Overland Park ? What a week.

Lightning canceled the Shawnee Mission North Relays with four events left Friday night. But after a week when tornadoes hit Lawrence and Kansas City, and lightning postponed the Lawrence High-Free State baseball game Thursday, no one was upset that safety was the top priority.

“It doesn’t bother me,” LHS coach Jerry Skakal said.

“I don’t lose any sleep over it because I don’t have any control over it.”

Besides, both Lawrence schools worked in some impressive performances before the lightning arrived.

FSHS freshman Alysha Valencia dominated the girls’ 1,600-meter run, which was her first high school race of the spring. Valencia, who ran for Southwest Junior High until last week, ran a 5:11.24, which was five seconds better than Blue Valley West’s Elle Pishny, who had earlier won the 3,200.

It seemed Valencia ran most of the race on nervous energy.

“It took the whole mile (to work out),” she said, “because I could hear what was going on behind me, and it scared me.”

More impressively, she thought she could’ve run faster.

“It’s not like I’m upset about it,” Valencia said. “I just thought I could have sped it up there at the end.”

FSHS coach Steve Heffernan said running a five-minute race wasn’t out of the question, either.

“That’s certainly something she’s capable of,” Heffernan said. “As fast as she is, she’s still inexperienced. For her to come out and hit a race like that is impressive.”

Valencia was one of four city champions. LHS senior Magdalen Obiefule won the girls’ shot put, and both FSHS 3,200-meter relay teams won. The girls sqaud of senior Mallory Richardson, junior Danielle Coleman, sophomore Allison Yoder and Valencia ran 10:07.93, while the boys team of senior Adrian Ludwig and Hiral Bhakta and sophomores Alex Rock and Dan Schneider ran 8:57.

Obiefule, who also placed third in the girls’ discus, tossed a personal-best 40-feet, 41¼4 inches in the shot. She has thrown around 40 feet the last few meets, and she said that consistency has been huge.

“Sometimes, it feels like I’m faster and throwing better, but I can’t tell if it’s my best,” Obiefule said. “I’ve been much more consistent. Instead of just hitting one big throw, it’s been a lot of big throws.”

The Lions turned in several personal bests — including senior Shari Lassiter’s long jump and 100-meter dash marks — as did the Firebirds. FSHS junior Kelsey Randall broke the school record in the girls’ 300 hurdles, while junior Kristin Baker set a personal best in the discus.

With the Sunflower League meet next week and regionals in two weeks, both Heffernan and Skakal said their squads are primed for more success.

“We did OK,” Skakal said. “We trained through this meet. You know, it’s the Shawnee Mission North Relays. It’s a big meet, but we still train through it.”