The Piedmont boys cross country team won the Deer Creek Field Run Festival meet Saturday, topping 6A schools from across the state, and the girls team finished third overall.
“I was extremely happy. You know the boys this (first place) as the goal, as they wanted to win it today,’ Coach Kelly Beck said. “So to go in and win against two of the best teams in 6A to beat them is pretty impressive. In the end you have bigger goals at the end of the year.”
Senior Beckam Hartis finished fourth in the elite varsity 5K, and the boys team had two more finish in the top ten of the race with Fares Maarouf seventh at 16:13 and Colby Ferbrache, junior, eighth with a time of 16:17.
He praised the girls team.
“I thought the girls were amazing and they took Bishop Kelly to a tie-breaker,the defending 5A girls state champs.”
Deer Creek was two time defending state champions, he added.”They are still a great team,” Beck said.
During warm-ups Saturday morning, Beck was happy to return to competition.
“This is the first meet of the season with mostly 6A schools with a couple of 5As sprinkled in,” Beck said. “But it’s good for us. We usually run that way anyway.”
“Our boys should be up there competing for first place today, we will see how it goes between us, Deer Creek and Mustang,” Beck said.
Before the starting gun, Beck said gave his expectations of the girls team’s finish. “On girls, probably anywhere from third place to sixth place, depending on how they run today.”
“I’m just excited to finally get to run and be out here and have a season, so we are ready to go,” Beck said.
His predictions for his teams’ finishes were on target, with the boys in first and girls third Saturday.
The Class 5A Wildcat boys team’s first place finish was followed by Mustang, Deer Creek, Edmond North and Tulsa Bishop Kelly in the top five.
The Deer Creek boys team is the defending 6A state champion, and the Deer Creek girls finished third in the state last year.
The Wildcats’ Beckam Hartis, a senior, finished fourth individually with a time of 16.06 in the boys varsity elite 5K run.
The girls team’s third place finish was behind Tulsa Bishop Kelly and Jenks in the elite varsity girls 5K run. Deer Creek girls finished fourth.
Sophomore Wildcat Rachel Caldwell placed ninth individually with a time of 20.32.
The 2018 boys won the state championship and finished as runner-up in 5A last fall.
Follow piedmontnewsonline.com and The Piedmont-Surrey Gazette for full results and local news updates.
