Wrestling: National rankings and more
By Matt Patterson
mpatterson@oklahoman.com
High School wrestlers are preparing to hit the mats. This year should be an interesting season. Can El Reno get back on top in 4A or will Catoosa cotinue to reign? Can Midwest City repeat?
Here’s a look at how Amateur Wrestling News ranks some Okie wrestlers
112: Willie Gunter, MWC (7), Ladd Rupp (10)
119: Casey Rowell, Duncan (12)
130: Jeremy Goree (11)
135: Ben Morgan, Catoosa (7), Matt Bryan, Broken Arrow (12)
152: Dallas Bailey, Catoosa (10)
189: Chris Perry, Stillwater (5)
215: Tyson Yoder, Weatherford (3)
And Community Christian v. Destiny Christian
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@Oklahoman.com
#2 Community Christian vs. #3 Destiny Christian (Th @ 7:30 at CCS)
Three weeks ago, Community Christian put a 55-34 beating on its brothers to the North. For Destiny Christian, is it revenge or repeat?? Community Christian led by Brooks Mosier is sparked by the potent running game of Bryan Owen. Second to only Wesleyan Christian’s Zeb White, Owen has racked up 1,299 yards (couldn’t someone just add 1 yard for the even 1,300?) with 19 touchdowns.
When he doesn’t handle it, Parker Burnett handles the duties to the tune of six touchdowns and 399 yards. Burnett at QB has produced some interesting results. His completion percentage is below 50 percent, he thrown for 9 interceptions, but he’s managed to loft 13 scores as well. Feast or famine may be over-simplifying it, but Burnett needs to come up big Thursday.Burnett has completed 81 passes with 46 going to Taylor Daniels. The star wideout has garnered 751 yards and 10 touchdowns.
As covered in Wednesday’s Oklahoman, Destiny Christian is the surprise entrant to this year’s postseason.
Whether or not DC is able to pull off the upset, something tells me Rusty Stone’s kids will be back. Destiny Christian only has one senior on its roster.
Stone has coached just about everywhere, and his philosophy has been one of the main reasons for the turnaround.
“I don’t try to fit a certain system to the group of kids we have,” Stone said. “It’s key to just fit your personnel to the system.”
And that he has with Gil Davilla (410 yards, 4 TDs) and RB Arthur Mahoney. Mahoney upstaged WC’s Zeb White last week with three scores and 176 yards and has released some of the pressure off Davilla.
Levi Jones directs the DC offense and has thrown two interceptions in 124 attempts while throwing for 11 touchdowns.
This is not the same team that lost by 20 though it was just three weeks ago. Stone said his team is playing at its best right now. And you know what? I believe him.
The pick: Destiny Christian 47, Community Christian 42.
Christian Schools Playoffs Preview
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@Oklahoman.com
Why should all the big boys have all the fun?? With OSSAA squads fighting for their playoff lives, four Christian schools are ready for their semifinals, starting Thursday at Community Christian.
#1 Southwest Covenant vs. #4 Wesleyan Christian
SW enters as the top seed and is paced by a two-headed running back monster. In a league where having one runner is the norm, SW is fortunate enough to have two quality backs.
Wil Ross and Kyle Womack have combined for 26 touchdowns and 1,300 yards nearly split identically. Ross has 658 yards while Womack has garnered 647.
Throwing the ball is the job of Jon-Luke Ratliff. The junior has thrown for 18 touchdowns and 1,671 yards.
Womack’s been the man in terms of receptions but Scott Burner has been the big playmaker. With only 16 catches, Burner is averaging more than 18 yards per grab and has five scores.
Ratliff has a very balanced group as Womack has 27 catches while Ross and Matt Cord each have 23.
What to say about Wesleyan Christian, hmm, maybe you’ve heard of Zeb White? With more than 1,500 yards on the ground, White is the straw that stirs the drink. His 18 TDs are impressive but don’t forget about a couple of 7s as Jason Archambo and Trey Cloud each have seven rushing scores.
