STATE TRACK: Bartlesville boasts multiple No. 1 seeds at weekend Class 6A meet
Bartlesville High School’s track team has plenty of top two seeds heading into this weekend’s Class 6A state meet at Noble Stadium.
A total of 23 Bruins and Lady Bruins will swell the field of the state’s elite thinclads.
The only No. 1 seeds from Bartlesville are Ragen Hodge (girls high jump, tied) and Quincey Turner (girls pole vault, tied).
Bartlesville athletes with previous state meet experience include: Hodge (2019, 2021), Turner (2021), Campbell Barta (2021), Gentry Turner (2021), Lauren Shoesmith (2021), Ledi Mull (2021), Alexis Burton (2021), Dayton Austin (2021), Jack Wahl (2021) and Kade Bostwick (2021).
That means an amazing number of 13 Bartlesville tracksters are first-time state qualifiers.
Bartlesville head track coach David Ayres doesn’t remember from his time as an observer, assistant track coach or leader of the program of qualifying 23 athletes for state.
As mentioned above many of them have some experience.
Austin is in a unique situation because he “pretty much got a different group” than he ran with last season, Ayres said. Austin has stepped up as a leader to solidify the Bruins’ 4x400m relay and 4x800m relay teams, both of which he runs.
Ayres has designated Reed Gorman as the alternate for both relays.
“He ran one of them a lot of the year,” Ayres said, adding he made a strategic change to put senior Evan Gunter in his place in the 4x400.
“Reed is as much a part of those teams as anybody else on them,” Ayres said.
High jumpers Wahl and Hodge each are title contenders on both the boys and girls side, respectively. Each came short of the regional of matching their season highs, so they could be primed to do something special at state.
Hodge posted a 5-foot-6 jump, the best in the state during the regular season. At the regional, her official jump was 5-foot-4, but she bypassed 5-foot-6 in order to try for the school record at 5-foot-7.
“She barely missed,” Ayres said.
Wahl soared 6-foot-6 — just a few inches lass than the school mark — in the regular season but hit 6-foot-2 as his top effort at the regional.
“Jack had a little bit of a hurt leg,” Ayres said about the regional.
The character of the Bartlesville High track strengths has made some major shifts. The team used to have a reputation of some of the state’s elite distance runners, while sometimes excelling in the high jump, throwing events and occasionally the hurdles.
But, the Bartlesville now boasts strength among the state’s solid-to-upper echelon in the girls sprints, girls long jump, boys and girls pole vault, boys distance relays, girls sprint and middle-distance relays, boys and girls high jump, girls throwing and middle-distance events, and are close in others.
Ayres is rooting for Turner to meet her goal of breaking the state girls pole vault record (13-feet-1-inch). Turner cleared 12-feet-even last year at state (runner-up) and flew over the bar at 12-foot-6 during this past regular season.
She fought through a little bit of injury issue early this campaign, but her dad — who is the pole vault coach — told Ayres that this week Turner “had the best practice she’s ever had. They don’t vault until Saturday.”
Another event Ayres is eager to see is the girls 4x200m relay team.
The foursome of Barta, Morgan Wasemiller, Kadance Barnett and Chloe Robbins, is on the cusp of setting a school record that has stood for nearly 40 years. The team that currently holds it — which included Julie Anderson Williamson, the mother for former Lady Bruin running stalwart Jillian Skalicky — has been inducted into the Bartlesville Athletic Hall of Fame. Other members of the 1985 squad included Arlene Reese Sutton, Sophia Shoate and Lee Ann Dent Nash.
The record set by the ’85 crew was 1:42.6. At last week’s regional, the current Lady Bruin foursome finished in 1:43.0.
Following is the seeding of Bartlesville athletes in their state events. They are listed by either heat or in the overall field in non-heat competitions:
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LADY BRUIN SEEDING
No. 1 seeds — Ragen Hodge (high jump, tied); Quincey Turner (pole vault, tied)
No. 2 seeds — Campbell Barta (Heat 2, 400m); Kadance Barnett (long jump, Flight 1)
No. 4 seeds — Gentry Turner (800m); Campbell Barta (long jump, Flight 2)
No. 5 seeds — Campbell Barta (Heat 2, 200m)
No. 6 seeds — Jaiden Stevenson (discus, Flight 2); 4x200m relay (Section 2, Campbell Barta, Morgan Wasemiller, Kadance Barnett, Chloe Robbins, )
No. 7 seeds — Kadance Barnett (Heat 1, 100m); Jaiden Stevenson (shot put, Flight 2)
No. 8 seeds — Alexis Burton (discus, Flight 2); 4x400m relay (Section 2, Gentry Turner, Parker Fielder, Zoe McCabe, Lauren Shoesmith)
No. 10 seeds — Ledi Mull (pole vault, tied); Maggie Jackson (pole vault, tied)
No. 15 seeds — Gentry Turner (800m)
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BRUIN SEEDING
No. 4 seeds — Jack Wahl (high jump, tied)
No. 5 seeds — 4x400m relay (Section 1, Gage Keaton, Dayton Austin, Noah Darnell, Evan Gunter, Reed Gorman, alt.)
No. 7 seeds — Kade Bostwick (pole vault, tied)
No. 12 seeds — Nick Smith (high jump, tied); 4x800m relay (Evan Gunter, Gage Keaton, Dayton Austin, Tehi Chibitty, Reed Gorman, alt.).
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BHS STATE TRACK CHAMPIONS: 2010-2021
2019: Boys 4x800m relay (Spencer Hales, Tyler Linthacum, James Boudreaux, Caleb Eiden)
2018: Rilee Rigdon (girls 1600m)
2018: Rilee Rigdon (girls 3200m)
2017: Girls 4x800m relay (Madi Taylor, Alyse Littlesun, Shay Stayton, Rilee Rigdon)
2016: Rilee Rigdon (girls 800m)
2016: Bennett Archer (boys 800m)
2016: Girls 4x800m relay (Rilee Rigdon, Avery Bennett, Ashley Barnes, Shay Stayton)
2010: Devin Randall (boys shot put)
2010: Devin Randall (boys discus)
2010: Danielle Koster (girls 100m hurdles)
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Focus on Bartlesville High's invasion of state track meet
