ShawneeDispatch.com

The Mill Valley track and field team will hit the road to Carbondale today for the Kaw Valley League championships, and the MVHS girls know they have a target on their backs.

After all, they will be attempting to win their eighth straight KVL crown.

Mill Valley coach Mark Peck said that feat will be difficult to accomplish this year, even with a team as talented as his.

"Tonganoxie's girls are very, very good, so our girls are going to have to perform at their best, if not better, to win it," he said. "But we're up to the challenge. Just because it's on paper doesn't mean it's a given, but we'll have to come out and do well."

The meet begins at 4 p.m. at Santa Fe Trail High School.

Even with a tough task ahead of them, the Jaguars should enter the meet with plenty of confidence after turning in strong performances on Friday at the Shawnee Mission North Relays.

Ignore the place finishes they turned in, and just look at the marks. That, Peck said, tells the real story about what his athletes accomplished.

Forget for a minute that sophomore 800-meter standout Whitney Hartman finished third. Look at her time of 2:22.89 - a personal best - and consider that she nearly tracked down Blue Valley Northwest senior Laura Roxberg, one of the most dominant female runners in state track history. Roxberg finished second in 2:21.17, and Shawnee Mission South senior Kristen Gillespie won the race in 2:16.67.

"That was really neat to see Whitney come out and run like that," Peck said. "She was right there pushing Roxberg, and she's one of the premier runners in Kansas. For her to be up there running with that group of girls is exciting."

Hartman was the highest-placing girl for Mill Valley, but Peck said he was thrilled with many of his athletes' performances.

"We had a lot of kids that were in the top 10 in some events. They didn't place, but they were right there, and you have to be happy with that in a meet of this magnitude," he said.

Peck also pointed to junior Katie Bauer, who scratched on all of her attempts in the long jump but placed fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 36 feet, 1 inch.

"Katie has that kind of mentality that she goes for broke and gives it 100 percent, and in those kind of conditions with a tough wind at her back, that's going to happen sometimes," Peck said of the long jump. "But it was the kind of the meet where you've got nothing to lose, so why not go for it?"

Also for Mill Valley's girls, the 400 relay team of Alaina Fairbanks, Alexis Butler, Khalila Smith and Briana Childs finished fourth in 51.14, and the 1,600 relay team of Kristen Moore, Smith, Jasa DuMontelle and Hartman was sixth in 4:16.71.

A few other big performances came from Ashley Bowman, who set a school record by clearing 10 feet in the pole vault and tied for seventh; Fairbanks, a sophomore who was 10th in the 100 hurdles and seventh in the 300 hurdles; Naomi Smith, a freshman who placed ninth in the 200 in 28.36; and Emily Altman, a freshman who placed ninth in the javelin with a toss of 108-9.

The Mill Valley boys also had a big day at North.

Matt Sittenauer finished fourth in the long jump with a leap of 22-7 1/2 and sixth in the 200 in 23.90; Colin Orand was second in the 400 in 52.02 and third in the 300 hurdles in 41.13; Orand, Sittenauer, Jason Hay and Nick Woods finished fifth in the 400 relay in 43.84; Chris Mayer was fourth in the discus with a toss of 137-8; Max Carroll was fifth in the javelin with a mark of 169-9; and Shawn Stene was sixth in the shot put with a heave of 48-4 1/2.