Layne Kirkendoll Sets Sand Springs High Jump Record

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

Sandite Track and Field traveled to the Owasso Ram Relays Friday. The girls placed eighth and the boys placed ninth.

Layne Kirkendoll won her second high jump of the year, setting a new school record of 5 feet 7 inches. She also won her fourth long jump of the year with a personal-best mark of 18’06.5”, which is the second-best distance in school history. 

Noah Hanlon was among the top boys in the 3200m run with a time of 11:17.94 for sixth place. Alejandro Lopez had the fifth-best time in the 800m at 2:08.49. Morgan Lockhart was fifth in the 300m hurdles in 44.33. Greg Reed took sixth in the long jump at 19’10”.

Sakauri Wilson won her heat in the 100m and had the fourth-best time overall at 13.02 seconds. Jazmin Lopez placed fourth in the 800, finishing in 2:27.88. 

Soccer

Sandite Soccer had a tough past week, as both the boys and girls teams dropped district matches against Broken Arrow on Tuesday before having their Friday games at Union canceled due to weather.

The boys (5-4 overall, 1-1 district) fell 3-0 Tuesday at Memorial Stadium, while the girls (6-3, 0-2) fell 5-1 to Broken Arrow. Teagan Smith scored her third goal of the season three minutes into the match, but the Tigers rattled off five unanswered to end the game.

Sand Springs will host Putnam City West for their final home games of the regular season Friday night at Memorial Stadium. 

Baseball

Sandite Baseball (10-13, 4-6) went 0-3 last week, dropping two close district games against Stillwater, and an 8-1 trip to Union. 

Stillwater won 7-5 on Monday and 11-10 on Tuesday. Dom Ornelas hit a home run in both games, and Keaton Campbell and Ty Pennington also went yard on Tuesday. Pennington was 3-for-3 at the plate Tuesday. 

Friday’s game at Bixby was canceled due to weather, and they returned to action Saturday at Union. The Sandites put up seven hits, including three doubles, but stranded six in the loss. 

The Sandite sluggers will return to action Thursday at 6:00 p.m. with a non-district home game against Tulsa NOAH. 

Slow Pitch Softball

Sandite Softball snapped a five-game skid Thursday with a 5-0 win over Owasso. They went 0-4 Monday and Tuesday at the Jenks Festival, then fell 11-10 to Jenks on Thursday. 

A 12-run inning and a home run from Jaden Jordan wasn’t quite enough Monday against Red Oak. Down 17-0 after two innings, the girls rallied to cut it to 17-14 before running out of steam. In game two they led 9-7 before Haskell rallied with four runs in the fifth. 

The Sandites lost another close one Tuesday against Choctaw, 9-8, then Mustang won 14-3 in the final game of the festival. 

Jordan homered, Raegan Rector tripled, and the Sandites led Jenks 10-9 in the bottom of the seventh, but the Trojans won on a walkoff single. 

The win over Owasso didn’t come with much fireworks, but they got their second shutout of the year behind Kaden Barnes’s pitching. Kelsi Hilton supplied two hits, two RBI, and one run to pace the offense.

The girls will host Jenks Thursday at 5:00 p.m.

Fishing

Cruz Norris and Gunnar Casey had yet another hot finish on the Oklahoma Bass Nation high school trail, placing fifth on Keystone Lake Saturday. The duo just won their previous event on Grand Lake. 

Norris and Casey caught three fish, weighing 9.07 pounds, with their biggest coming in at 3.91. Kyle and Kale Hilligoss placed 26th with two fish weighing 4.22 pounds, and Mack Taylor and Reese David placed 28th with two fish weighing 3.96 pounds.

Cruz Norris and Gunnar Casey win Grand Lake fishing tournament

Courtesy of OBN.

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

Sand Springs is continuing to prove itself as one of the top high school fishing programs in the state, as yet another Sandite duo has taken top honors at an Oklahoma Bass Nation trail event. Cruz Norris and Gunnar Casey brought home the fourth trail win in program history Sunday, March 28th on Grand Lake.

Bass Nation was supposed to host two trail events, Saturday and Sunday at Fort Gibson, but high water levels resulted in the relocation to Grand Lake, and it was limited to a one-day event. 

Norris and Casey came up one fish short of the limit, but still had a healthy margin of victory. Their 4.04-pound big bass was the third-largest in the tournament, and it propelled them to a 12.87-pound total. Despite only catching four bass, they had nearly a pound on the runners-up, who caught five.

Only three teams of Sandites have won trail events, led by Seth Kearns and Cole Scott with two wins. The program was founded in 2015 and the school won the State Championship in 2017.

Mack Taylor and Reese David caught four fish totaling 9.1 pounds for 13th place out of 56 boats. They previously placed second at the season opener on Lake Eufala in October and rank fourth in the team standings so far. 

Norris and Casey are already up to 26th in the team standings after missing the season-opener. Kyle and Kale Hilligoss also missed the first event, and they are 42nd in the team race after catching two fish at Grand. They weighed in at 6.9 pounds for 25th place. Final team standings will use each team’s top-four performances this season, so missing one event won’t penalize the anglers much in the long run.

Sandite Fishing won’t have to travel far for their next event, as OBN will be coming to Lake Keystone for two trail events Saturday and Sunday, April 10-11. 

The program will also be hosting a fundraiser tournament, open to the public, April 17th on Keystone. The tournament will launch out of Prairie View Ramp at 7:00 a.m. with a 2:30 p.m. weigh-in. Entry is $60 with a 70% payout. There will be a five fish limit, with a 14 inch minimum. 

For more information on the fundraiser tournament, or about the CPHS fishing program overall, contact CPHSfishingteam@gmail.com or call/text 918-625-6853.