Sports

OKLAHOMA CITY – Unforced errors in three critical areas came back to haunt El Reno High School’s volleyball team in a 3-0 loss to No.16 Santa Fe South in the semifinals of the Class 5A Region 1 Championships.

The 25-21/25-12/25-11 loss to the St. Bernards ended El Reno’s season with an 11-17 record and extended the school’s longest hiatus away from the state tournament in any sport.

El Reno had made the regional finals the past two seasons but the Indians have not qualified for state since their lone appearance in 1993.

EDMOND – The strong hitting that carried Calumet High School to the 2022 Class B Fall State Baseball Championships left the Chieftains when it was needed the most.

Calumet defeated fifth-ranked Boswell 5-4 in the state quarterfinals, but fell in the semifinals to eventual state champion Fort Cobb/Broxton by a 12-2 margin.

It was Calumet’s second trip to state in school history, the first coming in 1975. The loss to the Mustangs, the 13th-ranked foe faced in the final 17 games of the fall campaign, ended the Chieftains season with a 26-5 record.

The 1-5 Indians were back on the road Friday night at Ardmore in a key District 5A-1 battle for playoff aspirations.

With four games left in the regular season, El Reno is 1-2 in district games and tied with Duncan and Noble for fourth place, while Ardmore is tied for fifth.

El Reno’s junior high football teams played their final home games of the 2022 season last week against Noble in Suburban Conference action.

The seventh-grade team improved to 2-4 on the season with a 36-0 shutout of the Bears after getting a pair of 30-yard touchdown runs from Leo Willis in the first period
and a 4-yard touchdown from Brent Parker before half.

Playing through 41-degree temperatures and wind speeds in double digits, Redlands Community College’s golf team wrapped up its fall slate with a fourth-place finish at the 2022 NJCAA Women’s National Preview.

Playing the Buffalo Dunes Golf Course in Garden City, Kan., the Cougars posted a 36-hole total of 616 (303/313) to beat Iowa Western (637) and Coffeyville (875) community colleges.

Redlands was eight strokes out of third but well off the winning pace of 586 by Odessa College, Texas.

Redlands Community College’s soccer team ended a tough four-match stretch over seven days with a 3-0 loss to undefeated and league-leading Seminole State College, ranked third in the nation.

The loss gave SSC the season sweep over the Cougars but the match was scoreless at half and showed marked improvement for Redlands – which lost to the Trojans 9-0 less than a month earlier.

It was just the sixth time in 13 matches for SSC to be held to under five goals.

Running on a fast Texas course in Wichita Falls, Redlands Community College’s cross country team posted a pair of 12th-place finishes at the 2022 Mustang Derby, hosted by Midwestern State University.

“It was a fast course and we had some great times and faced some great higher division competition,” said RCC head coach Natalie Graves.

The Redlands men ran the 8-kilometer (4.97-mile) course with an overall time of two hours and 30 minutes, with an average runner time of 30:03 en route to a 320 points total.

Fall break is traditionally the time football programs across the state compress a week’s worth of preparation into three days ahead of a Thursday night ball game.

However, that’s not the case for El Reno High School’s football team which will keep a normal schedule in the days leading up to Friday’s road trip to Ardmore – despite the district being out two days for fall break.

“We are on fall break but Ardmore is not and they wanted to play on Friday night since the game is at their house. So we get an extra day of practice.

Midwest City’s size and speed proved to be a toxic combination as El Reno High School’s football team suffered a 34-0 loss at the hands of the Bombers in District 5A-1 play.

The loss dropped El Reno to 1-5 on the season and 1-2 in the district standings. It was the first shutout loss of the year for the Indians and the third time to be held to under 10 points.

“They were very big and athletic and I think a few of our kids were intimidated.

MIDWEST CITY – Perennial powerhouse and seven-time state champion Carl Albert was given a scare by El Reno High School’s fast-pitch softball team in the championship round of the Class 5A, Region 1 Championships.

El Reno, needing to beat the Titans twice to make a third trip to state in the past four seasons, took a 3-2 lead into the seventh inning of game one.

However, the Indians watched Carl Albert score two runs in its final at bat to pull out a 4-3 win over El Reno. The Indians season ends with a 14-18 overall record.