Case DiscGolfPark Hosts First Major Event in Oklahoma Open

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 Sports Weekly Roundup: Softball Ends Season at Broken Arrow Regional

The Charles Page High School softball team ended a successful season Wednesday afternoon with a Regional loss to Broken Arrow (28-10). The Sandites went 25-16, a seven-win improvement over last year.

Kelsi Hilton pitched a one-hitter with five strikeouts to start the Regional tournament Tuesday, and the Sandites won 2-0 against Muskogee (15-24).

The Sandites were derailed in a 9-0 loss to the host Tigers (27-10), but got back to work in their elimination rematch with Muskogee and prevailed 10-0 to stay alive.

Addison Hughes struck out 11 in a three-hitter while the Sandites combined for 14 hits. Ashlyn Clark was 4-for-4 at the plate with three runs in the five-inning run-rule victory.

The Sandite bats couldn’t keep up with Broken Arrow in the rematch, however, ending in a 16-6, five-inning loss. The Tigers took a 16-0 lead before Jaden Jordan hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth.

Jordan ended the season with a team-best .493 batting average, followed by Kelby Little with a .433 and Hilton with a .407. Jordan had a .944 slugging average with eight home runs.

Hughes went 14-11 in the circle with 139 strikeouts and a 3.05 ERA, while Hilton was 11-5 with 94 strikeouts and a 3.11 ERA.

Fishing

Hayden Lowrance and Hunter Spencer took 21st place at the Oklahoma Bass Nation trail event on Ft. Gibson Lake, Sunday, October 2nd. The duo caught four fish totaling 6.79 pounds.

Jonathan Isley and Jaxon Trotter placed 29th, Nate Griffin and Eli Rogers placed 42nd, Caden Strawn and Drew Turner placed 44th, and Decana Plummer and Gunner Beasley placed 51st.

Volleyball

The Sand Springs volleyball team ended the regular season with a 3-0 loss to the conference champions from No. 1 Jenks (28-4, 9-0). The Sandites are 16-17 overall and 3-6 in conference play.

Next up is the Regional tournament at Jenks, where the Sandites will play No. 16 Booker T. Washington (11-15) in a Tuesday elimination game. The winner of that match will play either Jenks or Ponca City (13-20) in the finals.

Cross Country

The varsity girls team placed sixth at the Cleveland meet Thursday, led by Kelsi Hilton in seventh place. Hilton ran the two-mile race in 13:28.

The varsity boys placed fifth, led by Rafi Huff in 11th and Taigh Wright in 12th. Huff ran the 5K in 19:22 and Huff finished in 19:24.

Football

The eighth grade Sandites improved to 5-0 on the season with a 48-20 win over Muskogee Green on Thursday.

E-Sports

Sand Springs Public Schools announced Thursday the addition of an eSports program at Charles Page High School. eSports became an OSSAA-sanctioned activity last school year. The school acquired new gaming computers through partnership with an unnamed donor and will be competing in Rocket League.

UFC

Sand Springs fighter Jimmy “The Brick” Flick (16-5) will officially be coming out of retirement with a flyweight bout against Jeff Molina (11-2) Saturday, January 14th.

Sandite Sports Weekly Roundup: Volleyball Sweeps Bartlesville on Senior Night

Cross Country

Freshman Taigh Wright led the varsity boys to a 10th place finish at the Holland Hall invitational, Saturday, September 17th. Wright ran the 5K in 19:45.14 for 37th place.

The varsity girls finished in 11th place, led by Kelsi Hilton with a 15th place performance in 22:47.78.

Wyatt Shaw led the junior high boys to a 9th place finish, running the two-mile in 12:59.93 for 30th place. Alliyah Watts placed 100th for the girls in 17:56.76.

The elementary boys took 8th place in the one-mile run, led by Kellen Adkins with a time of 6:35.03 for 8th. The elementary girls took 9th, led by Sophie Grona with a 7:33.32 mile for 10th place.

The Sandites competed at the OSU Cowboy Jamboree on Saturday, September 24th. Neither the boys nor girls had enough finishers to earn a team place.

Gracie Gibson led the girls with a time of 25:04.6 for 162nd place. Rafi Huff led the boys, finishing in 20:48.1 for 200th place.

Softball

The Charles Page High School softball team (20-14, 8-6) went 5-3 in a busy week, improving to third in district play.

The Sandites lost 8-4 to Bixby (12-15, 7-6) on Monday after committing an uncharacteristic six errors, but paid the Spartans back with a 7-2 road win on Thursday.

