Sandite Weekly Sports Roundup: Baseball Opens Season With Run-Rule Wins

The Charles Page High School baseball team won its first two games of the season by 12-3 run rule against Shawnee on Friday and Yukon on Saturday.

The Sandites capitalized on a disastrous error-filled second inning from the Wolves to take a 6-1 lead and Northern Oklahoma College signee Dom Ornelas blasted a third-inning grand slam to put his team in run-rule territory.

Kayden Campbell got the win against Shawnee with nine strikeouts, four walks, and two hits in four innings.

Gage Elliott got the win against Yukon with three strikeouts, no walks, and five hits in four innings.

Brody Rutledge, Rhen Rutledge, and Jackson Turney totaled three hits apiece and Rhen Rutledge capped the scoring off with a three-run homer in the top of the fifth to secure the run rule.

Sand Springs wrapped up the preseason with a 6-2-1 record, beating Pryor 3-1 on Monday before falling 4-2 to Union on Tuesday.

Oklahoma State-committed freshman Easton Webb tossed eight strikeouts in three innings with only two hits against the Tigers.

Ornelas hit a solo homer against the RedHawks and Eli Buxton struck out eight in four innings.

The Sandites will kick off district play Monday at defending State Champion Owasso (2-0), before hosting the Rams Tuesday and Victory Christian (1-1) on Thursday.

Girls Powerlifting

The CPHS girls powerlifting team took third place at the OGPCA North Regional Tuesday in Miami, qualifying seven for the State Championship.

Senior heavyweight Jaden Jordan won her second Regional title and fourth meet of the year, benching 165 for first place, deadlifting 405 for first, and squatting 370 for second.

Also qualifying for State are Madison Thompson, Melanie Skelly, Gracie Worthington, Olivia Alexander, Kelsi Hilton, and Kiyah Dover.

Worthington placed third at 136, Thompson placed fourth at 220, Alexander placed sixth at heavyweight, Dover placed seventh at heavyweight, Hilton placed seventh at 136, Skelly placed ninth at 150, and Thompson placed 11th at 108.

The State meet will be held Monday, March 6th, at the Choctaw Event Center in Durant.

Dance

The Sandite dance team advanced to the finals in both Pom and Hip Hop at the NDA High School Nationals in Orlando, placing third in Hip Hop and fifth in Pom.

Sandite Weekly Sports Roundup: Two Sandites Medal at State Wrestling Tournament

The Sand Springs boys’ wrestling team took tenth place at the OSSAA 6A State Tournament with two placers in their best finish since 2020.

Mitchell Smith took fourth place at 150 pounds to end his career as a four-time State qualifier and two time placer with a 108-35 record.

Mason Harris took fourth place at heavyweight and finished his junior year with a team-best 40-9 record.

The Sandites went 3-3 in the wrestle-in round and 3-3 in the quarterfinals with Jayden Pait, Jaxon Trotter, and Ethan White earning their way into the main bracket.

Smith, Harris, and Kase Skaggs all advanced to the semifinals before taking their first losses. Skaggs and Trotter were both eliminated one win short of the podium.

Sand Springs will graduate Smith and White but will return 12 starters and seven state qualifiers next season.

Soccer

The CPHS boys soccer team improved to 2-0-1 in preseason action while the girls fell to 2-1-0.

The boys won 3-0 against Collinsville on Tuesday with goals from Elias Villanueva, Zac Ritter, and Elgin Hernandez, with Brian Boyles recording an assist. They battled to a 1-1 draw against Sapulpa with Eli Bise scoring the lone goal.

The girls fell 2-1 against Collinsville, with Alyssa Cunningham scoring the lone goal on an assist from Ava Watts. On Thursday they defeated Sapulpa 4-1 with two goals from Watts and one goal apiece from Avery Miller and Ashley Feigenbaum.

The Sandites have one more scrimmage scheduled Tuesday against Glenpool before opening the regular season Friday with home matches against Tulsa NOAH at 6:00 p.m.

Bowling

The CPHS girls bowling team of Tabby Hicks, Olivia Alexander, Zoe Butler, and Kyeara Owens finished as Regional Runners-Up on February 18th in Sapulpa, advancing to the State Tournament Saturday in Enid.

At State they sat in second place after eight games of qualifying, but were eliminated in the first round of bracket play.

