CHAMPIONS GALORE! OLATHE NORTH RUNS AWAY WITH 6A TEAM TITLE BEHIND SIX EVENT CHAMPIONS
 
Avani Hocker Singh knew early what the potential was for she and her Olathe North teammates this season.
 
“We really felt confident going into the year,” Hocker Singh said. “But after the first meet, we realized how stacked we were.”
 
Stacked indeed. The early success the Eagles experienced lasted throughout the season and was on full display at the state meet in Wichita.
 
After taking just seventh in the Class 6A team standings a year ago, Olathe North not only climbed to the top of the standings this year but shot there behind a bevy of champions across the board. North won six events and racked up 15 medalists overall in scoring 111.5 points to win by 34.5 points over Blue Valley.

"We just have a really good group of young ladies who have the want to and then also the willingness to work for it," Olathe North coach Levi Huseman said. "Kinda like I said about the boys. When you can match a lot of talented and hardworking kids with knowledgeable and effective coaches, good things happen. We're fortunate that we have both."
  
The point total was just a half point shy of Olathe West’s Class 6A record score of 112 set in 2023. It also gave the Eagles their first state title since 2021.
 
That year’s team was led by Anjali Hocker Singh, Avani’s older sister, who won the 3,200 title and also finished runner-up in the 800 and 1,600. Though the rest of her high school track career was plagued by injuries and she never won another individual track title, Anjali did finish her career as a four-time state champion in cross country.
 
While it might have seemed natural for Avani to follow in her sister’s footsteps as a distance standout, she opted to take her own path in track and field.
 
“My older sister is extremely disciplined and every morning she would go on these 13-mile runs,” Avani said. “There was no way that I could do that. It took me a little bit to figure it out, but I was in competitive dance when I was little and I think that helped me gravitate to the hurdles. Once I got with my coach, we took the next step and I have fallen in love with it ever since.”
 
The sisters spent two years competing together in track and in 2024 helped Olathe North to a runner-up team finish. Anjali finished as state runner-up in the 1,600 and 3,200 while Avani was runner-up in the 300 hurdles and seventh in the 100 hurdles.
 
With that year’s state champion in the 300 hurdles, Wichita Northwest’s Adryana Shelby graduting, Hocker Singh was poised to join her sister as a state champion last spring. Off to a strong start to her season with wins 300s in two of her first three meets, Hocker Singh instead saw the season come crashing down.
 
At practice she came off a hurdle and slipped on the concrete. She suffered a torn ACL and just like that, her season was done.
 
“I was really devastated,” she said. “I didn’t tear it too bad, so I thought I might be able to run a little bit. But they told me my season was over.”
 
Hocker Singh didn’t return to competition until an indoor meet just before the start of this year’s track season. But she showed no signs of being slowed by her injury and time off. She was undefeated in the 300 hurdles except for a prestigious meet in Jenks (Okla.) and beat her previous personal best with a 43.58 at the Seaman Relays.
 
After lowering that mark to a 43.52 at regionals, Hocker Singh ranked second in the state to Hesston’s Ashley Lehman, who’d gone 43.08 this year.
 
Pushed in practice daily by freshman Samantha Macke, who already had dipped down into the 44s, as well as cross-town rival Anissa Miguel of Olathe East, who ranked third in the state overall with a 44.24, Hocker Singh was at her best state in leaving both well behind.
 
Hocker Singh got the first gold of her career in style, running a career-best 43.05 to win by more than a second over Miguel, who was runner-up in 44.22. Macke was third in 44.65.
 
“I’m super proud of myself,” Hocker Singh said. “All last summer, I was working hard to come back and make my senior season the best I could. It is really crazy to me because I didn’t start running again until right before track started. … It was a struggle, but finally getting a gold medal was an amazing feeling.”
  With one gold in hand, Hocker Singh capped her career with another in her final high school race before heading off to compete for Yale. She teamed with Kayden Freemon, Kate Figgins and Kayden Maney to win the 1,600 relay in 3:55.24, more than four and a half seconds faster than runner-up Blue Valley West (3:59.99).
 
It was a combination that wasn’t exactly in Coach Levi Huseman’s mind at the start of the year, but one Hocker Singh knew could work. Though they only ran three times together before state, it was a group that fit perfectly together.
 
“I talked to our coach about putting sprinters into the relay,” Hocker Singh said of both Figgins and Maney, whose specialties are the 100, 200 and 400. “They have a really positive attitude and mindset. When we ran together, we did amazing. I just wanted them to get me in a good spot for me to finish the race.”
 

