Sports Roundup: Daton Fix wins World Freestyle Silver

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

The Sand Springs fast-pitch softball team (16-13) has received its Regional assignment. The Sandites will be traveling to Owasso on Tuesday and Wednesday October 5-6th. 

In the first round they will play Muskogee (17-16) Tuesday at 12:30 in the first meeting of the season between the two teams. On the other side of the bracket is Owasso (27-5) vs. the combined Tulsa Memorial / Booker T. Washington team (2-21). 

Sand Springs previously lost 8-0 to Owasso in the second game of the season while it was short five starters due to injuries and COVID protocols. They beat the Tulsa Public Schools team 16-0 twice in district play.

Sand Springs has won ten Regional Championships in its 25 years under head coach Shelli Brown, including five in a row from 2015 to 2019 before coming up one game short last season. The team will look for its 18th in school history. 

Sand Springs finished the regular season with a 7-2 senior night win over Sperry, Monday, September 27th. 

After giving up two runs in the top of the first inning, the Sandites tied it up in the bottom of the fourth. Lauren Hammock hit a double and scored on an error, then Kelsi Hilton hit an RBI double to score Nataley Crawford.

Avery Tanner’s RBI single gave her team the lead in the fifth, then Crawford added a two-run double. Hammock scored on a passed ball and Crawford made it 7-2 on a ground out for the final run of the game.

Hilton picked up the win in the pitcher’s circle with no hits, no runs, no walks, and three strikeouts in four innings. 

The final game of the regular season, scheduled for Thursday at Oologah, was canceled due to rain.

Cross Country

The Sand Springs Varsity Boys Cross Country team placed seventh and the girls took ninth at Claremore, Friday, October 1st. 

Jazmin Lopez placed 13th in the 5K run, finishing in 21:57 to lead the girls. Alejandro Lopez led the boys in 18:01 for 28th place, closely followed by Noah Hanlon in 18:03 for 31st. 

The junior high boys placed ninth in the two-mile run, led by Taigh Wright in 12:05 for 20th. 

Volleyball

The Class 6A No. 16 Sandite Volleyball team (13-18) lost a 3-0 set to No. 3 Jenks on Tuesday, September 28th. The Sandites are 2-5 in Frontier Valley Conference action.

Senior setter Tehya Johnson surpassed the 1,000 assist career milestone in the match, and Layla Lenex set the school record in career blocks.

The Sandites were supposed to host Booker T. Washington on Thursday, but that match was canceled due to a leak in the roof of the Ed Dubie Field House, and will not be rescheduled. 

Sand Springs will host 5A No. 12 Glenpool (13-16) for senior night Tuesday, October 5th at 6:00 p.m. and will wrap up regular season action at No. 9 Union (21-9, 4-3) on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Wrestling

Charles Page High School graduate Daton Fix placed second at the Senior Freestyle World Championship finals Sunday in Oslo, Norway. 

The Oklahoma State University redshirt junior won his first four matches by technical superiority, outscoring his opponents 41-0. 

In the finals he fell 4-1 to Russia’s Abasgadzhi Magomedov in a rematch of their 2015 Cadet World Championship finals match, which Madomedov won 3-2. 

The tournament earned Fix his first Senior-level World medal, and his sixth World Championship medal at any age level. He has won one World Championship, earning Junior gold in 2017 in Finland. He currently holds a 37-10 record in Senior Freestyle. 

Sand Springs Weekly Sports Roundup: Daton Fix wins World Team Trials, Carter Young flips to OSU

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

Varsity Cross Country traveled to Stillwater Saturday for the Cowboy Jamboree but neither the boys nor the girls had a complete lineup to earn a team place. The junior high and elementary teams competed at Holland Hall.

Jasmin Lopez led the varsity ladies in 64th place with a 5K time of 23:06. Alex Lopez led the boys in 130th place with a time of 19:33, followed by Noah Hanlon in 142nd with a time of 19:43.