Addison Hughes (11-10) pitched both games, striking out eight on Monday and 11 on Thursday.

On Tuesday the Sandites won a district double-header against Putnam City North (8-22, 3-11). Kelsi Hilton (9-4) got the win in game one with four hits and five strikeouts and Hughes tossed eight strikeouts with two hits in the sequel.

Sand Springs played at the Tahlequah festival over the weekend, opening with a 5-2 loss to Edmond Deer Creek (25-9) but won the second game 4-2 against Moore (21-7).

Kenzie King was 2-for-3 at the plate against Moore with a run and two RBI.

On Saturday they won 9-2 against Fort Gibson (14-17) but lost 6-4 to Grove (20-7). Kelby Little was 3-for-3 against Fort Gibson with three RBI, and King had a team-high three runs.

Hilton and Little were both .474 at the plate on the week. Hilton led in slugging average at .789 with two doubles and two triples, and had a team-high five RBI. Morgan Rector led the team in runs with six.

Hughes maintained a 2.57 ERA in 32 ⅔ innings while Hilton had a 2.23 ERA in 15 ⅔ innings.

Sand Springs has two games left in the regular season: Monday at Sperry (21-7) and Thursday at home against Oologah (9-18). Regional tournament assignments should be released on Friday.

Volleyball

Sand Springs (11-14, 2-4) picked up its second conference win of the season on Tuesday in a 3-0 Senior Night sweep of Bartlesville (9-9, 2-4) but ended the week on a five match losing streak.

The Sandites competed in the Bishop McGuinness tournament over the weekend and lost to Edmond Deer Creek, Bishop McGuinness, Choctaw, and Yukon, with a second loss to Choctaw in the seventh place match.

Sand Springs will travel to Muskogee (8-7, 0-6) Tuesday and Booker T. Washington (8-11, 3-3) on Thursday.

Football

The junior high football teams continued their undefeated seasons with wins against Sapulpa on Tuesday. The freshmen won 48-6 and the eighth graders won 46-6 as both teams moved to 4-0.

Wrestling

The Church That Matters tailgate party raised $2660 for the wrestling program at Friday night’s Homecoming football game and the wrestling program pledged 50% to the family of Ethan Gibson to help with his funeral.

Sandite Sports Weekly Roundup: Softball Places Third at Bixby Tournament

The Charles Page High School softball (15-9, 5-3) started a successful week with a pair of perfect games and ended it with a third-place finish at the Bixby tournament.

The Sandites celebrated Senior Night with a perfect double-header Tuesday against the combined team of Tulsa Memorial and Booker T. Washington (0-15, 0-7).

Kelsi Hilton (7-1) struck out 10 and the Sandites totaled 15 hits in a 20-0 game-one rout. Addie Hughes (8-8) struck out 10 and the Sandites recorded 13 hits in the 10-0 second game. 

The Sandites rode that momentum into a crucial 8-3 district win Thursday against Bartlesville (11-8, 3-4) behind a six-strikeout performance from Hughes. 

On Friday the Sandites rolled to a 14-0 shutout of Union (6-18) in the first round of the Bixby tournament. Hughes pitched a one-hitter with six strikeouts and Mikenna Stephens went 3-of-4 at the plate with four RBI.

Hilton struck out seven in a 4-2 win over El Reno (4-9) while also recording three RBI in the second game of the tournament.

The win streak came to a close in a 6-0 loss against Perry (24-5) Friday evening but the Sandites got back in the win column with a 5-1 victory over Raymore Peculiar (7-6) Saturday morning. 

To cap off the week, Hilton hit a walk-off RBI single to prevail 5-4 over Coweta (16-7) and pay back an August defeat. 

Hilton batted .583 on the week with a team-high 14 hits, three triples, 13 RBI, and 11 runs. Morgan Rector was .565 at the plate with 13 hits, six RBI, and 12 runs.

Hilton went 3-0 in the circle with a 1.44 ERA and Hughes was 4-1 with a 1.80 ERA.

Sand Springs will return to action Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. with a key district game at Jenks (19-3, 10-0), then will travel to Stillwater (14-6, 6-3) Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

Cross Country

Josie Grona led the Sandite elementary with a fourth-place finish at the Sapulpa Chieftain meet, Saturday, September 3rd. She ran the one-mile race in 6:23.36. Kellen Adkins was 18th to lead the boys in 6:47.05.

Kelsi Hilton led the varsity girls with a ninth place finish, running the two-mile in 13:29.31. Taigh Wright led the boys in 12:23.49.

