Good evening.

Welcome to City Hall and the regular meeting of the Olatha City Council for Tuesday, January 21st, 2025.

The first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance.

Would you please stand with me for the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

This award recognizes the hard work, dedication, and passion it takes to become a champion.

So would Olatha Public Schools Director of Athletics and Activities, Matt Johnson, please join me.

If you guys stand up here in the middle of the day, we have a lot of the same thing.

Uh let's celebrate the amazing Olatha North gymnastics team for winning their four straight state championship.

Not only did they break the state and school record for the team scorer, but their individual performances were incredible.

And if you could step forward when I say your name, Greer Moyer uh placed second all around, fifth on vault, fifth on bars, second on beam, and third on floor.

Ariana Easter placed fifth all around, sixth on vault, third on beam, and sixth on floor.

Olivia Noteboom placed fourth on beam.

Macy Ray placed sixth on beam, and Layla Hefferland placed fourth on bars.

Congratulations on making history at Olatha North.

Congratulations, ladies.

And with that, is my honor to hand uh the baton over to Patrick Butler, AD at Olatha West.

Good evening.

My name is Pat Butler.

I'm the athletic director at Olatha West, and on behalf of Olatha West and our principal Jay Novichek, I'm uh excited to recognize some state champions from uh Olatha West.

First, we're gonna start with Braxton Theo.

I'm gonna have our head cross-country coach Kelsey Carbajo come up.

Um Braxton is actually on his way back from a college visit in Colorado, so he couldn't make it this evening, but we want to recognize Braxton, who became the first ever state champion in cross-country at Olatha West and was awarded the prestigious Bob Timmons award given to the fastest runner at the state meet.

Braxton's journey is a testament to hard work and determination, starting as a C team runner, his freshman year and rising to become one of the top runners in Kansas.

This season he placed in the top five in every race he competed in.

While Braxton's unable to join us tonight due to his college opportunity, we are super proud of him and his accomplishments.

So congratulations to Braxton, individual state champion in cross-country.

Okay, I'd now like to welcome our girls' cross-country team.

So girls come on up.

The Olatha West girls' cross-country team achieved a remarkable achievement in November, winning their fifth consecutive state championship at Rim Rock Farm.

The Owls had three runners finish in the top 20, and the race ended in a dramatic tie with Washburn Rural.

The championship came down to the sixth runner.

And thanks to her finish ahead of their sixth runner, the Owls were crowned with their fifth state championship.

And as our principal Jay Novichek likes to say, winners win.

We look forward to watching these girls compete for another state championship this spring in track.

Please welcome these ladies.

Lily Brewer, Liz Browning, Addison Burton, Laney Clements, Audra Gonzalez, Brooklyn White, Jasmine Steed, McKenna Taldo, Caitlin Walcott, Gillian Novachek, Haley Montgomery, and Reagan Seba.

Head coach Kelsey Carbajo and her assistants, Macy Carbajo, Todd Clam, and Kayla Barnes.

Congratulations to the five-time state championship owls.

And I'd like to now introduce Steve Page, the athletic director at Olatha Northwest.

Thank you, Pat.

On behalf of myself, Chris Zook, principal of Latha Northwest, uh, I'd like to uh just thank everyone for coming out and being able to recognize these athletes.

If I could have go ahead and have uh Sophia come on up uh with our gymnastics uh and then our tennis team, go ahead and come on up as well.

We're gonna have everybody up and we'll we'll talk as we go.

Megan.

Uh our gymnastics team.

Uh first of all, I'm gonna recognize young lady who is not here tonight.

She was uh she's a multi-sport athlete and she was wrestling, and uh, I believe this weekend she hurt herself uh a little bit.

I think she sh we don't know if she broke a rib or not, but anyway, uh Emmy Keller, who was the previous two-time state champion uh all around in gymnastics, and this year was the uh tied uh for first place in the floor exercise, and she wasn't able to be here.

Um so we want to recognize her.

Uh we want to recognize Sophia Beaumont.

Sophia uh came out for us uh this year uh and had what I would say is a pretty good year.

She was she won all of the meets this year except for one.

I think she was runner up in one meet at the state meet.

She was the she was first place in uh there are four different exercises in gymnastics.

She was first place in all four, uh tied in the floor.

She won Vault, she won Beam, she won bars, and she is the state all-around gymnastic champion and want to recognize and congratulate Sophia Beaumont.

The second uh group we want to recognize are our uh Lady Raven tennis team.

Uh we've had a good uh three-year run with this group of students, but this year was special.

The 2024 Lady Ravens tennis team won every accolade possible.