Oklahoma 5A Cross Country Final Rankings 2016: Guymon's Boys and the Poll That Missed Everything

The October 2016 5A boys’ poll is the worst ballot in this entire archive. Read the final top five — Carl Albert, Claremore, Piedmont, Bishop Kelley, Santa Fe South — and then read the state meet results: Guymon 43, Tahlequah 91. Neither the champion nor the runner-up appeared in the poll’s top five. Not one. The poll didn’t miss the winner; it missed the entire podium. This is why polls qualify nobody.

Girls’ poll, October 24th: Claremore, Bishop McGuinness, Elgin, Guymon, Bishop Kelley. State: Bishop McGuinness 58, Guymon 73. The champion was the poll’s No. 2 and the runner-up was the poll’s No. 4 — a mild shuffle, and the only thing the 5A polls got right all year.

Boys’ poll, October 10th: Carl Albert, Claremore, Piedmont, Bishop Kelley, Santa Fe South. State: Guymon 43, Tahlequah 91. The poll’s No. 1, Carl Albert, isn’t on the podium. The actual champion, Guymon, wasn’t on the ballot’s radar at all — and won by 48 points. A 43-point team score from a team the poll ranked sixth or worse is the single most wrong the archive has ever been.

Claremore’s Laynie Nichols won the girls’ individual title; Carl Albert’s Coal Phillips won the boys’ crown.

Guymon’s boys won 5A with 43 points without cracking the poll’s top five — the single worst poll-to-podium miss in this whole archive. The poll is not a crystal ball; it’s a suggestion box.

Final polls via ohstrack.com (2016); state champions via the ohstrack.com past-champions archive.