Track team hosts Jaguar Invitational

The Jaguar Invitational track meet was held at Mill Valley High School on Friday, April 5. The boys team placed third overall with 108 team points, and the girls team placed first overall with 155 team points. Individual results can be found below. Head coach Chris Dunback feels that the meet was important in that it highlighted what areas and events the team still needs to work on.

“BLAH DEE BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH,” Dunback said. “BLAH DEE BLAH BLAH DEE DEE BLAH.”

Using the results from the meet, Dunback says that he will do something or other.

INSERT ANOTHER QUOTE FROM COACH DUNBACK HERE OKAY OKAY I’M DONE GOODBYE.

Sophomore hurdler Cody Deas said something else about the meet.

INSERT QUOTE HERE, Ford said. INSERT QUOTE HERE.

PUT IN ANOTHER LEAD OF SOME SORT FROM senior pole vaulter Emily Brigham.

AND THEN ANOTHER QUOTE. JUST FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES.

The varsity track team will compete at the Ottawa Invitational, which will be held at Ottawa High School on Monday, April 8. The events will begin at 3:30 p.m.

The team and individual results of the meet are as follows:

Boys – Team Standings:

De Soto High School – first place – 122 points

Ottawa High School – second place – 113 points

Mill Valley High School – third place – 108 points

Girls – Team Standings:

Mill Valley High School – first place – 155 points

Winnetonka High School – second place – 123 points

Lansing High School – third place – 97 points

Boys 100 Meter Dash:

Senior Kendall Short – fourth place

Senior Staton Rebeck – seventh place

Senior Logan Zavodny - eighth place

Boys 200 Meter Dash:

Senior Keenan Ford – seventh place

Boys 400 Meter Dash:

Ford – fifth place

Senior John Poorman – seventh place

Boys 800 Meter Run:

Sophomore Drew Nelson – second place

Boys 1600 Meter Run:

Junior CJ Meeks – third place

Freshman Derek Meeks – fourth place

Sophomore Kurt Loevenstein – fifth place

Junior Graham Wilson – sixth place

Boys 3200 Meter Run:

Senior Stephen McEnery – sixth place

Freshman Hunter Brown – eighth place

Boys 110 Meter Hurdles:

Sophomore Cody Deas – first place

Junior Tyler Hinnen – sixth place

Boys 300 Meter Hurdles:

Deas – second place

Freshman Christian Jegen – third place

Boys 4×100 Meter Relay:

Mill Valley – Zavodny, Short, sophomore Kyal Long and Rebeck – third place

Boys 4×400 Meter Relay:

Mill Valley – CJ, sophomore Teddy Gillespie, Loevenstein and Ford – third place

Boys 4×800 Meter Relay:

Mill Valley – Gillespie, Nelson, freshman Zac Korris and Brown – second place

Boys High Jump:

Poorman – eighth place

Boys Pole Vault:

Sophomore Colton Bray – third place

Senior Connor Hays – fourth place

Freshman Cooper Hutteger – eighth place

Boys Long Jump:

Hays – fifth place

Boys Triple Jump:

Junior JC Miller - seventh place

Freshman Michael Estell – eighth place

Boys Shot Put:

Senior Coleman McCann – fifth place

Boys Discus Throw:

McCann – fourth place

Boys Javelin Throw:

Junior Ben Carroll – second place

Junior Grant Reiner – third place

Junior Adam Willoughby – fifth place

Junior Jason Gramke – sixth place

Girls 100 Meter Dash:

Sophomore Dominique Hernandez – fifth place

Girls 200 Meter Dash:

Hernandez – sixth place

Senior McKenzie Schmitt – seventh place

Girls 400 Meter Dash:

Freshman Ellie Wilson – third place

Schmitt – fourth place

Senior Bailey Dollard – sixth place

Girls 800 Meter Run:

Freshman Ally Henderson – seventh place

Girls 1600 Meter Run:

Junior Maria Kalma – sixth place

Girls 3200 Meter Run:

Kalma – sixth place

Girls 100 Meter Hurdles:

Junior Mary Altman – first place

Senior Kathy Nguyen – third place

Sophomore Holly Webb - fourth place

Girls 300 Meter Hurdles:

Nguyen – second place

Sophomore Lauren Mansfield – fifth place

Webb – sixth place

Girls 4×100 Meter Relay:

Mill Valley - sophomore Whitney Hazlett, Webb, Altman and Schmitt – fourth place

Girls 4×400 Meter Relay:

