Oklahoma 6A Cross Country Final Rankings 2021: Deer Creek’s Boys Stun from No. 9, Jenks’ Girls Hold Serve

The final 2021 6A poll, posted September 30th, is the rare ballot that got the easy one right and the hard one hilariously wrong. Girls: Jenks No. 1, and Jenks won state with 56. Boys: Westmoore No. 1. The champions: Deer Creek, with 44 points, from the No. 9 slot. Ninth. The poll had eight teams better than the eventual champions. That’s not a miss, that’s a blind spot the size of a school district.

Give the girls’ poll its due: Jenks, Owasso, Moore across the top three, and Jenks won it at 56. Clean, professional, correct. The voters knew the best girls’ program in 6A and said so. Gold star.

The boys’ poll, though. Westmoore No. 1, Mustang No. 2, Edmond Memorial No. 3, Broken Arrow No. 4, Owasso No. 5 — and Deer Creek down at No. 9, behind Southmoore, Yukon and Stillwater, if you want the full seating chart of the error. State meet: Deer Creek 44, champions. Forty-four points is a statement, not a squeaker. The poll didn’t just miss the winner; it buried them in the middle of the pack.

The individual title went to Deer Creek’s own AJ Antonelli — so the ninth-ranked team had the fastest kid in 6A and the best pack. At some point you have to ask what the voters were watching. (The answer, presumably, was September. The state meet was in October. Polls are snapshots; teenagers are rivers.)

The rest of the boys’ poll: Moore, Southmoore, Yukon, Stillwater, Norman, Tahlequah, Edmond Santa Fe, Choctaw, Union, Edmond North, Norman North. Girls: Edmond North, Edmond Memorial, Tahlequah, Norman North, Choctaw, Broken Arrow, Yukon, Stillwater, Norman, Mustang, Edmond Santa Fe, Bartlesville, Westmoore.

2021 6A: the girls’ poll was a mirror, the boys’ poll was a funhouse mirror, and Deer Creek got the last laugh with 44 points. The record book doesn’t care where you were ranked in September.

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