Jenks OK boys targeting a postseason run

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

 
Jenks High School has had strong cross country teams in Oklahoma for many years, and that's a fact backed up by 13 state championships.

But good in Oklahoma hasn't often meant relevance nationally – until now.

Over the weekend at the Southlake Carroll Invitational in Texas, the US#21 Jenks boys put together an effort that shows the Trojans have upped their game to a new level. Jenks scored 50 points as junior Cody Jones, senior Chris Staub, sophomore Matthew Young and senior Jacob Janzen went 6-7-8-9 between 15:34 and 15:40 on the 5,000-meter course at Meadowmeare Park. And fifth scorer Noah Soap wasn't far back in 16:01 (21st).

That result did not come as a surprise to coach Steve Patterson, who has watched this group develop into perhaps the best team in Oklahoma history and also re-calibrate its goals.

Jenks scored a state record 23 points to win the 6A Oklahoma state meet last year and six of the that top seven are back.

This Jenks team wants to put Oklahoma – a state that has never sent a team to Nike Cross Nationals – in the national conversation.

"(Last year) we had put so much mental energy into doing as well as we possibly could at the state meet that we hadn't talked about Nike Nationals before that," Patterson said.

After last year's state meet, guys on the team were tired, a little banged up, and had schedule conflicts. So Jenks didn't attend NXN South, mostly because they knew they had already given their best performance at state.

This year, the plan is different.

"They decided we're going to do (NXN regionals)," Patterson said. "Our booster club is going to raise the money for the trip and they guys have committed to doing the extra training. We're still trying to see how well we do at the state meet, but they we're hoping to have something in the tank for later on."

The chance to make history for Oklahoma is part of what fuels the fire this fall at Jenks. The school is located in the suburbs of Tulsa and has tapped into the excitement and success of the Oklahoma State men's cross country team that has won NCAA titles in 2009, 2010 and 2012. Jenks has latched onto that tradition and will take part, as it does every year, in OSU's Cowboy Jamboree on Sept. 27.

"Tulsa's got a good running community and these kids are coming from families that are runners," Patterson said. "We've got a good run of kids that have bought into the lifestyle. I think that is what has started it. And because we've had some good guys, it's given the current group more a feeling that 'Hey, we can do that, too.'"

Jenks may be raising the bar for the entire state, but there is someone else out there to motivate the Trojans' lead pack. Ben Barrett of Norman North qualified for both NXN and Foot Locker last year and is the reigning 6A individual champion. He also won the 6A title in the 3,200 in the spring.

Jenks' top guys aren't conceding anything to Barrett this year – and that competition is contagious.

Patterson believes this group has a chance to be very good. Through four meets with races over varying lengths so far this season, Jenks has had four different No. 1 finishers.

"One of the things that's gotten us to where we are is that there is so much competition to be in the top seven," the coach said.

For the next few weeks, Patterson will split his squad into A and B groups so that they can compete while allowing some of the younger runners to get in on the action, too.

Coming back home from Texas, everyone at Jenks is excited to keep working and see where this all leads.

"It's a little scary how good we ran at Southlake so early in the season," he said. "The kids committed to putting in a summer like they've never done before."