Mill Valley – sophomore Emma Hansen, Schmitt, Dollard and Wilson – third place

Girls 4×800 Meter Relay:

Mill Valley – sophomore Devin Ristau, junior Holly Peterman, senior Josie Hanson and Wilson – first place

Girls High Jump:

Sophomore Ally Shawger – first place

Freshman Katie Burke – sixth place

Girls Pole Vault:

Senior Emily Brigham – first place

Altman – second place

Freshman Taylor Corbitt – fifth place

Mansfield - seventh place

Girls Long Jump:

Brigham – first place

Altman – fourth place

Junior Jordan Townsend – eighth place

Girls Triple Jump:

Estell – first place

Nguyen – third place

Webb – fifth place

Hazlett – seventh place

Girls Shot Put:

Senior Joylyn Kennedy – sixth place

Girls Discus Throw:

Junior Hannah Krull – fourth place

Sophomore Madison Holland – fifth place

Junior Kellyne Weathers - sixth place

Girls Javelin Throw:

Junior Emily Rice – second place

Kennedy – third place

Senior Mallory Baska – fourth place

Junior Mary McDaneld – eighth place

Blog: JagWire covers

Austin speaking:

Last year, many of JagWire‘s covers were illustrations done by our beast of an artist, 2012 graduate Adam Henderson. While he always did an awesome job and is beyond talented, us three editors decided we preferred having photo illustrations on our covers. A photo illustration is essentially a posed or manipulated photo and its goal is to tell a story in that one frame. People often tell you not to judge a book by its cover, but whoever said not to judge a newspaper by its cover? Obviously a captivating cover is what gets people to read our paper, so it’s crucial that we come up with something awesome. The cover photo illustrations always correlate with our double page spread and have all been taken by Kristina this year, who has done a great job. One exception was our issue three cover, which was a dream catcher painting done by our artist, Riley McDonald. The photo illustrations we’ve done this year are a bit hard to describe in a short amount of words, but if you check out our Issuu profile you can look at digital versions of each of our papers.

Kristina speaking:

Similar to what Austin said, we’ve started doing photo illustrations for our covers instead of the usual cartoons we did last year. In my opinion, photo illustrations have a more modern feel and convey a stronger, more realistic message. The illustrations are also really fun to pose. We usually take about a full class period to model and pose our illustrations, often trying out a few different techniques such as adjusting the light. We debate the different photos and pick the best photo illustration that accurately represents our double page topic.

Hanna speaking:

Well, Hanna should be speaking, but she’s been home sick. Hanna, if you’re reading this, you best be rested and feeling better by Monday’s long worknight.

Candidates prepare for presidential election

As the 2012 presidential election draws closer, candidates for the position have begun refining their platforms in order to gain the needed votes.

President Barack Obama will be running for the Democratic party and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will be running for the Republican party.

Various ABC News reports say that Obama plans on continuing work started in his first term, improving the immigration policy and returning all troops home from Afghanistan. He also wishes to lower rates on student loans, a plan Romney agrees with.

According to his website, Romney plans to “rebuild foundations of the American economy on the principles of free enterprise, hard work and innovation…increase trade, energy production, human capital and labor flexibility” if elected. Additionally, he plans to spend less than 20 percent of the gross domestic product, repeal Obamacare to save $95 billion and decrease the amount of money for foreign aid to save $100 million.

Coinciding with these financial ideas, junior Cole Clay is most concerned about the candidates’ fiscal policies.

“It will matter what they do about the debt more than anything else,” Clay said.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Romney has spent $5 million on his campaign, while Obama has spent $20 million on his.

Romney was previously running against Republican Newt Gingrich, who recently called off his campaign to support Romney, knowing he would receive the nomination.

“I think you have to at some point be honest with what’s happening in the real world, as opposed to what you’d like to have happened,” Gingrich said in an article in the New York Times.

In mid-April, Republican Rick Santorum announced that he would no longer be running for office. According to McClatchy Newspapers, he did so knowing there was the possibility of losing the primary for his home state of Pennsylvania he had represented in Congress for 16 years. However, Santorum remains firm in his resolve to bring down Obama’s plans.

“This game is a long, long, long way from over,” Santorum said in McClatchy Newspapers when he announced the end of his campaign. “We are going to continue to…make sure that we defeat President Barack Obama.”

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is currently running for the Republicans as well. Paul hopes to lower U.S. spending by $1 trillion in his first year, get rid of the Transportation Security Administration, repeal Obamacare and make various tax cuts, according to his website. In his campaign speeches, he has promised to be a strict constitutionalist.

