TOP ATHLETE OF THE PAST 3O YEARS: JOEY MCNAIR (CANEY VALLEY/BARTLESVILLE)

By Mike Tupa

Sept. 22, 2025

BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT

During his nearly 30 years of covering area high school sports for either the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise or the Bartlesville Area Sports Report, Mike Tupa has enjoyed the opportunity to observe some incredible athletes.

This is an ongoing series highlighting each few days one of those athletes from the 1996-97 school year through the present. The list is not in chronological order. The athletes are presented in random sequence.

TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT

JOEY MCNAIR

Caney Valley/Bartlesville

Cross county/track (late 1990s, early 2000s)

Let's surmise that no human being is really indefatigable in the pure sense of the word.

Truth is, we all have our physical and athletic limits.

But some people push through the pain and exhaustion with an incredible resiliency that makes them seem almost superhuman.

Long-distance running warrior McNair was one of those.

Prior to getting into his awesome accomplishments, a perusal of his path to greatness is worth looking into.

McNair actually started his prep years at Caney Valley High in Ramona. But he chose to transfer to Bartlesville High, in the process losing an entire year of competition.

One can only imagine what he might have accomplished had he been blessed with four full years of eligibility.

Following his Bartlesville High years, he starred on the college level at the University of Oklahoma.

Now to get to some of his high school highlights — which includes the rare feat of winning state track championships for two different schools.

In the spring of 1998, McNair powered to the Class 2A state title in the boys 800m run (1:55.95) while competing as a sophomore for Caney Valley. (He also placed as state runner-up in the 1600m and 3200m runs.)

McNair decided to transfer to Bartlesville for both academic and athletic reasons — especially after his running coach departed from Caney Valley.

After sitting out cross country his junior year — although he helped push Ryan Starr in practice, helping Starr to finish third in the state cross country meet — due to his transfer, McNair racked up 23 gold medals (19 individual races) and two state silver medals in the spring of 1999 in track competition for Bartlesville.

A year later in the spring of 2000, McNair won three boys gold medals for Bartlesville in Class 5A competition — the 800m run (1:54.97), the 1600m run (4:25.11) and the 3200m run (9:44.67).

To capture the distance championship trifecta in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m in one state track meet ranks somewhere between unbelievable and impossible.

And that's just track.

In the fall of 1999, McNair surged to the Class 5A boys state cross championship crown — one of only two Bartlesville runners to accomplish that since 1937 (the other being Bryan Yockers in 1986).

McNair continued to cruise to greatness in college.

As a sophomore, he burst to second place overall at the Tulsa Hurricane Cross Country Festival (20:31) to lead Oklahoma.

Prior to that, during his freshman year at Oklahoma he finished as the team's second-fastest finisher in five of seven meets. He would earn All-Big 12 Conference honors in cross country and earn Academic All-American kudos during his Sooner career.

He turned in Oklahoma's best time in the men's 3000m run in the 2004 Big 12 indoor championships.

Beyond his successes in competition, McNair was praised for investing his talents at an in-state school, which snapped a trend of exodus of the best Oklahoma high school track talent to out-of-state.

But McNair was a hero beyond running.

After participating in ROTC in college, leading to his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

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This series has included the following athletes, listed in no particular order.

-Jena’ Williams, Bartlesville

-Eric Rolfs, Bartlesville

-Chris Smith, Caney Valley

-Jill Bryan, Copan

-Barron Tanner Jr, Bartlesville

-Hailey Tucker, Bartlesville

-Jeremy Dunkle, Dewey

-Whitney Metcalf, Bartlesville

-Tim Hamilton, Bartlesville

-Danielle Koster, Bartlesville

-Carson LaRue, Dewey

-John Hamman, Wesleyan Christian

-Jamie Elam, Caney Valley

-Sam Mitchell, Bartlesville

-Karissa Jones, Dewey

-Noah Hartsock, Bartlesville

-Tiffany Paper, Copan

-AJ Parker, Bartlesville

-Tiffany Eden, Caney Valley

-Henry Williams, Bartlesville

-Markell Carter, Bartlesville

-Rebecca Schluter, Wesleyan Christian

-Adam Hibdon, Barnsdall

-Tishuana Hunter, Nowata

-Nate Alleman, Bartlesville

-Jessie Burch, Dewey

Joey McNair