By Michael Kinney
EDMOND--Edmond North knew coming into the regional meet May 5th that they were the favorites. After dominating the COAC Conference Championships and racking up a strong regular season, the Huskies were expected to cruise through the Edmond Santa Fe 6A/5A Regional.
Instead of seeing that as some type of pressure, North did what it has done all season and lived up to expectations. Both the boys and girls earned regional championships at Edmond Santa Fe and set themselves up for a strong showing at this weekend's 5A/6A State Track and Field Championships in Yukon.
"I think we performed admirably. We came here the favorites. I'm glad we came to do what we're supposed to do," Edmond North coach Steven Evans said. "We're going to have stiffer competition, no insult to the teams that were here, but 6A state, everyone comes hard. And it's going to be a dogfight. We have no illusions about that. So it's just, like I told the kids, let's celebrate right now, go home, and immediately start recovering, and we'll take care of business this week, and see what we got next week."
The Edmond North girls scored 180.333 points to win their regional title. They were 40 points ahead of second place Moore High.
Edmond Santa Fe (82), Mustang (80), Deer Creek (78), Westmoore (56) and Norman North North (35) rounded out the field.
"I think we're peaking at the right time, you know what I mean? We're kind of in that middle tier right now with some of our guys, and they're pushing to get up into the top tier in the state," Westmoore coach Colman Ramsey said. "And we've been holding off, holding off, holding off, and it seems like we're peaking right at the very end, which is what you want to do."
On the boys side, the Huskies had a bit more of a challenge. Their score of 136 points was just 10 points ahead runner-up Mustang.
The rest of the teams included Norman High (97), Deer Creek (89), Edmond Santa Fe (88), Westmoore (71) and Moore (44).
The 5A regional championships were also up for grabs, but the team competitions were far more out of reach.
The Carl Albert boys posted 185 points to wins the 5A boy's regional championship. Duncan trailed them with 108 points.
Woodward (72), MacArthur (65), Elgin (63), Ardmore (54), Guymon (46), Piedmont (21), Western Heights (20) and El Reno (14) completed the grouping.
The highest score of the day went to the Ardmore girls. They tallied 191 points in securing the regional title. That was 79 more than second place Elgin.
Duncan (106), Carl Albert (71), MacArthur (65), Woodward (43), Piedmont (42) and Guymon (4) also competed.
The regional winners and those who advanced know they will get a much tougher competition at the state meet.
"I was looking around what other people were doing around the state," Evans said. " They were in very, very fast times. And on the boy's side, our sprint relays are going to have to step up and shave off some tenths. And on the girl's side, there's a multitude of things. They're going to need to fall into place. I mean, there's no doubt about it, on the girl's side, there are some really good teams that we're going to see at state. But we're running like we have never run before. So anything can happen."
