Oklahoma 2A Cross Country Final Rankings 2023: Hooker Runs the Table Again

Some polls are predictions. The final 2023 2A poll was a formality. Hooker No. 1 on both sides — girls posted October 2nd, boys October 8th — and Hooker won both sides: boys 46 points, girls 29. The girls scored 29 with all five scorers in the top 19. Twenty-nine points. In a state championship. That’s not a team, that’s a metronome.

Let’s linger on that girls’ number, because 29 is absurd. Five scorers, all in the top 19 overall — top 11 of the team scoring. Riverside was No. 2 in the poll, Goodwell-Texhoma No. 3, Laverne No. 4, Velma-Alma No. 5. They were all running for second, and the poll knew it, and the meet confirmed it. Sometimes the poll is just the truth told early.

The boys: Hooker 46, champions, all five scorers in the top 18. Riverside No. 2 in the poll, Sweetwater No. 3, Southwest Covenant No. 4, Christian Heritage No. 5. Same story, slightly larger font. And the individual title went to Watonga’s Brayden Cowan in 16:22.84 — Watonga was No. 12 in the poll, because of course the fastest kid in 2A ran for the twelfth-ranked team. The poll measures teams; the individual race keeps its own books.

The girls’ individual crown went to Laverne’s Kamryn Baggs in 11:56.49 — Laverne was No. 4 in the team poll. So both individual champions in 2A came from outside the top three teams. Which is the whole sermon of this blog in miniature: rank the teams all you want, but the stopwatch doesn’t read the poll.

Hooker’s small-school dynasty rolls on. The poll didn’t predict it so much as acknowledge it. When you’re that good, the rankings are just a mirror — and the mirror said what the trophy said.

Final poll via ohstrack.com (Oct. 2023); state results via the OSSAA championships recap.