Case DiscGolfPark Hosts First Major Event in Oklahoma Open

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Sand Springs held its first major event at Case DiscGolfPark Saturday, hosting six amateur divisions of the Oklahoma Open on its white (short) tees.

Tara Royal shot a 66 in Recreational Women. Samantha Cooper and Kelsi Snook shot 64s in Intermediate Women. Del Wytovak shot a 48 in Recreational Men, Jarrod Harris shot a 54 in Novice Men, and Eric Savage scored a 53 in Amateur Masters 60+.

Matthew Brown scored a 55 in 18U Juniors, Canton Taylor scored a 54 in 15U Juniors, and Jaxton Taylor scored a 63 in 10U Juniors.

The three-round Oklahoma Open is also being played on five other Tulsa-area courses and will conclude on Sunday.

Cross Country

Chloe Grona took first place in the Frontier Valley Conference junior high track meet at Muskogee, leading the girls to a program-best seventh place finish.

Chloe Grona ran the two-mile race in 12:39 to earn the conference title while Josie Grona placed 7th in 13:15 to also earn All-Conference honors.

The junior high boys also had a historically good seventh place finish, led by Wyatt Shaw in 12:38 for 36th place.

The varsity girls placed eighth, led by Kelsi Hilton with a 5K time of 22:09 for 26th. The varsity boys didn’t place but were led by Taigh Wright in 19:48 for 43rd.

At the 6A Regional meet in Ponca City Hilton placed 44th in 22:38.49 but the girls were one runner shy of earning a team place. The boys finished 15th, led by Wright in 19:59.32 for 74th.

Football

The Sand Springs seventh grade football team improved to 4-2 in its division with a 40-0 rout of Broken Arrow Orange on Saturday. They will play at Bixby White on Saturday.

The eighth grade team suffered its first loss of the season, 18-12 against Carver. The Sandites are 6-1 overall.

Sandite Baseball clinches home Regional, Layne Kirkendoll wins Conference Championship

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This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

For the first time since 2011, the Charles Page High School baseball team (29-6, 11-3) has clinched a home regional tournament after winning its final two district games last week.

The Sandites won 4-0 against Putnam City North (8-27, 3-11) Monday at home before steamrolling the Panthers 25-7 Tuesday on the road.

Jabe Schlehuber (6-1) tossed a complete game one-hitter on Monday with 10 strikeouts and Keaton Campbell scored one run and two RBI.

Dom Ornelas blasted his team-leading eighth home run of the season on Tuesday and the Sandites talled 20 hits in their highest-scoring game since 2016. Eli Buxton (3-1) threw six strikeouts against two hits in three innings.

On Thursday the Sandites paid back an 8-0 loss from earlier in the season by defeating Highway 97 rival Sapulpa 18-5. 

Kayden Campbell (4-0) threw three strikeouts and allowed two hits against the Chieftains (26-9) for the win, and Keaton Campbell and Ty Pennington both hit home runs to lead a 16-hit Sandite effort.

The regular season ended in a 4-3 loss to Westmoore (25-10) on Saturday. Buxton took his first loss of the year, throwing three hits and three strikeouts in 1.1 innings. 

Five pitchers combined to allow only five hits in the loss, and the Sandites managed 10 hits of their own but stranded nine runners.

Fishing

Hunter Spencer and Hayden Lowrance won first place in the Oklahoma Bass Nation youth event on Keystone Lake, Sunday, April 24th. The duo caught five fish totaling 16.54 pounds, including the 4.37-pound big bass.

Caden Strawn and Drew Turner were runners-up with five fish weighing 16.47 pounds, including a 3.93 pounder. 

In the high school division the Sandites were led by Mack Taylor and Parker Haling with five fish weighing 13.15 pounds for ninth place.

Eli Rogers and Caden Shea placed 10th with five fish weighing 13.09 pounds. Nathan Griffin and Jaxon Trotter placed 11th with five fish weighing 12.87 pounds. 

Gabriel Castellano and Dallas Elifrits were 32nd with three fish weighing 7.07 pounds. Cruz Norris and Gunnar Casey were 56th with a 3.05-pound fish.

Disc Golf

40 players turned out for the Sand Springs Showcase PDGA C-Tier one-round tournament at Case DiscGolfPark on Sunday, April 24th. 

Tyler Oakes won the Open division with a 51, Hueston Kratz won Advanced with a 52, Sonny Dalesandro won Intermediate with a 49, Joshua Pauley won Recreational with a 55, and Joshua Loustaunau won Novice with a 56.

Samantha Russell won Advanced Women with a 69, Jimmy Haase won Amateur Masters 40+ with a 56, Jude Henry won Amateur Masters 50+ with a 61, and Shane Chester won Junior 15U with a 69.

Softball

The CPHS slow pitch softball team ended the season with a 7-14 record after falling 10-2 to Guthrie and 19-1 to Jenks at Regionals on Wednesday.

Golf

Zane Downey scored an 81 and Mason Ward shot 84 to lead the Sandites at the Skiatook tournament on Wednesday. Seth Benton scored 89, Drew Paden scored 91, and Cameron Villines scored 94.

The girls ended their season Tuesday at the Ponca City regional tournament. Gina Foster shot 110 and Madison Chambers scored 112.

Track and Field

The Sand Springs boys took 10th and the girls placed eighth at the Frontier Valley Conference track meet at Union High School on Friday with one champion.

Layne Kirkendoll won the long jump at 19 ft. 1.5 in. to break her own school record of 18 ft. 8 in. She also placed fourth in the high jump at 5 ft. 2 in.

