NFL Draft to the passing of an icon

We continue our look at the year that was in sports in Kingfisher County in 2019.

Our first installment ran in the Jan. 1, 2020, edition and included the fi rst three months of the year, plus parts of April.

We pick it up in the middle of April as spring sports are beginning to heat up...

April

• KHS defeated Piedmont 8-0 to win the Edward Jones Invitational in Kingfisher. Earlier in the season, Kingfisher went into Spring Break undefeated for the first time…a sign of success to come.

• Crescent’s Dominic Stevens won the individual title at the Kingfi sher High School Small-School Invitational golf tournament. Stevens shot a 1-over-par 71 in blustery conditions.

• Trey Green was voted the Region 1 Male Athlete of the Year after a poll of coaches and athletic directors. The region covers 76 school districts in northwest Oklahoma. The KHS senior’s coach, Jared Reese, was voted the region’s boys basketball coach of the year and Chris Combs the assistant of the year. Stan Blundell was voted the baseball coach of the year. Later in the month, the Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Association named Reese the coach of the year. Green and Jett Sternberger were named co-players of the year in Class 4A.

• KHS sophomore Maddi Kamas shot a 78 to win the individual title at the Canadian Valley Conference tournament in Purcell. It was the sixth straight win of the season for Kamas.

• Kingfisher defeated Tuttle 7-4 at Homier Field to lock up first place in District 4A-2, which secured the Jackets a home baseball regional. It’s the fi rst time KHS has won a regional since the format was adopted in 4A.

• Ally Stephenson was at it again. This time the KHS sophomore cleared 5-6 in her home meet to set another school record in the high jump. KHS senior Madeline Loosen won three gold medals in the meet.

• Stephenson wasn’t the only record setter at the meet. Senior Colton York soared 22 feet, 11 1/4 inches to win the boys long jump. His distance beat a 28-year-old school record held by Lamont Gunnings. KHS sophomore Cade Stephenson won two golds in the meet as he won the 100 and high jump.

• Alexis Stitt shot a career-best 87 to help KHS win the Class 4A girls golf regional at Kingfi sher Golf Course. Her teammate, Maddi Kamas, shot a 3-under 69 to win the tournament as KHS qualifi ed for the state tournament.

• Jace Sternberger capped a whirlwind year when he became the third-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in the 2019 NFL Draft. Sternberger, a tight end who earned All-American honors during the 2018 season at Texas A&M, was the 75th overall pick of the draft. Sternberger is a 2015 graduate of Kingfi sher High School who helped the Jackets win the 2013 Class 3A state championship as a junior.

• Cashion’s girls - led by Kaitin Taylor and Madelyn McCabe - won their fourth straight Class 2A regional title in track and fi eld.

• The KHS boys took third in their regional to qualify for the Class 3A state golf tournament.

• In their Class 4A regional track and fi eld meet, Kingfisher’s Ally Stephenson won gold in the high jump and qualified for state in two other events. Madeline Loosen qualified in four events. On the boys side, Braxton Mecklenburg was regional champ in the high jump while Colton York won the long jump and Reece Lafferty in the 300 hurdles. York qualifi ed for state in three events.

May

• The putter wasn’t kind to Maddi Kamas during the Class 4A girls state golf tournament. Kamas missed a five-foot par putt on the tournament’s final hole, one that would have put her in a tie for first place and forced a playoff. As it was, the Kingfisher sophomore had to settle for state runner-up behind Kenzie Kirkhart of Hilldale at Lake Hefner Golf Club’s south course in Oklahoma City. The KHS girls finished fourth as a team.

• KHS alum Mason Over-street was voted the SEC Men’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year as voted on by the league’s coaches. Overstreet is currently a senior on the University of Arkansas men’s golf team.

• The Kingfi sher High School baseball team run-ruled Clinton 14-1 at Homier Park to win its Class 4A regional tournament and advance to the state tournament for the third time in school history and fi rst time since 2009. The win came on a Sunday afternoon (due to weather delays earlier in the week), one day after the Jackets were forced to the “if” game in a 6-0 loss to Clinton.

• Hennessey’s Madison Collier won the Class 3A discus for the second straight year. Her throw of 148 feet, 11 inches set a new state meet record. Collier is considered the top-ranked discus competitor in the nation in the Class of 2021. She was third in the shot put at the state meet.

• KHS freshman Ally Stephenson capped a fantastic season as she won the Class 4A state championship in the high jump with a leap of 5-6, which tied her school record. She went on to win the same event later in the month at the Meet of Champions.