Junior high boys placed seventh, led by Taigh Wright’s 12:28 two-mile run in 19th place. Junior high girls didn’t have a full lineup, but Maddyx Hampton placed 48th in 15:14.

The elementary boys placed second, led by Conner Williamson with a 6:11 mile for second place. The elementary girls placed fifth, led by Josie Grona with a 6:48 mile for sixth place.

Softball

Sand Springs (11-10, 5-6) went 2-2 in district action last week, winning a pair of 16-0 district double headers against the combined Tulsa Memorial / Booker T. Washington team before falling 9-3 to Jenks and 8-3 to Stillwater.

The Sandites needed only three innings apiece to run-rule the Tulsa team on Monday, out-hitting TPS 19-1 over the two games. 

Kelsi Hilton and Raeagn Rector combined for a no-hitter with six strikeouts in game one, and Hilton got the win. Nataley Crawford pitched all of game two and tossed six strikeouts with one hit.

The Sandites will host Bixby Thursday at 5:30 p.m. to wrap up district play.

Volleyball

The 6A No. 15 Sandites (10-14) went 3-3 overall last week and 2-3 at the Owasso tournament. They beat No. 14 Bartlesville 3-1 on the road Tuesday in conference action, then beat Ponca City 2-0 and Southmoore 3-1 in tournament play. They dropped matches of 2-0 to Owasso, 2-0 to Edmond Memorial, and 2-0 to Booker T. Washington.

Wrestling

Former 4X State Champion Sandite and current Oklahoma State wrestler Daton Fix won the 61kg freestyle world team trials in Lincoln, Nebraska. Fix outscored his opponents 41-5 with two technical falls to earn the right to represent the United States at the World Championships in Oslo, Norway this October.

In the Round of 16 he defeated Carter Young 13-2, then he beat 2018 NCAA Champion Seth Gross 11-0. In the semifinals he topped defending World Team member Tyler Graff 2-0 to earn a best-of-three finale against Nathan Tomasello. The 2015 NCAA Champion was no match for Fix, who won 8-3 and 7-0. 

After falling to Fix in his second match, Carter Young battled back to win the consolation bracket and place third. Young is also a former Sandite, winning a state title as a freshman at Sand Springs before transferring to Stillwater.

Young won his first match 8-6 over 2020 ACC Champion Jakob Camacho. In consolation he received a forfeit from Ethan Lizak, won 10-8 against 2016 NCAA Champion Nahshon Garrett, received a forfeit from Nick Suriano, then beat Graff 9-2 and Gross 15-12.

Young previously committed to and enrolled at Northwestern in Illinois, but he has now signed with Oklahoma State University instead.

Sandite Sports Weekly Roundup: Softball Rolls at Bixby Tournament

Down 5-4 and riding a four-game losing streak, the Sandites needed a spark in the first round of the Bixby tournament Friday morning.

JoLee McNally stepped up to the plate with two runners on and smacked a ground ball single to center field in the top of the sixth, bringing in Morgan Rector and Kinzie King to kick off a great weekend for the Charles Page High School softball team (9-7).

After taking down Newcastle 6-5, the Sandites got a huge 5-4 upset against title contender Edmond Memorial then steamrolled Union 17-2 and El Reno 11-2 before falling 4-1 to Broken Arrow in the final game. 

“They had an awesome weekend, I thought,” said head coach Shelli Brown. “The turnaround from Bartlesville where we left a lot of runner-on-base opportunities, I felt like this weekend they were able to get the runners on and push them across the plate. That was the difference.”

Prior to the tournament, the Sandites had a rough stretch of district road games at Stillwater, Jenks, Bixby, and Bartlesville. 

Thursday was a tough loss, as the Sandites had previously beaten Bartlesville 12-3 at home, and led 5-0 early before the Bruins surged back with seven runs in the bottom of the third.

Friday’s win over Edmond Memorial (19-4), however, showed that this team is still capable of beating anyone in the state on any given day. 

