CROSS COUNTRY REPORT: DEWEY, CANEY VALLEY, OKU RUNNERS POWER TO STATE
The Dewey High School boys cross country team qualified for the state tournament.
Courtesy photo
By Mike Tupa
Oct. 21, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Two area high school cross country teams have stampeded into the state meet.
The Dewey boys, Caney Valley girls — in the first season the school has fielded a full varsity girls team — the Oklahoma Union boys and the Oklahoma Union all will be sending their entire team squads to state.
Dewey cross country head coach Lance Knight predicted during an interview earlier in the week that: “My top seven guys and a couple of girls have a good chance of making the state meet.”
The Class 2A-4A state meets are planned for Saturday (October 25) at North Rock Creek High School in the Shawnee area.
Following are more details of Friday’s Class 2A and 3A regionals.
DEWEY BOYS
Open up that Golden Gate to state.
That’s where the Dewey Bulldogger boys cross country team is headed, thanks to their powerful showing Saturday in the Class 3A regionals.
Dewey finished fourth out of nine teams in order to punch its ticket to the Big Run.
The Doggers did it with pack running — their first three runners finished between 19th and 26th place and their top five came in among the top 44.
Leading Dewey’s charge in the boys’ regional — hosted by the Oklahoma Bible Academy —was Scott Horton (19th, 18:32). Doggers finishing behind him were: Austin Eastman (24th, 18:52.2), Ryan Frisinger (26th, 19:01.1), Kooper Crawford (41st, 20:26.8), Zach Renfroe (44th, 20:39.1) and Tra Hicks (21:56).
During the past decade Knight — who also is the head varsity boys basketball coach — has slowly built a strong Dewey cross country program. But his reasoning was completely pragmatic.
“When I started doing this, I was looking at the offseason (basketball) guys who don’t play football in the fall,” Knight recalled. “I thought, hey, let’s start a cross country program. … I made them run cross country. A lot of guys don’t like that … but it pays off.”
This year it paid off with a coveted spot at state.
Dewey hadn’t competed in nearly a week-and-a-half prior to the regional.
At the Chelsea meet on October 7, Dewey had swept the top three spots — Horton first, Frisinger second and Eastman third.
Crawford also came in with a high finish. In fact, six or seven Dewey players finished in the top 20 as Dewey won the meet title.
That set the table for the state-qualifying run at the regional.
Next up is state.
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Dewey High School girls cross country runner Adrianna Hicks will represent the Bulldoggers at state.
Courtesy photo
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DEWEY GIRLS
Dewey missed out by qualifying its whole team but will be represented by one young lady.
The Lady Doggers finished seventh in the girls standings at the Class 3A regional at Oklahoma Bible Academy. Only the top five teams take their whole squads to state.
But the seven fastest finishers at the regional who are not a member of a state-qualifying team also advance to state as at-large or individual qualifiers.
It appears at least one Dewey regional pacer made it to state in the at-large category — Adrianna Hicks (eighth, 13:30.6). Hicks was the fastest of the at-large qualifiers.
Rounding out Dewey’s regional runners was Izzy Perry (30th, 14:40.2), Tymberlynn Evans (37th, 14:58.7), Arien Trease (53rd, 16:48.1), Sayde Guilfoyle (56th, 18:18.6), and Aurora Smith (57th, 18:36.4). Perry barely missed out by a couple of places of joining Hicks at state.
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The Caney Valley girls cross country team is bound.
Courtesy photo
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CANEY VALLEY GIRLS
With Deric Longan setting the tone as the head coach, the Lady Trojans have been one of the best feel-good stories this season in cross country.
Although Caney Valley has been represented in the past by some individual runners, they put a full girls team together this year.
Led by sophomore Presley Smith (11th), the Lady Trojans finished third in the girls division of the Class 2A regional hosted by Oklahoma Bible Academy.
Smith conquered the two-mile course in 12:52.7. Roxy Hawkins came in second (21st, 13:54.4) for Caney Valley.
Rounding out the team’s top five were Harper Watts (24th, 14:23.8), Khloe Crawford (41st, 16:23.6) and Abbey Daigle (43rd, 16:32.3).
Joclynn Chancellor (16:56.9) completed the Lady Trojan squad.
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The Oklahoma Union cross country team is headed to state.
Courtesy photo
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OKLAHOMA UNION GIRLS
The Lady Cougars burst to the girls team championship at the Class 2A regional hosted by Heritage Hall.
Not only that — the Lady Cougars were untouchable. They scored an amazing score of 24 — 77 less than second place Central (101).
(In cross country, like golf, the low score wins.)
OUHS placed its top five runners in the top 10 — Makenna Goemmer (2nd, 12:37), Lauryn Jackson (3rd, 12:50), Raiden Kuehn (5th, 13:18), Taylor Dixon (6th, 13:28), and Sawyer Jackson (8th, 13:37).
Rounding out the team was Cooper Robbins (17:09).
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OKLAHOMA UNION BOYS
The Cougars galloped to third place in the regional boys standings.
Koen Lowery led the charge by finishing 10th (19:18), followed by James Bottoms (15th, 19:35).
Rounding out the Cougar congregation were: Jimmy Williams (21st, 20:00), Holden Rouse (49th, 21:58), Jeston Martinez (50th, 22:01), Travis Williams (51st, 22:04), and Ty Almy (66th, 24:17).
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WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN BOYS
The Mustangs romped to ninth place in the boys division at the Class A 5K regional hosted by Oklahoma Bible Academy.
But the squad still qualified one individual — Jesse Blakemore — who finished 13th (18:40.4). He was the fifth-fastest at-large qualifier.
Rounding out the Mustang contingent were Brody Kaelber (59th, 21:41.2), Keagan Herr (59th, 21:44.9), Rowan Wipf (24:20.2), and Anthony LaTorraca (28:37.2).
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WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN GIRLS
Even though they didn’t enter a minimum full team (five runners), the Lady Mustangs qualified one runner for the Class A girls state meet — Eleanor Burns (19th, 14:11.1) — at the Class A regional at Oklahoma Bible Academy.
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COPAN GIRLS
Copan also entered a short roster in the Class A girls regional at Oklahoma Bible Academy, but the Lady Hornets competed with gritty effort.
Jacklynn Thompson (48th, 16:01.0) and Harley Shull (49th, 16:04.5) finished back-to-back while Rylee Preston came in close behind at 52nd (16:17.8).
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