Ada hopes to put best foot forward at state

Class 5A State Track Preview

Bob Forrest Guest Sports Writer Ada Evening News

Ada —  

Although Ada’s track squad was a win machine at last week’s regional meet, one big mistake left the Cougars needing some help if they’re going to contend for a Class 5A state title Friday and Saturday at Tulsa East Central High School.

Ada won seven individual events and cruised to an impressive victory in the 3,200-meter relay at Ardmore Saturday, but a missed handoff in the sprint relay will prevent third-year coach Nathan Elliott and his team from controlling their own destiny this week.

“(Winning the state title) is not something that’s likely to happen,” admitted Elliott, whose squad finished third behind runaway winner Ardmore and Carl Albert last week. “Our goal is to finish in the top three. We would have to get a little help here and there, but we’re just going to do the best we can do and let the chips fall where they may.”

The misstep in the short relay was one of the few mistakes the Cougars made at their regional. They captured more events than in any meet since Elliott took over the program, and in addition to their eight victories, they added state qualifiers in the 3,200-meter run (where Cale Prince finished third), the mile relay (Travis Cowan, Qumain Black, Chase Bowker and Eddie Brown) and the 300-meter intermediate hurdles (where Cowan was third behind Brown, who swept both hurdles). Ada will also have one girl competitor at the state meet in Jenna Huling, who won the high jump with a leap of 5-2 at the regional.  

“We still have two relays alive and plenty of points in the individual events,” Elliott said. “Hopefully, we’ll have our best performance of the year, and we’ll see how things work out.

“It’s the third year in a row that we’ve finished third in our regional, and that was a pretty good accomplishment for our seniors,” he added. “I thought it was our best performance of the year. We picked up some points that we weren’t expecting. If we can pick up points in every event (at the state meet), we’ll just see where things fall.”

Elliott said Ardmore, Duncan and Guthrie appear to be the top threats for a team title from this half of the state (“Those teams qualified just about everybody”), but most of the AHS athletes who qualified for the state meet figure to be in the mix for a gold medal this week.

Black had a 21-10 effort in the long jump at the regional and had a personal best 22-7 at the non-conference meet in Duncan the week before, and he will head to Tulsa as one of the favorites in that event. Elliott said this weekend’s schedule (field events begin at 10 a.m. and the running events start at 1 p.m. each day) and the fact that the sprint relay (of which Black was a member) didn’t qualify should help Black in both of his events.

“He’s improving, and we’re hoping he will peak this week,” Elliott said. “If there is an advantage to the state meet, he should be nice and fresh when he’s long-jumping, and he can rest up for the mile relay.”

Brown’s sweep last week cemented his position as one of the best hurdlers in the state, and along with Black, pole vaulter Nick Anderson and high jumper Christian Johnson in the field events and miler Josiah Biles and the Ada two-mile relay squad, he will be among the favorites in his event in Tulsa.

Brown won the 110-meter hurdles in :15.68 and the 300 in :40.51 Saturday, and Biles posted a time of 4:43.89 in capturing the mile. Anderson had a season-best vault of 14 feet at the regional, Johnson won the high jump in 6-4, and the two-mile relay — made up of Biles, Prince, Colin Earle and Matt Smith — also ran a season-best 8:46.8, despite being on cruise control for much of the race.

“In the two-mile relay, we won by 50 meters, so we didn’t have to run that fast the last two legs,” Elliott explained. “The mile relay (Cowan, Black, Bowker and Brown) ran together for the first time at the Duncan meet the week before regionals, and that was the best time we had had in that event all year. Their time wasn’t great Saturday, so we’re hoping we can get through qualifying Friday and have an opportunity for them to score some points for us this week.”

Despite failing to qualify in the sprint relay, the Cougars had a chance for a runner-up finish at the regional before their fourth-place finish in the mile relay (with Carl Albert second). Elliott said that no matter what happens this week, his young squad (Black, Brown and Biles are the only seniors who will compete at the state meet) has laid a solid foundation for the Ada track program.

“That was by far the most first places we’ve gotten at a meet since I’ve been here,” Elliott said. “I don’t know that we would have caught Ardmore if we had qualified the sprint relay, but we would have finished runner-up. We were really pleased.

“We’ve got a good nucleus coming back, and our numbers have been up the last couple of years,” he noted. “The kids seem like they’re getting excited about track, so we’re happy.”