Biggest LeFlore County sports stories of 2023
Poteau wins girls 4x100meter relay at state
Poteau’s relay quartet of Emery Lomon, Daisee Powers, Gracie Spradley and Brooklyn Garner won the gold in the 4x100-meter relay at the Class 4A state track meet in May.
Anchoring the relay, Garner faced a gap of more than 10 yards as she set her eyes on the final 100 meters. Garner more than made it up, as Poteau finished in a school-record time of 48.68 seconds, beating Cache by 0.27 seconds.
Poteau was 0.41 seconds away from the state meet record set by Northeast in 2004.
Ollar sweeps 2A boys hurdles titles
Coda Ollar of Wister won both boys hurdles state championships for Class 2A in May, earning a time of 15.32 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles, beating Boedy Beutler of Cashion by 0.13 seconds. Ollar finished the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 39.54 seconds, beating Beutler by 1.41 seconds.
This was the second straight year in which Ollar won the state gold medal in the 300-meter hurdles.
First CASC champions come in wrestling
Carl Albert State College realized its first national championship moment in March when it had individual champions in men’s and women’s wrestling champions at the NJCAA national meet in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Lexi Miller defeated Ryasia McDougle of
Nortwest Kansas Tech in the 101-pound final to cap off the first NJCAA women’s national tournament and the first season of the CASC women’s wrestling program.
Thad Long pinned Jason Henschel of Pratt Community College at the 3:33 mark of the 133-pound final. Long’s championship came in the second year of the CASC men’s wrestling program.
Whitesboro gets first state title in slow-pitch
Whitesboro brought home its first state championship in any sport in May when its softball team won the Class B slow-pitch state championship.
Whitesboro (31-9) beat Buffalo Valley 24-9 in the state quarterfinal, defeated Arnett 7-5 in the semifinal and downed Leedey 15-5 in the state championship game.
Caldwell inducted in horse racing HOF
Danny Caldwell of Poteau was inducted into the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame on Sept. 23 at Remington Park. According to Equibase, he has 1,171 career wins.
Sixth straight district title by Poteau football
Poteau’s football team continued its domination of District 4A-4, winning its sixth straight district title.
All seven of the Pirates’ district wins came by at least 15 points.
The Pirates have won 41 of their last 42 district games.
Poteau went on to win its first 12 games of the season, including the first two rounds of the playoffs at Costner Stadium, before losing the Class 4A state semifinal. This was the fifth state semifinal appearance by the team in the last six years.
Poteau girls, Heavener boys get best-ever marks at state XC meet
At the state cross-country meet in October, Poteau’s girls earned a bestever runner-up finish in Class 4A.
Poteau, which was led by 10th-place finisher Ashly Johnson in 12:19 in the two-mile race, had 105 points, 27 away from winner Pauls Valley.
On the boys side, Poteau’s Tyler Baker ran a school-record 16:04 in the boys 5K to place fourth and lead the Pirates to a ninth-place standing.
In Class 3A, Heavener’s boys garnered its highest finish ever in third with 117 points, 21 points away from runner-up Community Christian and 70 points away from winner Casady.
The Wolves were led by fifth-place finisher Seth Lynch in 16:37.
A week later, Johnson set the Poteau girls 5K record in 19:19 while taking sixth at the Meet of Champions.
State final streaks roll on for Howe, Pocola
Despite being inexperienced after graduating its top six players from the previous year’s state finalist squad, Howe’s girls basketball reached its fourth straight Class 2A state championship game in March.
Howe (25-7) beat Warner 64-43 in the state quarterfinals and Pawhuska 7448 in the semifinal before losing 48-23 to Dale in the state title game.
By the end of the 2023 calendar year, Pocola softball had reached five straight state championship games. Both state finals this calendar year featured bitter endings for Pocola.
In the fast-pitch state final in October, Pocola (33-5) lost 2-0 to Dale, leaving the bases loaded in the seventh inning.
In the slow-pitch state final in May, Pocola (344) lost 10-9 to rival Oktaha as a fly ball hit by Kylee Smith with two outs in the seventh inning was caught at the outfield wall.
First state trip by Poteau softball in 18 years
Poteau’s softball team earned its first trip to the fast-pitch state tournament in 18 years, beating Stigler 5-3 in eight innings in its second Class 4A super regional playoff game.
Poteau lost 12-5 to Purcell in the state quarterfinal.
Also, Poteau won its first LCT Fast-Pitch title in seven years, beating Pocola 2-1 in the final.
Cameron debuts new basketball gym
While schools around the state open new sporting venues almost every year, few had come back from as much or slog through as much as Cameron did on its way to opening its new basketball arena.
The old Cameron high school gym burned in a fire in 2017. Cameron broke ground on the gym in 2019, but was unable to do anything more than dirt work before winning a settlement from the insurance company a couple of years later.
During the intervening years, Cameron played a few years of home games at CASC’s Mick Thompson Fieldhouse. In the last two years, Cameron played home games in its elementary school gym.
Cameron had graduation and the LeFlore County All-Star Basketball Game in the new gym (with the court dedicated to Buddy Spencer) in May and played its first home basketball games on the court in November.
Stars at the next level Spiro High School graduate Tylor Perry led North Texas to a National Invitational Tournament championship on March 31. Perry scored 20 points and had five steals as North Texas beat the University of Alabama-Birmingham 68-61 in the NIT final.
Perry averaged 20.3 points in the five NIT games and had 17.3 points per game (fourth in Conference USA) for the season. He was named C-USA Player of the Year while shooting 45 percent from 3-point range.
Now in his fifth year of college basketball, Perry is playing for Kansas State, leading the team with 5.4 assists per game while standing second on the team with 15.8 points per game.
Jalei Oglesby of Howe was 12th in NCAA Division II with 20.6 points per game for Arkansas Tech. Oglesby is now scoring 14.6 points per game with 8.4 rebounds per game (second for ORU in both categories) through 10 games for Oral Roberts.