This year's 6A team titles were a foregone conclusion by the time State weekend rolled around. Olathe North's boys and Olathe West's girls took care of business and won with ease. Olathe Northwest was favored to put up a fight on the girls' side, but a softball conflict took a key athlete out of their roster.

6A Boys

The Olathe North team scored in all 14 of their entries for the state meet. Josh Parrish claimed gold in the long jump, triple jump, and high hurdles. Jason Parrish was second in the high hurdles, but beat his brother in the 300m hurdles. Together, the brothers individually scored 56 points, enough to beat runner-up Shawnee Mission East.

Jason also joined on the Eagle relay teams to place 2nd in the 4x100 and 1st in the 4x400. The rest of the crew did their fair share, too. Christian Harris won the 200, Cole Smither was runner-up in the high jump, and Ian Quarles was third in the pole vault.

An odd note, not that it would have mattered, but a total of six points weren't even given out due to injuries and disqualifications.

Shawnee Mission East was led by Wyatt Haughton in the distance events. The superstar senior set state records in the 3200, 1600, and 800. He was lucky enough to have strong competition from Henry Born (Shawnee Mission Northwest) and didn't have to lead for the first half of the 1600 or 3200. Caden Peters, his teammate, added a runner-up in the 1600 to really help the team scoring.

Manhattan ended up taking 3rd place, just a point and a half behind SM East. The Indians had a championship 4x100, along with an individual title from Tanner Dowling-Burnett in the 400. Dowling-Burnett was a major scorer for them, also placing top-3 in the 200. There were significant contributions from the field events, with Samuel Molt (Javelin), Collins Elumogo (Triple Jump), and Aaron Newcomer (High Jump) all placing top-3.

Individually, there were a few other champs. Alonzo Morgan (Blue Valley North) won the 100, while his teammates in the 4x800 also captured gold. Elijah Hakim (Olathe West) cleared 6' 8" to win high jump. Pierson Carlisle (Gardner-Edgerton) won the tiebreaker for gold in the pole vault.

The throws featured a couple of upsets. Jordan Allen (Olathe South) was the favorite in the shot and discus, but placed third in each. Instead it was Brett Carroll (Olathe East) in the shot put and Jayden Woods (Mill Valley) in the discus. For Woods, it was a massive PR and his first win of the entire season. Kyle Souders (Olathe Northwest) represented the renowned Raven throws squad with a win in the javelin throw.

6A Girls

The 6A girls team race was all about Olathe West. The Owls distance squad is the greatest ever assembled in Kansas. Their dominance in 6A is rivaled only by the Olathe Northwest throws squad, which was handicapped by a scheduling conflict with state softball. A truly unfortunate scenario for the Ravens as they tried to defend their 2022 title.

Ultimately, Olathe West scored 112 to Olathe Northwest's 80. 74 points came in from the distance girls for West, while 41 came in for Northwest's throws. It is two truly legendary event groups.

Blue Valley North, with Delia Gregory, Audrey Brown and their championship 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams, finished in third.

Up until this point, the Olathe West distance dynasty had yet to crown an individual champion. It took some serious guts, but Charis Robinson became the golden Owl in the 1600, running a big PR of 4:55 to defeat the favorite, Paige Mullen (Shawnee Mission Northwest). The Owls went 1-3-4 in that race, 2-3-4 in the 3200, and 2-4-6 in the 800. They also won the 4x800 and were runner-up in the 4x400.

The Ravens had Val Galligan win the discus and Javelin, and Adrienne Locke-Garcia win the shot put. Olathe Northwest isn't just throws, though. Olivia Cooper won the 100 hurdles and was runner-up in the 300 hurdles, and Michenainda Aritus won the long jump. They also found points in the 4x100 and 4x400.

Individually, Kaliyah Jordan (Olathe North) won the 100 and 200 with relative ease. Harli Omli (Manhattan) had a nice silver medal in the 200, along with a state championship in the 400.

Emma Baum (Blue Valley West) found a way to win over a tough Charis Robinson & Charlotte Caldwell (Mill Valley) in the 800, while Paige Mullen destroyed everyone in the 3200.

Olivia Cooper (Olathe Northwest) is a great hurdler but was a clear underdog in her 100-hurdle victory. Adryana Shelby (Wichita Northwest) got her revenge, though, winning the 300 hurdles.

If you blinked, you may have missed Taryn St. Clair (Wichita North) in the high jump. She had no misses in the high jump until she was knocked out at 5' 8". That proved to be the difference, as the better-seeded Paige Platt (Lawrence) was also knocked out at 5' 8" and the tiebreaker went to St. Clair.

Rosjai Curtis (Shawnee Mission North) capped off a great junior campaign in the triple jump, winning by just over 7 inches. Lastly, Libby Strathman led a 1-2-4 finish by Mill Valley in the pole vault.