By Blake Colston
Sports Editor
EDMOND – Piedmont’s Reese Fricke and Dade Humes had a plan.
They wanted to set the tone early Saturday during the Class 5A state cross country meet at Edmond Santa Fe High School. That meant putting distance between themselves and the pack as quickly as possible.
“We decided to take the first mile really fast and tried to drop everyone and show them that they didn’t want to try to keep up with us,” Fricke said.
No one was able to keep up with Fricke who led the entire race on his way to capturing the first individual state title of his career by more than 20 seconds. Humes finished second with PHS freshman Nelin Kimery taking the bronze medal.
That trio led the top-ranked Wildcats to their third team state championship since 2018. Piedmont finished 40 points ahead of runner-up Tulsa Bishop Kelley to cap a dominant 2022 season the only way that seemed appropriate.
“That’s been our goal from the get-go,” head coach Kelly Beck said. “We thought we should be the best team out there.”
Reese Fricke of Piedmont is your 5A individual state champion. Dade Humes second and Nelin Kimery third. Wildcats are well on their way to a team state title. #okpreps pic.twitter.com/M5C97HjFMp
— Blake Colston (@CBlakeColston) October 29, 2022
To prove just how much faster Piedmont’s top three were than the rest of the field, Kimery’s third place time of 16:20.62 was seven seconds quicker than Bishop Kelley’s Rowan Meyers, who finished fourth.
The Wildcats could’ve easily have been celebrating back-to-back titles as the Wildcats also entered the 2021 state meet as the favorites, but finished runner-up. The sting from that close call was added motivation to make a statement this time around.
“There weren’t going to be any questions this year,” Beck said.
Fricke normally wears a watch during meets to track his time, but left it at home on Saturday. That was a good move.
“I didn’t know how fast I was going. Maybe I was going a little too fast,” Fricke said, “but it turned out to be just right.”
Riley Pauley took 15th for PHS and Kanyon Cobbs was 42nd.