 
Figgins and Maney had already picked up a relay gold medal earlier in the meet, teaming with Sienna Wesley and Jasmine Simons to win the 400 relay in 46.92, well ahead of runner-up Blue Valley (48.25). Both also picked up individual medals with Figgins taking sixth in the 100 and Maney placing fourth in the 400.
 
Wesley also was one of three field event champions for the Eagles.
 
The state leader in the long jump and only girl in Kansas this spring to go over 20 feet with a 20-1.75 at the opening meet of the season, Wesley needed only one jump to lock down her first individual state title. She went 18-11.50 on that opening attempt and won by nearly six inches over Free State’s Parker Jones, who took second at 18-5.75.
 
Wesley also finished third in the 100 and fourth in the 200.
 

 
Teammates Elena Ginie and Kennedy Tobaben also got their first state championships with Ginie taking the pole vault title and Tobaben winning the javelin.
 
Ginie’s title was no surprise. Her career progression suggested she could be in line for something special in her final state track meet appearance. She made it happen, clearing 13 feet and capping an unbeaten senior season by dethroning Blue Valley’s Amelia Hansen, who transferred from Shawnee Mission South after edging Ginie for last year’s title.
 
Ginie, a four-time state qualifier, finished third, second and finally first in her last three trips to Crossland Stadium, taking the title this time with a series of four successful vaults. Hansen, after matching Ginie at 11-6, 12-0 and 12-6, bowed out at 13 feet.
 
“This season was great, a lot of hard work,” said Ginie, who tried to set a 6A meet record at 13-3, but came up short. “I started off higher than I was last year, so I was really just building and building.”
 
Ginie made a late-season surge a year ago and cleared 12-0 at state along with Hansen, who defeated her on fewer misses. She wasted little time adding to that this spring, clearing 13-0 in her first two meets and 13-1 at the Blue Valley West Elite Meet.
 
All the while, Hansen, who signed with Kansas, appeared to be in good form, clearing 13-5 at the Blue Valley Relays.
 
At the time, that moved Hanson into No. 2 on Kansas’ all-time girls list behind Mill Valley’s Emily Brigham, who cleared 13-7 in 2012. But Ginie wedged herself between them with a personal-best 13-6 in her victory at the Olathe North regional.
 
“Ending on a PR and jumping 12 at state last year, it really helped build my confidence,” Ginie said. “I just decided that I wanted to vault in college, so I knew that I needed to keep working hard.”
 

 
Tobaben, meanwhile, was perhaps North’s most surprising state champion of the meet.
 
It wasn’t like she exactly came from nowhere. After placing fifth at last year’s state meet and throwing a best of 133-5 during the 2025 season, Tobaben had improved immensely this spring.
 
She consistently threw in the 130s all season after only hitting that mark twice as a junior, and then went 142-2 at the Sunflower League meet to move into the top 10 overall. But she wasn’t where she wanted to be just yet.
 
“My goal my senior season was to throw 150,” Tobaben said.
 
Tobaben got there at regionals with a 150-4 mark that ranked third overall in the state. But the top spot in the state also belonged to a 6A thrower, Shawnee Mission East’s Paige Stanfield, who had thrown 156-8 earlier in the year and also happened to be the defending state champion in 6A.
 
They had already seen each other three times this season with Stanfield holding the upper hand in all three meetings as the Lancer put together an undefeated regular season with titles at all five meets, plus regionals.
 
Not only was Stanfield competition, so too was Washburn Rural’s Morgan Ray, who had beaten Tobaben at the Seaman Relays after taking second to her at the Blue Valley West Elite Meet. Ray’s season best was a 147-5.
 
“Going into it, I knew it was going to be a dogfight and that’s what we’d said all week,” Tobaben said. “Honestly, all year it’s been a dogfight. But one thing I can rely on is myself and controlling what I can do.”
 
Tobaben fired the first shot at state with an opening throw of 144-3, but Ray quickly answered with a 145-1 on her second attempt to take the lead. Stanfield went 141-11 in the prelims as it quickly became a three-woman battle for the title.
 
Stanfield improved to 143-7 on her first throw of finals but Tobaben snatched the event lead by going 145-7 on her first finals attempt. Ray failed to improve on her first two throws of finals and after Stanfield only went 139-2 on her last attempt, Tobaben only needed to survive a final throw by Ray.
 
