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.

Sandite Baseball clinches home Regional, Layne Kirkendoll wins Conference Championship

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

For the first time since 2011, the Charles Page High School baseball team (29-6, 11-3) has clinched a home regional tournament after winning its final two district games last week.

The Sandites won 4-0 against Putnam City North (8-27, 3-11) Monday at home before steamrolling the Panthers 25-7 Tuesday on the road.

Jabe Schlehuber (6-1) tossed a complete game one-hitter on Monday with 10 strikeouts and Keaton Campbell scored one run and two RBI.

Dom Ornelas blasted his team-leading eighth home run of the season on Tuesday and the Sandites talled 20 hits in their highest-scoring game since 2016. Eli Buxton (3-1) threw six strikeouts against two hits in three innings.

On Thursday the Sandites paid back an 8-0 loss from earlier in the season by defeating Highway 97 rival Sapulpa 18-5. 

Kayden Campbell (4-0) threw three strikeouts and allowed two hits against the Chieftains (26-9) for the win, and Keaton Campbell and Ty Pennington both hit home runs to lead a 16-hit Sandite effort.

The regular season ended in a 4-3 loss to Westmoore (25-10) on Saturday. Buxton took his first loss of the year, throwing three hits and three strikeouts in 1.1 innings. 

Five pitchers combined to allow only five hits in the loss, and the Sandites managed 10 hits of their own but stranded nine runners.

Fishing

Hunter Spencer and Hayden Lowrance won first place in the Oklahoma Bass Nation youth event on Keystone Lake, Sunday, April 24th. The duo caught five fish totaling 16.54 pounds, including the 4.37-pound big bass.

Caden Strawn and Drew Turner were runners-up with five fish weighing 16.47 pounds, including a 3.93 pounder. 

In the high school division the Sandites were led by Mack Taylor and Parker Haling with five fish weighing 13.15 pounds for ninth place.

Eli Rogers and Caden Shea placed 10th with five fish weighing 13.09 pounds. Nathan Griffin and Jaxon Trotter placed 11th with five fish weighing 12.87 pounds. 

Gabriel Castellano and Dallas Elifrits were 32nd with three fish weighing 7.07 pounds. Cruz Norris and Gunnar Casey were 56th with a 3.05-pound fish.

Disc Golf

40 players turned out for the Sand Springs Showcase PDGA C-Tier one-round tournament at Case DiscGolfPark on Sunday, April 24th. 

Tyler Oakes won the Open division with a 51, Hueston Kratz won Advanced with a 52, Sonny Dalesandro won Intermediate with a 49, Joshua Pauley won Recreational with a 55, and Joshua Loustaunau won Novice with a 56.

Samantha Russell won Advanced Women with a 69, Jimmy Haase won Amateur Masters 40+ with a 56, Jude Henry won Amateur Masters 50+ with a 61, and Shane Chester won Junior 15U with a 69.

Softball

The CPHS slow pitch softball team ended the season with a 7-14 record after falling 10-2 to Guthrie and 19-1 to Jenks at Regionals on Wednesday.

Golf

Zane Downey scored an 81 and Mason Ward shot 84 to lead the Sandites at the Skiatook tournament on Wednesday. Seth Benton scored 89, Drew Paden scored 91, and Cameron Villines scored 94.

The girls ended their season Tuesday at the Ponca City regional tournament. Gina Foster shot 110 and Madison Chambers scored 112.

Track and Field

The Sand Springs boys took 10th and the girls placed eighth at the Frontier Valley Conference track meet at Union High School on Friday with one champion.

Layne Kirkendoll won the long jump at 19 ft. 1.5 in. to break her own school record of 18 ft. 8 in. She also placed fourth in the high jump at 5 ft. 2 in.

Matthew Shelton placed fourth in shot put at 46 ft. 10 in. Jestin Rawlins placed sixth in discus at 139 ft. 6 in. The girls 4x800 relay team placed fourth in 11:04.84.

Tennis

The CPHS girls tennis team split with Sapulpa on Thursday. Sapulpa won the Singles match, but Caitlin Shipman and Daffaney Snyder won 6-2, 7-5 in Doubles.

Stanfill's hat trick leads Sandites to 6-0 Senior Night rout of Putnam City

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

The Charles Page High School soccer teams went in different directions this season, with the boys going winless while the girls are still enjoying their best season in program history.

The girls (12-4) ended the regular season with a 6-0 senior night rout of Putnam City (3-12) Monday at Memorial Stadium and will travel to Broken Arrow (11-1) Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. for the playoffs.

“Great ending to a great regular season,” said head coach Cisco Chavez. “Moving forward…we’re done with the regular season. It’s out of our minds and we’re focused on postseason.”

The Lady Sandites haven’t made it to the playoffs since 2012 and likely haven’t won a playoff game since 1988, though records for the program are spotty at best.

While past successful teams have often been senior-loaded, this year’s unit is led by a lot of younger players, including freshman forward Lainey Stanfill, who scored a hat trick with two assists in Monday’s regular season finale.

Alyssa Cunningham scored the first goal of the game in the 18th minute on a second-effort kick after her first shot was smacked down by the goalie.

Stanfill had her first two shots on goal saved late in the first half and the Sandites only led 1-0 at halftime.

In the 52nd minute Stanfill juked past the Putnam goalie and tapped in a leftie layup to ignite a scoring frenzy from the home team. 

Karsen Lynch scored a header off a blocked shot from Stanfill three minutes later, then Stanfill drilled her second goal from 25 yards out in the 65th minute. 

Stanfill booted her 23rd goal of the season in the 70th minute, then freshman Ashlee Feigenbaum connected on her first goal of the year with four minutes left on an assist from Cunningham.

“Obviously Lainey’s had one heck of a season, but it’s really been this team,” said Chavez. “They’re something special. They all gel well, they all cheer each other on.”

“That last goal - we’ve been cheering for Ashlee to get her goal. She’s hit the crossbar so many times and she finally got it on Senior Night, so it’s a pretty cool ending. All the girls were happy for her.”

“This is a team that’s together, and that’s what I’m most proud of.”

Moriah Literell recorded the clean sheet in the victory.

The boys suffered a 6-0 loss despite a seven-save effort from freshman goalie Eddie Hernandez. 

The game stayed scoreless till the final ten minutes of the first half, and the Sandites only trailed 2-0 at halftime before the Pirates got hot late in the second half.

“This was a rebuilding year from the beginning, and we knew that going in,” said first-year head coach Brent Lollis. “What we did this year was, we played the youngest 6A team in the state all season.”

“They’re essentially a team that got a full year of varsity experience that the other guys their age didn’t get. So building into next year, I think these boys are going to be better for the experience that they got this year.”

“They grew together, they did a lot of things that needed to happen at Sand Springs to build a program. They raised a bunch of money, they got new training equipment, they got new uniforms, they did a lot of things that are building blocks.”

“One of the things that I think it’s important for people to know is that the goal of our team here is to build a program at Sand Springs that can compete every year without relying on star players.”

Between matches, the Sandites celebrated seniors Alisa Gramm, Litterell, Lynch, Evelin Marino, Jade Patton, Jocelyn Sigala, Cassidy Tiepelman, Evan Bise, Ryan Clark, Justin Guynn, Shawn Hayes, Kyle Haynes, and Tyson Wright.