“I’m so proud of this team,” said coach Shawn Judy. “Three out of the four girls on the team, this is the first year they have competed in high school bowling. I believe we overachieved every expectation that anybody put on us.”

Baseball

Sandite baseball improved to 5-1-1 in preseason games, losing 6-7 at Owasso on Monday before winning 9-6 Tuesday against Bartlesville and 13-0 Thursday against Glenpool. On Saturday they beat Edmond Santa Fe 2-0 and tied Noble 3-3.

The Sandites will travel to Pryor on Monday and will host Union on Tuesday to conclude the preseason.

The regular season will kick off Thursday at 11:00 a.m. against Greenwood, AR with a home game Friday at 6:00 p.m. against Shawnee. Sand Springs will travel to Yukon Saturday at noon.

Sandite Weekly Sports Roundup: Basketball Sweeps Roughers, Athletes Sign LOIs

Sandite basketball swept the Muskogee Roughers Friday night with the varsity boys winning 72-65 while the girls won 63-41.

The 6A-East No. 6 Lady Sandites (12-5, 5-3) never trailed against No. 14 Muskogee. It was still a close game at 39-31 entering the fourth but the Sandites steamrolled the Roughers 24-10 in the final stanza.

Hailey Jackson scored 24 points to lead all scorers, Taiona “Yanni” Morris added 13, Sakauri Wilson had 9, and three different Sandites scored 5 apiece.

“We’re starting to play better as a unit,” said head coach Josh Berry. “We have more people stepping up.”

Sand Springs will have to cover six games over the final two weeks after meetings with Bartlesville and Booker T. Washington were postponed due to weather. This is the second time the Washington game has been rescheduled.

“This is our second game in 17 days,” said Berry. “It’s a bit different from when we start the season out with eight games in like 14 days.”

“We’re rested and we’re ready to go. It’s nothing that we can control so we just try to get better.”

The No. 11 Sandite boys (9-8, 2-6) snapped a five-game conference skid and got back above .500 overall with a win over the No. 15 Roughers (3-13, 0-9).

The Sandites led 34-27 at halftime but a seven-point run put the Roughers up 45-44 entering the final stanza.

Jamarian Ficklin tied it for the final time at 52-52 but Kooper Kelly hit a pair of free throws and layed up on a steal to put his team ahead for the final three minutes of the game.

Kelly tied his career-high with 20 points to lead all scorers while Luke Hooper also had a career night with 15 points.

“Any conference win, especially on the road, is a good feeling,” said head coach Eric Savage.

“In the past we’ve kind of lost our composure. A couple of times this wear we gave up the lead and never got it back. We showed some growth tonight and were able to weather the storm and get back in control late in the fourth quarter.”

Sand Springs will travel to Bixby on Tuesday and Bartlesville on Thursday before hosting Sapulpa Friday night.

Signing Day

School may have been canceled, but the festivities couldn’t be stopped Wednesday morning at the Ed Dubie Field House. Sand Springs celebrated 10 student-athletes who signed letters of intent to continue their careers at the collegiate level.

Many of the players will get to enjoy Sand Springs connections on their new rosters.

Kyle Morrall, Jacob Blevins, and Drake Fain signed with Northwestern Oklahoma State University to play Division II football. There they will be reunited with former Sandite assistant coach Jason Medrano, who recently took over as Offensive Coordinator for the Rangers.

Brody Rutledge signed to play Division II football at Northeastern State University. There he will join former Sand Springs teammates Gabe Brown, Landon Hendricks, and Blake Jones.

Dominic Ornelas and Jabe Schlehuber signed to play junior college baseball together at Northern Oklahoma College in Enid.

Carson Sargent signed to play Division II soccer at Rogers State University, where she will join former teammates Ali Day and Karsen Lynch.

Payton Robbins signed to play NAIA volleyball at Friends University in Kansas, where she’ll be reunited with Sandites Tehya Johnson, Charley Fahland, and Kasidy Holland.

Madori Bland signed with the stunt team at Drury University, a Division II program in Missouri.

Coleman Hight signed to play NAIA golf at Southwestern College in Kansas.

Baseball

Freshman quarterback Easton Webb has been getting lots of attention as a football prospect, but on Friday he announced his commitment to Oklahoma State University as a baseball player before ever playing a varsity minute.

Sand Springs will kick off the preseason with a home scrimmage against Sapulpa on the 16th at 4:30 p.m.

