Sandite Sports Weekly Roundup: Sand Springs Hosts First-Ever Girls Wrestling Tournament

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The Charles Page High School boys wrestling team (13-4) suffered a pair of tough losses last week, falling 35-21 to No. 4 Broken Arrow (9-2) on Tuesday and 62-10 to No. 2 Stillwater (11-1) on Thursday.

The Sandites will travel to No. 11 Owasso (4-7) on Tuesday before wrapping up the regular season at the Glenpool Warrior Classic over the weekend.

Sand Springs hosted its first ever girls wrestling tournament Friday at Clyde Boyd Middle School, drawing 22 varsity programs and 18 junior high squads.

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Springdale Har-Ber won the inaugural high school tournament while Perry won the junior high event. Sand Springs placed sixth in varsity and fifth in junior high.

Bailey Copeland won the Sandites’ lone gold medal, pinning both of her opponents in the junior high 82-pound bracket.

In junior high: Rylee Allen placed second, Sawyer Briscoe and Ananiah King were fourth, Camden Carrison and Cailey Miller were fifth, and Lyla Waldren and Stefane Ortiz placed sixth.

Gracie Young and Kelsi Hilton led the varsity girls with runner-up performances. Laila Mirza placed fourth, Addily Shotwell was fifth, Madison Chambers placed sixth, and Kreedence Behnke was eighth.

The junior high boys took second place in a tight three-way race at the Ted Anderson Tournament in Edmond on Saturday. The Sandites finished only 13 points behind Bixby while edging out Broken Arrow by 1.5 points.

Kaden Pope and Hudson Sheppard won their brackets; Ryley Kester, Brady Moore, and Jaxon Grigsby were runners up; Kasen McAffery placed third; and Issac Sensintaffer finished fourth.

The Keystone Kids placed seventh out of 100 teams at the OKUSA Youth Wrestling State Championship with four champions and four runners-up.

Brackton Upton, Hagan Wolfenberger, and Jaxon Trotter all won their divisions while Hudson Waag, Karson Waag, and Bryson Pope were runners up. Kydon Harness was a double-finalist, winning in Beginner and placing second in Open.

Ryker Dawes, Collin Randall, Maddix Spencer, and Ayreson Reiss placed third. Brenntly Taylor, Eric Foust, Mason Londo, and Maddox Pope placed fourth.

Baseball

Sandite catcher Dominic Ornelas announced his commitment to Northern Oklahoma College at Enid Tuesday on Twitter. Also headed to NOC-Enid is pitcher and second baseman Jabe Schlehuber, who committed in November.

Football

Sand Springs seniors Kyle Morrall and Jacob Blevins announced their commitment to Northwestern Oklahoma State University. There they will be reunited with former Sandite assistant coach Jason Medrano, who recently took over as Offensive Coordinator for the Rangers.

Brody Rutledge, the Sandites’ leading receiver, committed to Northeastern State University on Tuesday. There he will join former Sand Springs teammates Gabe Brown, Landon Hendricks, and Blake Jones.

Mitchell Smith Secures District Title for Sandites in 39-34 Win over Ponca City

After missing out the past two years, Sand Springs is headed back to Dual State thanks to straight toughness and senior leadership.

With one match left in the Sandites’ district dual against No. 11 Ponca City, Sand Springs trailed 34-33. It all came down to Mitchell Smith at 150 pounds.

With a knee injury that many would consider season-ending, the senior put his team on his shoulders and came out with a pin of Braden Perciful in 30 seconds to secure the 39-34 victory.

“We needed him big time,” said head coach Ty Bowling.

“I said, ‘Hey. The score is close enough. We don’t need anything big, we just need to go out and get a win.’ He goes out and finds a pin. That’s huge for us. Senior leadership.”

“We haven’t gone to dual state since my freshman year, so this is big,” said Smith. “We had some bad losses the past two years, to teams we all felt like we should have beat, so it’s nice to win like this.”

Sand Springs went on to win 46-27 against Edmond Deer Creek and 48-25 against No. 13 Union to clinch its 18th District Championship Tuesday evening at the UMAC.

“Straight toughness,” said Bowling. “We had a handful of injuries. It’s January, that’s what wrestling is. We’ve got guys with bad ankles, bad knees, so they dug deep, a lot of toughness. They battled. They showed that they wanted it.”

“We’ve been looking toward these duals all season. We knew Ponca City was the defending champ, we know what they had coming back. We knew it was going to take all 14 doing their job, whether it was finding bonus, not giving up bonus, or just going out and just gritting out a win.”

Four Sandites went undefeated at the quad, including Jaxon “Scout” Trotter, who had to start each dual at 157 pounds.

“We usually start at 106 and we started all three duals at 157,” said Bowling. “He had three tough matches and came away with three wins, so he started us off right every time.”

Freshman Hudson Sheppard and junior Mason Harris also went undefeated, winning all three of their matches by fall.

