Sandite alum Kimi Presnell wins Division II National Championship at Rogers State

Kimi Presnell looks for a pitch during a 2018 game against Stillwater.

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

When Kimi Presnell played softball at Sand Springs, the Sandites were always in the hunt for a State title. They advanced to the State tournament all four years of her career, and even made it to the finals her freshman year, but never got to hoist the gold ball.

On Tuesday, May 31, she got to resolve some of that unfinished business.

The sophomore center fielder played a crucial role in propelling Rogers State University to its first-ever NCAA Division II National Championship and Presnell received an All-Tournament nod for her performance. 

“I was not expecting that,” said Presnell. “It was such a great feeling to be able to make the All Tournament team, as well as several of my teammates. It just proved that we worked hard to get where we were.”

The Hillcats had a great overall season but weren’t the favorites. They finished third in the MIAA standings and entered the World Series as the five seed.

“There were highs and lows, but we all just kept a good mindset throughout,” said Presnell.

The Hillcats knew they needed to win the MIAA tournament to secure a Regional host site.

“Our mindset going into the conference tournament was to play free and not play tight, and that’s exactly what we did,” said Presnell. “And we continued to do that throughout the postseason, which was awesome.”

The Hillcats paid back a pair of regular season losses to Washburn in the tournament finals series, winning 2-1 and 4-2 to earn their first MIAA title and the right to host the Central Regional.

In the second game of Regionals, the Hillcats were upset 3-0 by Minnesota State, but after a loser’s bracket rout of Winona State they got a wild rematch with the Mavericks.

The game went 15 innings before the Hillcats exploded to an 8-2 win. Presnell hit an RBI double in that game and Rogers State won the “If” game 4-0.

At Super Regionals the Hillcats won 3-1 and 12-1 against Central Oklahoma and punched their way into the World Series in Denver. 

Then it was Presnell’s time to shine.

Over the first three games of the tournament, Presnell was 8-of-11 at the plate and had a perfect fielding percentage throughout the entire tournament.

In the 7-2 win over Southern Indiana, Presnell was 3-for-3 with a run and an RBI. In a 10-2 win over Cal State Dominguez Hills, she was 3-of-4 with a run and four RBI, and in a 9-3 win over UT Tyler she was 2-of-4 with two runs and an RBI.

In the best-of-three finals rematch with Cal State, the Hillcats won 6-5 and 6-1 to earn their first ever national title. 

This year was extra special for Kimi because it was her first season seeing significant starting action. Her freshman year was canceled halfway through due to COVID, and last season she didn’t get a whole lot of opportunities at the plate. 

“Last year I was always super timid at the plate. I didn’t have much confidence,” said Presnell. 

She decided that this year she didn’t want her role to be limited to simply cheering for her teammates from the dugout. 

Presnell earned her way into the starting lineup in the nine hole, but she wasn’t always as dominant at the plate as she was during the postseason.

Over an 18-game stretch from February through April, she hit only .150 compared to her season average of .280.

“Whenever I was in the slump, I kind of changed up my swing,” said Presnell. “I was just focusing on my mechanics.”

When it came to the postseason, she decided to simply approach with confidence and swing hard. She ended up hitting .355 over the postseason and was .314 in the NCAA tournament. 

“She’s a free swinger,” coach Andrea Vaughan said in one postgame interview. “She’s got home run power, she’s got gap to gap power. The thing about Kimi is, she’s hard to beat. She’s a competitor. That’s why she’s in our lineup.”

So far, the college experience has been a lot different from her high school days. 

“In high school you don’t watch film or anything. In college you prepare, you watch film, you see what the pitcher’s pitching. It’s just a whole different game.”

Presnell has also transitioned from second base to center field - a change she’s very happy with. 

“I actually love the outfield. I feel it’s more my calling. I have way more time to react to the ball. If I took a ground ball right now, I don’t think I’d know what to do.” 

In fact, the last time she took a ground ball it gave her a black eye, so she’s very much enjoying handling fly outs instead. 

The biggest change has been thinking of Rogers State as home after being a Sandite for most of her life. 

“It’s exactly where I’m supposed to be. I’ve made the greatest friends. I have great coaches,” said Presnell. 

Coach Vaughan, now in her seventh year, told all of her recruits from the very beginning that Rogers State would soon be competing for national championships, and Presnell bought into the hype as a senior in 2019. 

“Every game I went to, they won. She was very intimate in her coaching and it just drew me in right away. I had nothing but confidence in what she said.”

Presnell credits a lot of her success to her time at Sand Springs, which is a perennial softball powerhouse. 

“Sand Springs definitely prepared me. We were always a good team, we just had unfinished business. I feel like that definitely prepared me for college ball.”

“Coach (Shelli) Brown reached out to me during the World Series. She’s always supported me. She’s the reason why I went to Rogers State, because we played there in the festival every year. Coach Vaughan asked her about me and I ended up scheduling a visit and what do you know? I ended up winning a National Championship.”

Presnell isn’t the only Sandite competing for national titles. 2017 alum Sydney Pennington is currently competing with the Oklahoma State Cowgirls at the Division I World Series in Oklahoma City.

“She actually reached out to me after winning the national tournament,” said Presnell. “I said, ‘well it’s your turn now. Go Pokes!’”

Sandite Track & Field celebrates successful season with donut relay

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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.

Ty Bowling hired as next Sandite Wrestling head coach

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

Great jobs don’t stay available for long. Less than a month after the resignation of Jarrod Patterson, Charles Page High School has found its new wrestling coach. 

