Published: May 11, 2009 11:43 am      

Ada track finishes third

PONCA CITY—Ada claimed four gold medals and finished third overall at Saturday’s Class 5A regional track meet at Ponca City High School.

Eddie Brown won both hurdles events, Nick Anderson captured the pole vault, and Christian Johnson finished first in the high jump to lead the scoring parade for the Cougars, who totaled 86 points in finishing behind Coweta and Bishop Kelley and qualified all 13 athletes who participated in the regional for the state meet Friday and Saturday at Moore High School.

“Basically, everybody we took to regionals qualified for state,” second-year Ada track coach Nathan Elliott said. “I thought we went and competed hard and ran the best we had all year as a team. We were very pleased with everyone’s performance.”

Brown is the only member of this year’s squad who scored points for the Cougars in the 2008 state meet, and, in addition to his sweep of the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles (in :15.82 and :40.96, respectively), he also joined Keeslar Stover, Qumain Black and Keith Burris on the sprint relay team that finished second in :43.94.

Anderson cleared 13-6 to win the pole vault, while Johnson’s six-foot effort was good enough to take the high jump.

Burris was also second in the 400 meters, and Ada’s two-mile relay—Cale Prince, Colin Earle, Matt Smith and Josiah Biles—was third with a clocking of 8:45. Prince was also fourth in the two-mile run, and Elliott said he should get into the state meet as the fastest fourth-place finisher from Saturday’s regional meets.

“Three of the best two-mile runners in the state were at our regional, and Cale ran a personal best of :10.38,” Elliott explained.

Although they didn’t qualify as individuals, Smith (who ran a personal best 4:58) and Biles (4:59) scored points for Ada, finishing fifth and sixth in the mile run.

Ada’s mile relay squad of Eddie Brown, Derrick Brown, Anderson and Burris was fifth in 3:37, but Elliott said that group could also earn a spot at the state meet.

“Our fifth-place time was better than the fourth-place times at any of the other meets, so they could get to go,” he said. “I should know later today.”

The top three finishers in each event automatically advance to the state meet, with the two best fourth-place times from around the state also qualifying.