Sports

Following in the footsteps of her mom, Haley Mitchell’s Okarche High School girls basketball team punched its ticket to the Class A State Championships with a 59-48 win over No.17 Ripley.

Mitchell, daughter of coaching legend Cherie Myers, earns her first state trip as a head coach as the second-ranked Warriors improved to 25-3 on the year with the Class A, Area II Consolation Championship.

The win came on the heels of a 53-47 loss to No.5 Vanoss, which snapped a five-game win streak for Okarche. Mitchell’s team was slated to play No.13 Garber in the state quarterfinals.

OKLAHOMA CITY – A seven-year drought from the top rung of the medals podium at the Oklahoma State High School Wrestling Championships came to an end over the weekend for El Reno High School.

Junior Will Heger scored 20 team points for the Indians by winning gold at 132 pounds. He becomes the first state champion since Murdoch Marcum in 2015 and the 43rd EHS grappler to drape a gold medal around his neck.

El Reno High School’s girls basketball team rode a smothering pressure defense into the double elimination portion of the Class 5A playoffs with a 55-24 win over No.15 Lawton Eisenhower.

The victory came in the semifinals of the West Region 4 Championships and pushed the second-ranked Indians into the regional finale against seventh-ranked Piedmont, which eliminated No.10 Bishop McGuinness.

Both Calumet High School’s basketball teams had their seasons cut short of making the Class A state tournament, with the sixth-ranked Chieftains losing 63-45 to No.19 Canute.

That loss came in the Region III consolation quarterfinals as Jacob Mayfield’s team suffered back-to-back setbacks for the first time this season. Calumet finished with a 21-8 record.

The Chieftains were led in scoring by Hunter Arnold with 19 points to go along with two rebounds, two assists and two steals. Matthew Snyder followed with 15 points, nine rebounds and two assists.

Getting a wake-up call from a home-school program, El Reno High School’s girls basketball team closed out the regular season with a 59-35 win over the Oklahoma City Storm.

The victory was the third straight for El Reno and the 11th out of the past 13 games. The Indians, the West’s second seed for the upcoming Class 5A playoffs, finished the regular season with a 19-4 record.

El Reno led 11-8 after one period but allowed the Storm the first five points of the second period to trail for the first time in the contest.

Mother Nature’s recent blast of winter weather forced the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association to push back the time frame for the upcoming Class 5A playoffs.

The move gave El Reno High School’s boys basketball team an extra day to smooth out the miscues which led to a 62-47 senior night loss to the Oklahoma City Storm in last week’s regular-season finale.

The loss snapped El Reno’s four-game win streak as the Indians head into the playoffs as the West’s seventh seed with a 13-10 overall record.

Paige Primeaux has shot and made hundreds of baskets inside Jenks Simmons Field House over her El Reno High School career.

However, all those shots fall short in comparison to the one she took in the Indians regular-season finale against the Oklahoma City Storm.

No, it wasn’t a buzzer-beater attempt to win the game. It was just a simple shot from under the basket on the opening play of El Reno’s double-digit win over the home-school team.

What spoke volumes about the shot was the whirlwind journey Primeaux had been through the previous 72 hours.

Head coach Tyrone Lewis will have his second largest contingent on the mats this weekend as seven El Reno High School grapplers qualified for the 2022 Class 5A State High School Wrestling Championships.

Competing out of the recent Class 5A West Regional in Duncan, fifth-ranked El Reno placed second overall in the team race with 175.5 points. Eighth-ranked Guthrie rallied past EHS in day two of the regional to win the team title with 211 points.

Elgin (163.5), Lawton MacArthur (161.5) and Carl Albert (156) rounded out the top five of the 16-team field.

El Reno High School’s baseball team scrimmaged North Rock Creek and Minco last week at the Hub Reed Complex.

El Reno High School’s boys powerlifting team took fifth place at the 2022 Dave Tapp Invitational hosted in Chickasha.

El Reno had three lifters place, with Bradley Chavers winning the 123-pound weight class with a total weight of 930 pounds, up 35 pounds from his last outing. His breakdown was 365 pounds in the deadlift, 350 pounds in the squat and a 215-pound bench press.

Brother Bradeyn Chavers took first at 132 pounds with a total weight of 1,010 pounds - an increase of 20 pounds. His best was a 395-pound squat followed by a 370-pound deadlift and a 245-pound bench.