• KHS senior Madeline Loosen capped a legendary career with four medals at the 4A state meet. Loosen won bronze in both the 800 and 1,600 and was on medaling relays in the 1,600 and 3,200. Also for KHS, Maddie St. Cyr took bronze in the 3,200 while Colton York was state runner-up in the long jump. The KHS boys team brought home some extra hardware as it was named the Class 4A academic state champ.

• Cashion’s Madelyn Mc-Cabe won four medals at the Class 2A state meet. She repeated as state champ in the high jump and was a runner-up in the long jump. She was also on relay teams that took third and fourth as Cashion just missed out on a state runner-up finish as a team. Needing only to fi nish in the top-eight in the meet’s final event - the 1,600 relay - to secure the second-place finish as a team, Cashion’s Bella Schenk was tripped on the final stretch of the last leg. The team ultimately was tagged with a DNF and Pawhuska, after winning the event, was able to pass Cashion for second place by a single point.

• Sophomore Haley Hutchison became Lomega’s first female to medal at the state meet in 14 years as she took third in the 3,200 meter run at the Class A meet. She was also fourth in the 1,600. Riley Lumpkin was a bronze medalist for the Lomega boys in the 400.

• KHS senior Peyton Burns earned All-State status with his eighth-place fi nish at the Class 3A boys golf state tournament. Burns led KHS to fifth place as a team.

• There were a number of delays and venue changes, but none of it stopped the Kingfisher baseball team from making history. The Jackets defeated Verdigris 5-3 at Edmond North High School in the Class 4A state quarterfinals. It was the program’s first-ever state tournament win.

The team’s run came to an end in the semifi nals when it was defeated 7-4 by Blanchard. The Lions went on to beat Harrah 14-5 in the title game to cap a perfect 39-0 season.

As for KHS, the team finished with a 33-8 record. The win total was the most in school history, breaking the mark set in 2017 by three games. Kingfisher’s seniors were part of teams that won 108 games in four years, including 90 games the last three seasons.

• KHS seniors Zach Goodwin and Logan Rutledge were named to the Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Association All-State team. They’re just the fourth and fifth players from KHS known to earn the distinction.

• Maddi Kamas was named the All-City Player of the Year for girls golf, an award presented by The Oklahoman that includes all classifications.

• The basketball recruitment of Kingfisher’s Bijan Cortes made its biggest splash yet when during a visit to Norman, University of Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger extended an offer. At the time of the offer, Cortes was only a sophomore and had just helped KHS to the Class 4A state championship.

June

• Sarah Keeth was named Kingfisher’s new cheer coach. She takes over after Tiffanie Barnett’s resignation. Barnett took a position at Chisholm Trail Technology Center.

• Dover High School product Miguel Obeso was picked by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 40th round of the 2019 Major League Baseball Draft. Obeso, a right-handed pitcher, was a freshman at Cowley County Community College at the time of the draft. He has since signed to play at Texas Tech University after his second season at Cowley.

• Cashion’s Madelyn Mc-Cabe finished as runner-up in the heptathlon at the 44th annual Great Southwest Track and Field Classic in New Mexico, one of the top meets in this region of the country.

• The Kingfi sher boys basketball team fell just short of repeating as champion of the elite-level bracket at Oklahoma State University’s team camp. However, soon after the team’s loss to 6A Edmond Memorial in the finals, OSU head coach Mike Boynton offered scholarships to rising juniors Matthew Stone and Bijan Cortes. At the time of this offer, Cortes also held offers from OU, Tulsa and ORU. Stone, meanwhile, also had a TU offer.

• Kingfisher’s Heath Myers won the Oklahoma Golf Association Stroke Play Championship with a three-round total of 206 at Oak Tree Country Club’s East Course. His score was three strokes better than Carson Tewell.

July

• Take it easy. Gyms were locked up. Fields were off limits. The week surrounding July 4 is now the “dead period” as far as the OSSAA is concerned. The state’s governing body for athletics instituted this week to essentially give student-athletes a break during the summer.

The summer of 2019 was the first time it was practiced. Student-athletes were not allowed access to any school-owned facility during the week. If the rule is broken, the coach in that sport faces a penalty.

Kingfisher Superintendent Jason Sternberger was on the OSSAA Board of Directors when the rule was passed. “If everyone will be consistent with it, it will be good for coaches and the kids,” he said. “They need a break from each other. Overall, it’s just good for kids and coaches both mentally and physically.”

• Kingfisher’s Bijan Cortes helped Team Griffin defeat Team Takeover 75-73 in double-overtime to win the Peach Jam, the premier tournament for the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League, in Atlanta. Cortes scored 12 points and added four assists and three rebounds in the title game. Among his teammates was Heritage Hall’s Trey Alexander, a fellow rising junior whom Cortes helped bottle up in the Class 4A state championship game the previous March.