With such a potent running game, Cloud hasn’t had to do too much throwing. In 101 attempts, he only has two interceptions to go with his 8 TDs.
Archambo and Adam Fratzke are the top receivers for WC. Archambo has 22 catches and averages more than 21 per pop while Fratzke has six touchdowns.
Wesleyan is coming off a thumping at the hands of Destiny Christian while SW has been biding time. After being 7-1, SW has dropped its last two, but that trend ends Thursday.
The pick: SW Covenant 43, Wesleyan Christian 20.
Final Week
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@Oklahoman.com
First off, props to username GHS who successfully predicted Guthrie’s 24-21 win over Carl Albert. Everyone had a 50/50 chance with the teams, but GHS picked the exact score. Nice job.
The Bluejays win gives Guthrie the district but so many districts are still up in the air. And in the case of these contests, each team is unblemished in district.
Here’s the list…
- Putnam City at Midwest City for 6A-2 (both 9-0)
- Kingfisher at Clinton for 3A-1
- Henryetta at Morris for 2A-5 (both 9-0)
- Okeene at Texhoma for A-1
- Washington at Rush Springs for A-4
- Dewar at Cashion for B-4 (both 9-0)
- Corn Bible at Temple for C-2 (both undefeated)
And here are some other games where the district champs will be established
- Fox (7-0 in B-2) at Burns Flat-Dill City (6-1)
- Panama (7-0 in A-8) at Pocola (6-1)
- Sequoyah-Tahlequah (6-0 in 2A-8) at Keys (Park Hill) (5-1)
Should be a fun and wild week as we get ready for the playoffs.
Sure it’s cross country, but clutch showings by Vaughn, Harper would impress any fan of sports
By Justin Harper, Staff Writer
jharper@oklahoman.com
Granted, it’s week 10 of the high school football season, so few folks are paying much attention to cross country. But even football fans should appreciate what a pair of cross country runners did this season. Tulsa Union’s Sara Vaughn and Plainview’s Amber Harper (nope, not related) each repeated as state champions this year even though both were not the favorites heading into their state meets. And how rare is that? Generally, if you’re the defending state champ, you’re considered the big dog until someone proves they can beat you.
Thing is, that’s just what happened with both Vaughn and Harper.
Harper, a sophomore, had a remarkable finish to this season. Nobody expected her to win the Class 2A crown again because she had not won a race all season heading into regionals. Now, Harper was always in the top three, but her teammates Kaili Tucker and Tess Lackey always crossed the finish line ahead of her. The main reason was because Harper had knee surgery which caused her to miss out on training the whole summer. And while she wasn’t even supposed to be able to run at better than 75 percent this season, she worked her way back to 100 percent in less than four months. Harper’s long road back led to her first win at regionals, then she defied the odds and won state again just a week later. In winning the title, Harper not only beat her teammates, both of whom are track state champions, she bested Kevi Luper of Adair, who is the two-time defending state champ in the 800 meters.
Vaughn’s story isn’t quite as dramatic, but it’s still pretty cool. Basically, it’s all about being clutch and coming through when the chips are down. Vaughn won all but two races she ran this season, and yet she wasn’t considered the favorite to win the 5A title Saturday at Mitch Park in Edmond. That’s because of the progress of Westmoore’s Katelin Cherry. Cherry, who was state runner-up to Vaughn last year, seemed to have got over the hump against Vaughn this year. After Vaughn swept Cherry in four races in 2006, Cherry beat Vaughn for the track state title in the 3,200 meters (the same distance as the cross country race) last spring. Then this fall, Cherry twice beat Vaughn at Mitch Park, both times by more than 10 seconds. Nevertheless, Vaughn was big-time Saturday. She not only beat Cherry, who placed second again, she beat her by a whopping 13 seconds. That’s an eternity considering the two have had three 1-2 finishes of two seconds or less in previous races.
Making their second crowns even more impressive was the fact that of four returning state champions (Piedmont’s Jori Davis in 3A and McGuinness’ Molly Ferguson in 4A were back to defend their 2006 titles), only Harper and Vaughn pulled it off.
