Oklahoma 3A Cross Country Final Rankings 2021: Marlow’s Ugly Win and the 1-2 Punches That Weren’t Enough

The final 2021 3A poll, posted October 25th, nailed both winners and still left the best stories on the table. Boys: Marlow No. 1, and Marlow won state — with 122 points. Girls: Regent Prep No. 1, and Regent Prep defended its title with 127. Two correct calls, two ugly point totals, and two 1-2 individual punches that somehow weren’t enough to win team titles. This is the weirdest correct poll in the archives.

Start with Marlow’s boys: 122 points. That’s not a championship score, that’s a bar tab. The poll had Marlow No. 1, Heritage Hall No. 2, Marietta No. 3 — and Marlow won with the highest winning score you’ll see in these rewinds. When the champions score 122, it means nobody was good, everybody was even, and the steadiest five kids won. There’s honor in that, of the muddy-shoes variety.

And here’s the heartbreaker: Meeker’s Riley Randall and Braxton Bussell went 1-2 in the boys’ race, 16:28.4 and 16:39.7 — the two fastest kids in 3A on the same team — and Meeker finished seventh. Seventh! With the 1-2 punch! If you want the single-race case for “cross country is a team sport,” this is the exhibit. Two superstars, zero trophy, seventh place. The poll had Meeker No. 8, by the way. The voters knew exactly what Meeker was: two rockets and no payload.

The girls’ side rhymes. Oklahoma Christian’s Kaylie Washko and Katie Bosley went 1-2 (11:54.8, 12:14.4), and Regent Prep still defended its team title with 127. Another 1-2 punch, another team title going elsewhere. Regent’s girls win by pack; the poll had them No. 1 and they held serve. Marlow was No. 2 in the girls’ poll, Marietta No. 3.

The rest of the boys’ poll: Bethel, Chisholm, Rejoice Christian, Comanche, Meeker, Sequoyah Claremore, Kiefer, Washington, Heavener, Jones, Oklahoma Christian Academy, Christian Heritage, Jay, Sequoyah Tahlequah, Lexington, Regent Prep, Crossings Christian, Atoka, Luther, Idabel, Henryetta, Eufaula, Little Axe, Alva, Lone Grove, Sperry, Purcell. Girls: Marlow, Marietta, Adair, Jay, Keys Parkhill, Dickson, Alva, Bethel, Comanche, Lexington, Oklahoma Christian Academy, Vinita, Sperry, Washington, Sequoyah Tahlequah, Heritage Hall, Kiefer, Hennessey, Chisholm, Prague, Christian Heritage, Lindsay, Chandler, Valliant, Sequoyah Claremore, Checotah, Rejoice Christian, Crossings Christian, Meeker, Coalgate, Holdenville.

2021 3A: the poll was perfect and the racing was perverse. The two fastest boys ran for the seventh-place team, the two fastest girls couldn’t carry their team past Regent Prep, and the champions won with 122 and 127 points. Everybody was mortal, the steadiest won, and the trophies went to the deepest, not the fastest.

Final poll via ohstrack.com (2021); state results via the OSSAA championships recap.