• The area had a number of athletes compete in the OCA All-State games in the Tulsa area. Among them were Kingfi sher’s Katelyn Stolz in girls basketball, Peyton Burns in boys golf, Stone Snodgrass in wrestling, Trey Green in boys basketball and Jett Sternberger in

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football. All five helped their team to victory. Also taking part were Okarche’s Cris Avila in boys basketball and Crescent’s Hunter Bowers in football.

• Preliminary work began late in the month on the new cheer and softball facility for student-athletes at Kingfisher High School. The $1 million facility was able to be fully paid from the district’s general fund. The facility is located between the north end of the football field and the high school’s softball fi eld.

August

• Heath Myers of Kingfisher shot a two-day total of 129 (11-under-par) to win the Kingfisher Golf Association club championship for the 12th time. It was Myers’ first time to win since 2016. His total was six strokes better than Jacob Mayfield, the Calumet boys basketball coach, who was the 2017 champ.

• An icon in Oklahoma basketball was lost when longtime Okarche coach passed away in the early morning hours of Sunday, Aug. 10, at the age of 68, after a battle with cancer. West had just completed his 25th year at Okarche in March when he guided the Warriors to the state semifinals. It was the 11th time he coached Okarche to the state tournament.

West coached 45 years in all with stops in Fort Supply, Gould, Purcell, Mustang, Mountain View and Cordell prior to arriving in Okarche. He won 853 games, second most all-time among boys high school coaches in Oklahoma. His record at Okarche was 554-182.

A memorial service to honor West was held Friday, Aug. 16, at Okarche’s brand-new gymnasium. It was the first event held in the new gym.

September

• Kingfisher’s softball season came to an end with a 16-18 record. The season included a second-place finish in the Highway 33 Classic.

•  Okarche’s baseball team was the lowest-ranked one to make it out of the Class A district tournaments being held statewide. The 20th-ranked Warriors upset No. 13 Amber-Pocasset 2-1 on its home field to advance to regionals.

• Hennessey set several individual offensive records in a 61-49 loss to Alva in the fourth week of the football season. Cole Joyce threw for 500 yards to set a new school mark and also for five touchdowns, which tied a record.

Brysn Hunt caught 13 passes for 222 yards and four touchdowns. The TD receptions tied a school record and the receiving yardage for one game is No. 2 on the school’s all-time list. He’d be No. 1 if it weren’t for Kaden Hawk, whose six receptions in the same game totaled 224 yards.

Alva and Hennessey combined for 69 first downs and 1,446 total yards in the shootout. Perhaps just as astounding is the fact Hennessey had managed only two touchdowns in its previous three games combined.

October

• Maddi Kamas of Kingfisher shot a final-round 70 (1-under par) at Shawnee Country Club to claim the Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship tournament. She wrapped up the OJGT season as the winner of the Kyle Lewis Stroke Average Award (71.8) and was the top points earner among girls on the tour.

•  The Kingfisher girls were runners-up at their Class 4A cross country regional to automatically qualify for state. Zoey Evans was fourth, Katon Lunsford sixth and Ashtin Witt 12th to medal for KHS. Jon Henry ran 10th to help the KHS boys place seventh and also automatically qualify.

•  Lomega’s boys took third at their 2A cross country regional to also qualify for state. Tate Ott was fourth to pace the Raiders.

• KHS softball players Macy McCully, Olivia Wilcox, Mia Farrell and Kaycee Karcher earned 2019 Tri-County softball all-conference honors.

• Kingfisher junior Mia Farrell earned all-district softball honors for 4A-1. Teammates Olivia Wilcox and Macy McCully received honorable mention.

•  The Kingfisher girls finished eighth and the boys 15th at the Class 4A state cross country meet at Shawnee in frigid, wet, muddy conditions. Kingfisher’s Zoey Evans placed 10th for the girls, earning her All-State honors for a second straight year. Katon Lunsford was 14th and medaled for the second straight year.

• In Class 2A cross country, Cashion senior Kaitin Taylor ran to a ninth-place finish to earn All-State honors for her class.

• Another Cashion senior, Madelyn McCabe, ended her recruitment process when she committed to continue her track and field career at Southeastern Louisiana University, a Division I school in Hammond.

November

• Okarche earned a sweep over Preston on Nov. 1 in the first varsity basketball games ever played at the school’s brand-new gym. The Lady Warriors won 44-32 and the boys 65-61 on a night when former boys coach Ray West was honored. West had passed away in August.