“I’m just excited,” said Harris. “It’s my first time and I just want to know what it’s like. I was one year off from knowing what it’s like so I’m just excited to bring Sand Springs back into it.”

“We have a few injuries right now that are still healing up. By the time those heal back up we’re going to be even more dominant than we are now.”

Smith won both of his matches as well. With a 46-21 lead against Deer Creek, the Sandites forfeited Smith’s weight, but the senior insisted on wrestling against Union, where he collected a 31-second pin.

“I really wanted to,” said Smith. “I wanted to wrestle the second match as well, but my coach told me not to because he didn’t want to risk it, which is fair but I’m not a big fan of sitting on the bench and watching my teammates wrestle, so I tried to get some matches in as well.”

The Sandites still have a few tough duals left before Dual State, and will host No. 4 Broken Arrow (8-1) Tuesday for Homecoming and No. 2 Stillwater (10-1) on Thursday.

The varsity boys took the weekend off but the varsity girls and junior varsity boys competed at the Morey Villareal Memorial tournament at Will Rogers High School.

The JV boys won the tournament against a field of mostly varsity competitors, topping Bartlesville 207 to 194.5.

Dawson Briscoe won the 106-pound bracket with five pins, Brody Ensten won at 157 with two pins, and Peyton Callis won at 165 with four pins.

Colt Hood, Landen Horton, and Christopher Cooper were runners-up and Jackson Burdge, Preston Reyna, Brock O’Dell, Dallas Flores, and Cash Lucas took third place.

Madison Chambers took first place, Gracie Young was second, and Kreedence Behnke was third to lead the girls varsity to a fifth-place finish.

Youth

Gage Fadenrecht, Ryker Dawes, Collin Randall, Brackton Upton, Hunter Sims, Kase Skaggs, and Jace Simms all won their brackets at the Broken Arrow Wrestlemania tournament, representing the Keystone Kids.

Sandite Sports Weekly Roundup: Kelsi Hilton wins Diamond State Tournament

The Sand Springs girls varsity wrestling team took 25th place at the Inola tournament over the weekend with two medalists. Kelsi Hilton took second place at 130 pounds with three pins while Kreedence Behnke placed sixth at 100.

The junior varsity boys placed 10th at Inola with two medalists. Ayreson Reiss scored two pins and a technical fall in a runner-up performance at 106. Preston Callis was runner-up at 165 with four pins.

Hilton took first place at the Diamond State Lady Invitational over winter break, pinning three opponents for her first regular season title.

Laila Mirza and Madison Chambers placed third, Gracie Young was fourth, and Addilly Shotwell and Kreedence Behnke were sixth in Springdale.

The Keystone Kids crowned seven champions and 10 runners-up at the Bedlam Battle in Stillwater.

Brackton Upton, Maddix Spencer, Bryson Pope, Kasen McAffrey, and Trey Tunnell all won their divisions while Kydon Harness won in two divisions.

Jett Galloway, Na’Kya Canady, Caemon Young, Ryker Dawes, Jayce Parks, Eric Foust, Hudson Waag, Carsten Reiss, Wes Wilson, and Samuel Moore all took second place.

Boys Basketball

The Sand Springs varsity boys (6-3) have already matched last season’s win total with a third-place performance at the East Central Classic in Ada over the weekend.

On Thursday the Sandites won 51-42 against Ardmore (4-7) behind a 13-point performance from Michael Foster and 11 points from Blake Johnson.

They slipped against host Ada (8-3) on Friday, however, in a close 46-43 battle after leading 26-18 at halftime and 34-29 to start the fourth. Kooper Kelly scored 11 to lead the Sandites.

In the placement round Kelly was once against the team leader with 11 points in a 53-45 win over 3A No. 8 Hugo (10-4). Kelly was named to the All-Tournament team.

Girls Basketball

Hailey Jackson became the second player under Josh Berry to join the 1,000 point club at Sand Springs as the Lady Sandites (8-4) placed sixth at the Putnam City Invitational.

The senior star scored 28 in a 50-46 loss to No. 17 Norman North (6-5) on Thursday and added 17 in a 49-34 win over Muskogee (2-6).

In Saturday’s placement match with 4A No. 7 Harding Prep (12-2) Jackson scored 25 and put herself over the 1,000 mark with a third-quarter free throw. The Sandites lost that game 57-47.

Sakauri Wilson scored 13 and Kiaryn Taylor added 12 in the win over Muskogee, and Wilson added 17 against Harding.

Sandite basketball will return to action with conference road games at Union on Tuesday and will host Owasso on Thursday.

Football

Several Sandite football players are receiving college offers. Jacob Blevins, Kyle Morrall, and Ryley Kester have all been recruited by Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

Former Sandite offensive line coach Jason Medrano has been hired as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at NWOSU.

Laila Mirza Becomes First-Ever Girls Tournament Champion from Sand Springs

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Laila Mirza is officially the first ever regular-season tournament champion for the Sand Springs girls wrestling program.

