Sisely Mitchell embraced the unique opportunity.
Platte County sophomore Addie Ayers runs in the 800-meter race during Friday’s Suburban Conference White Division Championships at Pirate Stadium.
Preparing for potentially the final start of her career in an 800-meter race, Platte County’s senior record-setting star went with a plan to set the school record and accomplished the feat in impressive fashion. The Suburban Conference White Division Championships concluded on Friday evening with a handful of events — nearly 72 hours after lightning delays forced a halt to proceedings and an eventual postponement.
Mitchell ran two of her four events in Tuesday’s portion of the meet, and the 800 came in the part of Friday’s proceedings. She raced to an impressive margin of victory, finishing in 2:16.18. She twice ran in the 2:19s this season before breaking one of the oldest school records still on the books.
Elizabeth Robbins set the previous mark of 2:17.13 (2000), and Rebekah Geddes ranked second at 2:17.66 (2018) — both in individual state championship efforts.
“We kind of had this opportunity to run fresh,” Mitchell said. “We came here today, and I was already looking forward to today, just viewing it as an opportunity because I knew I’d be fresh. I really just prayed that if today was the day for me to do it that I’d do it. It happened, and I’m really thankful.”
Platte County junior Alexia Myer runs in a 4×800-meter race during a meet earlier this year at Pirate Stadium.
Mitchell led a strong group of middle- and long-distance runners who combined with the top-tier hurdling duo of senior Ava Filger and sophomore Adi Benninghoff and the diverse contributions of junior Addy Schlake and freshman Adi Kern to bring Platte County a third conference title in four years. The Pirates totaled 139 1/2 points to finish well in front of second-place Grain Valley (111) in the five-team standings.
Platte County’s 4×800 team of Mitchell, senior Carmen Gentilia and juniors Madison Palmer and Alexia Myer opened Tuesday’s on-track events with an easy run to a conference title in 10:30.18. Mitchell (5:30.53) and Gentilia (5:51.79) then took the top two spots in the 1,600 but were clearly attempting to save back energy for the 800 and 3,200.
However, those two races ended up pushed back to Friday.
In addition to Mitchell’s title, Gentilia (2:23.75) and sophomore Addie Ayers (2:27.15) set PRs to give Platte County a sweep of the top three spots in the 800. Mitchell went on to cruise to a fourth conference title in the 3,200 at 12:05.05 with Gentilia third at 12:30.98.
“Conference, you’re just trying to place to get points for the team,” Mitchell said. “So I think my second race was more trying to place than get first. Definitely not my fastest time, but it was good.”
Now the focus turns to the event lists for Mitchell and Gentilia.
Platte County senior Ava Filger (right) and sophomore Adi Benninghoff compete in a 100-meter hurdles race during a meet earlier this season.
Platte County’s 4×800 continues to chase the school record with five potential contributors including Myer, Ayers and Palmer, a starter on the Pirates’ soccer team in addition to running track. Myer continues to impress in her first year with the program after transferring into the district and providing an immediate impact. She won the White Division’s 400 title in 1:02.29 and just missed the season-best she recently set at 1:02.20.
In addition to a likely spot on the 4×800, Myer teamed with Filger, Palmer and freshman Maggie Davis to to win the 4×400 at 4:15.55 — a bit off this spring’s fastest time but against little competition. Raytown finished second more than 12 seconds behind.
Filger also continued an outstanding senior season while flipping positions with Benninghoff in the two hurdles races.
In the 100s, Benninghoff set a career-best of 15.56 to finish first with Filger second at 16.99. Filger than posted a 48.94 in Friday’s 300 race to finish in front of Benninghoff, the runnerup at 52.82.
Platte County captured the Suburban Conference White Division team championship Friday at Pirate Stadium.
Platte County’s 4×200 of Filger, Kern, sophomore Charley Sims and freshman Maggie Wagner finished second in the 4×200. That ended up the one of three-medal winning performances for Kern, who set a career-best of 12.94 to finish third in the 100 while coming second in the high jump (1.47). She won a tiebreaker to take the runnerup spot in that event.
Schlake came up short again of the school-record mark put up earlier this season in the discus but still placed second (35.86 meters) behind Belton senior Morgan Bandy. However, Schlake set a PR in the shot put to claim third in that event at 10.50 meters.
Platte County has now won the White Division crown in both years since moving up from the Blue Division. The Pirates won a championship in that tier in 2021, breaking a long drought that dated back to the KCI Conference in the early 1990s.