Matthew Shelton placed fourth in shot put at 46 ft. 10 in. Jestin Rawlins placed sixth in discus at 139 ft. 6 in. The girls 4x800 relay team placed fourth in 11:04.84.

Tennis

The CPHS girls tennis team split with Sapulpa on Thursday. Sapulpa won the Singles match, but Caitlin Shipman and Daffaney Snyder won 6-2, 7-5 in Doubles.

Sand Springs man ties River City course record

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Dwight Griffis throws an up-shot on Hole 15 at the River City disc golf course.

Local Sand Springs disc golfer Dwight Griffis tied the U-Disc course record at River City this Tuesday. Griffis shot a 39 on the Par 54 course located inside Case Community Park, tying the previous record set on July 29, 2018.

It is possible that others have shot better rounds on the course, but this article is only referencing rounds recorded in U-Disc, the official app of the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA).

Griffis’s previous personal best on the course was ten under par, and he improved on it by five strokes. He played three consecutive rounds on the day of the record, and was a cumulative 33 strokes under par, with no bogeys.

In the record-tying round, Griffis had two long birdie streaks. He birdied eight holes in a row before shooting par on Hole 12, then birdied six more holes to close out the round. He then birdied the first two holes of round three to complete a second eight-birdie run.

Because River City has never hosted a tournament, there are no “official” rounds or course records. The only scores logged on the course are “casual” rounds, which may or may not have witnesses, and the scores in U-Disc have to be trusted through an honor system. In Griffis’s case, he had three witnesses to verify his round, including the author of this article, and an official within the Sand Springs Parks Department.

Sand Springs disc golfer Mitchell Martin threw a hole-in-one on Hole 5 at River City Tuesday.

One of Griffis’s witnesses, Mitchell Martin, threw a hole-in-one, also known as an “ace,” on Hole 5 that same day. Aces are more common than hitting a hole-in-one on the ball golf course, but they’re still rare, and many players go years without throwing one.

River City is currently the only disc golf course in Sand Springs, and its current layout was installed in 2017 as part of a $6 million park renovation. Three years later, the course is about to be completely redesigned.

SEE RELATED: Sand Springs Parks Department unveils latest plans for new disc golf course.

Modern disc golf emerged in the 1960s following the invention of the Frisbee. The first official disc golf course was installed in Pasadena, California in 1975. 45 years later and there are now more than 8,400 disc golf courses worldwide with more than 53,000 active dues-paying members of the PDGA.

River City U-Disc Leaderboard (as of 5/29/2020)
39 Dwight Griffis (5/26/2020)
39 “scookie” (7/29/2018)
40 Nathaniel Radtke (4/16/2020)
40 Chuck Lee (4/8/2020)
41 Virgil Noah (5/29/2020)
41 Virgil Noah (5/22/2020)
41 Eddie McClain (5/19/2020)
41 Nathaniel Radtke (4/28/2019)
41 Mark Tipton (2/9/2019)

Sand Springs man ties River City course record

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Dwight Griffis throws an up-shot on Hole 15 at the River City disc golf course.

Local Sand Springs disc golfer Dwight Griffis tied the U-Disc course record at River City this Tuesday. Griffis shot a 39 on the Par 54 course located inside Case Community Park, tying the previous record set on July 29, 2018.

It is possible that others have shot better rounds on the course, but this article is only referencing rounds recorded in U-Disc, the official app of the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA).

Griffis’s previous personal best on the course was ten under par, and he improved on it by five strokes. He played three consecutive rounds on the day of the record, and was a cumulative 33 strokes under par, with no bogeys.

In the record-tying round, Griffis had two long birdie streaks. He birdied eight holes in a row before shooting par on Hole 12, then birdied six more holes to close out the round. He then birdied the first two holes of round three to complete a second eight-birdie run.

Because River City has never hosted a tournament, there are no “official” rounds or course records. The only scores logged on the course are “casual” rounds, which may or may not have witnesses, and the scores in U-Disc have to be trusted through an honor system. In Griffis’s case, he had three witnesses to verify his round, including the author of this article, and an official within the Sand Springs Parks Department.

Sand Springs disc golfer Mitchell Martin threw a hole-in-one on Hole 5 at River City Tuesday.

One of Griffis’s witnesses, Mitchell Martin, threw a hole-in-one, also known as an “ace,” on Hole 5 that same day. Aces are more common than hitting a hole-in-one on the ball golf course, but they’re still rare, and many players go years without throwing one.

River City is currently the only disc golf course in Sand Springs, and its current layout was installed in 2017 as part of a $6 million park renovation. Three years later, the course is about to be completely redesigned.

SEE RELATED: Sand Springs Parks Department unveils latest plans for new disc golf course.

Modern disc golf emerged in the 1960s following the invention of the Frisbee. The first official disc golf course was installed in Pasadena, California in 1975. 45 years later and there are now more than 8,400 disc golf courses worldwide with more than 53,000 active dues-paying members of the PDGA.

River City U-Disc Leaderboard (as of 5/29/2020)
39 Dwight Griffis (5/26/2020)
39 “scookie” (7/29/2018)
40 Nathaniel Radtke (4/16/2020)
40 Chuck Lee (4/8/2020)
41 Virgil Noah (5/29/2020)
41 Virgil Noah (5/22/2020)
41 Eddie McClain (5/19/2020)
41 Nathaniel Radtke (4/28/2019)
41 Mark Tipton (2/9/2019)