Pawhuska track season off and running

HOMINY — The Pawhuska High School track and field teams eased into the season Thursday in the ­­ Danny Daniels Meet at Bucks Memorial Stadium.

Only a partial girls squad was able to compete due to the Lady Huskie soccer team having same-day matches in the Oologah Tournament.

Nonetheless, the Huskie and Lady Huskie tracksters got the spring season off and rolling, with several PHS athletes earning medals.

The Pawhuska boys’ 4x100 relay team blazed to a second-place finish behind Tulsa Central. Comprised of Huskies J.R. Young, Warren Graves, Mathew Taft and Brian Jeffers, the PHS unit put up a solid time 45.67 seconds.

“Not too bad for the first meet of the year,” PHS coach Mark Frye said.

For the Lady Huskies, freshman Ryann Horn earned a fifth-place madal in the girls’ high jump.

PHS’s highly-regarded high jumper Haley Mouser missed the Hominy meet in order to participate in the New Balance Indoor Nationals. The Lady Huskie junior cleared 5 feet, 2 1/2 inches in Friday competition held at The Armory in New York City.

Mouser is currently ranked as Oklahoma’s No. 1 female high jumper. She cleared a personal-best height of 5 feet, 7 3/4 inches last summer at a national meet in North Carolina.

Dakota Jester led a strong group of Pawhuska throwers into the season-opening meet. Other shot and discus entries for the Huskies included Hayden Henley, Lance Harden and and Trent Turley.

Earlier in the week, local junior high-level athletes competed at the Caney Valley Meet in Ramona. The junior Huskie tracksters are preparing for the annual Pawhuska Junior High Meet which will be held Tuesday, March 31, at Ormand Beach Memorial Stadium.

Exactly one week later, the with Pawhuska High School Meet are to be conducted on Tuesday, April 7. Starting time for both local meets will be 10 a.m. for field competitions and 10:30 for the running events. The meets will continue into the afternoon, with at least a dozen area schools expected to participate.

Recently added to the PHS track schedule was an April 2 meet at Beggs High School, which will keep the Huskies going between a March 28 meet at Stroud and April 4 event in Vinita — with all three meets leading up to the April 7 Pawhuska Invitational. Other meets on this year’s track schedule include: April 10 at Kellyville, Chisholm on April 17, Catoosa on Spril 24 and the Big Eight Conference Meet, which will be held at Blackwell on Tuesday, April 28.