Talented class earns top story honor

Staff reports



Talk about a great class of athletes.

In what is believed to be a school record, six Enid High School athletes were recruited by NCAA Division I programs this year, earning the No. 1 local sports story of 2008.

In football, record-setting quarterback Clint Chelf and talented lineman Trent Dupy are going D-I. Chelf initially committed to Tulsa before changing his mind to commit to Oklahoma State. Dupy has given an oral commitment to Tulsa. Chelf and Dupy officially will sign with their respective schools in February.

Chelf rewrote the EHS record book in many categories, including records for completions, yards and touchdowns.

In golf, Aly Seng and Chris Worrell are going the D-I route. Seng signed with Oklahoma and Worrell signed with Tulsa.

In softball, standout Alex Jones signed with Kansas. In baseball, right-handed pitcher Tobin Mateychick signed with college powerhouse Wichita State. Mateychick is expected to be selected in June in the amateur draft.



2. Baseball



Local baseball made headlines again this year. The Enid Plainsmen advanced all the way to the Class 6A semifinals before getting knocked out by eventual champion Owasso. The Enid Majors American Legion team won their fourth straight state title and hosted the Mid-South Regional Tournament.

Several players turned in terrific years. Enid’s Nick Rountree was named to the All-State team after hitting .439 with six homers and 49 RBI. Rountree’s 24 doubles set a school record, and his RBI total was the best at EHS since Mike Long drove in 51 in 1982.

Other All-State players were Dover’s Eddie Cervantes and Rodney Johnson, Cimarron’s Chase Aebi, Hennessey’s Clay Cox and Pioneer’s Derek Epps.

Cimarron coach Doug Crawford retired after winning more than 900 games during a 28-year career.

Enid’s Tyson Seng, a freshman at Oklahoma, earned a starting spot with the Sooners.

David Allen Memorial Ballpark also made the news. The downtown jewel was featured on digitalballparks.com, a Web site showcasing the top ballparks around the country.



3. Football



Once again, several local football teams turned in impressive seasons.

The Enid Plainsmen won seven games before getting eliminated by Jenks in the first round of the playoffs. Chelf and Dupy had big seasons, and Pond Creek-Hunter transfer Daniel Barwick proved he could be as impressive on the 11-man level as he was in the 8-man game.

Garber captured the Class B state championship with a final drive that will go down in the school’s history books. Okeene reached the Class A finals, where the Whippets lost to Morrison, snapping a string of two straight state titles. Hennessey, Ringwood and Canton each reached the semifinal rounds of the state tournament.

Enid’s Austin Box, a redshirt freshman at Oklahoma, started several games at middle linebacker before a knee injury sidelined him for the Big 12 championship game.

Enid’s Daniel Holtzclaw concluded a great career at Eastern Michigan, finishing second on the school’s all-time list in tackles.

Kingfisher product Curtis Lofton, the former OU star, was drafted and earned a starting spot at linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons.



4. Softball



Enid’s Alex Jones was a third-team All-American selection by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association for what she did as a junior. She made the All-State team as a senior.

She was 23-2 on the mound with a school-record 0.12 ERA and 300 strikeouts. Opponents hit only .090 against her. She hit a school-record .643 with 72 hits, 33 runs, 45 stolen bases and only six strikeouts in 120 at bats.

However, she wasn’t able to pitch the last three weeks of the season because of a sore shoulder. The Pacers, 28-8, were ranked as high as No. 4 in the coaches poll but were eliminated in the losers bracket of the regionals by Putnam City North.



5. Deaths



The local sports world was stunned with the deaths of several prominent people, including Les Beckham, Joe Record, Carol Collins, Johnny Quarles and Don Haskins.

Beckham was a longtime American Legion baseball chairman. Record was the former baseball coach at Phillips University. Collins was an amateur golf champion. Quarles was a former radio broadcaster. And Haskins was the former basketball coach at Texas-El Paso after he was a standout player at Enid and Oklahoma State.

Moving testimonials were featured at each of their funeral services, indicating how much those people meant to the local sports world.



6. Basketball



Lomega repeated as Class B girls state champions, beating Sentinel 70-48 in the championship game behind 21 points from Rachel Wilczek and 17 from Hillary Winter.