But going just ahead of Ray in the throwing order, Tobaben put her winning mark out of reach. She went out with a serious bang, throwing a career-best 160-5 on her final attempt to clinch the title. Ray fouled her final attempt.
 
“That wasn’t really a goal,” Tobaben said of getting 160. “I was not expecting that. I knew it came out of my hand clean. I’ve been working for this for four years and that gives me something to chase for the next four years, too.”
 
North also got a 2-3 finish in the 100 hurdles from Layla Parker and Armoni Johnson while Meghana Chevuru was a double medalist in the throws with a fifth in the shot put and sixth in the discus. Elizabeth Weinert added a fourth in the high jump.
 

 
PUT IT ON REPEAT: FREE STATE’S REYNOLDS, TONGANOXIE’S SCHOOLER, MIEGE’S MCCLINTON, SM EAST’S HARDY DEFEND 2025 TITLES
 
Sadie Reynolds didn’t exactly come from nowhere when she won the Class 6A discus title last spring at the state meet.
 
After all, the Free State sophomore was the Class 6A leader going into the meet with a 138-7, just three feet ahead of Junction City’s Gracie Erichson.
 
But the manner in which Reynolds won the state title was shocking to her system. She enjoyed a career-best day at state with her winning mark of 151-2 nearly 13 feet longer than her previous best.
 
“I had an inkling I could win,” Reynolds said. “But having it happen and throwing what I did and having it actually happen, I wasn’t expecting that at all.”
 
Things were a bit different this year. Reynolds not only was the 6A leader in the discus this spring, but the overall state leader after throwing 151-1 at the Firebirds’ home Leitel Legacy Invitational. She only lost once this year, taking third at the Mike Wallace Olathe South Invitational on a day where she just didn’t have it.
 
“There was definitely a little more pressure this year,” Reynolds said. “Everyone wants to be a two-time state champion.”
 
And everyone who isn’t wants to knock off that reigning champion and going into this year’s finals, Reynolds had a battle on her hands. She had logged only one legal throw in prelims with a 134-0.
 
That left her in second place going into finals behind Liberal’s NaZiah Williams, who also had posted the top regional winning mark by 10 feet over Reynolds with a 142-4. At state, Williams got a throw of 139-3 on her final prelim toss to lead Reynolds by five feet, while Washburn Rural’s Kailyn Peterson was right in the hunt as well with a 133-2 opening throw.
 
Reynolds only had one counting mark in the finals as well, but made it count. She launched a 145-4 on her first throw of finals to grab the event lead and then watched as Williams fouled her final two attempts after improving to 139-8 on her first throw of finals.
 
“It all comes down to what happens at the meet,” Reynolds said. “I wasn’t really pleased with how I threw, but I got it done and that’s what mattered the most.” 
 

 
Just as Reynolds found herself in a battle for her title defense, so too did Tonganoxie’s Adalyn Schooler, who captured the Class 4A discus title last year.
 
A year ago, Schooler took the 4A crown with relative ease, throwing 130-5 to win by more than nine feet over Augusta’s Rylee Jay. But going into this year’s meet, even though she had the top mark in Class 4A at 144-10, she knew the title would be anything but easy.
 
Rock Creek’s Rory Pitzer, who had placed fourth last year, had made huge strides this season and had joined her in the 140 club with a throw of 140-0.
 
“She’s a great person to compete against,” Schooler said. “I felt a lot of pressure this year, especially in the last week. I couldn’t sleep at night. But then I was like, ‘Do what I’ve done all season. I’ve done the work to get here.’ So there was a little less today. As soon as I got my disc and put on my shoes all the pressure was gone.”
 
It came back pretty quickly as Pitzer launched a career-best throw of 143-11 on her second attempt of prelims to take the event lead. But Schooler answered it immediately, throwing 146-4 on her second prelim attempt, also a career best.
 
Pitzer threw another mild scare into Schooler when she landed a 145-1 on her first finals throw and then went over 140 again on her final attempt. But it only measured 142-2 and Schooler had her repeat title.
 
“I’m just so grateful and feel very blessed,” Schooler said.
 
Getting a repeat title in the Class 4A shot put also was a challenge for Bishop Miege’s Jayla McClinton.
 

 
The 4A leader going into the state meet with a best of 41-7.5, McClinton was nowhere near that mark through her three preliminary throws with just a best of 38-8. Meanwhile, Santa Fe Trail’s Tyler Shreve had opened with a 40-6 to jump to the event lead and Louisburg’s McKenna Lohse was close behind with a 39-5.5.

