By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

PHILLIPSBURG -- The Mid-Continent League track and field meet was finished and the Phillipsburg High school premises were nearly empty when Osborne head coach Kenny Ubelaker asked his Bulldog squads to come back down to the track.

After he complemented both teams, he had the athletes form two groups so parents could take photographs.

The Osborne girls lined up in several rows near the start/finish line with senior sprinter Demi French right in the middle ¬­-- a fitting end to a terrific Friday.

French's strong all-around performance paced Osborne to the title on the girls' side of the MCL meet. Osborne, the defending MCL and Class 2A state champions, finished with 122 points, 20 more than runner-up Norton. The Bulldog boys finished third.

"It was a good day for us and our goal was to be in the top three," Ubelaker said. "We thought we might have an outside chance in the girls' part of it. ...We are tickled to death with the win.

"We finally kind of seemed like what we were capable of doing," he added. "It was a nice time to do it with regionals coming up next week."

On a day filled with several record-breaking performances by Norton junior thrower Hayli Bozarth, Osborne, paced by French, jumper Sarah Waugh and Emily Girard, led the way in the team standings with multiple-season best performances.

French finished second in the 100 and 200 meters to Ellis' Whitney Taylor and won the 400 meters.

"I though that Demi ran more like the old Demi today," Ubelaker said. "Of course, it is the first day that it has been warm the whole season and that has made a lot of difference, so that brought some of her times down. In fact, a lot of kids brought a lot of times down today."

Waugh collected the long jump and triple jump titles and was second to French in the 400, while Girard had three top three finishes. All three athletes, with French as the anchor, were on Osborne's winning 1,600-meter relay team.

Osborne, which wasn't picked by some conference coaches to win the title, captured five events, one behind Norton for the league lead.

"(Demi) has a lot of heart and that is kind of the way this team is," Ubelaker said. "When we won state last year, it just took a lot of different points from a lot of different people and if we are going to have any success this year, it is going to be the same way."

Osborne, though, was far from the only team that yielded top performances. Taylor, one of the best in 2A all season, captured the 100 and 200 meters, finished second in the discus and third in the high jump.

Norton's star middle distance runner Laura Lee Baird won the 800 and 1,600 meters, including a 5:17.95 in the 1,600, her season best by over six seconds. Baird's teammate, Bozarth, fashioned an historic day with her shot put and discus throws.

Bozarth entered the meet with the second-best 3A shot put in the state (42-8Ôªø3âÑ4) and second-best 3A mark in the discus (143-04). She trailed only three-time state champion Jacquelyne Leffler of Northern Heights in both events.

On a warm day with little wind, Bozarth uncorked the shot put 45 feet, three and a half inches, bettered Leffler's season mark, set a personal best and broke a 26-year-old MCL record by over three feet. Bozarth, who spins when she throws the shot put, relies more on footwork than strength.

"The thing with the spin is you never know when the big one is coming," she said while wearing a Norton warm up shirt that read "To run is human, to throw is divine."

"You have your ups and your downs. Last year, I was like a roller coaster. ... I think I am more consistent this year than I have been. I think that helps a lot."

In the discus, Bozarth threw the implement 143-4 last Friday at the windy Russell Relays. A week later, she threw 138 feet on a calm day at Phillipsburg and broke former Osborne great Brooke Ubelaker's conference mark of 127-11 set in 2003.

"Just getting my feet quicker as helped a ton," she said.

The improvements could set up a showdown between Bozarth and Leffler, a three-time defending state champion in the discus, for the 3A throwing state titles in two weeks.

"We talk all the time," Bozarth said. "Hopefully her and I are going to be the ones that are going to battle it out. We have thrown against each other quite a bit."

Taylor, another girl who could potentially when multiple state titles, also won two individual championships Friday. However, she didn't have quite the performances that Bozarth did.

"It was not a good day for me," she said.

Using past results as an indicator, Taylor was favored to win three of her events and finish second to Bozarth in the discus. She did win the 100 and 200 and took second to Bozarth, but finished a disappointing third in the high jump. She jumped just five feet, four inches lower than her season best.

"It is getting the least attention (in practice) but it needs the most work," she said. "It is all in the approach, I mess something up and I want to fix it."

In the 100 meters, Taylor, who holds the third-fastest time in any classification at 11.9 seconds, ran 12.47 to win by .49 seconds over French.

In the 200, Taylor finished in 25.83, just off her season PR. French was the only runner that came within two seconds of her.

"I was happy with the 200, but that was about it," Taylor said.

French and several of her Osborne teammates, though, fashioned season-bests in the win. French, third in Class 2A at state in the 400 meters last spring with a time of 59.94, entered Friday with a 2008 best time of 62.20.

She dropped nearly two seconds off that mark and ran a 60.80 in her lone individual victory. French also improved her year's best time in the 200-meters by nearly five tenths.

"She is probably running as good right now as she has all year and probably just about as good as she was running last year," Ubelaker said.

Girard delivered new season marks in both hurdle events, while Waugh jumped 17-1Ôªø1âÑ2 in the long jump and 34 6Ôªø1âÑ2 in the triple. Both were 2008's bests by seven and half inches and 15 and a half inches, respectively, and put Waugh among the 2A state leaders.

Osborne capped off the team title with another season best in the 1,600 relay, the final event of the day. Waugh led off, Girard ran the third leg and French finished the victory in 4:09.57. The time was nine seconds better than runner-up Smith Center and 10 seconds improvement from the Bulldogs' season-best ¬­-- and helped set off the Bulldogs' post-meet photo shoot.