Sand Springs Athletic Director Rod Sitton confirmed Thursday the hiring of 2020 5A Coach of the Year Ty Bowling, pending the approval of the Sand Springs Board of Education.

“I’ve always wanted to coach in 6A,” said Bowling. “I just felt like this was the best time to go up and accept that challenge.”

Bowling was previously the head coach at Glenpool, where he coached three individual State Champions and led the Warriors to five district championships. 

The Warriors won three consecutive district titles from 2020 to 2022, were Regional Runners-Up in 2021, and have placed among the top four teams in 5A each of the last three seasons.

“We’ve had a lot of success over the past four or five years. We have awesome kids; they really bought into what me and the coaches were selling. They’re the ones who made that program what it has been.”

Leaving his hometown wasn’t an easy decision for the Glenpool alumnus, who has spent his entire professional career at his alma mater. 

“Being an alumni and building this program over the last 16 years, it was definitely a difficult decision,” said Bowling. “It wasn’t a decision I made within a couple of hours. I took my time on it.”

In addition to being 6A, Sand Springs was also a desirable program to join due to its longstanding wrestling tradition.

The Sandites have won two State titles and a Dual State title as recently as 2017 along with four State Runner-Up finishes, 17 District titles, and 41 individual State titles.

“I know Sand Springs has great wrestling tradition,” said Bowling. “I know they have great support within the community, with the parents, within the school.”

“A lot of wrestling programs - they’re fighting for everything they can get. I think Sand Springs - they’re going to do everything they can to support the wrestling program and make sure it’s got what it needs to try and succeed.”

In addition to wrestling, Bowling was also the running backs coach at Glenpool, though he expects to just be focused on wrestling at Sand Springs. 

“We didn’t discuss any football stuff, I think I’ll be all in on wrestling and we’re working on trying to build a girls’ program as well.”

Bowling met with the Sand Springs wrestling team this past week and will be getting together with the assistant coaches soon to begin the transition.

“They know how to build a good program, so I can learn from them and they can learn a little bit about my philosophy.”

He will also be coordinating with the Keystone Kids wrestling club that operates out of CPHS to see how he can assist with the town’s youth program.

Bowling currently lives in Kiefer with his wife, and the two don’t have any immediate plans to move closer to the Sand Springs area. He will be teaching outdoor education at CPHS. 

Patterson, the Sandites’ previous coach, resigned after four seasons with a 29-19 record, two district titles, and two top-ten finishes at State to take an assistant coaching position at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.

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. 

Historic Sand Springs Soccer season comes to end at Broken Arrow

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

The winningest season in program history came to a close for the Lady Sandites soccer team Tuesday evening in Broken Arrow, as the host Tigers shut out Charles Page High School 5-0 in the first round of the playoffs.

“This has been a historic team, historic season,” said head coach Cisco Chavez. “The girls fought till the very end. It didn’t go our way tonight. We versed a very well-coached Broken Arrow team. This team is history and I couldn’t be more proud of them, even with the result tonight.”

The undersized Sandites (12-5) qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2012 but couldn’t get past the 6A-4 district champions from Broken Arrow (13-1). 

Cora Hair got the Tigers on the board in the 27th minute, then Brianna Castleberry scored on a wild bounce five minutes later. She attempted to pass the ball up to a forward, but it skipped up over the heads of both her teammate and the Sandite goalie for a 2-0 halftime lead.

In the second half Broken Arrow’s rotational depth exposed the Sandites’ short bench and holes began to open in the Sandite backfield. The Tigers only had four shots on goal in the first half but upped that number to 13 in the second half.

“We knew going into this season, having a small team would be challenging for when we versed the bigger schools, but these girls fought,” said Chavez.

Elena Conoway and Cameron Majka also scored goals in the second half and Hair added another to end the Sandites’ historic season.

“Every game they fought,” said Chavez. “They were able to upset Union, able to make the playoffs for the first time in 10 years. This team, it’s all praise from me. They left it all out there for me and that’s all you can ask for from them from a coach perspective. And this coaching staff, they’ve had a great year.”

Sophomore star Christina Thompson came away with 12 total saves for the Sandites, including 10 in the second half.

“Christina played out of her mind tonight,” said Chavez. “She played amazing. Like I said, we faced a very good BA team that won their district, so I’m very happy with our performance. Not happy with the result, of course, but these girls fought to the very end. To my seniors, I wish them nothing but the best going forward.”

The season will continue for Rogers State-bound senior midfielder Karsen Lynch, who was named to the OSCA 6A All-State team. She is the 29th All-State selection for the Lady Sandites. 

The 6A All-State game will be held June 9th at 6:00 p.m. at Bishop Kelley High School, and Chavez will be the head coach for the East girls.

The Sandites are poised for continued success in the coming seasons, as they’ll return the vast majority of their starters.

“We’re young. We’re one of the youngest teams I think,” said Chavez.

“We only started one senior, the rest were juniors, sophomores, and I think we had the most freshmen out there. So these next few years for the Sandites are very strong. I think they got their first playoff experience and they’ll come back stronger next year.”

Freshman Lainey Stanfill led the Sandites with 23 goals this season, followed by Ava Watts with 16, Alyssa Cunningham with 5, Lynch with 4, and Carson Sargent with 2. Lauren Foster, Evelin Marino, and Ashlee Feigenbaum all scored one apiece.

Broken Arrow went on to defeat Bixby 3-0 in the quarterfinals and will play Edmond Deer Creek (12-2) Tuesday at home. Deer Creek is looking for its seventh title overall and first since 2015, while Broken Arrow is looking for its eighth title overall and first since 2018.