ShawneeDispatch.com

The Mill Valley girls track team won yet another Kaw Valley League title last Wednesday at Sante Fe Trail.

Ho hum. What's new?

It was the Jaguars' seventh straight. Since the school opened, the MVHS girls have won every year, and lucky number seven broke a KVL record set by Lansing in the 1980s when the LHS girls won six straight.

"To do something like this seven years in a row, that's pretty cool," MVHS coach Mark Peck said.

This year's top contender to end the streak was Tonganoxie. The Chieftains finished seven places ahead of the Jags the week before at the SM North Relays and feature three of the best throwers in the state.

Tonganoxie swept the throwing events and even led by 40 points after 11 events, but Mill Valley had too much depth to be denied.

The Jaguars scored in 17 out of 18 events, failing to score in only the javelin. In fact, a MVHS athlete finished in the top four in all of the 17 other events. Mill Valley athletes won six events and won the league title with 168.5 points, 15 points ahead of Tonganoxie.

"By no means was I positive because you've got to expect the unexpected," Peck said.

The unexpected happened when Sara Exon failed to qualify for the high hurdles, an event Peck said he thought she would finish in second. But Exon's teammates were there to pick up the slack with Bethany Gagelin finishing fourth and Kirsten Moore fifth.

Exon bounced back by winning the 300-meter hurdles.

No athlete scored more points for the MVHS girls than Katie Bauer. Bauer won the triple jump and long jump and finished third in the high jump.

Other winners for the Jags included Moore in the 400 meters and the 1,600-meter relay and 3,200-meter relay teams. Moore, Whitney Hartman, Exon and Jesa DuMontelle ran on the 1,600-meter team and Kelsey O'Hara, DuMontelle, Katie Maybell and Hartman ran on the 3,200-meter team.

The Mill Valley boys were a healthy Justin Woods away from possibly making the KVL meet a clean sweep for the Jags.

Without Woods, Mill Valley finished second to Bonner Springs, losing by 19 points.

MVHS junior Matt Sittenauer made the best of Woods' absence by winning the events Woods usually dominates. Sittenauer won both the 100 meters and 200 meters after finishing second and third in the prelims of the two races.

Sittenauer also won the long jump.

The other big winners for the Jaguars at league were their throwers and hurdler David Brothers.

Brothers swept the hurdling events, winning both the high hurdles and 300-meter hurdles.

Mill Valley won all three throwing events. Andrew Wendorff won the javelin, Shawn Stene won the shot put and Mark Grinstead won the discus.

Although the Jaguars won eight of the 18 events, they did not score points in four events. The Braves had only seven first-place finishes and did not score points in six events, but their depth in the running events won them the league title outright.

"Their strength was the distance runners and middle distance runners and we couldn't counter that and then they had equal talent to match us throughout all the other events," Peck said.

Had the Jags had Woods, it might have been a different story. Woods qualified for the 100 meters and then decided to sit out the rest of the meet because he said his hamstring didn't "feel right."

Assuming Woods ran his usual times, he would have won the 100 meters and 200 meters, which would have added 16 points to the Jags score because Sittenauer would have been bumped to second (10 points is given for first and eight points for second). If Woods had finished second in both events, it would have been the equivalent.

His presence also would have knocked down several Braves runners taking points off their score. If he were healthy, he also would have run on the 400-meter relay team and the 1,600-meter relay team, which both finished second.

"If he would have run and been healthy, I think we would have gotten them," Peck said. "But, hey, that happens; not much you can do about it."

Woods should be back in action this Friday when Mill Valley travels to the Regional meet at Gardner-Edgerton.

The field is one of the top in Kansas. Mill Valley will be joined by Saint Thomas Aquinas, Bishop Miege, Gardner-Edgerton, Sumner Academy, Harmon, Turner and Bonner Springs.

Gardner-Edgerton won league titles in both girls and boys in the Frontier League and the Aquinas girls won the Eastern Kansas League. The top four athletes in each event quality for State.

"If you don't have your A-game with you on that day, your season is going to come to an end Friday because the quality at this Regional is going to be really good," Peck said.

The meet starts at 3 p.m.

Other top MVHS performers at the KVL meet:

• Jenna Gilliland finished second in the 200 meters and Becky Newhouse finished fourth. Gilliland finished third in the 100 meters and Newhouse seventh.
• Whitney Hartman finished third in the 400 meters and Jasa DuMontelle finished sixth.
• Katie Maybell finished fourth in the 800 meters.

Kelsey O'Hara finished third in the 1,600 meters and Chelsea Pfannenstiel finished fourth. O'Hara also finished second in the 3,200 meters and Sarah Broadbear finished fifth.

• Moore finished third in the 300-meter hurdles.
• Mill Valley's 400-meter relay team finished second.
• DuMontelle finished second in the high jump. Alyssa Whim finished sixth.
• Alaina Fairbanks finished fourth in the pole vault.
• Elise Umbarger finished third in shot put and second in discus.
• Sta 'Nisha Garlington finished third in triple jump.
• Terence Wilson finished fourth in the 400 meters.
• Oliver Parsons finished sixth in the 3,200 meters.
• Colin Orand finished second behind Brothers in the high hurdles.
• Myron Collins finished fourth in the 300-meter hurdles.
• Matt Huderle finished sixth in the pole vault.
• The MVHS 400-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay teams both finished second.
• Max Carroll finished fifth in the javelin.
• Tyler Hancock finished fourth in the shotput.