OKC Memorial Marathon registration opens for 2023 race

Registration has opened for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.

And that includes a new race.

With 2023 being the event’s 23rd year, race organizers announced Wednesday that registration for all races will be 23% off for 23 hours. The special pricing runs until 9 a.m. Thursday. Registration information can be found at OKCMarathon.com.

Races will be run April 28 and 29.

The Memorial Marathon also announced a senior marathon is being added for the first time. In addition to a marathon, half marathon, relay, 5K and kids marathon, the senior marathon will be for anyone 65 and older. Much like the kids marathon, participants in the senior marathon will walk or run 25 miles between January 1 and race day, then complete the final 1.2 miles on a course through downtown Oklahoma City.

The Memorial Marathon, Oklahoma’s largest marathon, honors the victims of the 1995 bombing outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. It is the largest fundraiser for the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.

NCAA champ Sheets headed to National Wrestling Hall of Fame

Two-time NCAA champion Mike Sheets, now a Stilwell veterinarian, is among the 2022 class of inductees into the Oklahoma chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

The 2022 inductees will be honored on Oct. 9 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Edmond. A reception begins at 3 p.m., followed by a banquet at 4 and the induction ceremony at 5. Tickets are $70 per person and can be purchased at OK-NWHOF.ticketleap.com or by contacting Howard Seay at c4dcowboys@aol.com or 918-639-8868.

Other inductees include high school coaches Mike Henry, Bill Reeves, Steve Shibley and Ray Weis; longtime official Gordon Nelson; and volunteer LeRoy Smith, who is no relation to the Smith family of Del City wrestling fame.

The chapter also has created a new award, the Madalene and Lee Roy Smith Family Wrestling Award, and the Del City family will be its first honoree. The sons of Madalene and the late Lee Roy Smith Jr. include Lee Roy III, John and Pat, all NCAA champions at OSU.

Sheets will be presented the Outstanding American Award. The other inductees will receive the Lifetime Service to Wrestling Award.

Henry wrestled at Portland State and eventually landed in Oklahoma, coaching at Jay, Clinton and Shawnee. Reeves coached in Calumet and El Reno. Shibley coached in Broken Arrow, Sapulpa and Sand Springs. Weis coached in Snyder, Okmulgee and Jenks.

LeRoy Smith has been involved with wrestling for more than 60 years, starting programs from scratch in Bixby, Bethesda Boys’ Home in Mounds and Glenpool. He began his wrestling career in 1943 at Tulsa’s Cleveland Junior High.

Sheets, from Tahlequah, won two NCAA titles in the 1980s for OSU. He placed second in the 1988 Olympic Trials, then returned to OSU and earned his veterinarian degree.

Extra points

OKC DODGERS: The floundering Oklahoma City Dodgers were held scoreless through six innings and lost a 6-1 Pacific Coast League baseball game to the Tacoma Rainiers on Wednesday afternoon at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Coupled with Round Rock's 7-2 loss Wednesday to Sugar Land, the Dodgers maintained a one-game lead over the Express and two-game lead over third-place El Paso in the East Division.

Tacoma, which beat OKC 7-3 in Tuesday's series opener, had all it needed in the third inning. The Rainiers (62-69) scored four runs behind back-to-back doubles by Josh Morgan and Marcus Wilson. Jake Amaya's RBI double in the seventh accounted for Oklahoma City's (73-58) only run. OKC has now lost six of its last seven games. ...

The Major League Baseball Players Association is joining the AFL-CIO. Executive director Tony Clark made the announcement alongside AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler at the National Press Club in Washington. The move comes as the MLBPA is attempting to unionize minor leaguers and in the aftermath of a nearly 100-day lockout that delayed the start of the season. Shuler called it an incredible moment for the labor movement. Clark says baseball players want to strengthen their organization by supporting minor leaguers and becoming part of the AFL-CIO.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Central Oklahoma will open the home portion of its football season at 7 p.m. Thursday against Emporia State in Edmond. The game marks the debut of an expanded Chad Richison Stadium. Richison's $10 million gift led to extensive landscaping behind the south end zone, which includes a waterfall, new trees and an upgraded video board. A new turf football field was also installed.

NCAA CROSS COUNTRY: Oklahoma State cross country announced the start times and broadcast window for the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships, which are being held on the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater on Nov. 19. ESPNU will broadcast both championship races with the women’s 6K starting at 9:20 a.m. CT, followed by the men’s 10K at 10:10 a.m. Tickets for the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships will go on pre-sale starting Nov. 1.

MLB: A radio host has admitted he falsely claimed agent Casey Close never informed first baseman Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves’ last contract offer. Doug Gottlieb tweeted on June 29 that “Casey Close never told Freddie Freeman about the Braves final offer,” Close and Excel Sports Management sued Gottlieb in mid-July in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleging defamation by libel. Gottlieb, who played basketball at Oklahoma State, tweeted an apology, saying “the conduct I alleged did not occur and that there is no credible basis for stating that it did.” He added: ”Casey Close did, in fact, communicate all offers to Freddie Freeman."

TENNIS: Frances Tiafoe has become the first American man to reach the U.S. Open semifinals since 2006 by beating Andrey Rublev 7-6 (3), 7-6 (0), 6-4 on Wednesday. The 24-year-old Tiafoe was backed by a boisterous partisan crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Tiafoe is seeded No. 22 and his first career semifinal at any Grand Slam tournament will come Friday against No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz or No. 11 Jannik Sinner.

—Staff and wire reports

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Memorial Marathon registration opens for 2023 race