Olathe North girls dominate 6A state meet

Kate Figgins, left, anchors the Olathe North girls 4x100-meter relay to a state championship at the Class 6A state track and field meet. The Eagles ran away with the 6A team title, too.

By Jimmy Gillispie

WICHITA — Winning four individual events and another two relays propelled the Olathe North girls track and field team to a huge win and state championship in the Class 6A girls competition.

Olathe North won the meet with 111.5 points. Blue Valley came in second with 76 points, which is sometimes enough to win a title. Shawnee Mission East placed third with 49 points.

Four individuals won separate events to help the Eagles win the team title. The only track event won by an Olathe North individual was the 300-meter hurdles. Avani Hocker-Singh, a senior who will be running at Yale next year, won the prelims and then the finals in a time of 43.05 seconds. Samantha Mackie, a freshman, also finished third in the event to score key team points. 

In the field events, Sienna Wesley, Elena Ginie and Kennedy Tobaben brought home gold medals. Wesley capped her junior year with a jump of 18 feet, 11.5 inches, which was her first attempt of the event. Ginie, a senior who will be competing at Baylor next year, cleared four heights to win the pole vault with a top height of 13 feet, 0 inches. Tobaben, a senior who is headed to Creighton, took the lead in the javelin on her fourth throw, but improved it with her winning toss of 160 feet, 5 inches – nearly 15 feet further than her previous best toss of the event.

The Olathe North girls also won the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relay races. The team of Kayden Maney, Wesley, Jasmine Simons and Kate Figgins cruised to victory in a time of 46.92 seconds.

At the end of the night, the Eagles put a cap on their team title with a dominating 4x400 relay. Kayden Freemon, Figgins, Maney and Hocker Singh won the event by more than four seconds, racing to a time of 3:55.24.

The Eagles also won a lot more state medals that earned a lot of team points. The other state medalists on the track were Wesley (third in the 100-meter dash and fourth in the 200-meter dash), Figgins (sixth in the 100 dash), Maney (fourth in the 400-meter dash), Layla Parker (second in the 100-meter hurdles) and Armoni Johnson (third in the 100 hurdles).

In the field, Meghana Chevuru finished sixth in the discus and fifth in the shot put. Mackie also placed eighth in the long jump.