“I have personal beliefs,” Paul said in the New York Times. “I believe that individuals should have the right to their life, the right to their liberty and also the right to keep what they earn. Fortunately for me, the Constitution and my personal beliefs come together. Because the oath of office doesn’t say, ‘Well, I’m going to Washington and I’m going to fulfill my personal beliefs.’ It says that we go to office and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

However, when compared to Romney, Paul has had little success in winning votes.

Behavior that some might characterize as mudslinging has also begun between the candidates and their supporters. One such incident occurred when supporters of Obama stated beliefs that Romney would not have made the same decision as Obama to kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, which was met with frustration by Romney.

“It’s totally inappropriate for the president to express to the American people the view that he has that he had an important role in taking out Osama bin Laden,” Romney said in an article in the Los Angeles Times. “I think politicizing it and trying to draw distinction between himself and myself was an innappropriate use of the very important event that brought America together…had I been President I would have made the same decision.”

The candidates can only hope that comments such as these do not cost them supporters. All they can do is continue spreading their message and wait until November finally arrives and the next President is elected.

Blog: Week 34: The end

This is the last week of newspaper, and therefore the last week that we will be editors-in-chief. We decided to dedicate our last blog to saying goodbye and reminiscing on memories from the year.

Sarah speaking:

Throughout this year, there have been a couple of times where I have either had to write or talk about the impact being on the newspaper staff has had on my life. On each of those occasions, I thought about how impossible a task  it is to describe everything that has come to be important to me in high school in merely a page or two. I first joined the newspaper staff because I liked to write. It was pretty simple. However, when I reflect back on my journalism experiences now, I can pinpoint specific moments when my journalism involvement altered some aspect of my life. I first felt myself gain independence when I went to Washington D.C. my sophomore year and I first did something truly spontaneous (at least for me) when I jumped in a fountain in the middle of the night with my staff at the first journalism camp I went to. There were other moments, too, when I felt myself age years when articles I or my staff members wrote prompted unexpected reaction. Most importantly, journalism made me recognize the good in people. Often times journalists see people in their most honest moments simply because they ask the questions no one else ever bothered to. I saw that kind of authenticity interviewing sources and I saw it too in the staff members who had never found a place they belonged before journalism.

Clearly I am biased, but I have long since decided that journalists are the best kind of people because they really care about others. Each and every one of the people on the journalism staff has made an impact on my life. I loved raving with a&e editor Austin Gillespie and web editor Kaitlin Rounds, saying awkward things to managing editor Sarah Fulton, driving around in the middle of nowhere with photographer Kelsey Floyd and yelling at and often laughing with the man cave row in class, to name a few memories. And to top off such an amazing staff, I couldn’t have asked for a better co-editor in Jill. Jill is such a strong, caring and talented person and she helped me become a stronger person this year. I don’t think any of you could ever imagine the joy you bring to my life. The tears will be rollin’ next week at our end of the year banquet! Thank you for the time of my life.

Jill speaking:

This has by far been the best year of high school that I have had in all of the four years I have been here, and if I could pin that on any one reason, it would be newspaper and being an editor-in-chief. It has been so great to manage a publication of so many passionate students and I enjoy being able to say that at one point, I was able to be a leader on this incredibly successful paper. I love Sarah, and there is no one I would have rather done this with than her. I am proud of the strides this paper has taken, and I am so proud of all of her success this year. I will never forget the ridiculous worknight conversations the staff had, the stressful situations we got ourselves into and being able to spend time with 30 awesome people for hours every week. Some of my favorite memories include making fun of Sarah with Austin Gillespie, or rapping to “The Show Goes On” with Jack Lopez. Teasing Austin “Gudez” Gude and Adam Henderson was always a joy and I loved getting to teach people about design and watching new designers make things they can be proud of. I would like to thank everyone on newspaper for making this a fantastic year, and I can’t wait to see all of the amazing things the returning members do next year.

Seeing as it’s the end of the year, our time learning lessons as editors-in-chief are over. However, just for old time’s sake:

Lesson 34 of being an editor-in-chief: Check.

Journalism staffs place in JEMKC awards

Journalism staffs attended the 2012 Journalism Educators of Metropolitan Kansas City awards ceremony at Johnson County Community College on Wednesday, April 25.

