After returning to the postseason with a conference tournament appearance a season ago, Southeastern baseball coach Zach Crabtree will be eyeing an even better finish with a veteran nucleus back to lead the way heading into Friday afternoon’s season opener.

Addison Polk and Loryn Lopez claimed girls championships and the Durant Lion wrestling team captured a pair of fourth place individual finishes in the rugged Midwestern Conference Tournament last weekend at Firelake Arena in Shawnee.

After a near miss earlier in the week, the Durant Lion basketball team managed to break through with its first district win of the season last Friday with a 56-45 verdict over rival McAlester. Success was a bit more difficult for the Lady Lions, falling to league leader Coweta as well as McAlester.

BY KEVIN FARR For the Democrat In spite of just a 33-27 overall record to finish the season, the Southeastern softball exemplified the regular coach speak of getting hot at the right time a year ago on the way to a Great American Conference title and trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs. Head coach Mackenzie Sher hopes to duplicate that feat again in her second year at the Savage Storm softball helm with a solid blend of experience and talented newcomers for the season slate that opens Friday in Louisiana with the first of 20 consecutive road games.

Each February, millions of people come together to change the world, one random act of kindness at a time. First United Bank will be mobilizing their stakeholders once again this year with the goal to complete 350,000 acts of kindness in one day.

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma has partnered with Oklahoma State University (OSU) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to launch tickborne disease surveillance across the Choctaw Nation Reservation. Tick samples from each of 10 counties will be analyzed to identify community hotspots at risk for tickborne disease, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), a tickborne illness that has increased across the reservation in recent years.

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In their final tournament contests of the season, Durant’s girls and boys basketball teams each posted a pair of victories while bringing home trophies from the Bridge Creek Invitational. The Lady Lions claimed the third place award with a 48-44 win over Chickasha while the Lions used a late comeback to knock off the OKC Storm, 59-54, in the consolation finals.

For the first time since the start of Great American Conference play, Southeastern came through with a league sweep by winning both women’s and men’s games on Saturday at Ouachita Baptist. In the women’s contest, the Savage Storm women snapped a nine-game league losing skid with a 60-55 victory.