Garber’s boys and girls both fell in the Class A semifinals — the 28-2 Lady Wolverines to Howe, 70-49, and the 28-3 Wolverines to Agra, 39-38.

Thomas lost to Agra 31-30 in the Class A finals.

Chisholm and Oklahoma Bible Academy’s boys fell in the first round of the 2A state tournament. Chisholm lost to Pawnee 74-60 as OSU signee Keiton Page had 41 points. OBA lost to Oklahoma Christian School 77-56.

Other area teams reaching state were Fairview, 3A girls; and Laverne, Class A boys.

Both the Enid boys and girls were eliminated in the first round of the 6A regionals — the 15-9 Plainsmen to Stillwater and the 10-14 Pacers to Owasso. Girls coach Nicky Emblem resigned after the season and was replaced by boys assistant Layne Jones.

Burlington’s Randy Turney picked up his 500th win as a boys coach when his Elks beat South Central (Kan.) 55-45 in the finals of the Northwestern Oklahoma State Prep Classic Dec. 13.



7. Golf



Aly Seng, Chris Worrell, Jay Betchan and a lethal fourball team topped the news in golf.

Seng won the Oklahoma Women’s Golf Association Junior Championship and signed with Oklahoma. She also won the Centennial Conference championship with a record 68 at Oakwood Country Club.

Worrell competed in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship and signed with Tulsa.

Betchan competed in the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in Colorado.

Heath Myers and Drew Redwine shot 29-under to win the Dick Lambertz Memorial Enid Fourball by 17 shots.



8. Cross Country/Track



Oklahoma Bible Academy’s boys won their third state crown in the last four years by taking the Class 2A title in Shawnee. Shaun Koehn, fourth, and Sam Cannon, eighth, earned All-State honors.

Watonga’s girls were second and the boys were fourth in the 2A meet. Chisholm’s girls were sixth and the boys ninth in the 3A meet. Hennessey’s girls were the 3A runner-up.

Enid High’s girls repeated as Centennial Conference champs, with Rani Melvin taking individual honors. The Pacers were ninth at the state meet.

Okeene’s girls, with two state champions (Audrey Sublett, 3,200 meters, and the 400-meter relay team) beat out Preston 92-70 for the Class A track title.

Sharon-Mutual (78) and Timberlake (51) were 1-2 in Class A boys, while Watonga (106.33) and Hennessey (84) were 1-2 in Class 2A girls.

Enid’s girls were seventh at the Class 6A state meet, with Samantha Eby finishing second in the shot put. She broke her own school record with a throw of 40-81/2 at the regionals.



9. Tennis



Chisholm product Kelcy Tefft excelled both outdoors and indoors for Notre Dame.

Tefft and partner Brooke Buck lost to Fresno State’s Melanie Gloria and Tinesta Rowe 6-1, 7-5 in the NCAA doubles semifinals in Tulsa in May.

Tefft and Kristy Frilling fell to Fresno State’s Renata Kuckerkova and Anastasia Petukhova 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 in the doubles finals of the ITA Nationals.

Enid High School’s girls finished in a tie for third at the state tournament.

All-Stater Morgan Humphrey teamed with freshman Mackenzie Zaloudek to finish second at No. 1 doubles.

Both the EHS boys and girls won Centennial Conference championships.

Long-time EHS coach Darrell Herndon retired in May, only to return in July after the All-State matches.



10. Wrestling



Kia Castor gave Enid a string of five straight top-four finishes at the state tournament when he finished fourth at 152 pounds at the 5A championships.

He lost to Norman North’s Josh Sublett 3-1 in the consolation finals.

J.B. Stuart qualified for the state tournament the second year in a row at 145 pounds, but didn’t place.

Enid coach Shane Kerr resigned after nine seasons. He was replaced by former assistant Devin Golden. Kerr later was named coach at El Reno.

Kingfisher was third in Class 2A behind state champions Elliott Hellwege (189) and Jakob Gaither (heavyweight).

Woodward was eighth in 3A behind 160-pound state champion Zach White. Teammate Joey Miller was the first girl selected for the All-State match.

She signed with Oklahoma City University’s women’s team.

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