“It was an emotional night for everyone,” said Aaron West, Ray’s son and assistant coach who took on the head coaching duties. “(The kids) were very passionate about trying to get a victory in the new gym. Since they were honoring Dad, they didn’t want to lose that game.”

• Cashion’s cheerleading squad took runner-up honors for the second straight year at the OSSAA’s Class 2A Game Day state competition.

• Junior Noah Snowden scored 24 points as Lomega toppled Okarche 58-36 at home. The win was significant for the Raiders because they hadn’t beaten Okarche in boys basketball since Jan. 8, 1999, a span of nearly 21 years.

• In one of the top annual small-school girls basketball showdowns, Okarche surged late to defeat Lomega 57-44 on the Lady Raiders’ home court.

• Cashion capped a perfect regular season (9-0) by knocking off Minco 40-13 in a showdown of top-five teams in Class A. The victory secured the Wildcats the District A-3 championship for the second straight season.

• KHS had two student-athletes sign during November’s signing period. Macy McCully signed to play softball at Cowley County Community College while Jenni Beebe signed to play basketball at Oklahoma Baptist University.

•  Clayton Abercrombie booted a 23-yard field goal to give Kingfisher one of its most dramatic football playoff victories ever. Abercrombie’s kick ended a 45-42 win at Marlow in triple-overtime. Cade Stephenson scored on touchdown runs in each of the first two overtimes.

Marlow got the ball first in the third overtime but an errant pitch and catch resulted in a fumble on the first play, one that the Jackets’ T.J. Parker pounced on. Four plays later, Abercrombie’s kick ended the game.

It was the 15th time in Jeff Myers’ 16 seasons as a head coach that KHS won a first-round playoff game.

• The good news ended there for KHS. The Jackets were eliminated from the playoffs in the quarterfinal round with a 55-14 loss at No. 2 Lincoln Christian. The Bulldogs went on to win the Class 3A state championship. Kingfisher’s season ended with a 7-5 record.

• Cashion seniors Madelyn McCabe and Sam Brown signed to compete in track and field for Southeastern Louisiana University. They are Cashion’s first two track athletes to sign Division I scholarships.

• Up in Kansas a pair of Cowley County baseball players from Kingfisher County signed to play at four-year schools. Austin Neal, a KHS grad, signed to play at Emporia State where he’ll join fellow former Yellowjacket Matt Hopkins.

Dover product Miguel Obeso, meanwhile, will continue his pitching career at Texas Tech University. The right-hander was picked by Toronto Blue Jays earlier in the year during the 40th round of the Major League Baseball Draft.

December

• The Gerrett Spears era officially began for KHS girls basketball and he got a double dose of bad news. The Lady Jackets were dealt a 55-38 loss at Class 4A’s third-ranked Newcastle. During the game, senior and longtime starter Hannah Matthews tore her ACL.

•  The KHS boys began defense of a basketball state championship for the second time in school history. They did so with a 58-40 victory at Newcastle.

• Cashion used a dominant final 2 1/2 quarters to outlast Pawnee 34-16 in their Class A football semifinal at Cushing. The win put Cashion into the state championship for the first time since 2015…and for the third time in the last six years.

• And for the third time in the last six years, Cash-ion had to settle for a silver ball. In a defensive slugfest, Ringling made more big plays and defeated Cashion 20-14 for the state championship at Wantland Stadium in Edmond. Cashion’s season ended with a 13-1 record.

• Later that same night, the Cashion boys basketball team knocked off Class A’s third-ranked Garber 61-55 to win the NextEra Energy Resources Invitational basketball championship.

• The Okarche girls won that same tournament for the second straight year by defeating county rival Cashion, 41-34, in the championship.

• Lomega’s girls avenged one of their two losses by defeating previously unbeaten Calumet, 47-32, in the finals of the Canton Invitational. It was Calumet’s first loss of the season.

• In one of the more impressive displays in a KHS boys basketball uniform, junior Bijan Cortes scored 37 points in his team’s 84-47 home win against Weatherford. Cortes was 13 of 15 from the field, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range. Making his night more impressive was the fact he didn’t touch the floor in the fourth quarter.

• More signing day news for KHS: Senior cheerleaders Taylor Watkins, Ashtin Witt and Emma Barnett signed with OBU in Shawnee. On the same day, fellow senior Wes Hine made good on his commitment and signed to play football at the University of Northern Iowa.

• Cashion’s Caden Harrell topped the list of local all-district honorees as he was named MVP for A-3 in a vote of district coaches. Clayton Abercrombie and Riley Myers also earned top awards for KHS in District 3A-1.