TOP LOCAL SPORTS STORY COUNTDOWN: NUMBERS 10-6
Bartlesville High School infielders pause for the National Anthem during a home game. The Lady Bruins went to the Class 6A state tournament and Bartlesville Area Sports counts this as its No. 6 story of 2024.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
Barnsdall High School seniors hold their graduation at the Bartlesville Community Center after an EF-4 tornado destroyed much of the town on May 6, 2024. This is one of Bartlesville Area Sports' No. 10 stories for 2024.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
BY MIKE TUPA
Bartlesville Area Sports
Following is our website countdown for the top 30 local sports stories for 2024.
This articles comprises No. 10-6.
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10b: CAN’T KEEP A GOOD TOWN DOWN
Barnsdall has seen its share of adversity the last few decades, including declining employment and shrinking population.
Even so, the Northeastern Oklahoma town with somewhere between 1,000 to 1,100 people — which has dropped approximately 23-to-25 percent the past 25 years — still possesses a gigantic heart and fierce community pride and determination.
The heroes of Barnsdall — and they are all heroes — proved that after Mother Nature blasted the nearly 400-acre town on May 6, 2024 with a killer EF-4 tornado that spurred winds up to 170 miles per hour — the worst kind of its disaster in Oklahoma in eight years.
And Barnsdall took it completely on the chin.
It ripped through the town like a giant scythe, leaving behind a carnage swath of rubble, demolished or gutted out buildings, power lines snapped like rubber bands, twisted metal, massive clumps of scattered foliage as if the earth had eaten too much and disgorged itself.
Within just a few minutes, a large chunk of the town had been devastated and the rubble spread through other parts of the peaceful burg.
At least 70 homes absorbed the crushing brunt of the disaster, one owned by an 81-year-old man who was one of two reported fatalities within hours afterward.
Sadly, it was the second tornado in five weeks to hammer Barnsdall.
Every aspect of Barnsdall life was convulsed by the physical destruction and emotional aftershocks caused by the twisters — including the toppling of the “Welcome to Barnsdall” sign.
Venerable and historic Barnsdall High School and its sports programs weren’t spared the spoliation.
The rebuilding task for the community and school seemed to be overwhelming — perhaps too big a task for a small town, even with the outpouring of help from nearby, and faraway, communities.
The high school graduation ceremony had to be completely altered — but residents still found a way to make it happen.
But Barnsdall — once the home of entertainment greats Anita Bryant and Clark Gable and the Barnsdall Main Street Oil Well, built in 1914 and the only one of its kind existing in the world, located in the middle of Main Street — displayed a gritty resolve that their town would rise from the ashes.
Barnsdall High School’s Henry Easley (72) talks to assistants on the sidelines during a timeout. Barnsdall was able to host a football game on Sept. 1 after 70 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed by a tornado on May 6, 2024. This is one of Bartlesville Area Sports' No. 10 stories for 2024.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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Within just three months the Barnsdall schools opened. Despite the challenges associated with practices — as the lives of many students and their families remained impacted by the physical ravages of the event — classes started on Aug. 6, 2024 — three months almost exactly to the day when the town’s well-being got turned on its head.
A month after kids returned to their desks, Barnsdall hosted a football game on the first Friday of September.
This event was basically the first chance the town had had of coming together en masse in celebration of its survival and recovery. It was a coming-out party in which the Barnsdall populace said — in effect — the same message as the beleaguered town of Whoville in Dr. Seuss’ story of “Horton Hears A Who.”
That statement: “We are here!”
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10a: TURNER TURNS ON THE AFTERBURNERS
One of the greatest distance chargers in Bartlesville High School girls running history, Gentry Turner ended her explosive prep track career with a golden exclamation point by winning the state championship in the girls’ 3200m run (10:47.06) by a gap of nearly three seconds.
She also placed fourth in the 1600m (5:04.7). The previous fall she had finished fifth in the 2023 Class 6A girls cross country state final.
During the late summer and fall of 2024, Turner was a part of the Oklahoma State University women’s cross country team but ran unattached in competitions, presumably so it wouldn’t count against her four years of eligibility.
Turner comes from an athletically-enhanced family. Her father Tracy competed as a decathlete at Oklahoma State, her younger sister Quincey holds the Bartlesville record in the girls’ pole vault and is on the Pittsburg (Kan.) College women’s track team. Their younger brother Wesley Turner won the state championship (as a freshman) in the pole vault in the 2024 Class 6A meet.
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Former Bartlesville High School runner Henry Williams earned a spot in the U.S. Olympic Men’s Marathon Trials, and is Bartlesville Area Sports’ No. 9 story of 2024.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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9: NOT JUST YOUR AVERAGE HENRY
The word “amazing” is often overused.
In the case of former Bartlesville High School runner Henry Williams it’s not enough.
In February 2024 Williams became the first-ever former Bruin to own a spot in the U.S. Olympic Men’s Marathon Trials, which took place in Orlando, Fla.
Despite battling painful adversity, Williams stretched his stride to finish in less than 2:32. That was far from qualifying for the Olympics — and about 14 minutes slower than his qualifying time (2:17.51) several months earlier.