The awards are as follows:

The JagWire website, second place

The Jag yearbook, second place

Senior Sarah Darby, Opal Heatherly Writing Award for Seniors Scholarship and Michael Dunlap Excellence in Journalism Scholarship

Sophomore Jack Lopez, second place in Newspaper Critical Review

Senior Sarah Fulton, second place in Newspaper Editorial

Senior Jill Applegate, honorable mention in Newspaper Single-Page Design

Applegate and senior Adam Henderson, first place in Newspaper Infographic

Junior Hanna Torline, honorable mention in Newspaper Sports Story

Junior Miranda Snyder, honorable mention in Newspaper Sports Action

Junior Kelsey Floyd, first place in Newspaper News Photography

Snyder and senior Sarah Gonzales, third place in Newspaper Multimedia Online

Junior Ellen Bodine, honorable mention in Yearbook Clubs Design

Senior Allie Love, honorable mention in Yearbook Portrait Copy

Senior Carly Granato, third place in Yearbook Student Life design

Seniors Rachel Mills and Katherine Beck, first place in Yearbook Theme Presentation

Senior Lauren Shurley, honorable mention in Yearbook Overall Coverage in a Single Spread

Bodine, second place in Yearbook Sports Design

Mills, honorable mention in Headline Package Presentation

Granato, second place in Yearbook Activities Photography

Senior Austin Becker, second place in Yearbook Sports Reaction

The JagWire website and newspaper were also named All-Kansas by the Kansas Scholastic Press Association. The newspaper was one of six 5A papers in the state to be recognized and the website was one of two in the state to earn the honor. A total of 48 schools submitted publications and 22 earned the honor.

“We’ve had a strong showing at every competition we’ve been at this year. We have a lot of talented journalists and a lot of students who are passionate about journalism,” Darby said. “I’m so proud all of our hard work has paid off.”

Alien

Sleeping dog

I drew this picture using multiple pictures as a reference and combining them all to form one complete drawing. I was inspired by the fall season and nature. I really enjoyed creating this drawing, and I would say it took me about six to seven hours total.

Scarecrow

I was inspired by the fall season and felt like creating a painting that had something to do with autumn. I did it all in Photoshop. It took me like 10 hours to make. As always, I enjoyed making it.

Big lizard monster

I drew this in PhotoShop with a tablet. I just wanted to draw a monster and I turned it into a man-hunting monster situation. It took a long time to draw, probably around ten hours total. It was really fun to draw.

Staff editorial: High school comes with “don’t” list

The JagWire staff brainstormed an “anti-bucket list” of things you shouldn’t do in high school to compliment our high school bucket list on the center spread. Here are a few of the highlights.

1.”Don’t sweat the little things.”–editor-in-chief Sarah Darby

There are so many opportunities in high school and some students often forget that. Even though grades are important, each individual grade will not singly define your future. If you bomb one test or quiz, don’t stress yourself out too much over it. You will have an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and improve on the next test. Same goes for social events. Not getting invited to go out one time does not mean everyone hates you. There’s a lot going on in high school and occasionally someone will be forgotten. It’s not always meant as an attack.

2.”That special person’s tongue will still be there later, so save it until after school, and not by my locker.”—news editor Josh Duden

There was an overall consent on our staff that no one enjoys watching couples’ public displays of affection. While making out in the locker bank is probably the act that bothers onlookers the most, other acts also provide road blocks in the hallway. There’s no reason to just stand and gaze into your significant other’s eyes for the entire seven minutes you are given to get to class. Becoming so attached to someone in high school that you need their constant physical contact will only set you up for disappointment.

3.”Don’t think everything you do will disappear in a few years—it won’t.”—sports editor Hanna Torline

Even though it’s said over and over, avoid making choices that could haunt you in the future. There’s no need to advertise your choices on the Internet. You never know what will come up again later. Basically everything is permanent. Be conscious of how you present yourself to both your peers and teachers.

4.”Don’t do inappropriate/weird things in the bathroom.”—reporter Sydney Wilson

Keep any excrements from your body in the toilet. On that note, toilets are only for excrements from your body. There’s no reason to find random articles of clothing in the stalls. If for some reason you no longer need your pants, at least throw them away. Don’t just toss them in the toilet for the next unfortunate bathroom-goer to deal with. Also, once in the bathroom, avoid interactions in general while you are in the stall. This is not the time to catch up with teachers if you see them. Save that for the hallways.

5.”Don’t freak out about the future. Things will fall into place.”—features editor Kristina Milewski

There’s no need to not enjoy your life because you’re constantly thinking about a year or so into the future. Part of enjoying high school is experiencing things that are only available to you as a teenager. On the other side, part of not stressing about your future too much involves having a plan. Set a plan for college or whatever else you plan to do after high school, and follow it. It doesn’t have to be a strict plan, just something to keep you on track.

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