The postseason has arrived for both the Muldrow and Central high school cross country runners as they will try to earn trips to stay at their respective regional meets Saturday in Henryetta.
The Lady Bulldogs and ’Dogs will be in the Class 4A Regional Meet beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday. The top seven teams automatically will qualify all their runners to the state meet the following Saturday at Edmond Santa Fe High School.
The top seven boys and girls in each race who are not a member of one of the top seven teams also will earn state berths.
The good news for both Muldrow teams is that they have a good shot at getting one of the top seven team qualifying spots since they have seven or more runners.
It was a new rule put in this season by the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association that instead of a minimum of five runners to qualify for team berths that the number was bumped up to seven.
Unfortunately, when the Central Lady Tigers run in Saturday morning’s 11 a.m. Class 2A Regional Meet, the new OSSAA ruling on minimum amount of runners for team state qualifying will prevent the Lady Tigers from the chance to qualify as a team for the following Saturday’s state meet. Instead the quintet of Alyvia Warner, Paris Campbell, Ryleigh Pierce, Rileigh Ford and Camryn Gilliam will have to try to earn individual state berths by being among the top seven individuals not on a state-qualifying team.
“As a team, I don’t have enough to qualify as a team,” Courtney Bair said. “They have made it now to where it has to be seven (runners) to actually qualify as a team. It’s always been five. We possibly could have qualified (as a team with five runners). So, individually, I’m looking at possibly a few having a chance to make it to state.”
The runners have not ran competitively for about two weeks, but Bair believes the time off has been beneficial for the Lady Tigers.
“As a group, our practices have been very competitive, as far as the girls competing with each other,” she said. “I even had a junior high girl who is a very good runner, and she’s been coming and practicing with us. So, it’s been competitive practices. I’m pretty confident in where they’ll be for Saturday. They’re really putting in the extra training these last couple of weeks. I feel like my girls are ready.”
