Sports Roundup: Layne Kirkendoll places second in State Championship Long Jump

Courtesy of Tommy Dial.

A version of this story was originally published in the Sand Springs Leader.

The Charles Page High School track and field team ended its season Saturday afternoon in Edmond, and three Sandites made the trip. 

Junior Layne Kirkendoll repeated her freshman performance in the Long Jump by finishing as Runner-Up. Her 18 ft. 1.75 in. jump was her third-best mark of the season. She also placed fifth in the High Jump with a height of 5 ft. 4 in. The top five jumpers all cleared the same height, but Kirkendoll took fifth on criteria. 

Senior Joseph Mattison signed a letter of intent to run for Coffeyville Community College last Tuesday, and at State he competed in two events. His 22.51-second 200-meter dash earned 10th place and his 20 ft. 1.5 in. long jump placed 11th. 

“JoJo (Mattison) is the definition of hard work and determination,” said Head Coach Tim Dial. “He is the type of kid that every coach wishes they had a team full of.”

Greg Reed also competed in the long jump and placed 16th at State with a distance of 14 ft. 11.25 in.

Baseball

Brock Swanson, Brycen Peterman, and Kaden Young all signed letters of intent to play at Oklahoma Wesleyan University next season. 

Basketball

Former Sandite Colt Savage signed to play at Cameron University after spending two seasons at the University of Central Oklahoma. “Colt is an extremely poised guy that brings our team a lot of versatility at the small forward position,” said CU Head Coach Andrew Brown. “He has great touch shooting on the perimeter along with a strong build to take advantage of size matchups. We are excited about how he fits in our system.” 

Marlo Fox signed a letter of intent to play at Rogers State University after decommitting from Seward County Community College.

Savage is the second-highest scoring player in Sand Springs history with 1,697 points, and Fox ranks sixth with 1,065.

Cheer

Claire Smith signed a letter of intent to cheer for the University of Central Arkansas Bears. 

Football

Zach Heinen signed a letter of intent to kick for Concordia University Wisconsin. The future Falcon was a perfect 32-of-32 kicking PATs this past season and 51-of-52 in his career, and he was 3-of-4 on field goals with a career long of 39 yards. 

Daren Hawkins signed to play at Abilene Christian University in Texas. Hawkins played three years at receiver and totaled 546 yards on 37 catches, with nine touchdowns before switching to defense. He totaled 22 tackles and one fumble recovery his senior year. 

Soccer

Xander Quiroga signed a letter of intent to play goalie at Murray State College in Tishomingo. Teagan Smith signed with Southwestern College in Kansas. Smith led her team in scoring this season with five goals.

Sandite Soccer Slays on Senior Night

*A version of this story was originally published in the Sand Springs Leader.

Sandite Soccer couldn’t have had a better Senior Night, as both the boys and girls teams rolled to lopsided district shutouts against Putnam City West, Friday night at Memorial Stadium.

The girls won their match 4-0 to snap a three-game losing streak. They previously lost 2-0 Tuesday at Moore while playing without starting goalie Ali Day, but the Rogers State-bound senior returned from injury for the clean sheet against the Patriots. Teagan Smith scored two goals, and Lauren Foster and Evyn Morrow scored one apiece. Josie Gelsthorpe added an assist.

“This group of seniors has been a pretty impactful group,” said Head Coach Matthew Watkins. “Through the coaches turnover over the years, they’ve kind of been a solid set that have really started setting the foundation for Sandite soccer in the future. It’s just a good group of girls. Quality leadership on the field and off.”

The girls are 7-4 on the season with three matches left, and one more win will give them their best mark since 2016.

The boys stormed out to a 5-0 lead at the half and ultimately won 8-0 behind a hat trick from Fernando Saldana. Jack Bratcher added two goals, and Joel Hendricks, Zach Heinen, and Cameron Summerton scored one piece. Bratcher and Saldana had two assists each, and Xander Quiroga made two saves for the clean sheet. 

“We’ve got a good group of seniors,” said Head Coach Garland Betts. “Six of them have been starting since they were freshmen, so it's a good group of kids that’s been playing together for four years. Fernando played really well, he always plays hard. That whole group of seniors, they always play hard, they always compete no matter what the score is. Fernando is a really good player, probably one of the best in the state, if not the best player in the state.”

Saldana now leads the team in scoring this season with 11 goals and one penalty kick, followed by Bratcher with 11 goals. Bratcher is signed with Oral Roberts University, but Saldana has yet to commit. 

The boys have had their past two games canceled due to severe weather. A district match at Union will be made up on Tuesday the 27th, and the Moore game will be played on the 30th. Both the boys and girls will return to action Friday at Booker T. Washington, with the girls playing at 6:00 p.m. and the boys at 8:00 p.m.

Between games, the teams honored 13 seniors: Shyanne Cooke, Day, Gelsthorpe, Alyssa Perry, Smith, Bratcher, Hayden Brooks, Isaiah Edwards, David Fancher, Heinen, Quiroga, Saldana, and Summerton.