It was business as usual last week for the Kentwood High girls track team.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Conquerors, which entered the season as the favorite to win the South Puget Sound League North Division title, once again lived up to the promise last Wednesday afternoon as they put away Kent-Meridian 100-50.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The victory helped Kentwood wrap up its second consecutive North Division crown. It also is Kentwood\u2019s second straight perfect run through league competition.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Yet, this year\u2019s title had a distinctively different feel to it than last season. A year ago, the Conquerors were busy putting the final touches on the program\u2019s first ever North crown. This one was more of a formality for the girls in silver, green, and black.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we made a really big deal about the league title because it was the first in school history,\u201d said coach Steve Roche. \u201cThis year, we knew we had a lot of talent coming in, and coming back. Because we had won and were defending (the title), it made sense to look at us as the favorites. Not that it\u2019s not a big deal, but this year our aspirations are bigger.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of three steps.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Those next two steps begin this week, when the Conquerors and the rest of the teams in the SPSL North begin postseason competition. The sub-district meet began Wednesday at French Field and will conclude Friday, May 13. Just like the league race, the Conquerors will be viewed as favorites in the sub-district and district meet before heading to state on March 27 at Mount Tahoma High, where Kentwood will be considered a strong title contender.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kentwood took sixth at state last spring, which was the best finish in school history. More will be expected of the Conks this time around.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201c(State) is what we\u2019ve been looking at since last fall,\u201d Roche said. \u201cIt has been on the top of everyone\u2019s minds. You see the talent coming and coming back, and you think (this) team should be a contender.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I ask is that all of my kids give their best efforts every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
That certainly was the case against the Royals last week.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Conquerors brought home first-place finishes in 14 of the 18 events.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sprinter Holly DeHart continued to lead the Conquerors, grabbing victories in the 100 (12.66), the 200 (25.03), the long jump (17-01) and running a leg on the winning 4 x 200 relay team (1:45.77), which also included Mykala Benjamin, Mariah Lee and Madelayne Varela.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kentwood freshman Sarah Toeaina also snared a three-win day, collecting victories in the 100 hurdles (16.25), the 300 hurdles (48.04) and the triple jump (35-01). Meanwhile, older sister Alyx Toeaina, a junior, continued to dominate the throwing events, bringing home gold in the shot put ((37-11) and the discus (125-03).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kent-Meridian earned four first-place finishes at the meet, and was led by Alexia Martin, who took home the top spot in the 800 (2:25.18) and 1,600 (5:19.18).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The league title helped Kentwood continue its winning trend. The Conquerors also have won the Pasco Invitational and the Oregon Relays this spring. As such, a big celebration wasn\u2019t necessary after securing another league crown.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIts great. It\u2019s phenomenal,\u201d Roche said. \u201cBut the best is yet to come.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was business as usual last week for the Kentwood High girls track team.<\/p>\n
The Conquerors, which entered the season as the favorite to win the South Puget Sound League North Division title, once again lived up to the promise last Wednesday afternoon as they put away Kent-Meridian 100-50.<\/p>\n
The victory helped Kentwood wrap up its second consecutive North Division crown. It also is Kentwood\u2019s second straight perfect run through league competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}