By Trey Hunter
Sports Editor
Piedmont’s cross country proclaimed its expectations last year.
The Wildcat boys won the 2018 Class 5A state championship while the girls finished third, capping a tremendous season and setting the standard for the teams going forward.
This year’s teams are in prime position to still lead the pack in Class 5A, including the boys who lost three runners, but still return four of the top-20 finishers from the state meet.
“We still expect to contend,” Piedmont coach Kelly Beck said of the boys squad, who lost Blake Cope, Jadon Barker and Paul Welch who all finished inside the top-6 at last year’s state meet. “Still even after losing those three guys, we’re still one of the top teams in Class 5A. The mentality is that we’re going to repeat.”
Piedmont returns junior Beckam Hartis, seniors Garrett Bickley and Jacob Brightwell and sophomore Tanner Bailey to help lead this year’s squad. Hartis finished ninth at state last year and fifth in the conference meet. His top time was 16:47. Bickley finished 19th at state last year and sixth in conference with his best time at 16:54. Brightwell finished 14th at state and seventh at conference with a top time of 16:54 and Bailey finished 18th at state and eighth in conference with a best time of 16:58. Also watch out for Fares Maarouf and Gibson Barlow to help fill in spots left behind by last year’s seniors.
Beck says that time trials to determine this year’s varsity squad went as expected.
“We have 5-6 guys that are very similar in ability,” Beck said. “I thought time trials went really well. We’re going to work on running more in a pack and running to our strengths. Having guys run together really helps a lot.”
The Piedmont girls team will look to continue to build on its youth and its third-place run in the 2018 Class 5A state meet. Beck says the girls squad is set to compete, but also knows the future is still bright.
“I think we’re still expecting to be up there,” Beck said of the girls team going into the 2019 season. “We should be in the picture with the top teams like Bishop Kelley, Guthrie and Coweta.”
The Cats girls return five runners from last year’s squad, including sophomores Aubrey Bray, Macie Brannum, Lexi Meier and Naia Sheperd and also junior Lana Daniels. Brey finished 11th at state last year and sixth in conference, Brannum finished 22nd at state and eighth at conference, Meier finished 26th at state and 10th in conference and Sheperd finished 14th at conference. Daniels was in the mix as well with a top time last year of 23:55. The team does suffer a blow as its top runner from last year, junior Delanie Crawford, has taken a break from cross country to focus on basketball.
“Not having Delanie will hurt us a little bit,” Beck said. “But we have the girls to step up and fill that role. We expect Aubrey to be there and the other girls to take a big step forward as well. Jillian Crawford, Delanie’s sister, should be in the picture as well.”
Time trials went as planned for the girls.
“We’re showing improvement from our fifth runner down,” Beck said. “We had a little bit of an issue with that last year, closing the gap at that spot. Time trials were great from that aspect. I liked what I saw from the whole group.”
Piedmont kicks off the season Saturday at the 2019 Deer Creek meet. The Wildcats will race at Carl Albert, Guthrie, Mustang, Norman and at the Chile Pepper race in Fayetteville, Ark. They will also race in pre-state at Edmond Santa Fe as well as the conference and regional meets before state.
“We’re excited for Saturday,” Beck said. “We’ll see some of the best boys and girls in the state which will give us a good guage on where we’re at to start the season. It’s good to get things going and will be nice to get out of the gate with a good performance.”
