OILTON — Oilton’s cross country runners head toward regional competition with two recent individual victories and a string of top-10 finishes from their home meets.
Oilton is assigned to the Class A regional Oct. 17 at Nichols Park in Henryetta. The girls race begins at 1 p.m., followed by the boys at 1:45 p.m. State qualifiers will advance to the Oct. 24 championship meet.
Senior Nate Smith and freshman Brooklyn Poole led Oilton’s latest effort, winning their races at the Oct. 5 home meet. Smith finished the boys 5K in 19:37.64, while Poole completed the girls 3,200-meter race in 16:56.57.
For Smith, the victory followed fifth place at Oilton’s Aug. 10 meet and second place at its Sept. 14 meet. His times at those races were 22:12.63 and 21:26.75, giving him progressively faster finishes across the three home meets.
His October winning time was about 2:35 faster than his August mark and nearly 1:49 faster than his September home performance. It was also his fastest time in the available season results and his first recorded finish below 20 minutes in that collection.
Smith tested himself away from home as well, placing 26th at Tonkawa in 20:07.71 and 63rd in Holland Hall’s varsity race in 20:49.19. His latest victory lowered his time by about 30 seconds from the Tonkawa performance, providing a timely benchmark for the regional race.
Poole’s home victory also came with a faster recorded time. After placing 24th at Tonkawa on Sept. 10 in 17:51.65, she lowered her 3,200-meter mark by about 55 seconds at Oilton.
The freshman also competed in the Cowboy Jamboree’s small-school girls 5K, finishing 117th in 33:10.3. That longer race cannot be directly compared with her 3,200-meter results, but it added another meet to her experience before the postseason.
Freshman Tyler Deaton has earned two top-10 home finishes while making a substantial change in his recorded 5K times. He placed seventh at Oilton’s Sept. 14 meet in 26:34.04, then finished fifth Oct. 5 in 22:55.02 — about 3:39 faster over the same listed distance.
Deaton’s fastest collected performance came between those home meets. He ran 22:08.10 for 83rd in Holland Hall’s varsity race Sept. 19, more than four minutes faster than his September home mark. He followed that with 23:07.3 at the Cowboy Jamboree, placing 146th in the small-school boys race.
His October home finish was about 12 seconds faster than his Cowboy Jamboree time, although his Holland Hall performance remains the mark to chase.
Freshman Peyton Turner also has two top-10 home finishes, placing sixth Sept. 14 in 26:12.51 and seventh Oct. 5 in 28:30.79. His strongest stretch came in the two away meets between those races.
Turner ran 23:38.84 at Holland Hall for 98th place, more than five minutes faster than his 28:48.18 at Oilton’s August meet. He stayed close to that faster mark at the Cowboy Jamboree, finishing 156th in 23:54.4, about 16 seconds behind his Holland Hall time.
His slower October finish leaves him with an earlier benchmark to pursue at regionals, where reproducing his September form would mean a substantial improvement over his latest race.
Oilton’s August results also included an eighthplace finish by senior Aubrey McEwen in the girls 3,200-meter race at 18:36.07 and an eighth-place boys finish by senior Paloni Jones in 23:26.43.
The home-meet placings came in different fields from the larger invitationals, and course conditions affect time comparisons. Still, Smith’s progression, Poole’s recent victory and the faster marks posted by Deaton and Turner give Oilton concrete goals as its runners prepare to race for state berths.