Prague girls take fourth; Chandler, Meeker fifth
After winning his cross-country regional by about 45 seconds, Riley Randall checked the times of the winners at the other two regionals in the state.
He’d had to miss the 66 Conference meet and another meet due to a quarantine from COVID-19 exposure and he wanted to see how his time compared.
The answer: seven seconds better than that of his closest competitor, Luke Callery from Rejoice Christian.
“I had the top time and that’s when I knew I had a chance to be the state champion,” he said.
On Wednesday, he turned the potential into reality, passing the runner who’d been in the lead about a mile into the 5K and then detached himself from the pack, running in virtual isolation the rest of the way and finishing with a 27-second lead.
As have many high school sports seasons this fall, the cross-country season has been like a sine wave. Runners have gotten the COVID-19 virus and others have lost practice or competition time due to quarantines for exposure. It’s been hard to maintain consistent focus.
Such was the case for Randall, who found himself unable to join his teammates for workouts due to COVID issues at Meeker.
But he was not deterred and ran workouts on his own.
“Once I knew I wasn’t going to be able to run at any other meets until regional, I knew I had to put in the work to keep my time up,” he said. “Without being able to race, I knew I had to do some stuff.
“I worked hard every day, six days a week and did about two runs a day. I always took off Sunday to give my legs a rest.”
That commitment, said coach Brady Dukes, is one of the things that sets Randall apart from other runners.
“He works. He’s ate up with the sport,” Duke said. “I have never seen a kid so devoted to running as him in my life. He’s such a hard worker.
“He’s a great kid and there’s nothing bad about him.
“A big thing was when he got put into quarantine and he missed our last two meets, and that was devastating for him.,” Dukes said. “But I had no doubt in my mind that after he came back, that he was going to go work for what he wants.
“That’s why I wasn’t surprised in regionals. He has run this season just so relaxed . I had confidence in him today, and I am just so proud of him.”
Two slots behind Randall, was North Rock Creek’s Jordan Coody, who finished third with a time of 17:20.72
Braxton Bussell of Meeker ran 17:41.21 and finished eighth.
Randall, Coody and Bussell are all sophomores.
Madison Ham, from Stroud, was seventh in Class 2A girls, clocking 12:42.72.
Leah Brannon, Chandler junior, finished eighth in Class 3A girls with a time of 12:43.56.
In team standings, Prague’s girls finished fourth, with 173 points in Class 3A.
Chandler came in one place behind, with a score of 197, and North Rock Creek had 427 points to finish 19th.
In the boys, Meeker took fifth, with 209 points. NRC was 12th, with 314 points, and Prague was 16th.