Frontier's Ruff earns Girls All-Area Track Athlete of the Year after standout debut season

Jun. 29—Running track had never crossed the mind of Kylee Ruff, who just finished her freshman year at Frontier High School. She's glad it did, though.

Ruff, a multi-sport standout for the Mustangs, was at slow-pitch softball practice in the early parts of this spring when a friend pitched an idea, one she likely wouldn't have come up with otherwise.

"We never thought we would actually join because we never went to a single practice," Ruff said. "Then a couple of days before the first track meet, we decided to go compete in a relay race."

Little did Ruff know, by following through on the impromptu plan, she had just made history.

"We had a lot of firsts in the girls track world this year," said Jason Collins, the track coach at Frontier. "This is the first time there was ever a girls relay team, ever, in the history of the school."

From never having thought about running track to making it on the podium — twice — at the OSSAA Class 1A State Championships, Ruff is our 2023 Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

Ruff finished fourth at state in the 400-meter run (1:01.69) after being the only freshman to qualify for the 200 finals, notching a seventh-place time of 27.06 seconds. She might have shocked Collins three months ago, but what Ruff did at state in early May grew to be the expectation she set for herself during her debut season in high school.

The Mustangs' coach remembers the freshman phenom and three of her softball teammates showing up. Ruff took on more, of course, eventually ending the season with a medal — and coming up one spot shy of nabbing another. And, at least to Collins, it was immediately evident that he had a star in the making.

At the first meet of the year — the Crossroad Relays on March 30 in Cushing — Ruff's first-ever attempt in the 400-meter dash resulted in a fourth-place finish of 1 minute, 3 seconds and 10 milliseconds.

"She came over and was kind of mad after that race," Collins remembers. "I'm just like, 'What's wrong with you? You just ran a 64 and you've never run track before."

Collins wasn't unbeknownst as to who Ruff was ahead of track season. They had just spent the winter together on the hardwood, with Collins coaching Frontier's girls basketball team and Ruff being the starting point guard.

The Mustangs finished the 2022-23 season with a record of 19-10, coming up one game shy of the state tournament in a campaign that continued the program's dominance over the better part of the past decade.

Those two — Collins and Ruff — had already grown accustomed to each other in the infancy of their time together. That's what brought Collins to tears when the only thing left for him to do was step back and watch as Ruff stepped onto the podium and received her first of many medals.

"My girls make fun of me because I'm kind of a crier. It's like a proud dad crying, you know?" Collins said. "Those kids, they put in a lot of work to achieve that kind of stuff. It was an unbelievable feeling to see her — as a freshman, to never freaking stepping foot on a track — just go ball out."

And from where Ruff was standing, the view was mesmerizing.

"I just remember all of the fans," she said, "sitting in the stands and looking down at the podium."

She didn't make it to state by herself, either. It was only fitting that both of her relay teams, the 4x200 and the 4x400, made it there as well. Ruff, of course, had a lot to do with that.

There would be times, Collins said, when the freshman would deliver a jaw-dropping performance as the anchor on both of those relays. That wasn't an anomaly. It was rather consistent.

"We'd be 200 meters behind and she just was a heat-seeking missile," Collins said. "Anybody in front of her was her prey. She just chased 'em down."

Yes, it happened at state too. The Mustangs were in 15th place — second-to-last — before the baton got to Ruff. They finished in 11th.

"It was a fun race," she said.

Ruff still has a while until she can get back on the track again. Almost exactly nine months, actually. She'll spend the rest of the summer preparing for fast-pitch softball, which starts right around when school resumes in August. Then she'll switch over to basketball.

But there's no denying she's ready for next spring to roll around.

"I'm really excited," Ruff said. "I'm going to practice more and just work harder."

Follow News Press sports reporter on Twitter @ByJonWalker for updates on Frontier High sports and more.