Sandite Sports Weekly Roundup: Volleyball and Softball Suffer Tough Week

The 14th-ranked Charles Page High School volleyball team has lost five matches in a row, but it’s the way they lost their last match that has coach Skylar Jackson excited.

The Sandites (6-6) fell 3-0 to 4A No. 1 Regent Prep (17-3) Thursday night at the Ed Dubie Field House, but the last two sets were neck and neck.

After winning game one 25-16, the Rams prevailed by close margins of 26-24 and 27-25 for the sweep.

“We’ve really been struggling with this feeling of being second best,” said Jackson. “We’re in a tough class. 6A is tough, so the history has kind of been middle of the road. We’ve really had to work hard against the mentality of being second best.”

“In the last couple of matches it really showed; we really struggled with that. But today, even though we did lose, I think we stayed up much better than we have in our last couple of matches.”

The Sandites have gone through the gauntlet over the past two weeks, falling in 3-0 sweeps to No. 4 Owasso, No. 7 Bixby, and No. 2 Broken Arrow.

The Tigers (13-2, 4-0) dismantled Sand Springs 25-14, 25-7, and 25-8 on Tuesday, dropping the Sandites to 0-4 in Frontier Valley conference play.

Regent Prep started to run away with things in the first set, scoring most of their kills on tipped balls while the Sandites’ power hitters struggled with accuracy early on.

“We made one switch, I put Jayden Smith on the outside,” said Jackson. “But I think we served tougher and kept them out of system. They were unable to get their big hitter the ball as often, or as prime of a set, and that played in our favor.”

“We did adjust to the tip. Obviously they kind of go to that pretty often if they’re off in any sort of way, so we picked that up quite a bit.”

The adjustments worked well, taking the next two sets to extra rallies.

Sand Springs trailed by as much as 16-11 in game two before surging back to a 22-21 lead before University of Central Arkansas-commit Ella Drake scored back-to-back kills for the win.

In the final game the Sandites were down 21-13 before rattling off an eight-point streak, highlighted by some aggressive blocking from Payton Robbins and Averi Tippit.

The decisive point ended up being an ace from Ellen Jenkins that was nearly a service error, just barely rolling up over the net and dropping on the other side.

“I’m just proud of our girls for staying up even though we lost the first and the second,” said Jackson. “We were down a bunch in the third and still rallied, so I’m proud of them for staying up and not just giving it away.”

Robbins scored 8 kills to lead the Sandites and added 10 digs. Olivia DeWitt recorded a team-high 17 digs, Hannah McKelvey had 15 assists, and Layla Lenex had 5 blocks and 4 kills. Sophomore Josie Myers also impressed with 6 kills.

“I told them you always want to work hard because even if you lose, it’s so worth it.,” said Jackson. “If you give it your best and at the end of the day they still get the best of you, then that’s okay. You’re still going to be proud of what you did out there, so they continue to work hard for their teammates.”

Drake scored 17 kills and 2 aces for the Rams, while Meg Goodwin and Ellen Jenkins added 7 kills and 3 aces apiece.

Sand Springs will get a week to recover before traveling to Pryor (2-13) Thursday.

Softball

After Monday’s “Youth Night” game against Bixby was rained out, the Sandites brought the heat to district-leading Jenks (12-2, 7-0) on Tuesday’s Alumni Night game.

Sand Springs (8-8, 2-3) fell in a close 6-4 affair after battling back from a 6-1 second-inning deficit.

Ashyln Clark, Jaden Jordan, Kenzie King, and Addison Tuttle scored for the Sandites.

Addie Hughes (4-7) and Kelsi Hilton (4-1) combined for 12 hits and 9 strikeouts from the circle.

After the game, the Sandites celebrated their many former players who were in attendance.

Sand Springs will return to action Tuesday at home with a district-double header against the combined team of Tulsa Memorial and Booker T. Washington (0-12, 0-4) at 5:00 p.m. for Senior Night. They will also host Bartlesville (9-6, 3-2) on Thursday.

Football

The Sandite 8th graders won their season opener 20-6 at Muskogee while the freshmen posted a 32-0 shutout against the Roughers. Varsity football is taking a bye week to prepare for Bixby on the 9th.

Sandite Track & Field celebrates successful season with donut relay

View fullsize

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

The first Track and Field season of the Gloria Avey era may have been highlighted by Layne Kirkendoll’s High Jump State Title, but its glorious finale was a donut relay.

The Charles Page High School Sandites didn’t stop practicing just because the season ended last week, but they did make practice more fun with some end-of-the-year games that included “Red Light, Green Light” and a three-legged race.

“I want the kids to have fun, but I also want the kids to know that we’re serious about it,” said Avey. “So being serious and having fun are my two goals, and I feel like we accomplished that this year.”

Avey took over the Sand Springs program after three years as an assistant, working two years under Tim Dial and one year under Virginia Williams.

“I’ve had a lot of coaches that I’ve learned from over the years. I’ve been coaching for Sand Springs for four years and I feel like I’ve learned a lot, kind of taking things from different people.”

