Platte County’s 2nd conference championship in 3 years continues unique lineage

In what ultimately evolved into a predictable two-team race, Platte County continued a run of recent success and added a little nuance to a unique history of conference titles. The Pirates ended up with 139 1/2 points Wednesday in the Suburban Conference White Division Championships to top runnerup Grain Valley by 17.

This marks the second conference title in three years for Platte County but the first in the White Division. In 2021, the Pirates were Blue Division champions.

That came nearly 30 years after a much-smaller Platte County won the KCI Conference championship in 1992. The Pirates have sense moved to the Midland Empire Conference and now two different tiers of the Suburban Conference.

To hold off Grain Valley, Platte County needed a record-setting day from senior Reese Pickett, all hands on deck in the long-distance races, a busy day for senior Hannah Mand, strong showings from seniors TK Lawson and Joslyn Hupp plus sophomore Addy Schlake in the throws and the continued progression of hurdling duo junior Ava Filger and freshman Adi Benninghoff — and everything in between.

Most notably, Pickett finally erased one of the oldest school records on the book in Platte County on a day that included two conference titles and a runnerup finish. A breakout star as a debuting sophomore in wake of the 2020 COVID canceled season, she only started competing in triple jump as a junior.

Pickett quickly thrived and recorded a distance of 10.88 meters in the 2022 season-opener — a mark that held up as a PR all the way until a few weeks ago when she went 10.90 at the KU Relays. She remained just 1 centimeter of Chandrika Brewton’s school record mark of 10.91 set in 2008.

At conference, Pickett finally broke that with an effort of 10.92 on the second of her four attempts before popping off an 11.23 on her final jump to become the first in Platte County history to go over 11 meters. Grain Valley’s Izabella West sat in first at 11.06 until Pickett’s final time down the runway.

Pickett went on to win the high jump at 1.55 meters despite some early struggles. She missed twice at 1.45 meters and once at 1.50 meters but cleared 1.55 on her first try. That allowed her to win the tiebreaker over Grain Valley’s Izzie Salsman, whose first miss came at 1.55 before both failed to clear 1.60 on their three tries.

Schlake added critical points with a third-place finish for Platte County in high jump at 1.45 meters.

Pickett just missed the jump sweep, placing second in the long jump at 4.99 meters. Belton’s Sayzjah Hudson took the title at 5.06 meters with Pickett well off of her PR mark of 5.25 from earlier this season. This marked the first time all season she didn’t go at least 5 meters. However, the Pirates again separated from Grain Valley in the event with sophomore Payton Stadel third at 4.88 meters, just off her career-best of 4.98 meters.

While Pickett won two conference titles, Platte County junior Sisely Mitchell came up with four in impressive long-distance display. She entered with limited races due to lingering hip pain that scratched her from much of the early season.

However, Mitchell ran three individual races and four total for the first time since last year’s conference meet and placed first in the 800 (2:28.52), 1,600 (5:26.81) and 3,200 (12:19.01). All three were season-bests, although this marked her first competitive 3,200 since the Class 5 Missouri State Track and Field Championships last spring.

Mitchell opened the meet on Platte County’s 4×800 team that also included junior Carmen Gentilia, sophomore Madison Palmer and freshman Addie Ayers to first in a season-best 10:17.77. The other three members of the quartet plus freshman Joanna Reil also contributed in individual races to better matchup entrants with Grain Valley with Gentilia second to Mitchell in the 1,600 (5:41.86) and third in the 3,200 (12:33.40). Both were PRs as she continues to transition from splitting time with soccer to full-time in track.

Platte County also won the 4×100 (Mand, sophomore Haley Barlow and freshmen Charley Sims and Rylee Carr) and came in second to Grain Valley in the 4×400 (Filger, Sims, Palmer and sophomore Maggie McBratney). The Pirates’ 4×200 finished third but did not include Mand, who picked up additional individual events key to the title-winning effort. She placed second in the 100 at 13.05, edging Belton’s Louis Juitt by .01 of a second for that spot, and fourth in the 200 (27.25) and fifth in the 400 (1:04.98).

The 100 and 400 were career-best times, and three of her five individual races this season came in the conference meet.

In addition to the 4×400, Filger also claimed a conference title in the 300 hurdles (49.29) and added a runnerup finish in the 100 hurdles (16.55), coming in just behind Benninghoff, a recent breakout performer in the event for Platte County. Filger broke 50 seconds for the first time in the 300s and just managed to hold off Grain Valley’s West (49.32) at the line after earlier obliterating her previous PR in the 100s. Prior to Wednesday, she had not gone below 17 seconds in her career with her previous low time at 17.02 earlier this season.

Benninghoff set a PR in the 100s at 16.50 having shaved well over a second off of her time in the past month after going to a three-step approach on the hurdles. In fact, she ran 20.21 in her first varsity meet but dropped that all the way to 16.83 in a freshman meet before going to 16.93 in the Liberty North Invitational — the Pirates’ last meet prior to conference.

In the 100s, Platte County scored big points with Benninghoff and Filger in the top two spots, and freshman Heaven Jale running a career-best 17.73 to finish fourth. Pirates junior Mia Delfin added a fourth-place showing in the 300 hurdles — just her third varsity race of the season.

Platte County’s 4×100 (50.87) and 4×400 (4:21.87) both set season-bests as the lineups take shape ahead of this weekend’s Class 5 District 8 meet where only the top-four finishers advance to sectionals. Notably, the 4×100 suddenly sits just 0.21 of a second off the school record the Pirates set in the 2021 Class 4 Sectional 4 meet with Mand the last remaining member of that quartet.

Each of the past two years, Platte County has competed in Class 5, the largest in Missouri, to up the difficulty of both sectional and state qualification. Pickett has been to state across each of her three individual events — the Class 5 triple jump in 2022 and the Class 4 high jump and long jump in 2021 — while Mitchell went to state in the 4×800 as a sophomore and the 1,600 and 3,200 in Class 5 as a junior.

Mand ran on the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400 relays at Class 5 Sectional 4 last season and went to state in the second of those events. Stadel was on last year’s 4×100 at sectionals, as well.

Platte County hopes to add some throwers to the sectional qualifying list. Schlake posted a breakthrough performance in the discus Wednesday with a career-best 34.93-meter throw on her third of four attempts to fly past her previous best mark of 33.46 at the Winnetonka Invitational in mid-April. Hupp placed fourth (28.68 meters).

In the shot put, Lawson placed fourth at 10.40 meters, losing out won a tiebreaker of second-best distance to William Chrisman’s Ma’elelei Fau. On the final attempt, Lawson tied Fau at that distance, but Fau’s only other non-foul throw went 10.25. Lawson’s second-best mark was 10.16.

Hupp wound up fifth in the shot put with a season-best of 10.29 meters.