cross country

One great beginning and one honored departure brings full circle the odyssey of area high school cross country.

Bartlesville is bidding good-bye to smooth pacer Russell Miller who glided on powerful strides to one of the great 5K times in Bruin cross country history (16:34.54) and to two at-large appearances in the state meet.

A few miles to the north, Dewey freshman Presley Smith blazed out of anonymity into a dawn of bursting promise.

During her four-burner thrust  to an All-State medal, Smith wrote an amazing storyline.

In her first-ever cross country race (two miles) she turned in a nice but non-spectacular time of 14:17. Just a few weeks later at the girls Class 3A state final, she rocketed to a time of 12:47.3 — an improvement of a minute-and-a-half!

She was the lone area cross country runner to bring home a medal.

“With probably about a half mile to go she was probably in 20th place,” said Dewey head coach Lance Knight. “With 200 yards to go she had passed (several) girls to move into 16th, from my vantage point. In the final 50 yards she passed four more girls to come in 12th and earn an All-State medal.”

“It felt really good,” Smith said. “It felt really amazing. It made me feel I had accomplished something with myself.”

Miller’s chances of winning a medal at the boys Class 6A championship run was more than a long shot — it was like a launch to Mars.

That’s because the field of 6A boys this season was chock full of incredible runners.

The top eight speedsters finished in less than 16:00 — a meteoric accomplishment on the prep level.

In many years, Miller’s time of 16:32.0 might have been fast enough to earn an All-State medal, or at least finish in the Top 20. As it was he came in 36th.

To give a few examples, Miller’s time would have earned him 10th place in 2015. 

In 2020, his time of 16:32 would have earned him 15th place.

In 2019, he would have placed 10th and earned one of the state medals given to the top 15 finishers.

Looking at some other years, in 2021 he would have fit into 19th.

But Miller recorded his best run early in the season, storming through the 5K course at Rogers State in 16:13.54 — very likely among the top 30 marks in school history.

It’s also noteworthy because his fastest time as a junior (2023) had been almost 17:10.

“I gave it my best shot,” Miller said about this year’s state finals. “I was happy with how I performed. … Competing with those guys provided really tough competition.”

“It was crazy,” Bartlesville High head cross country coach David Ayres said about this year’s group of boys cross country runners in the state. “We had a very talented group of young men this year. There were a lot of great times. … We knew breaking in the top 15 would be tough, but Russell really did a lot better than last year. After the first mile he was in 10th or 11th place. … He really pushed himself. I’m proud of how he did at state.”

Following are more observations.

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BARTLESVILLE

Miller stumbled into running with a shove from fate.

Back in the fifth grade he decided to participate in the Bruin Mile, a local race for elementary-aged students (the event is a gold mine for Ayres in locating talented runners for the school district’s cross country program).

“I think I did pretty well,” Miller recalled, adding he quickly learned to enjoy the culture on the running teams.

“He’s been running for me since the sixth grade,” Ayres said. “Even back then he led by example. … He’s a standup guy.”

Spurred by the passion to continue to get faster, Miller returned to cross country season after season. 

“I guess I always have a goal each season,” he said. “I wanted to improve my time, which was kind of the motivation that keeps me running,” he said, also referring to the spring track season.

As a cross country sophomore (2022) he snapped off a strong time of 19:05.35 to finish 25th as the second-fastest Bruin runner at the Holland Hall Invitational.

Miller qualified as a junior (2023) for the cross country state championship, turning in a time of 17:16.74.

Next spring (2025) he is setting his sights on qualifying for the 6A state track meet — hopefully in the 1600m run (almost equivalent to a mile run, just a few yards longer).

“I think my strength is in the mile,” he said. “I didn’t make state last year. My goal is to make state this year, to get on the podium (top-sox finish) and break the school record for the mile.” (Miller’s personal best in the race is 4:33.)

The versatile Miller also tried golf his freshman year before returning to track.