When McClinton opened the finals with only a 33-10, it appeared it just might not be her day.
 
Instead, she put it all together for her fifth attempt and threw 42-7.75 to overtake Shreve. Shreve fouled her final two attempts and Lohse never bettered her prelim mark as McClinton won her second straight title.
 

 
Shawnee Mission East’s Charlotte Hardy had no trouble at all in winning her second straight Class 6A 3,200 title. Taking the 3,200 crown last year as a sophomore and then winning the 6A cross country title in the fall, Hardy has established herself as the top distance runner in Class 6A.
 
She was patient through the first 1,600 of this year’s 3,200, sitting just third through four laps. But she moved into the lead on the fifth lap and steadily began to pull away from the field. Hardy finished in 10:38.71 and won by nearly eight seconds over Wichita North’s Nelly Puente, who ran a PR 10:46.14 and later came back to win the 1,600. 
 

TOP DOGS: BALDWIN’S MOORE, KENNEDY WIN INDIVIDUAL TITLES, HELP RELAY SET RECORD
 
Even as part of a two-time reigning state champion in the Class 4A 3,200-meter relay, Baldwin junior Kami Moore felt like one thing was missing.
 
A state meet record.
 
“We’ve been working for like three years on this,” Moore said after Baldwin highlighted its third consecutive state title in the 3,200 relay by improving on a 4A record that stood for 21 years. “We were really happy to break it and we’re real excited.”
 
After coming close in each of the last two state meets, Baldwin’s quartet of juniors Moore, Shea Griffith and Rachel Watkins, and senior Irelyn Kennedy won a close battle with Buhler, prevailing in 9:27.47 – more than two seconds clear of the previous mark of 9:29.61 by Clay Center in 2005.
 

The record paired nicely with Moore’s first state victory in the 800 meters, and Kennedy’s first in the 1,600. Moore, an 800 runner-up to Clay Center’s Lauren Smith each of the last two years, led a 1-2 Baldwin finish along with Griffith by winning in 2:16.90.
 
Kennedy, the reigning 4A individual champion in cross country, followed up a second-place to Buhler’s Corbin Starkweather in the 3,200 by turning the tables on the Crusader in the 1,600, crossing the finish line in 5:07.87.
 
Moore collected a third gold medal in the 1,600 relay, partnering with Griffith, Watkins and junior Cheyenne Brunker to win in 4:00.09, more than 5 seconds ahead of runner-up Andale.
 
With Smith graduated, Moore took over as a favorite in the 800 and solidified that with a winning time of 2:11.82 at the Frontier League meet, the No. 2 time in all classes this season. While her state time on a warm afternoon was well off that, she still managed to team with Griffith for the gold-silver finish.
 
“I definitely knew it was a possibility,” Moore said. “I’ve been working on that. That was one of my top goals this season. I didn’t think the heat was too bad. I work better in the heat probably than the cold.”
 
Kennedy, the state’s top 4A returnee in the 1,600 and 3,200, fell off Starkweather’s pace in the final two laps of the 3,200 for her second straight state runner-up finish in that event. But she got the job done in the 1,600, using a strong third lap to open up enough of a lead that Starkweather couldn’t overcome.
 
Moore, Griffith and Kennedy have been mainstays since their freshman year on Baldwin’s 3,200 relay. They teamed with then-senior Lily Brecheisen to win the 2024 state race in 9:32.13. Last year, Watkins replaced Brecheisen and the Bulldogs lowered their championship time to 9:30.27, bringing the meet record within tantalizing reach.
 
The latest result produced the hugs and smiles one would expect.
 
“I was excited and overjoyed that we got to do this together,” Moore said. “It was great to finally do it.”
 

MILL VALLEY’S STRATHMAN COMPLETES HARD-FOUGHT HIGH JUMP HAT TRICK
 
State high jump competitions are rarely one-sided affairs, especially those that involve Mill Valley senior Miley Strathman.
 
Strathman came to Crossland Stadium looking to win her third Class 6A high jump title. And like the first two, it didn’t come easily.
 
Strathman eventually completed the hat trick, matching her personal-best jump of 5 feet, 7 inches to win a jump-off against Blue Valley West junior Livia Viall.
 
The two champions from their respective leagues and regionals were deadlocked as the lone competitors who cleared all their attempts through 5-6. After both missed three attempts at 5-8, Strathman, who led off in the jump-off, succeeded on her first attempt at 5-7. She got the title when Viall missed.
 