Sure, it’s cross country, but those were impressive feats. If you like sports, you like players who come through in the clutch. That’s what happened here.
Week 9 State Area Picks…
By Robert Przybylo, Jason Kersey and Zach West
It’s showdown week. No, no, not for the games but for The Stooges. With this many good games, someone has to fall, right?? The LOCK picks defined last week as Jason was the sole person to believe in OCS (win), Robert was looking shaky with Ardmore losing 28-6 at half before winning in OT while Zach falls from the ranks of the unbeaten for his locks as Kingfisher upended Tuttle. With all the talk of Carl Albert and Guthrie (rightfully so), here are some other games to look forward to…
Week 9
Deer Creek at Star Spencer
Robert – Star Spencer; Jason – Star Spencer; Zach – Star Spencer
McLoud at Glenpool
Robert – Glenpool; Jason – Glenpool; Zach – Glenpool
Sulphur at Purcell
Robert – Sulphur; Jason – Sulphur (LOCK); Zach – Purcell
Victory Christian at Seminole
Robert – Seminole (need this upset for playoff chance); Jason – Victory Christian; Zach – Victory Christian
Bethel at Jones
Robert – Bethel (to clinch first berth); Jason – Bethel; Zach – Jones
Stigler at Eufaula
Robert – Eufaula (LOCK); Jason – Eufaula; Zach – Eufuala
Bridge Creek at Lexington
Robert – Lexington; Jason – Bridge Creek; Zach – Bridge Creek
Last week: Robert (14-6, 1-0 LOCK); Jason (14-6, 1-0 LOCK); Zach (15-5, 0-1 LOCK)
Season totals: Jason (84-44, 5-2 LOCK); Robert (82-46, 6-1 LOCK); Zach (84-44, 6-1 LOCK)
Kersey’s Week 9 Top 10 game picks
I watched Guthrie scrimmage McGuinness prior to the start of this season, and ever since then I’ve said that I think Guthrie is the best team in Class 5A. Besides the obvious greatness on the team (Kye Staley), they are enormous in size.
The one thing that makes me slightly question that now is the schedule the two teams played. Guthrie has blown away every opponents on its schedule so far this year, but hasn’t really played anyone that was that tough. And the 69-0 drubbing of Noble (who has already clinched a playoff spot and could be third in the district) doesn’t really mean anything because of the huge dropoff after Carl Albert and Guthrie in District 5A-2.
Carl Albert, on the other hand, played a tough non-district schedule and won convincingly in each game (Tulsa Washington, Duncan and Ada).
But, I’m sticking with my pick and taking the Bluejays.
Guthrie 31, Carl Albert 24
Guthrie over Carl Albert
Wagoner over Grove
Tuttle over Clinton
Ringling over Velma-Alma
Lawton MacArthur over Western Heights
Pawnee over Woodland
Broken Bow over Stilwell
Plainview over Marlow
Norman North over Lawton
Sequoyah-Tahlequah over Wyandotte
Get well soon
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@Oklahoman.com
A Rush Springs High School freshman was severely injured and hospitalized during a junior high game Tuesday at Washington.
All thoughts and prayers are with Justin Barney, a 14-year-old kid just doing what he loves. A television report said after making a routine tackle, he collapsed.
He was taken by an ambulance to the hospital and was put into a medically induced coma. That’s good news. He did not slip into the coma, he was put into it, and it has helped him as doctors continue to do whatever they can to help Justin.
Friday night’s game with Wewoka will not be postponed, said athletic director and principal Mike Zurline.
The Rush Springs coaching staff declined to comment, understandably so. Both assistants told me they are respecting the wishes of the Barney family that asked them to not say anything at this time.
My thoughts and prayers (and I’m sure the rest of our high school staff) are with Barney, his family and anyone associated with Rush Springs schools.
More on this story as it develops.
And now the pick…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@Oklahoman.com
Or as I’ve learned to call it: the kiss of death. I haven’t been right in ages. I mean seriously, how bad can you be?? Shawnee, who has been my arch-nemesis all season got me again by upping McAlester.