The Bulldogs took a 4-2 lead in the third inning, but the Sandites rallied in the bottom with RBI doubles from Lauren Hammock and Nataley Crawford, and Kelsi Hilton scored on a passed ball for the lead.

Crawford got the wins in the pitching circle against Edmond and Newcastle, Hilton got the win against Union, and Addie Hughes got the win against El Reno.

“Team effort for sure on the pitching,” said Brown. ”We’ve been kind of double-teaming, so I thought our pitchers did a really good job with that.”

The team’s bats also came alive during the tournament, with McNally, Hammock, Hilton, and Crawford all hitting over .500. McNally scored eight runs and four RBI and Hammock had seven runs and seven RBI over the five games.

“I’m just happy with them,” said Brown. “I told them let’s keep moving forward. I felt like we’ve made the turn a little bit here.”

The Sandites are currently 3-4 in district action, sitting fifth in the standings. They’ll be heavily favored in four of their remaining seven district games, and they’ll have home-field advantage in their rematches with Jenks, Stillwater, and Bixby.

The Sandites have hosted Regionals seven consecutive years but that streak could be in jeopardy if they don’t finish strong in district action.

“We need to focus one game at a time, win those games, and get ourselves in a good situation,” says Brown. “Whether we host or we go travel, we’re going to have to play good teams, and we’ve just got to be ready. I think it’s going to be about timing - peaking at the right time. We’re starting to get everybody back, starting to get everybody healthy, and starting to have that team chemistry that takes some time to develop.”

“I’ve seen both districts. Whether you host or you travel, you’re going to face some really good teams so I just want us to be ready for that.”

Cross Country

Sandite Cross Country traveled to the Sapulpa Chieftain meet on Saturday, September 4th.

Chloe Grona led the elementary girls to a second place finish in the one-mile, finishing in 5:54 for first place, a full 21 seconds ahead of the runner-up, and Josie Grona placed third in 6:23.

The elementary boys placed eighth, led by Canyon Carnahan in 25th place with a time of 7:26.

Junior high boys placed fifth in the one-mile, led by Taigh Wright in 11th with a time of 5:51.21. Junior high girls didn’t have a full team, but Maddyx Hampton placed 18th in 6:38.

The varsity girls didn’t have a full team, but Jazmin Lopez placed fifth in the two-mile run with a time of 13:57.

The varsity boys finished sixth, led by Alejandro Lopez in 11:52 for 25th place, and Dalton Wilcox in 11:55 for 26th.

On Saturday, September 11th, the high school and junior high teams traveled to Broken Arrow. The junior high boys placed sixth in the 1.5 mile run, but were the only team with a full lineup. 

Lopez led the varsity girls in 26th place with a 5K time of 22:22. Noah Hanlon led the boys in 18:56 for 42nd place. Hampton led the junior high girls with a 12:01 1.5-mile run for 33rd, and Wright led the junior high boys in 9:52 for 13th.

Football

The Class 6A-II No. 5 ranked Sandite football team (2-0) will look to remain undefeated when they travel to Arkansas 3A No. 1 Shiloh Christian (2-0). Both teams will be well-rested after bye weeks.

Last year Sand Springs hosted the first-ever meeting of the two teams and topped the Saints 27-26. It would be Shiloh’s only loss of the season as they went on to earn their eighth State Championship.

Volleyball

Class 6A No. 15 ranked Sand Springs (7-11) is riding a tough nine-match losing streak after traveling to the prestigious Heather Harkness Invitational in Edmond, one of the toughest tournaments in the state.

Sandite Volleyball fell 2-0 to No. 6 Deer Creek, 2-0 to No. 4 Edmond Memorial, 2-0 to OKC Storm, 3-2 to No. 10 Edmond North, and 3-0 to No. 16 Moore. 

Sand Springs will compete at the Owasso tournament this weekend with pool matches against Owasso, Edmond Memorial, and Ponca City.