Girls Powerlifting

The Sand Springs girls powerlifting team took second place at the All-American Lift-a-thon in Shawnee Saturday with two champions. The Sandites had 137 team points, just behind Choctaw with 141.

Madison Thompson won the 220 weight class, sweeping all three events. She benched 140, squatted 285, and deadlifted 295.

Jaden Jordan won at heavyweight, taking first in squat at 335 pounds, first in deadlift at 375, and third in bench at 155.

Melani Skelly placed third, Gracie Worthington placed fourth, and Bailey Doughty and Kiyah Dover placed fifth.

Sandite Sports Weekly Roundup: Softball Goes 3-0 to End Regular Season

Sandite softball (23-14) went 3-0 in the final week of the regular season, winning 6-0 against Sperry, 8-3 against Sapulpa, and 7-2 against Collinsville.

They also received their Regional assignment and will return to action Tuesday, October 4th, at Broken Arrow with a first round game at 2:00 p.m. against Muskogee (14-22). On the other side of the bracket is Broken Arrow (25-9) vs. Putnam City North (8-23).

Sand Springs has yet to play Muskogee this season but lost a close 7-5 meeting with Broken Arrow at the Tigers’ home tournament, and beat Putnam North 1-0 twice in district action.

The Sandites have won 17 Regional titles and are aiming to return to the State Tournament for the first time 2019.

On Monday Addison Hughes tossed seven strikeouts with only four hits in the shutout at Sperry (23-10). Kenzie King went 3-of-4 at the plate with one run and one RBI.

The Sandites haven’t lost a Highway 97 Rivalry game in over a decade and this time it was Kelsi Hilton who led the charge against the Chieftains (14-17) with a seventh-inning grand slam while tossing eight strikeouts. Jaden Jordan also hit a home run.

In the final game of the regular season Hughes tossed eight strikeouts and three hits against Collinsville (9-22). The Cardinals took an early 2-0 lead but Jordan tied it with a two-run double in the third and Mikena Stephens hit the go-ahead RBI single in a five-run fourth inning.

Volleyball

The 16th ranked Sandite volleyball team (16-16, 3-5) went 5-2 last week, splitting a pair of conference matches before going 4-1 at the Southmoore Invitational.

The team won a 3-0 sweep of Muskogee on Tuesday but fell 3-1 to Booker T. Washington on Thursday. They put up a great fight against the Hornets, however, losing close sets of 25-17, 28-26, and 25-22 after winning the first 28-26.

In Moore the girls lost 2-1 to conference foe Bartlesville, but won 2-1 against No. 12 Moore, 2-1 against Bishop Kelley JV, 3-0 against Shawnee, and 3-1 against Southmoore.

The Sandites have one last regular season match Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. against No. 1 Jenks (26-4, 7-0).

Cross Country

Josie Grona took first place in the elementary meet at Kiefer Saturday morning, running the one-mile in 6:14.92. Sophie Grona finished fifth in 7:05.26 and the team took eighth.

The elementary boys also placed eighth, led by Kellen Adkins with a 6:30.74 mile for tenth place.

Shooting

Caden Shea won the Muscogee Nation Trap Shoot Wednesday with a score of 24.

Fishing

Gabriel Castellano and Ean Williams took 22nd place at the Oklahoma Bass Nation season opener Saturday on Ft. Gibson Lake. The duo caught five fish weighing 7.32 pounds. Nate Griffin and Eli Rogers placed 31st, Caden Strawn and Drew Turner placed 46th, Decana Plummer and Gunner Beasley placed 47th, and Jonathan Isley and Jaxon Trotter placed 49th.

Weekly sports roundup: Sandites win OBN fishing tournament at Lake Texoma

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

Two teams of Sandites won first place in their divisions at the Oklahoma Bass Nation trail event on Lake Texoma, Sunday, April 3rd. 

Eli Rogers and Carrick Cooke won the high school division with five fish weighing 12.45 pounds for a $656 payout. 

Caden Strawn and Drew Turner won the youth division with four fish weighing 9.8 pounds. 

Softball

The No. 14 Sandite Slow Pitch team (5-7) went 0-3 this week, falling 13-10 to No. 4 Moore (11-5), 18-0 to No. 1 Southmoore (15-2), and 14-12 to Kellyville (5-12).

Soccer

District leader Jenks (6-1, 3-0) spoiled the Lady Sandites’ five-match win streak 4-0 on Tuesday but Sand Springs bounced back on Friday with a 9-0 road win against Choctaw (1-7, 0-3).

