All the area leagues feature great athletes around the area and one of those leagues that is always competitive between all the teams top to bottom is the Big Seven League and at the league track meet on Thursday that showed once again with top performances by many athletes.

For the fifth straight year in the girl’s competition it was the Holton Wildcats coming out victorious and league champs, this year first place came only by a slim margin of 1.5 points over Sabetha. In the boy’s competition it was Royal Valley pushing ahead and grabbing the team win by 32 points, but Perry Lecompton and Holton followed both with 100-plus points to tie for second.

While, Holton and Sabetha finished first and second in the girls competition with 117 and 115.5 points, Nemaha Valley the host school took home a third place finish with 89 points. The remaining five teams finished with Perry Lecompton taking fourth (67.5), Hiawatha grabbing fifth (63), Royal Valley placing sixth (62), Jeff West finishing seventh (53) and Santa Fe Trail taking home eighth (38).

Royal Valley put distance between them and the rest for first in the boy’s competition with 137 points, while Holton and Perry Lecompton posted 105 points to tie for second. Hiawatha grabbed fourth place with nearly 100 points (97.5), Nemaha Valley took home fifth (69), Jeff West came in sixth (42.5), Sabetha tallied a seventh place finish (34) and Santa Fe Trail took home eighth (21).

Individual first place finishes were quite spread out between competitors with only seven athletes or relay teams winning two gold medals each. Those performances came at the hands of athletes from Sabetha, Hiawatha and Holton with the Redhawks and Wildcats each having three multi-gold winners.

For the Wildcats it was Connor Strader and Brylee New leading the way in the girl’s competition and league title win as they both ran to a pair of gold’s each. Strader took home wins in the 400 and 800 meter runs, registering times of 1:00.21 and 2:18.52, respectively. While New sprinted her way to wins in the 100 and 200 meter dash, dashing to times of 12.99 and 26.96, respectively. Wildcats two gold performances didn’t stop in the girl’s competition as Jaxon Wright continued his dominance in the hurdles this season sweeping the 110 and 300 meter hurdles with times of 14.84 and 41.92.

Holton on top of those six first place performances took home three more with two wins in the relay competitions and a win by Cameron Karn in the triple jump. Holton boys 4x100 relay team took home the gold with a time of 43.83, while the lady Wildcats placed first in the 4x400 behind a time of 4:14.68. Karn leapt his way to a win in the triple jump with a leap of 41-02.50.

The Redhawks took home fourth and fifth in the girls and boys team tally’s but had three individuals win multiple events on the day. Leading the way was a pair of young lady Redhawks freshman, Emily Gartner and sophomore, Jordan Puvogel who both continued to win events this track season. For Gartner she took to the field events and tossed her way to league titles in the discus (123-03) and shot put (39-02.50). Puvogel continued to dominate the distance runs winning both the 1600 (5:15.68) and 3200 meter (12:39.52) runs, by 1600 by over 30 seconds and the 3200 by over 10 seconds. Senior, Denzel Chilcoat joined the girls with multiple gold’s as he continued to sprint to wins in the 100 and 200 meter dash events, registering winning times of 10.86 and 22.65, respectively.

Hiawatha’s first place finishes didn’t stop there as Josh Hinkle grabbed one more first for the Redhawks by winning the shot put (50-00.50).

Sabetha was the only other Big Seven schools to have a multi-event winner and that was the lady Bluejays relay teams as they won two of the three relays on the day. Bluejays flew to wins in the 4x100 and 4x800 meter relays with times of 51.98 and 10:27.78, respectively. Lady Bluejays took home two more first place finishes with Megan Garrett (5-00) and Heidi Heiniger winning the high jump and javelin throw (130-07.50).

The Royal Valley Panthers took home the second most first place finishes on the day with eight gold’s. Six of the eight first place finishes came by the boys’ team on their way to team first place finish. Three of the six came in the field and the other three on the track. Michael Bailey, Wemiko Lewis and Gary Smith won their gold’s on the field in the events of pole vault (11-06), discus (146-09) and javelin (164-00). On the track the Panthers 4x800 meter relay team won (8:28.08) and Thomas Broxterman and Tanner Ogden registered wins in the 800 meter run (2:02.49) and 3200 meter run (10:27.34).

The lady Panthers took home a pair of gold medal performances at that hands of Elizabeth Blevins and Mara Winter both winning field events. Blevins took home the win in the long jump (16-01) and Winter leapt to a win in the triple jump (34-05).

Perry Lecompton, Jeff West and Santa Fe Trail each registered at least one win on the day at the League meet.

The Kaws were led by a sweep in the girl’s hurdles competition as Jordan Erickson took home the gold in the 100 meter hurdles (16.77) and Emma Taylor won the 300 meter hurdles title (49.74). In the boys competition Perry Lecompton took home three first place finishes winning the 4x400 meter relay (3:27.74), long jump and 400 meter run. Will Hinrichsen leapt to the win in the long jump (19-07.50), while Colin Coleman won the 400 meter run (50.87).

Jeff West Tigers captured a pair of gold medals with a win by Kendal Holloman in the pole vault (9-03) and a win by Sean McMahon in the high jump (5-11).

Dawson Colglazier for Santa Fe Trail captured the lone gold medal performance for the Chargers as he took home the win in the 1600 meter run (4:41.58).

With all the top performances at the Big Seven League, all the Big Seven track athletes now turn their attention to Regionals coming up next Friday.