Oklahoma 6A Cross Country Final Rankings 2024: The Poll Had It Backwards Twice — Thayer’s Record and Deer Creek’s Reload

The final 6A polls of 2024, posted in late September, agreed on one thing: Piedmont was the best team in the class, boys and girls. The state meet at Edmond Santa Fe on November 2 disagreed — in both races. Piedmont finished second in both. This is the 2024 6A season rewind: a state meet record, a dynasty reloading on the fly, a three-peat, and a poll that got the top spot wrong twice in one day.

Boys: Deer Creek 69, Piedmont 112 — the Poll Flipped

The late-September boys poll: 1. Piedmont, 2. Deer Creek, 3. Edmond Memorial, 4. Edmond Santa Fe, 5. Jenks, 6. Edmond North, 7. Mustang, 8. Moore. The pollsters looked at Piedmont and saw a champion.

State meet final standings: 1. Deer Creek 69, 2. Piedmont 112, 3. Mustang 125, 4. Sapulpa 141, 5. Edmond Memorial 163, 6. Edmond Santa Fe 184, 7. Broken Arrow 193, 8. Edmond North 194, 9. Jenks 204, 10. Yukon 229, 11. Moore 234, 12. Owasso 273, 13. Stillwater 278, 14. Norman 328.

Deer Creek didn’t just win — the Antlers claimed their second straight title and their 11th since 2006, and they did it after losing their top five runners from the 2023 championship squad. Read that again: the entire scoring five graduated, and the replacements put up 69 points. Senior Ethan Stuart led the reload in 6th, followed by junior Colson Robertson (13th), senior Ian Chang (15th), sophomore Micah John (17th) and freshman George Simon (18th). Five scorers, four classes, one system. Coach David Riden’s theme for the year was ’taking it a step at a time.’ The steps led to the top of the podium.

And spare a thought for Mustang: ranked 7th in the poll, finished 3rd at state with 125 — and produced the individual champion. Polls rank depth; they can’t see a supernova coming.

Boys Individuals: Thayer Breaks the State Meet Record

Noah Thayer (Mustang, JR) won the 6A title in 15:06.89 — a state meet record, breaking the fastest mark ever run at the Oklahoma state championships. He’d been the runner-up as a sophomore in 2023, missed three races during a rough 2024 season, and then ran the best race in state meet history when it counted. That’s not a comeback, that’s a coronation with a stopwatch.

Mez Barth (Stillwater, SR) was second in 15:26.22, nearly twenty seconds back — a superb run that history will record mostly as ’the guy who finished behind the record.’ Dominic Matthias (Moore, FR) was third in 15:35.22, the state’s top young runner announcing himself. Cameron Langdon (Mustang, SR) took fourth and Brody Maasen (Jenks, JR) fifth, with Deer Creek’s Ethan Stuart sixth to lead the champions.

Girls: Owasso 43 — the Three-Peat the Poll Didn’t See

The late-September girls poll: 1. Piedmont, 2. Owasso, 3. Edmond North, 4. Jenks, 5. Deer Creek, 6. Edmond Memorial. The pollsters looked at Piedmont and saw a champion. Again.

State meet final standings: 1. Owasso 43, 2. Piedmont 72, 3. Edmond Memorial 108, 4. Edmond North 109, 5. Jenks 112, 6. Deer Creek 153, 7. Moore 167, 8. Edmond Santa Fe 238, 9. Yukon 280, 10. Choctaw 281, 11. Norman 296, 12. Stillwater 298, 13. Bixby 321, 14. Broken Arrow 355.

Owasso’s third straight championship, and it wasn’t close: 43 points, with scorers going 1-3-8-9-22. Edmond Memorial edged Edmond North 108-109 for third in the meet’s tightest team battle — one point, two schools, same suburb.

Girls Individuals: Nelson Goes Back-to-Back

Bella Nelson (Owasso, SR) won her second straight 6A title in 17:27.40, followed by Edmond Santa Fe senior Natalie Duggan in 17:44.98 — the same 1-2 as 2023, in the same order. Some rivalries are rematches; this one was a rerun. Ava Cornelius (Owasso, JR) was third in 17:53, Charli Keely (Jenks, JR) fourth, and Sienna Collins (Edmond Memorial, SR) fifth.

Duggan’s arc deserves a line of its own: the Westmoore regional winner (17:57.7), last year’s runner-up, this year’s runner-up again — and The Oklahoman’s All-City Runner of the Year and Gatorade Oklahoma Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year. Sometimes the best runner in the state is the second-best runner in her race.

The Poll, Graded

Final tally on the late-September polls: both #1 picks finished second, both #2 picks won. Piedmont went 0-for-2 at the top spot. The pollsters weren’t clueless — Piedmont was genuinely excellent, second in both races — but championships aren’t awarded for being excellent in September. Deer Creek’s system beat Piedmont’s September. Owasso’s dynasty beat Piedmont’s September. October polls predict November badly. That’s not a complaint — it’s the whole reason this blog exists.

State meet results from the official DirectAthletics meet report (via ossaaillustrated.com, November 2, 2024, Edmond Santa Fe). Team and individual details cross-checked against The Oklahoman’s state recap and MileSplit’s 2024 OSSAA XC State Meet coverage. Final polls from ohstrack.com, late September 2024.