Freshman Lainey Stanfill scored five goals in the rout, and has 18 on the season. Ava Watts scored two, and Alyssa Cunningham and Karsen Lynch scored one each.

The Sandites (9-3, 2-1) are having their best season since 2016 and don’t show any signs of slowing down. They will host Putnam City (3-8, 0-3) on Tuesday before traveling to Stillwater (4-6, 1-1) on Friday.

The boys (0-8, 0-3) are still looking for their first win after falling 10-0 to Jenks and 3-1 to Choctaw. 

Track and Field

The Sandite track teams competed at the Jim Thorpe Invitational in Shawnee on Friday and crowned two champions. The boys took seventh place and the girls finished sixth.

Briona Searcy won the long jump with a mark of 14 ft. 11.5 in. and Jestin Rawlins won the discus throw with a distance of 147 ft. 

Gracie Gifford placed third in the 3200-meter run in 13:15.45 and sixth in the 1600 in 6:38.99.

Hannah George was fifth in the long jump at 13 ft. 3 in. Kelsi Hilton was fourth in the 3200 13:56.44. Brynley Smith finished fifth in the 400 in 1:12.05.

Dalton Wilcox placed second in the 800-meter run in 2:19.19. Noah Hanlon placed sixth in the 3200 in 11:45.99. 

Matthew Shelton placed third in shot put with a distance of 41 ft. 6 in. Alex Turner was fourth in discus with a distance of 105 ft. 1 in. 

The girls placed third in the 4x800 relay and fourth in the 4x100. The boys placed fifth in the 4x100 and fifth in the 4x800.

Layne Kirkendoll competed solo at the Jenks meet that morning and won the high jump at 5 ft. 6 in. She also placed second in long jump at 18 ft. 1 in.

Sand Springs Weekly Sports Roundup: Baseball Starts Season With Wins

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

Baseball

The Sandite baseball team is off to a strong start on the season, winning its first two games 11-0 against Shawnee and 9-2 against Yukon. 

Jabe Schlehuber and Kayden Campbell combined for eight strikeouts in a no-hitter against the Wolves in Friday’s season-opener. Dom Ornelas went three-for-three at the plate with a double and a home run for 5 RBI.

Schlehuber went four-for-four at the plate on Saturday with two doubles and a homer, and Ornelas and Keaton Campbell also hit home runs.

Boys Basketball

The Sandites wrapped up a 5-18 season with a 69-54 loss at Putnam City West in the Regional playoffs. Cale Askew scored 14 points, Ethan Oakley scored 12, and JD Dickson added 10.

Soccer

The Lady Sandite soccer team won its opening week of matches, coming back from a 2-0 halftime deficit to beat NOAH 4-3 on Tuesday before routing Coweta 5-1 on Thursday.

Karsen Lynch scored two goals, and Lauren Foster and Lainey Stanfill also scored against NOAH. Ava Watts posted a hat trick against Coweta and Stanfill scored twice. Christina Thompson got the wins at goalie.

The boys are still looking for their first win of the Brent Lollis era, falling 4-2 to NOAH and 2-0 to Coweta.

Golf

The boys golf team placed sixth at the Olive Wildcats Golf Classic in Sapulpa. Mason Ward shot 81 to tie for tenth, Seth Benton shot 87, Drew Paden 93, Zack Downey 93, Hunter Brenner 99, Sidney Horton 101, Jacob Halpain 116. Madison Chambers shot 114 as the lone Lady Sandite.

Tennis

The boys tennis team placed 16th at the Jenks tournament led by Connor Shipman with a 13th finish in #2 Singles.

Track and Field

The Sand Springs girls placed 10th and the boys took 15th at the season-opening Owasso Track Invitational.

Freshman star Lainey Stanfill placed fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.79 and was third in the 200 in 26.69. Jazmin Lopez paced fifth in the 800 in 2:33.38.

Bowling

The Sand Springs boys bowling team placed second at Regionals and third at State.

Girls Powerlifting

The girls powerlifting team placed second at the North Regional with Jaden Jordan winning squat, deadlift, and overall at heavyweight. Jordan squatted 335, deadlifted 380, and benched 155 to qualify for State. Madison Thompson placed fourth at 198 and Mikah Hampton placed fifth at 108 to qualify.