Coleman hoping for good weather for CHS meet Monday
Apr. 18—Chisholm track coach Jim Coleman hopes the Longhorns Invitational meet Monday will help prepare his team for the regionals, which CHS will host April 30.
The meet will have the same format as the regionals and the state meet, which unlike the past will be a one-day meet instead of two with the finals following the preliminaries.
"It's pretty tough to run the preliminaries and finals on the same day at state," Coleman said. "It will be a different challenge. We're trying to figure out what the kids can do physically and be competitive at the same time. That will be an issue for everyone."
The field events will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the running prelims scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Coleman said he is expecting 10 teams, but that could change with several meets Tuesday in jeopardy because of possible severe weather.
Coleman wisely had switched the meet from Friday to Monday when rain was in the forecast.
"We're just hoping the snow doesn't get here early," Coleman said. "We haven't had good weather to run in yet."
The Longhorns were denied a chance to repeat their 2019 Class 3A boys and girls state titles by COVID-19 last spring. Coleman said CHS would have had a good shot of repeating.
"We graduated a lot of kids," Coleman said. "Since we didn't get to compete last year, it was like starting over."
The Chisholm girls are currently ranked No. 6 in Class 3A and Coleman expects them to be in the top five at the state meet.
Senior hurdlers Mollie Burchel and Gracie Holder have been solid leaders. Both were state qualifiers and placers two years ago.
Sophomore Laiken Hackett placed at both the 100 and 300 hurdles at a recent meet in Okeene. Coleman said she has gotten her three-step technique down.
Jayden Streck was fourth in the 400 at Okeene with a 1:05.44. She runs on three relays — 400, 800 and 1,600. The 400 relay won at Okeene while the 1,600 was second and the 800 was fourth.
"Most of our girls are just young and inexperienced," Coleman said. "We're just finding out what they can do. They are still progressing. We don't know what the top end is yet."
Chisholm's relays have been interchangeable because of the intrasquad competition there, Coleman said.
"Everything is so competitive," he said.
The boys 3,200 relay has three legs back from a quarter that was third at state in 2019 — Hunter Combs, Makinde Oguasola and Abe Redd. Ethan Carpenter rounds it out. They were second at Okeene.
Combs and Redd were fourth and fifth in the 800 while Ogunsola was fifth in the 400. Senior Bryson Young was second in the high jump. Matthew Todd has done well in the sprints and short relays.
The boys were not ranked in the latest 3A rankings. They do not have as many out as the girls, Coleman said.
Coleman was hoping to have the meet completed before the deadline for regional seedings (last Friday). Coleman expects the regional pairings to be announced by Thursday.
With Chisholm being between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, he said he expects to have teams from both areas at Chisholm's regional.
Here is the meet schedule:
Field events — 9:30 a.m. — Shot Put (Boys and girls), Discus (girls and boys), Long jump (girls and boys), High Jump (boys and girls) and Pole Vault (girls and boys).
Running preliminaries, 10 a.m. — 400 relay (G and B), 3,200 relay final (G and B), Girls 100 hurdles, Boys 110 hurdles, 100 (G and B), boys 3,200 final, 800 relay finals (G and B), Girls 3,200 finals, 200 (G and B).
Finals (after 30-minute break, girls will go first) — 400 relay, 800, Girls 100 hurdles, Boys 110 hurdles, 100, 400, 300 hurdles, 200, 1,600 and 1,600 relay.
Campbell is a former sports writer and current part-time writer for the News & Eagle, enidnews@enidnews.com.
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