HOLDING PATTERN

Zoey Evans was mentally gearing up to run the final race of her high school career over the weekend.

Now she’ll have to slow those gears down for a few more days.

The OSSAA announced Wednesday that it was postponing the state cross country meets for Classes 2A-6A originally scheduled Saturday, Oct. 31, at Edmond Santa Fe High School.

Instead, the races will be run Wednesday, Nov. 4.

That affects the Lomega boys team in Class 2A, Hennessey girls in Class 3A and the Kingfisher boys and girls teams in Class 4A.

“I think all of us girls were starting to get pretty excited for this weekend and were all pretty upset about it being postponed,” said Evans, a senior for the third-ranked Lady Jackets who are looking for a second state title in three years.

The meets were postponed after the ice storm that brought its share of damage to Kingfisher County also wreaked havoc on the course that runners would be tackling.

“I personally wish they had just let us run this weekend because we had all been starting to mentally prepare for Saturday and now it’s been thrown off a little bit,” Evans said.

The times for the meet remain the same: 4A girls run at 11:30 a.m. and the boys at 11:50 a.m.; 3A girls are at 1 p.m. and the 2A boys are the final race at 2:50 p.m.

KHS cross country coach Kerri Lafferty said the post-ponement is just a minor obstacle for her teams.

“We were definitely ready to run Saturday, but everything is going to be fine,” she said. “We will adjust a few workouts for this week and be ready to run Wednesday.

“We just need to keep our legs fresh.”

Despite being ready to run now, Evans was also able to find a silver lining in the postponement.

“The biggest plus to it being moved is that now more people can come support us and watch us run,” she said.