Oh well, here goes: Guthrie 38, Carl Albert 30.
I’ve been wrong five straight weeks, so I don’t know who is more happy about this pick.
Week 9
Guthrie over Carl Albert
Wagoner over Grove
Clinton over Tuttle
Ringling over Velma-Alma
Lawton MacArthur over Western Heights (but extremely close)
Woodland over Pawnee
Broken Bow over Stilwell
Plainview over Marlow
Norman North over Lawton
Sequoyah-Tahlequah over Wyandotte
Guthrie Offense vs. Carl Albert Defense
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@Oklahoman.com
We are now a day away from the battle of the titans. Hmm, considering who is playing, maybe titans is a bad term. Bad humor aside, the showdown at Carl Albert is quickly approaching. Wednesday, we looked at special teams and the Titans offense against the Bluejays defense. To cap it off, here’s the Carl Albert defense against the Guthrie offense.
Guthrie Offense
I remember heading out to Guthrie on my first day on the job to get a word with Kye Staley. It was the same day he committed to Oklahoma State. I remember how excited he was to make that announcement so now he could concentrate on the season. Two months later and no one can question Staley’s concentration. He’s done whatever coach Rafe Watkins has asked him to do. But he’s not alone in that as the whole team has put aside personal glory for the team’s sake.
As Oku anchors the Titans so goes Staley with the Jays. The all-everything senior stud has scored 27 times. Fifteen on the ground where averages more than 10 per carry, 10 through the air (with a sole INT) and two more as a receiver where he is averaging more than 30 per catch. Remarkably, Clayton Smith actually has one more rushing TD (16) than Staley. Smith is averaging nearly nine per touch in his 72 attempts.
With Staley evolving into more than just a QB, Keaton Callins has become the man under center. Callins has completed 75 percent of his passes and has notched 10 scores of his own without a pick.
As Jasper leads the Titans receiving group, the same is true with Dante’ Foster and Kent McDonald for the Bluejays. Each has 20 catches while Foster holds a 9-7 touchdown advantage over his teammate.
Carl Albert Defense
This is where things have started to get nasty as the Carl Albert aficionados say there is no way Guthrie can find a way to score.
On first glance, the theory is the Titans’ physicality will be too much for the more fancy and finesse offense Guthrie employs. That’s why they play the game.
Titans also have a theft specialist as Tre’Vante Porter has five interceptions. Joe Stoner and Ozell Littleton have notched two picks. And one glaring stat is C.A. has returned four picks for scores with Porter
The “Big Uglies” are led by Tyler Berle and Zach Aylor. Berle has 66 tackles while Berle has brought ‘em down 64 times.
Daytawion Lowe is close behind at 59. Sacks aren’t too big in the Titans arsenal, but Kalub Berry and Christian Smith each have two.
Breakdown: This should be fun. Nothing more, nothing less. I can’t wait, check out Cox channel 7 Friday night at 7:30.
Here’s just the stats
Guthrie Offense
Rushing yards: 272
Passing yards: 124
Total yards: 396
Points: 61
Indiv. Rushing:
Kye Staley – 71 for 754, 15 TDs, 10.6 avg.; Clayton Smith – 72 for 639, 16 TDs, 8.8 avg.; Ashton Morgan – 18 for 232, 5 TDs, 12.9 avg.; Keaton Callins – 25 for 186, 4 TDs, 7.5 avg.
Indiv. Passing:
Kye Staley – 28-39, 477, 10 TDs, 1 Int
Keaton Callins – 30-40, 515, 10 TDs, 0 Int
Indiv. Receiving:
Donte’ Foster – 20 rec. 337 yards, 9 TDs; Kent McDonald – 20 rec. 254, 7 TDs; Kye Staley – 8 rec. 244, 2 TDs
Carl Albert Defense
Tyler Berle – 66 Tkls; Daytawion Lowe – 59 Tkls; Christian Smith, Kalub Berry – 2 sacks; Travante Porter -5 Ints; Joe Stoner, Ozell Littleton – 2 Ints
