Duncan Cross Country finishes season at 5A State meet
Nov. 1—Duncan Cross Country had eight runners trying to beat personal best times as they finished the season this past weekend at the Class 5A State Cross Country meet in Edmond.
All of the boys team qualified for the final meet by placing in the top seven at the 5A Regional meet and two of the runners on the team finished in the top 50 of the State meet at Edmond Santa Fe.
Duncan's boys cross country team finished 10th overall in Class 5A with the two runners placing in the top 50 being Caleb McFatridge and Tomas Arredondo.
McFatridge had the best finish. He placed 24th with a time of 17:01.59 while Arredondo placed in 45th with a time of 17:36.68.
The final three Duncan racers who helped the Demons team score was Isreal Hernandez who finished 56th, Drew Taliaferro coming in at 81st and Felipe Villarreal placing 87th.
Hernandez finished with a time of 17:49.74 while Taliaferro finished with a time of 18:16.01 and Villarreal came in with at time of 18:24.59.
Two other Duncan racers who were part of the qualifying team that raced included Jackson Williams and Luke White with Williams placing 94th and White placing 110th.
Williams time was 18:30.95 while White finished with a time of 19:13.49 to round out the 2022 season for the boys' cross country team.
Piedmont ended up sweeping both the girls' and boys' State Championships as a team by winning the two team awards to wrap up their 2022 season.
With the boys' race finished, the Lady Demons cross country team had only one member qualify as Ava Miller ran in the 5A Girls Cross Country State Championship.
Miller, a sophomore for Duncan High School, finished 50th overall with a time of 21:57.53 to complete her 2022 season.
Coach Tim Buben, Duncan Lady Demons cross country coach, said he was proud of the way Miller finished in a tough field that ended up being one of the fastest in the coaches memory.
"Extremely proud of Ava for overcoming the tough break and adversity she had at the end of the regular season," Buben said. "Just to get back in the race and be that close to her own personal best on a somewhat sloppy course shows the grit she has. She ran well in what seemed like one of the fastest overall state meets in recent memory."
As the season finishes for the 2022 year, Buben hopes the Lady Demons cross country team comes back motivated and will return a lot from the team.
"Obviously everyone is bummed about not getting the team qualified. It was a very talented pool of athletes this year. There were four good teams that didn't qualify out of our regional," Buben said. "However, that just makes our goal setting and commitment for next year even more important and stronger. This is a talented group, and hopefully they will encourage each other to come back even stronger."