Avey’s first season was a definite success as the girls placed 15th at State for their highest finish since 2017, and the boys placed 22nd for their highest finish since 2019.

“I learned a lot,” said Avey. “I’m definitely going to do some things differently next year, but I think it was a really successful season. I think the majority of the kids had a really good time and they all improved on their times.”

The 28-year-old first-time head coach has spent most of her life in Sand Springs, but actually graduated from the now-defunct Moriah Christian Academy, which didn’t have an athletics program. 

“I’ve always been a runner. I’ve always enjoyed running and I’ve just run on my own ever since I was in middle school. Fitness and exercise has always been a passion of mine so I kind of got recruited to (coach) track.”

In addition to running, Avey has also been involved in CrossFit over the years. She graduated Oklahoma State University in 2017 and is also a math teacher at the high school.

Her husband, Kevin, is the strength and conditioning coach for the Sandites, as well as the head coach of the brand new girls powerlifting program and an assistant football coach.

Of course, the Sandites can credit a lot of their season’s success to athletes like Kirkendoll - the senior leaper with Division I prospects.

“Layne has made podium every year of high school except the year she lost to COVID,” said Avey. 

“She’s just got that God-given talent. There’s just a few little tweaks that we make and little cues that we give her, but she just pretty much knows what to do.”

Kirkendoll already had full-ride scholarship offers from Oral Roberts University and South Dakota State coming into her senior year and she has also collected some offers to play collegiate basketball, though she has yet to make a commitment. 

In addition to Kirkendoll the Sandites will also lose shot put qualifier Matthew Shelton, discus qualifier Jestin Rawlins, and relay runner Jazmin Lopez, but will return Kelsi Hilton, Josie Myers, and Gracie Gifford from the 4x800 team next season.

Sports Roundup: Layne Kirkendoll wins State Championship in High Jump

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

Layne Kirkendoll came up an inch short of her 5-ft. 7-in. school-record high-jump mark Saturday afternoon in Ardmore, but she was still two inches higher than the rest of the crowd.

Five girls made it past the 5-ft. 4-in. mark, but only the Sandites’ senior leaper was able to clear the next notch up, securing her first State title and first high jump title in program history for the Sand Springs girls. 

The jump made Kirkendoll only the fifth Lady Sandite in school history to win a gold medal, and it was the 13th overall for the Lady Sandites.

Kirkendoll also placed fourth in the long jump with a mark of 18 ft. 3 in. 

Kelsi Hilton, Josie Myers, Gracie Gifford, and Jazmin Lopez placed 15th in the 4x800 relay with a time of 10:55.27.

Jestin Rawlins placed fifth in discus with a distance of 148 ft. 2 in. and Matthew Shelton placed 15th in shot put with a mark of 44 ft. 3 in.

Overall, the girls placed 15th and the boys were 22nd in their first season under head coach Gloria Avey - notable improvements over the prior season’s 19th place finish for the girls and zero points scored for the boys.

Cheyenne Walden’s 1600-meter State Meet record from 2017 was finally broken, as champion Payton Hinkle and runner-up Caden Dawson both broke her 4:57.07 mark.

Several Sandites participated in the Summit League Championship at Oral Roberts University this past week.

Aden Baughman ran the second leg of ORU’s 4x400 relay team that placed second and also placed ninth in the 800-meter run.

Joel Mackey ran the first leg of the 4x100 relay team that placed fourth and also placed 15th in the 100-meter dash and 10th in the 200.

Mitchell Mefford placed 12th in discus throw and 15th in hammer throw, Victoria Baker placed 21st in the 800-meter run, and Erika Baker placed 24th in the 5K run.

Wrestling

Charles Page High School alumnus Daton Fix won gold at the Pan American freestyle wrestling championship in Acapulco, Mexico on Monday, May 9th.

The Oklahoma State redshirt junior rolled to a 3-0 sweep of the 61 kg bracket for his second Senior continental championship. 

In the first round he scored an 11-0 technical fall against Puerto Rico’s Joseph Silva in 2:20, then he won 10-0 against Mexico’s Pedro Flores Salazar in 59 seconds. In the final round he took a 10-0 lead against Canada’s Logan Sloan before pinning him in 40 seconds.

Fix will return to the mat on June 3rd at the Final X competition in Stillwater where he will aim to retain his spot on the US World Team. 

Volleyball

CPHS senior Kasidy Holland signed to play collegiate volleyball at Friends University, an NAIA school in Wichita, Kansas, competing in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference.

The team captain and outside hitter was a Frontier Valley All-Conference honorable mention this season and helped lead the team to their second and third winningest seasons in school history over the course of her career.

Holland will join teammates Teyha Johnson and Charley Fahland, who previously signed with Friends in February.

Softball

Three Charles Page High School alumnae won titles in their respective softball divisions on Saturday, May 14th.

