Sports

It was a mixed bag of results over a 24-hour period for El Reno High School’s boys golf team last week, driven mostly by a shift in playing conditions.

In near perfect playing conditions, the Indians carded a 337 team score to place third in the 2023 Weatherford Boys Invitational.

El Reno was 24 strokes off the winning pace set by Woodward, but only 16 back of Elk City for second.

El Reno beat out Clinton (340), Thomas/Fay-Custer (341) and Weatherford (349) to round out the top six.

Following a big rally for a run-ruled pool victory over Weatherford, El Reno High School’s baseball team dropped a close 6-5 game to Class A’s 14th-ranked Laverne in cross-bracket play in the 2024 Kingfisher Invitational.

El Reno served as one of the two host sites for the event, posting a 2-2 record to exit the event with a 13-5 overall record. The Indians rallied from a six-run deficit with a 21-run blitz over three innings to defeat Weatherford 21-9 and logged an 11-1 win over Clinton.

The other loss was a close 4-3 game against Putnam City West.

In the only scheduled home action of the season, El Reno High School’s tennis teams were competitive but dropped a varsity/junior varsity outing to Harding Charter by an 11-1 score at the Legion Park courts.

The El Reno girls lost by a 6-0 margin but won 24 games and had one match go to a third-set tiebreaker. Bri Barksdale and Jayna Graham lost 7-5/4-6/8-10 to the team of Lemus and Oubre at No.1 doubles.

Junior Davin Shamblin threw a complete game and El Reno High School’s offense squeezed out a pair of runs to defeat Chickasha last week 2-1 in the U.S. 81 baseball rivalry.

The Indians win snapped a four-game losing streak to the Chicks dating back to a split in 2019.

The last victory in the six-game stretch (1,829 days) for El Reno was on March 29 of that same year by a 2-1 count.

El Reno is now 11-4 on the season with the win over Chickasha.

Shamblin moved to 4-0 with six hits and the one run over seven innings. He faced 27 batters, striking out eight.

Following a quick start, El Reno High School’s boys soccer team allowed two unanswered goals in a 2-1 loss to Del City and remains in the cellar of the District 5A-2 standings.

The Eagles scored the only goal of the second half to defeat El Reno, which slipped to 0-2 in the league standings, tied with Midwest City. The Bombers host EHS Friday night.

El Reno scored first against Del City as Luke Lemke’s shot was blocked by the Eagles keeper. Alan Gonsalez hopped over the goalie and found the loose ball for a shot into an open net at the 37:02 mark.

Conley Knapp logged her second straight home hat trick last week as El Reno High School’s girls soccer team returned to District 5A-2 play with a 6-0 win over Del City.

The victory kept El Reno tied for first in the league standings with Southeast and Carl Albert at 2-0.

The Indians move to 4-4 on the year after posting a 1-2 record in the recent Rose Rock Classic in Noble. El Reno defeated the host’s junior varsity (4-0) but fell to NHS (2-0) and Ada (3-1).

Both El Reno High School tennis teams finished in the top five last week at the 2024 Suburban Conference Tennis Championships hosted by Shawnee.

The girls tied for fifth place with two team points, while the boys scored five points to tie with Elgin. Carl Albert won both team titles.

The El Reno boys were led by Jim Rinehart’s fourth-place effort at No.2 singles with a 1-2 record. He was the fifth seed and lost in straight sets to top-seeded Tyler Shaw of Carl Albert.

Two meets into the 2024 schedule and El Reno High School’s track teams are starting to show slight improvements in times and distances in both running and field events.

At the recent Chickasha High School Invitational, the El Reno girls placed seventh overall with 22 points, while the boys squad placed eighth with 18 points.

Eight of the girls points came from a silver medal in the long jump by Madeline Taylor with a distance of 15 feet, 7.5 inches, less than 5 inches short of the winning mark.

Battling gusting winds and occasional spritzing rain throughout the day, Redlands Community College’s golf team defended its title for a third straight year at the 2024 Women’s Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships.

Playing on its home turf of Crimson Creek Golf Course, Redlands shot a 36-hole total of 638 to win by 89 strokes over Murray State College (727) – the only other full squad in the field.

The Cougars carded a 323 in the morning round, but shaved eight shots off that total in the afternoon session for a 315 effort.

El Reno High School seniors Pauline Black-Harmon (left of 5A state championship trophy) and Nazhoni Sleeper (right) signed national letters of intent to play basketball next season for Seminole State College.

The Belles play out of NJCAA Region 2 and are coached by former Redlands Community College coach Rita Story-Schell.