Oklahoma 3A Cross Country Final Rankings 2023: Casady’s Coronation and Metro Christian’s Heist

The final 2023 3A poll got the boys exactly right and the girls spectacularly wrong, which averages out to a C+ and a lot to talk about. Casady’s boys were No. 1 in the October 3rd poll and won state with 47 points, going 2-4-10-17-19 — a clinic. Bethel’s girls were No. 1 in the October 8th poll. The champions were Metro Christian Academy, with 70 points, from the No. 8 slot. From eighth. Somebody’s ballot needs an audit.

Start with the coronation, because it was beautiful. Casady 47 points. When your scorers go 2-4-10-17-19, you’re not winning a race, you’re administering it. Chisholm was No. 2 in the poll, Community Christian No. 3 — and here’s the wrinkle: the individual title went to Community Christian’s Levi Haynes in 16:21.12. The poll’s No. 3 team had the fastest kid; the poll’s No. 1 team had the trophy. Depth beats stardom, chapter and verse.

Now the heist. Final girls’ poll: Bethel No. 1, Mt. St. Mary No. 2, Chisholm No. 3, Alva No. 4, Keys-Parkhill No. 5. Metro Christian sat at No. 8 — behind Prague and Adair, if you want the full indignity of it. State meet: Metro Christian 70, champions. And they didn’t back into it: freshman Ryleigh Hodges won the individual title in 12:02.36 and led her team to the crown. A freshman. From the eighth-ranked team. If the voters held a ballot for “most wrong,” they’d win it unanimously.

In the poll’s defense — and I use that word loosely — 3A girls in 2023 had a freshman-driven Metro Christian team that was clearly peaking late. Polls are snapshots; teenagers are rivers. But eighth? Behind seven teams? That’s not a snapshot, that’s a different photograph entirely. The gap between No. 1 Bethel and champion Metro Christian is the largest poll-to-trophy miss in the 2023 archives, and it’s not close.

The rest of the boys’ poll: Jones No. 4, Crossings Christian No. 5, Sequoyah Tahlequah, Holland Hall, Heavener, Metro Christian, Sequoyah Claremore. Girls behind the top five: Hennessey, Washington, Metro Christian (ahem), Prague, Adair.

2023 3A, then: the year the poll was perfect on one side and picking lottery numbers on the other. Casady’s boys get the crown they were promised; Metro Christian’s girls get the crown nobody saw coming. Guess which one makes the better story.

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