Sydney Pennington scored the go-ahead run in an upset of No. 1 Oklahoma Saturday afternoon at USA Hall of Fame Stadium. The redshirt senior scored on a bases-loaded walk in the top of the eighth inning to propel Oklahoma State University to its first Big 12 Tournament Championship. 

Rogers State sophomore Kimi Presnell helped lift her team to an NCAA Division II Regional Championship Saturday in Claremore. 

The Hillcats had to battle back from the losers bracket after a Friday loss to Minnesota State, but won their first rematch 8-2 in a 15-inning showdown. 

Presnell hit an RBI double in the final inning and Rogers went on to win 4-0 in the “if” game.

Missouri State University redshirt sophomore Jacie Taber didn’t come out of the bullpen on Saturday, but her team won a 10-4 battle with Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. 

Sandite Baseball's successful season comes to a close in Regional upset

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

Trailing 13-12 in the bottom of the eighth, the Sandites loaded the bases with two outs and Nathan Gibson stepped up to the plate. 

The senior first-baseman grounded a 2-0 pitch to second for the fielder’s choice, and just like that, Sand Springs’ best season in a decade came to a close.

Charles Page High School (31-8) earned its highest win tally since 2012 this season and got to host a Regional playoff, but came up a run short to Enid (25-9) in a high-scoring elimination game.

“We won 31 games this year,” said head coach Matt Brown. “You always want to win the last one, but only one team gets to win the last one. These guys fought and battled hard - that’s what people are going to remember about them.”

The Sandites had to battle through every inch of the tournament, and barely won their first game 4-3 against Booker T. Washington (9-29) after trailing 3-1 till the bottom of the fifth.

Kayden Campbell (5-0) won that game on the mound with four strikeouts and only one hit in 3.1 innings.

In their first winner’s bracket game against Enid, the Plainsmen won 3-1 despite being out-hit eight to six. Jabe Schlehuber (6-2) went the distance on the mound with three strikeouts.

On day two the Sandite bats were on fire in an 8-0 loser’s bracket shutout of Washington. Gage Elliott got his first win of the season, throwing eight strikeouts in a seven-inning two-hitter. 

Gabe Glenn hit his fifth home run of the season and Brody Rutledge went 3-of-4 with a double and a triple.

The Sandites had to come from behind three times to force extra innings against the Plainsmen on Saturday and amassed 12 hits but surrendered 19 in the afternoon nail-biter. 

“These guys are the best Sand Springs team that’s played here in a long time,” said Brown. “They were never going to quit - that was never an option.”

Enid scored four in the top of the second, but Glenn hit his sixth homer of the year to get the home team on the board, then Brooks Dudley scored on an RBI single from Gibson in the bottom of the inning. 

Dom Ornelas added an RBI double and Rutledge scored on a flyout from Glenn to tie it in the third.

Back-to-back homers from Garrett Shull and McCage Hartling put the visitors right back on top, 7-4, in the fourth, but the Sandites soon flipped the script.

A bases-loaded walk, a sacrifice fly from Keaton Campbell, and a three-run homer from Ornelas put Sand Springs up 9-7.

Once again, the Plainsmen responded with four hits and two walks in the fifth to go up 11-9. Once again, the Sandites responded with a two-run homer from Glenn in the bottom of the seventh to keep the season alive.

But a win was not in the cards for the Sandites, who stranded loaded bases in the seventh and eighth innings. Enid added two more runs in the eighth and Ornelas’s tenth homer of the year was only able to cut it to 13-12.

Carson Seabolt (3-1) got the start and surrendered 13 hits with three strikeouts in 4.1 innings, but Eli Buxton (3-2) took the loss with six hits and four strikeouts in 3.2 innings.

“You’ve got to give credit to Enid,” said Brown. “Those guys played freaking good. Sometimes it be like that.”

The Sandites went on to graduate 11 seniors that night at the Mabee Center. Each of which helped elevate the program to one of its most successful seasons in school history.

“These guys set the bar,” said Brown. “It’s up to those guys that are coming behind them to keep it there.”

Track and Field

The Sand Springs track teams qualified for the State meet in five events, with both the boys and girls placing seventh at the 6A-East Regional Saturday at Jenks. 

Layne Kirkendoll qualified in both long and high jump, placing second in high jump at 5 ft. 4 in. and second in long jump at 18 ft. 2 in. 

The girls 4x800 relay team of Josie Myers, Gracie Gifford, Jazmin Lopez, and Kelsi Hilton qualified for State by placing third with a time of 10:45.32. 

Jestin Rawlins placed fifth in discus with a distance of 148 ft. 5 in. to qualify for State and Matthew Shelton placed sixth in shot put with a distance of 46 ft. 11 in. to qualify.

Lopez also placed fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:32.16, and Hilton was sixth in the 3200 in 13:15.24. 

Dalton Wilcox placed fourth in the 800 in 2:05.31, Noah Hanlon placed fourth in the 3200 in 10:52.37, and Caleb Goodman placed sixth in 300 Hurdles in 43 seconds. 

The boys 4x200 relay team placed fifth in 1:39.99.