucas ran the most determined race, which was great to see from him.”

Both the Comets and Lady Comets will now head to the state competition, which will be held at the Gordon Cooper Technology Center in Shawnee this Saturday.

The girls race is set to begin at noon, while the boys will run between 12:30 and 12:45 p.m.

MARLOW

Every great team has a rival they love to compete against.

For the defending state champion Marlow Lady Outlaws, Plainview is becoming the team which brings out the best in them.

Saturday saw these two squads go head-to-head at Lindsay Golf Course, with PHS claiming the regional team title with 17 points, while Marlow also qualified for the state competition in second place with 49 points.

A huge factor in Plainview’s win was having four runners finish in the top five. But, to Marlow’s credit, their entire squad all finished inside the top 20.

“I feel overall we ran really well at Lindsay,” Marlow coach Mikey Eaves said. “We run that course about twice a year. These were some of our best times of the season and that’s something I’m very excited about.”

Rylee Rich led the way for the Lady Outlaws with a sixth place finish (12:45), with Jordan Keeler and Bailey Talmadge 8th (12:50) and 9th (12:54) overall.

Tiarah Nunley came in 12th (13:21), with Maci Rich 14th (13:25).

“Maci was running her first race in about two weeks,” Eaves said. “She wasn’t in “Maci” mode for us because she’s been nursing an injury. But, with that said she did run strong and her finishing the race was big for us.”

Jill Cowley and Makayla Ortega rounded out the results in 19th (14:02) and 20th (14:07) places respectively.

“Plainview is a team we love to run against and have a lot of respect for,” Eaves said. “These girls make me proud to be a coach. They’re hard working christian girls and want to be apart of this tradition we have. We’ll definitely have to come with our A-game if we want to retain our state title against teams like Plainview.”

On the boys side, the Outlaws claimed a third place finish in the team competition behind second place Riverside and regional champions Plainview.

Tony Aguliera and Nathan Crowson led the way for Marlow, finishing in fifth and sixth place overall with times of 17:46 and 17:49 respectively.

Chris Davis came in eighth place (18:24), with teammate Justin Brown in 22nd (19:16), followed by Nathan Fikes and Dean Howard in 31st and 32nd, each with an identical time of 19:57.

Logan Knox was the last Outlaw to cross in 35th place (20:29).

Both the Outlaws and Lady Outlaws will be competing on Saturday in Shawnee at the Class 3A state meet.