“To be honest, I like going second because you can kind of see how it’s going to go,” Strathman said. “Going first, you just never know. I think it really put a lot of pressure on me to get my jumps in.”
 
Strathman’s experience helped her get through it.
 
After finishing seventh at state as a freshman, Strathman shared the 6A title with Blue Valley North’s Anna Bundy. Last year, she defended by edging Shawnee Mission South’s Hannah Kerr on misses after both cleared 5-4.
 
Strathman’s winning jump matched her PR earlier this season at the Shawnee Mission North Relays – a competition in which Viall also finished second.
 
“I’ve been doing summer practice, I’ve been doing winter practice, I’ve been doing club,” Strathman said. “I just think getting that many reps in makes a difference when you get into high pressure situations.”

 

OTHER KANSAS CITY AREA GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONS

• Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Piper Allison capped a breakthrough freshman season with the Class 6A state title in the 100 hurdles. Allison got off to a mixed start to her debut season, winning her first-ever high school meet but then running a 16.02 in her next outing. But she closed the season strong, winning titles at the Sunflower League meet and Class 6A regional, out-dueling Olathe North’s standout hurdle crew for both titles. She was able to edge those rivals one last time for the state title, winning in 15.03, just .12 seconds ahead of both Layla Parker and Armoni Johnson of Olathe North, who each clocked 15.15s.

 

 

• Runner-up in the 800 at state a year ago to Seaman standout Ryin Miller, Leavenworth’s Kelsie Kudzia took advantage of Miller’s absence this year due to injury and ran away with the Class 5A state title in the 800. Kudzia finished in 2:14.26 to win by nearly two seconds over St. James Academy’s Allison Meyer. She also finished third in the 1,600 behind meet-record setter Ava Claasen of Kapaun Mt. Carmel and Salina Central’s Kaylie Shultz.

 

 

• Blue Valley’s Paige Faulkner followed Kudzia’s win in the 5A 800 with the title in the Class 6A 800. Faulkner turned in a career-best time of 2:14.30 to win by more than a second over Blue Valley West freshman Arianna Moibi, who finished in 2:15.64.

 

 

• Going into the state meet, no Class 5A pole vaulter had gone higher than 11-6 this season with Eisenhower’s Ella Ranz leading the classification with an 11-6. Ranz got to 12 feet, but so did Lansing’s Kyndal Schneider, who had entered state with a career-best of 11-0. But Schneider put together a near-perfect day, clearing every height on her first attempt, including new PRs at 11-6 and 12-0. Though she missed all three attempts at 12-6, she won the title after Ranz needed three attempts to get her PR at 12 feet.

 

 

• Ranked just fifth among Class 6A shot putters going into the state meet, Olathe South sophomore Emani Clifton didn’t need her best to climb to the top of the podium. Coming in with a season best of 40-7.5, she threw 40-3 and won the 6A title by two inches over previous 6A leader Jorryn Hall of Manhattan, who finished second for the second straight year. Hall had thrown 42-2.75 this season, but managed just a 40-1 and fouled all three finals attempts trying to catch Clifton, who got her winning throw on her final prelim toss.

 

 

• Blue Valley Southwest’s Lexi Franks backed up her position as the top javelin thrower in Class 5A this season, winning her first state title. Franks threw 133-8, five feet under her season best of 138-7, but won by more than six feet over Bishop Carroll’s Clare Munn, who went 127-1.
• Gardner Edgerton’s Hayden Meats pulled off an upset for the title in the Class 6A triple jump, knocking off defending champion Kaidence Alston of Mill Valley. Meats had ranked second to Alston this season with Alston one of only two jumpers in the state this year to go over 40 feet. But the Jaguar couldn’t find that distance at state and saw Meats soar to the event lead with a leap of 38-5 in the prelims. Alston threw a heck of a scare into Meats in the finals, though, going over 38 feet on each of her attempts. But her best of 38-4 left her one inch behind Meats for the title.

 

 

• Bonner Springs took advantage of a botched handoff by 5A leader Piper on an exchange in the Class 5A 400 relay and captured the title with Nya Anderson, Emily Morton, Lelia King and Crystal Lopez Hernandez running a season-best 48.88.

 

 

• Maranatha took the Class 3A 3,200 relay title as Ellarie Hamilton, Maggie Brisk, Addison Lundquist and Macy Karlin finished in 9:49.93 to win by just more than four seconds ahead of Hesston’s 9:54.06.