But considering the Olympic trial run was only his third or fourth marathon, explosive applause is well deserved.
Another superlative defines Williams’ high school career.
Remarkable.
He burst to sub-18-minute times in 35 of 36 5K runs (2013-16) while attending Bartlesville.
Even more impressive? He ran faster than 17 minutes 22 times and broke the 16-minute barrier seven times — including a blistering career mark of 15:06. He also finished one season as the Class 6A state runner-up.
Following a less-than-satisfying college running career at the University of Tulsa, Williams chose to complete his postgraduate studies (Engineering PH.D. at Cornell (Ithaca, N.Y.) University.
At Cornell he encountered a successful marathoner from Italy and decided to channel his running hunger to the grand-daddy of distance runs.
Williams dialed in a time of 2:17.51 at the 2023 Baklines McKirdy Micro Marathon (New York) to punch his ticket to the U.S. Olympic trials.
With the 2028 Olympic Trials just a little more than three years away, who knows but Williams might be back in the mix — more polished, more experienced and stronger.
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Wesleyan Christian School’s Trey White (12) goes for a steal during basketball action last year. The Mustangs, under the leadership of head coach Steven Cooks, scored at least 60 points in every game on their way to an 8-0 start. Bartlesville Area Sports counts this as its No. 8 story of 2024.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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8: MUSTANG SALLY TO PERFECTION
W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W
That’s about the simplest way of summarizing the November and December performance of the Wesleyan Christian School boys basketball team.
With fourth-year head coach Steven Cooks stirring the pot, the Mustangs scored at least 60 points in every game on their way to 8-0.
Some of their margins of victory?
44 points. 41 points, 48 points. 39 points. 32 points.
You get the idea. No one played them closer than 28 points.
Combined with last season, the Mustangs ran their regular season game winning skein to 13 straight.
Going into Christmas break 2024, Cooks' career record stood at 69-16 (.812).
This year’s start was all the more remarkable because of the caliber of players he graduated off his 24-5 team last season (2023-24).
Top offensive contributors this season have included Kyle Kelley, Trey White, Timothy Wisdom, Owen Hay, James Wisdom, Hank Siemers and others.
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7: THROWER WITH THE GOLDEN BI-CEP
Somewhere toward the end of his sophomore year, Dewey High School’s Braden Garrison tuned into a goal of becoming a great shot-putter.
He committed to pay the price to claw and battle to the painful mountain of progress. A major part of his development came from being part of The Seal Throwing Club, also known as Throw Town Ramona, for training.
Garrison — also one of Dewey’s top football players — created a fast track of advancement. By the spring of his junior year (2023), he muscled out the state shot put gold medal.
In May 2024 he elevated his success to astronomical level — hurling the gravity-busting shot more than 64 feet to repeat as the state champion. That toss was one of the elite marks in state high school history among any class.
Garrett followed up a few days later by winning the Meet of Champions (all classes) with another mammoth performance, this one at 60-feet-even.
Garrison is now at Kennesaw (Ga.) State and already showing an upside to success. During his first meet — which took place in early December 2024 — Garrison finished eighth out of 16 competitors in the shot put (48-6.75) at a Clemson (S.C.) Indoor Track Meet.
Garrison turned in the third-best throw by a Kennesaw State athlete.
(Note: The shot weighs 16 pounds in college competition, four pounds heavier than in high school.)
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Bartlesville High School softball head coach Kyle Minton led the Lady Bruins to the Class 6A state tournament and is Bartlesville Area Sports No. 6 story of 2024.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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6: BACK IN THE DANCE
Prior to the fall of 2024, Bartlesville High School’s fastpitch softball team hadn’t qualified in 12 years for the state tournament.
During that time between 2011-23 three different presidents called the White House home, “The Masked Singer” wouldn’t go on the air for nearly a decade after and Tom Brady would be part of four Super Bowl championship teams.
But the dozen-year drought ended last fall, with head coach Kyle Minton deftly handling his reservoir of talent.
Unleashing a rip-snorting offensive attack and stellar steady pitching in the circle Bartlesville cruised to a 28-12 record — including a regional championship.
Bartlesville dropped a slim decision, 2-0, to Owasso in the state quarterfinals. Owasso (32-6) proceeded to win the state title.
Spearheading Bartlesville’s thrust were senior All-Staters Isabell Daniels and Chloe Robbins.
Joining Robbins on the 6A-3 All-District team were junior pitcher Kelsie Yales, sophomore first baseman Savannah Alden and freshman phenom Erin Bridendolph.
Rounding out the three-headed pitching staff were Lexi Durao and Allison Rosson. Madie Nachbor handled a big chunk of the catching duties.
In the regional final, Alden and Durao both homered in the historic 6-1 win against Edmond North.
Lola Redington and Emerson Casey added two hits each.
Rosson pitched the distance — spinning a three-hitter with no walks and six strikeouts to catapult the Lady Bruins to state.
(We will have the top five stories of 2024 in a few days.)
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