Durant’s girls cross country team cruised into this week’s Class 5A State Cross Country Meet with a fifth-place team finish at the Regional Meet last weekend at O’Brien Park in Tulsa.
While the boys’ squad did not qualify for state, placing ninth as a unit, the Lions did have a pair of state individual qualifiers with Top 20 regional finishes.
Leading the Lady Lions once again was stalwart Avery Sager, who covered the course in a time of 20 minutes, 14.3 seconds to claim fourth in the medalist standings.
Laynee Emert checked in 27th at 22:47.9 ahead of a pair of personal best marks. Kamryn Brooks had one of those in 30th with a 23:00.7 and Kyah French had the other by posting a 32nd place time of 23:04.
The Lady Lions also had Katelyn Hitchcock taking 48th in 24:07.6, Katelyn Mauck was 53rd at 24:39.8 with Grace Morrison claiming 57th with a mark of 25:25.1.
Durant’s boys state qualifiers were K.J. Lowery, who was a regional medalist in seventh place, at 17 minutes, 41.4 seconds, while Zach Ervin tossed in an 18th place time of 18:30.8.
Other Lion finishers were Hudson Phillips in 47th at 19:40.4, Chris Becerra notched a 65th place time of 20:25.3, Blake Rhynes checked in 73rd in 21:14, Cameron Mauck took 74th with a 21:21 and Kyric Lehrling rounded out in 81st crossing the stripe in 21:54.8.
The Class 5A state meet is slated to take place Saturday at Edmond Santa Fe High School.