Sports

A year removed from placing eighth at the NJCAA Division I National Cross Country Championship, the Cowley College women’s cross country team has its sights on a national title after making the move to NJCAA Division II competition.

After failing to qualify as a team to compete at the 2019 NJCAA Division I National Championships, the Cowley College men’s cross country team is hoping a strong recruiting class and a move to NJCAA Division II will help the squad return to prominence.

The Morrison Wildcats start almost every season with expectations to do well--and they almost always do. Things are pretty much the same this season as Coach Cory Bales discusses his team’s prospects.

Kay County rivals Newkirk and Blackwell have competed in football for a number of years. This year the contest between the two will count in district standings for the first time as Blackwell has moved from Class 3A to 2A, the class that Newkirk has occupied for a long time. Both teams are expecting improved seasons this year.

The Tonkawa Buccaneers missed the high school football playoffs for the first time in a long time last season and will be looking to bounce back. Their neighbors to the west, the Deer Creek-Lamont Eagles, are hoping that they can carry a final-game victory to a more profitable season in 2020.

ORLANDO, Fla. _ LeBron James had just exited a Mickey Mouse-decorated bus last week when the superstar’s arrival for that night’s Lakers game was spotted by Camera 50, one of the nearly 100 remote-operated cameras stationed around Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

During the past week I read an opinion piece quoting former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer really badmouthing Big 12 football programs. Meyer basically said the Big 12 fields inferior teams in football and can’t hold a candle to teams in other conferences--specifically the SEC (of course), Big 10 and ACC. Meyer says the reason for this deficiency in the Big 12 is that its teams have poor defensive units and can’t stop the offensive production of teams from the other conferences.

PERRY -- The Ponca City Lady Cats softball team completed a stint in the Perry Invitational Tournament Saturday having compiled a 1-5 record for its efforts. Thursday, the Lady Cats lost to Perry 7-1 and to Blackwell 8-1.

It wasn’t the scrimmage that had originally been scheduled, but the Ponca City Wildcats made do with what was available to them Friday night. The Wildcats have participated in a multi-team scrim mage against other Class 6A schools held in Stillwater for a number of years and were anticipating doing it again this year.

Craig Robinson was a twotime Ivy League player of the year at Princeton. He’s been a college coach at Brown and Oregon State and worked on the Knicks and Bucks staff in the NBA.