For Sequoyah High School, Thursday afternoon’s Early Tiger Invitational was the start of continuing its historical success at the sport of cross country. For Tahlequah, it was a bit more disappointing.

On the boys’ side, the Indians finished in second place with 104 points, well behind first place Broken Arrow with 38. Tahlequah finished seventh with 180 points. There were 11 teams at the meet.

“Not what I was hoping for,” THS coach Jason Proctor said. “I know that we’re better than that. I don’t think we competed the way I would like us to compete.”

On the girls’ side, the Lady Tigers finished sixth 132 points. Sequoyah finished in third with 82 points. Broken Arrow won the meet with 40 points. There were 10 teams in the girls’ division.

The THS boys’ team wasn’t without its own successes however. Ethan Ward came screaming across the finish line in fifth place with a time of 14:00. However, the next runner to come in for the Tigers was Derrick Young in 42nd place. He was followed by Cameron Marshall in 48th, Michael Turner in 50th, Alexander Thorn in 51st., Kevin Busch in 57th and Max MeGee in 58th.

“We did pack together well,” Proctor said. “That is one thing I want, now we have to get that up.”

The Indians didn’t have a single runner in the top 10, but had enough runners finish in the top 30 for the second-place showing.

Brandon Gibson was the top Indian runner, finishing in 15th place followed by Traven McCoy in 16th, Robert Ketcher in 22nd, David Lewis in 24th, Reiley Sevenstar in 27th, Larime Fixit in 31 and Corri Horsechief in 32nd.

“I was hoping they’d stay a little bit closer to the top three,” SHS coach Sam Horsechief said. “We practice running in a pack as long as we can. They didn’t get any medals, but I still think we’ll be a pretty good team.”

Previous to last season, the Indians had won four straight state championships.

Sarah Hix was the top finisher for the Lady Tigers in fifth place followed by Madison Carey in 17th, Amanda Wood in 25th, Melanie Paris in 41, Amanda Woodward in 51st, Christina Kirk in 57th and Kourtney Howard in 59th.

“Some of us competed well and some of us didn’t,” Lady Indians coach Elzy Miller said. “We ran with who we had.”

Both of the THS cross country teams were missing runners. On the boys’ side, the Tigers were missing Rusty Fowler and Taylor Tannehill, Tannehill because of an injury. On the girls’ side, they were missing Kaelin Grant also because of an injury.

The Lady Indians’ top finisher was Ashley Ross who finished eighth followed by Shakota Cutnose in 15th, Jodi Hooper in 16th, Nicole Laconsella in 21, Jacinta Pettit in 22, Krissa Goodrich in 35th and Tara Comingdeer in 40th.

The Tahlequah cross country teams will next be in Okmulgee on Sept. 5. The Sequoyah cross country teams will next be at Riverside in Anadarko on Sept. 6.