In addition to his athletic pursuits, Miller also runs a strong course in the classroom and outside of school.

“He’s a great leader among his friends, in the community and at church,” Ayres said. “I’ve had the pleasure of having him in my engineering class three years. He’s done some great work.”

But rather than engineering, Miller said he might look to prepare for a career in psychology. He also plans on serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to earn a spot on the Brigham Young University practice team.

Although Miller is graduating, Bartlesville cross country has some outstanding talent to build around in 2025.

For the girls, Katherine Manley scrapped and fought through adversity to become a state qualifier and will look to build on that next season.

“She’s been battling injuries all year,” Ayres said. “I think she didn’t run like she wanted to. I know she’s highly motivated for next year.”

A couple of other Lady Bruins returnees have a lot in common with Miller — they are his younger sisters.

Despite being a freshman, Afton Miller established herself firmly as Bartlesville’s second-fastest girls’ runner behind Manley. Miller finished just one place shy of qualifying for state.

“I think she’s the only girl that improved her time each week,” Ayres said. “I’m super proud of her.”

Sophomore Eliza Miller hustled through the regional as Bartlesville’s third-quickest runner.

Ava Box was the lone Lady Bruin team member to graduate.

On the boys side, Russell Miller and Grayson Tesavis were the only seniors this past season.

Four returnees Ayres believes will make the team stronger next season included Jackson Boudreaux, Armando Ponce, Grayson Ellis and Luke Bulleigh.

Boudreaux “is continuing to get better and this was the first year Armando Ponce ran cross country and he did well.”

Ellis — who will be a sophomore — spent the season on the injury list but could be an important asset next season, Ayres said. 

Bulleigh distinguished himself for his fierce commitment to improvement, starting out as the one of the slowest on the team when he started, getting better each week and earning a spot on the varsity team for the regionals, where he shattered his goal of a sub-20 minute time (19:46.4).

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DEWEY

Smith’s story started prior to her birth.

Both her biological parents, Chris Smith and Erin Richardson, had excelled as youth in athletics.

Chris Smith had starred in basketball and baseball for Caney Valley High School, in summer baseball for the Doenges Ford Indians and Pepsi Cubs and earned a scholarship in both basketball and baseball at Oklahoma Wesleyan University.

Richardson competed in college basketball.

In addition, Smith’s cousin Donnie Scott is one of the highest-scoring prep basketball players ever to come out of this area and Richardson’s brother was a basketball coach — as was Chris Smith.

In other words, by the time she could talk, Presley already was steeped in family sports tradition.

“She’s just a really determined athlete,” said Richardson. “She just hates to lose. She doesn’t ever really give up.”

But coming into the fall semester of her freshman year she had to give up on one sport or the other.

“The coaches kind of suggested I choose between volleyball and cross country,” Smith said. “I decided to try something new.”

That was cross country.

Unlike most other sports, there’s no short cut — no matter the level of athletic ability — to becoming a polished distance runner. 

Like a Robert Frost poem it requires “miles to go.”

“When I was practicing during the school day … I tried and pushed myself a little harder, to best my own time,” she explained.

“She’s just a competitor,” said Knight. “She’s always going to do what you tell her to do. … She wants to go out there and beat everybody. For her, the sky’s the limit.”

“She’s a pretty determined little thing,” said Chris Smith. “She’s really good at setting goals for herself. She’s self-driven a lot. … We worked on different things when she was young.”

In addition to cross country, Smith also excels on the hardwood.

“She did cross country to get in shape for basketball,” said Richardson. “She’ll be the starting point guard on varsity as a freshman.”

In cross country, “Presley had to learn a lot about herself,” Smith said, including how to deal with being behind other runners. 

To maximize her ability, she developed a strong finishing kick, Smith said, adding he knows she’ll display the same kind of determination in high school basketball.

“She’s going to work hard to be the best,” Smith added.