Chloe Grona was runner-up in the junior high girls’ one-mile run, finishing in 5:59.85. Dax Wilcox was the top junior high boy, placing 14th in 5:54.46. 

On September 10th the Sandites took a depleted roster to Broken Arrow. 

Wright led the boys with a 50th place finish, running the 5K in 19:38.80. Gracie Gifford led the girls, finishing in 26:11.92 for 57th place. Melany Lamb led the junior high girls, placing 63rd in 37:08.79. 

Volleyball

The No. 15 Sandite volleyball team (7-6) snapped a five-match skid with a 3-0 sweep of Pryor (2-15) Tuesday night on the road. Sand Springs won 25-14, 25-10, and 25-14.

The Sandites will return to action Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. with a conference rivalry game at 5A No. 7 Sapulpa (13-10, 1-3). Sand Springs is 0-4 in conference action.

Football

The Sandite freshman class (2-0) continued an undefeated streak stretching back to its seventh grade season, winning 34-0 against Bartlesville. The eighth graders also moved to 2-0 with a 48-14 win against the Bruins. 

Wrestling

The first-year Lady Sandite wrestling program had a successful first meeting with prospective athletes. New coach Ty Bowling hopes to have as many as 20 girls in the program this season.

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.”

Sand Springs Sports Roundup: Mack Taylor and Parker Haling take fourth at Skiatook tournament

A version of this story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

Cross Country

The Sandites got their first taste of the postseason Tuesday at the Frontier Valley Conference Meet in Bartlesville. The girls didn’t have a full lineup, but the varsity boys played eighth and the junior high boys placed seventh.

Jazmin Lopez led the varsity girls with a 5K time of 24:32 for 37th place. Alejandro Lopez led the varsity boys in 19:15 for 30th place, closely followed by Noah Hanlon in 19:22 for 33rd. 

Chloe Grona led the junior high girls with an 11:57 two-mile run for fourth place. Taigh Wright led the junior high boys with a time of 11:39 for 13th. 

The varsity teams will return to action Saturday, October 23rd at Mohawk Park in the 6A-East Regional.

Fishing

Sandite duo Mack Taylor and Parker Haling placed fourth at the Oklahoma BASS Nation trail event on Lake Skiatook Saturday, catching three fish totaling 6.29 pounds. On Sunday they caught one fish weighing 1.19 pounds for 37th place. 

Standings have not been updated with this weekend’s results yet, but the duo should rank among the top 10 in the state. The OBN season will take a winter break and return to action April 2nd at Lake Tenkiller.

Softball

The Charles Page High School softball team recently ended the season with an 18-15 record as Regional runners-up. 

Despite not advancing to the State tournament, the Sandites showed flashes of brilliance this year, including wins over Edmond Memorial and El Reno, who did go to State. They pitched three shutouts and won seven games by run rule.

Lauren Hammock led the team in batting average (.446), on-base percentage (.532), and hits (41). Kelsi Hilton batted .413 and led the team in slugging (.543) with a team-best four triples and 30 RBI. Raegan Rector led the team in doubles (11) and Jolee McNally led in runs (36).

Rector led the team in put-outs with 183, and Avery Tanner led in assists with 66. Rector turned 14 double plays and Tanner had 12. Rector was also among the most efficient fielders, holding a .995 fielding percentage on 204 opportunities.

Hilton was the team’s ace pitcher this season, collecting a 10-6 record with a 4.5 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, and a team-high 46 strikeouts. Nataley Crawford went 5-6 in the circle with a 4.2 ERA, 1.65 WHIP, and 42 strikeouts.

The Sandites will graduate five seniors this year: Tanner, McNally, Hammock, Rector, and Taylor Skipper.

Volleyball

Sandite Volleyball wrapped up its season with a 14-20 record, going 2-6 in Frontier Valley Conference action, and winning its home tournament.

The girls played a tougher schedule than they have in the past few years, competing at several A-league tournaments, and 12 of their 20 losses came at the hands of eventual State Qualifiers. 

Payton Robbins led the offense with 259 kills, followed by Kasidy Holland with 204, Layla Lenex with 192, and Jacelyn Smith with 147. Robbins also led the team in aces with 49, followed by Charley Fahland with 36 and Smith with 34. 

Lenex led the team in blocks with 64, Robbins had 31, and Smith had 29. Fahland had a team-high 353 digs, Robbins had 265, and Teyha Johnson had 217. Johnson handled most of the setting, recording 689 assists.

Sand Springs will graduate Smith, Holland, Fahland, and Johnson this year.