As the spring sports season starts to slow down with the school year almost in the books it means it's time of league track and field meets all around the state and all 12 Twin Valley League teams duked it out for the league title, Thursday.

At the end of the day the top of the team finishes for the TVL looked almost like a mirror image of last year's top finishers with the Centralia Panther boys and Washington County Tiger girls spear heading the way each winning the TVL title in track, just like they did the previous year. Matter of fact in the boy’s competition the boys top three finished completing the same as last year, while the girls was slightly different.

In the boys competition the Centraila Panthers came out on top after posting 99 total points on the well above second place team, Washington County who posted 74 and duked it out with Clifton-Clyde for second topping them by only two-points (72), giving the Eagles third. The rest of the team finishes in the boys competition fell like so: Linn took fourth (59), Valley Heights placed fifth (57), Axtell Eagles grabbed sixth (45), Onaga nabbed a seventh place finish (43), Frankfort followed in eighth (33), Blue Valley-Randolph tallied a ninth place finish (32), Hanover rounded out the top ten (24), B&B placed eleventh (9) and Wetmore took home twelfth (6).

For the girl’s competition, Washington County grabbed the first place trophy as the only team boys or girls to amass over 100 team points on the day finishing with 101 points. The B&B Falcons and Axtell Eagles soared to top three finishes, following Washington County in second and third, respectively with 76 and 66 points. The rest of the team finishes in the girls competition fell like so: Centralia pounced on fourth (58), Linn grabbed fifth (57), Valley Heights placed sixth (48), Hanover nabbed seventh (44), Wetmore tallied an eighth place finish (33), Clifton-Clyde tallied ninth place (28), Onaga rounded out the top ten (18), Frankfort finished eleventh (15) and Blue Valley-Randolph took home twelfth (12).

When it came to the events individually the day and spotlight shined on every school from the TVL with at least one first place finisher in either the girls or boys competition with three performers leading the way on the day after winning three gold’s.

Centralia and Valley Heights both had an athlete take home three gold medals in competition with the Mustangs actually having two athletes accomplish at feat at the league track meet.

Mustangs were led by sophomore, Elijah Smith and freshman, Brandi Jo Roepke who both won three events at this year's TVL track meet. For Smith he leapt his way to wins in the long jump (21-03) and triple jump (43-00.75), while also grabbing a win on the track in the 110 meter hurdles behind a time of 14.63. Roepke continued to register wins in the 100, 200 and 400 meter dashes this season winning all three at the league meet as a freshman, registering times of 12.46, 26.46 and 58.32.

Panthers senior, Lukas Koch was the other track star to grab three first place finishes at the League track meet winning his usual events in the 800, 1600 and 3200 meter runs. Koch blasted by the competition winning the 800 by over five seconds (1:59.61), the 1600 by nearly seven seconds (4:30.93) and the 3200 by just less than 20 seconds. Koch was the only boys first place finisher for Centrlaia but the Panthers grabbed a pair of gold’s in the girl’s competition with freshman, Tara Bergman and junior, Riley Hanzlik winning the discus (112-08) and javelin (114-03), respectively.

While there were only three individual winners that won three events on the day there were five more that won two events each on the day's action, coming from Linn, Blue Valley-Randolph, Axtell, Hanover and B&B.

For the Bulldogs of Linn it was Kurt Van der merwe leading the way with a pair of wins in the 100 and 200 meter dashes behind times of 10.90 and 22.32. Kurt wasn't the only winner for Linn on the day as Chad Gross won the high jump (6-00) and the Linn boy’s 4x100 meter relay team won with a time of 45.09.

Blue Valley-Randolph senior, Bobby O'Neill took home a pair of gold's in the throwing competitions tossing his way to wins in both the shot put (47-07) and discus (139-07), to win the only individual events of the day for the Rams.

For the Axtell Eagles senior distance runner, Audrey Schmitz ends her career as league champ in the 1600 and 3200 meter runs, again. Schmitz cruised past her competition on the day winning the 1600 over 20 seconds (5:25.57) and crushing the competition in the 3200 by winning by nearly one minute and 18 seconds (11:57.98). Eagles also captured one other first place finish with the boy’s 4x800 meter relay team registering a time of 8:41.11 to win that competition.

The Hanover Wildcat relay teams in the 4x400 and 4x800 took home a pair of golds for the Wildcats after tallying winning times of 4:18.35 and 10:19.46. Wildcat senior, Courtney Jueneman added one more gold on the day for Hanover on the day by winning the 800 meter run behind a time of 2:25.49.

B&B Falcon, Haley Strathman continued to leap her way to wins on the field events registering more league titles under her belt for the senior. Strathman posted winning leaps in the triple jump (33-10) and high jump (5-04) to grab those league titles. Fellow, Falcon Laura Sudbeck also registered a win, taking home the shot put title with a toss of 39-09.

Washington County, Wetmore, Clifton-Clyde and Frankfort while they didn't have a multi-event winner on the day they did at least register one first place finish by one of their track stars.

The Washington County Tigers came away with three first place finishes two in the field events and the other on the track. Heidi Stegman and Jasmine Helms took home wins on the field, winning the pole vault (9-06) and the long jump (15-11.75), respectively. While the Tigers 4x100 meter relay registered a time of 51.87 to grab gold in that event.

Wetmore Cardinals were led by senior, Dana Kramer who took home a first place finishing the 100 meter hurdles behind the time of 16.04. While Frankfort registered only one first place finish also theirs coming at the hands of junior, Lucas Adams in the pole vault with a vault of (12-06).

Clifton-Clyde took home three first place finishes one in the girls competition and the other two in the boys. William Ohlde ran his way to the win in the 300 meter hurdles (39.77) for the Eagles, while the 4x400 meter relay also grabbed a win (3:35.36). On the girls side it was Elizabeth Nobert getting the gold medal for the Eagles with a win in the 300 meter hurdles (48.53).

With league in the books the Twin Valley League teams turn their attention to Regionals coming up next Friday as the area athletes look to compete for a right to go to state on May 24th and 25th in Wichita.