The junior 120 pounder won the Joe Cole Classic in Cleveland, helping her team to a program-best 2nd place finish. All five Lady Sandites placed top-four in their divisions.

“I found her in the weight room because I help coach (Kevin) Avey with the girls weightlifting,” said head coach Ty Bowling, who started the girls’ program this year.

“She tries to get as much extra work (during free period) or during weightlifting period when they’re not lifting weights, and she’ll stay after practice.”

“She’s one that gets here early and stays late,” said Bowling.

Mirza pinned her first two opponents without giving up a single point, then received two forfeits in the round-robin bracket.

“She’s run cross country and she’s ran some track, and she told me at the beginning of the year that she had never ever won a medal.”

“That preseason tournament she went to she got first, then she took sixth (at Jay) and got a medal there, and then she got first here, so she’s kind of three for three on the medals in wrestling.”

Kelsi Hilton placed third at 140 pounds with three pins, only losing in a close 8-5 decision to the tournament champion.

Addily Shotwell placed third at 170 with one pin. Kreedence Behnke placed third and Madison Chambers was fourth at 100 pounds.

“Our girls are working hard,” said Bowling. “Wrestling’s not an easy sport and they’re in here every day doing it exactly like the boys are doing.”

“We’re not trying to put too much pressure on them, but we’re telling them how they’re going to be forever remembered as the girls that started (the program) and have a chance to be the first ever Sand Springs girls State qualifiers.”

The junior varsity boys placed fourth at the tournament despite mostly facing varsity competitors.

Kase Skaggs won the 113-pound bracket and four other Sandites also medaled.

Skaggs outscored his opponents 51 to 13 with a pin and two major decisions before earning a 4-2 decision over State qualifier Daxtyn Davis.

Peyton Callis was runner-up at 165 with three pins; Cash Lucas was runner-up at 285 with three pins; Jesse Moore placed third at 144 with four pins; and Logan Childers placed fourth at 113 with three pins.

The junior high boys team placed 12th with two total medalists and the junior high girls placed 14th with one medalist.

Gage Gunn placed fourth at 132 with three pins; Dallas Flores placed fourth at 155 with five pins; and Rylee Allen placed fourth at girls 117 with two pins.

The Keystone Kids wrestling club had no problem winning the Sand Springs Slam tournament over the weekend with 28 champions, nearly tripling the score of runner-up Barnsdall.

Jase Morgan, Maddix Spencer, Hagan Wolfenberger, Kason Wolfe, Acetyn Hart, Sutton Hawley, Zander Pope, Rylan Hamby, Ty Galloway, Samuel Moore, Joshua Compton, Griffin Sensintaffar, Ayreson Reiss, David Ritchey, Matthew Moore, Kasen McAffrey, Samuel Reichel, Jaxon Trotter, Brenntly Taylor, Jayce Parks, Caemon Young, Ryker Dawes, Collin Randall, Hunter Sims, Colt Combs, Kydon Harness, Gage Buchanan, and Saylor Eaglin all won their divisions.

The varsity boys and girls will return to action Tuesday, December 20th with home duals against Sapulpa at 6:00 p.m.

Girls Cross Country returns lots of experience, boys turn to underclassmen

While the starting lineup for the Sand Springs girls cross country team will look very familiar this season, the boys will be filled with new faces.

After placing 14th at last year’s Regional cross country meet, the Lady Sandites will be returning all but one member from their A team, while the boys will look to replace four members of last year’s 13th place lead card.

“We’ve got a young team, but we’ve got some talented young guys coming up,” said head coach Mike Burdge. “Last year we were coming back from the COVID stuff. We were a little shy in numbers, but we’re picking up a little bit this year.”

The girls will return Gracie Gifford, Lauren Foster, Madison Chambers, and Laila Mirza from last year’s Regional lineup, while the boys will return only Iyon Hood and Michael Johnson.

“We’ve got a couple of kids that are promising. I don’t know what we’ll see from them this year but through the next couple of years we’re going to be moving up so it looks pretty good.”

Taigh Wright and Rafael Huff will likely be immediate contributors after placing 13th and 19th respectively at last year’s junior high conference meet.

The girls will get a boost from freshman Maddyx Hampton, who finished in the top half of last year’s conference meet. “She’s a real solid runner, she’ll do good,” said Burdge. 

The Sandites started their speed camp this week, earlier than usual. In the past, Burdge has focused more on building his runners’ conditioning through August. He hopes the change will pay off this fall.

Adding numbers has been a recurring challenge for the program over the years as more and more athletes have begun to specialize in other sports.

Burdge has been trying to stress the conditioning and endurance benefits that cross country can bring to athletes’ primary sports with minimal risk of injury.

“I think we’ll be back on track next year. Back to where we were a couple of years ago on building the program. The middle school has been really picking up in numbers the last two years, so that’s going to start showing in the high school the next couple of years.”

Sandite Baseball clinches home Regional, Layne Kirkendoll wins Conference Championship

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.