OWASSO — The first thing you notice about middle-distance runners is that they don’t get much notice. Not at first, anyway.
Sprinters explode from the blocks to cheers and whirring cameras. Hurdlers crash through races that take fractions of seconds.
And then there are the athletes running circles, again, and again, and again. Running quietly, just soft footfalls. Usually hurting and doing their very best to be comfortable ignoring that pain longer than everyone else around them. This is where you find Charles Page sophomore Cole Higgins — chasing the next lap, ignoring the pain and, last Saturday, on the podium for both the 800 and 1600 meter runs.
At the OSSAA Class 6A Regional last Saturday, the Sandites sent athletes into nearly every corner of the meet. Some ran personal bests. Some narrowly missed medals. Some simply learned how unforgiving Class 6A track can be at the regional levels.
Higgins became Sand Springs’ lone state qualifier, finishing runner-up in both the 800 and 1600 meters against some of the deepest competition in Oklahoma, and securing his trip to state.
He ran 1:57.37 in the 800 meters, finishing second only to Bixby’s Benjamin Scrapper. That’s a subtwo 800, an elite club.
Later, after most runners would have been content to relax in the afternoon, Higgins came back to run the 1600 and finished second again in 4:27.71.
Two distance races. Two silver medals. Two state qualifications, and a hint that Sand Springs is watching something special develop. Sophomore runners are not supposed to look this composed at regionals. Not in races that tactical — that physical. Not in races where one bad turn can erase months of training. But Higgins spent this year consistently proving he belongs.
Back in March at the Spartan Invitational in Bixby, he opened eyes with a 1:59.58 personal-best run in the 800 while taking second in the 1600 at 4:34.62. On May 30, during the Shannon Hilburn 9/10th Grade Invitational in Bristow, He place first with a time of 2:01:51. Weeks later at Ponca City’s Jerry Runyan Relays, he and his teammates, Caden Ketcher, Daniel Stuckey and Jonathan Reeves lowered their 1600 meter personal record again to 4:28.86 and a first-place finish. The same group finished second in the 1600.
Times kept dropping because confidence kept growing, so did the expectations. Middle-distance running has a way of humbling everybody sooner or later with the question, when to be patient and when to panic..
Go too early and your legs betray you. Wait too long and somebody’s closing distance on you. The people who win these races know how to live in that uncomfortable space between the two.
On Saturday, Higgins looked like somebody who knew the equation. He wasn’t alone, either. Junior Caden Ketcher narrowly missed automatic state qualification in the 800 with a strong fifth-place finish in 2:01.98, while freshman Jonathan Reeve placed 17th in 2:13.45.
In the 1600, Daniel Stuckey finished 11th in 4:54.27 and freshman Noah Watkins crossed 12th in 4:54.60.
The Sandites’ 4x800 relay team also battled to a fifth-place finish in 8:14.73.
Elsewhere across the meet, Sand Springs competed with the kind of effort that rarely shows up fully in team standings.
Junior Tristian Birmingham placed 11th in both the 100 and 200 meters, running 11.03 and 22.91 respectively, while Dominic Forbes was 18th in the 100 and 15thy in the 200l. Sophomore Hunter Stokes added a 17th-place finish in the 200 and an 11th-place effort in the 400 at 52.86.
In the field events, junior Kaidyn Cowan turned in solid performances with a ninth-place finish in discus at 132 feet, 3 inches and a 10th-place showing in shot put at 41 feet, 5 inches.
The Sand Springs girls were led by sophomore Kehlani Robinson, who placed eighth in the 400 meters in 1:04.69. Freshman Brooklynn Bozone added a 12th-place finish in the 800, while Raegin Sanders finished ninth in the 1600 meters.
Sand Springs boys and girls teams each finished seventh, respectfully.
But the story that will follow the Sandites to state belongs to Higgins. Every program remembers the moment a young athlete stops looking promising and starts looking competitive at the state level. Times tighten and personal bests keep falling, podium finishes become the expectation and scouts start to pay attention.
For Sand Springs, that moment may have happened Saturday afternoon in Owasso. One lap at a time.