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First-teamers McHarg, Jay headline nine Washburn All-MIAA baseball honorees
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University's baseball team had nine players earn All-MIAA recognition by the conference on Thursday afternoon, led by first-team picks Payton McHarg and Cash Jay.
McHarg, a junior, is a first-team selection as an outfielder in his first season with the Ichabods. With 20 home runs on the year McHarg is tied for the most in the nation while also batting a team-high .373 with 69 hits and 63 runs batted in.
McHarg is coming off a week which saw him earn MIAA Hitter of the Week honors after hitting .579 with a .704 on-base percentage and 12 runs scored. McHarg played and started in all 48 regular-season games, one of just two Ichabods to do so.
Jay joins McHarg on the first team after his first season at Washburn. He gets the nod as a utility player after hitting .365 on the year. He slugged 13 home runs and a team-high 21 doubles with 56 RBI.
Jay has started 45 of the 48 games he has appeared in, picking up hits in all but seven of them to tie for the team lead with 69. He also made 85 assists on the year in the field.
Cale Savage earns All-MIAA honors for the first time in his career as a member of the second team at first base. Along with McHarg, Savage also played and started in all 48 games this season, hitting .321 and leading the team with 41 walks for a .443 OB%. He hit 12 home runs and drove in 45 total runs while holding a .992 fielding percentage for the year.
Jett Buck joins the second team at shortstop after his junior campaign and first at Washburn. Buck hit .324 on the season and was second on the team with 14 homers for 52 RBI. He played in 45 games, making 44 starts, and was second on the team, stealing eight bases on 12 attempts.
Hayden Priest is a third-team selection in his first season as the Ichabod catcher after transferring for his junior year. Priest was third on the team with a .360 batting average on the season with 62 hits and 55 RBI along with eight home runs. He was successful on the bases, stealing six of seven bases while throwing out nine would be base-stealers from behind the plate.
Washburn had four players earn honorable mention honors with Cooper Carlgren representing the starting pitching staff in his first season with the Ichabods. The Topeka native made 13 appearances, all starts, and threw a team-high 62.1 innings along with 59 strikeouts. He went 4-3 on the year with a 6.64 earned run average.
Former T-Bird track star Ta'Mijha Nichols continues to make big strides in first year with Ichabods
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
College track and field is hard enough for an incoming freshman, and embarking on her Washburn University career while nursing a lingering injury made things extra challenging for former Shawnee Heights star sprinter Ta'Mijha Nichols.
But after a somewhat slow start, Nichols has made big strides entering her first MIAA Outdoor Championships this weekend in Maryville, Mo.
"I did come out of high school with a hamstring injury and coming into college with an injury definitely made me a little injury prone, so I had some setbacks and I had to find some ways to become confident,'' Nichols said.
"But I think my sprint coach (Marshall O’Brien) helped build that confidence, and as I keep going and am gradually getting better, I think he sees me getting more confident every day and that's what's helping me push a bit more in college.''
NIchols took a big step in the recent Kansas Relays, posting a second-place finish in the women's 100-meter dash with a personal-best and an NCAA provisional mark of 11.78 seconds.
"As a freshman coming out and the first meet not doing so well and then seeing what I did at KU, it's exciting,'' Nichols said. "And I have my teammates backing me up and they're getting excited for me and that brings in great energy.''
Hayden's Kaylee Gregg looking to continue upward spiral in high school diving
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Hayden junior Kaylee Gregg credits former Topeka High diving star Brianna Devlin for helping get her into the event two years ago as a freshman
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And now that Devlin, second in Class 6A last season, has moved on to the University of the Ozarks, Gregg wants to follow in her friend's footsteps and continue to carve out her own niche in the sport.
"She's one of my best friends that I was doing gymnastics with and she did diving so I was like, 'Well, I guess I'll go try it,' '' Gregg said. "She's been a really big inspiration for me in diving. She's helped me a lot.''
Gregg has apparently learned her lessons well, turning in a solid sophomore season and continuing to make strides this spring.
Gregg, a junior, finished second in the 2023 city meet to earn second-team All-City status and placed third in Centennial League diving before capping her season with a 10th-place finish in the Class 5A-1A state meet.
This season Gregg is ranked No. 1 on the Kansas State High School Activities Association Class 5A-1A Top 25 Performance List for 11 dives with a score of 411.50 and is No. 3 for six dives with a score of 223.50.