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Washburn University football announces diverse 34-member 2026 recruiting class
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University football coach Zach Watkins announced a diverse 34-member high school recruiting class on Wednesday, including five city products.
Washburn football coach Zach Watkins announced a 2026 recruiting class on Wednesday that includes 34 high school players and 17 transfers who are already on campus. [File photo/TSN]
"Our staff did a tremendous job of identifying what we needed on the roster and going out and identifying the kids that fit those needs,'' said Watkins, who will be starting his second season as WU's head coach in 2026. "We've been recruiting these guys since February of '25, so to see a full year of recruiting come to fruition and the kids all signed is very satisfying.''
Watkins also confirmed that Washburn, which is coming off a 3-8 campaign, has picked up 17 transfers who are currently enrolled at WU for the spring semester.
"We got hired last year and had a month to recruit,'' Watkins said. "This year we had a year to recruit. We signed 34 high school kids and 17 transfers who are here on campus right now and they started in January. They're the most talented group of transfers we've ever brought in here at Washburn.
"Those transfers provide immediate help and immediate depth and then like I said from Day 1 when we got hired as a staff, we're going to be a high school-based recruiting program. We're going to recuit Topeka, we're going to recruit Kansas, the Midwest and branch out from there and the 34 kids we signed really filled the needs we have and the depth we needed to create, we got that done in this class.''
Washburn Rural's Jordy Heim (6-foot-1, 220 pounds) and John Hoytal (6-3, 200) signed on Wednesday along with Hayden's Kade Mitchell (5-9, 175), Shawnee Heights' Aiden Scott (6-5, 200) and Topeka West's Logan Hunninghake (6-2, 250).
John Hoytal, Washburn Rural
Kade Mitchell, Hayden
Kade Mitchell, Hayden
Hoytal, Mitchell and Scott earned TopSports.news All-Shawnee County Top 22 honors this past fall while Heim was a Second 22 all-county honoree and Hunninghake earned all-county honorable mention.
Hoytal played quarterback for Washburn Rural but is projected as a tight end in college while Mitchell is a running back, Scott a quarterback, Heim a linebacker and Hunninghake an offensive lineman.
"The kids we got from Topeka we're really excited about,'' Watkins said.
The Washburn recruiting class includes 11 players that played at Kansas high schools along with 12 Missouri prep products, seven from Texas, three from Florida and one from Nebraska.
There's also diversity among position groups, with eight players projected as defensive backs, six defensive linemen and five offensive linemen, four wide receivers, three linebackers and running backs, two tight ends, two punter/kickers and one quarterback.
Washburn recruiting capsules:
Freshman Anderson powers Rural girls to fourth straight win, 55-42 over Blue Valley
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Fresh off last week's championship in the Glaciers Edge Tournament, Washburn Rural girls basketball ran its winning streak to four games Wednesday night, riding a big night from freshman Brynn Anderson to a 55-42 non-league home win over Blue Valley.
Freshman Brynn Anderson scored 25 points with five 3-pointers in Wednesday's 55-42 Washburn Rural win over Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Anderson, named the Most Valuable Player in last week's tournament, scored a game-high 25 points with five 3-pointers and a six of six performance at the free throw line to lead the way as the 10th-ranked (Class 6A) Junior Blues ran their record to 11-4 on the season.
"She's been that way pretty much all year and you see almost every day in practice her development and getting better,'' Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said. "We've got some kids that know we've got to get her the ball a little bit and we've got other kids that will step up.
"Brynn on the offensive end has been real consistent for us and it's kind of fun to see her light it up from outside a little bit, too.''
Washburn Rural senior Josie Carlgren had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds in Wednesday's 55-42 win over Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural also got a double-double from senior Josie Carlgren, who scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while hitting a pair of 3-pointers and going four of four at the free throw line.
Rural only trailed once in the game at 8-7 and there were just two ties (at 5-5 and 13-all), but 8-8 Blue Valley was within single-digits for most of the night before the Junior Blues opened up their biggest lead of the night at 55-41 with 18.3 seconds remaining.
Blue Valley had three players crack double figures, led by senior Lucy Kennedy with 14 points and four 3-pointers. Sophomore Devin Splittorff added 11 points and sophomore Taylor Forgy 10 for the Tigers.
"They're really not a bad team,'' Bordewick said of the Tigers. "They're a better team than maybe what their record indicates and I think a better team tonight than what we saw last week at Emporia even, because they were in that.
"They shot well, I thought they played hard and they gave us obviously quite a run. But I was proud of these guys. I thought we competed and we worked hard on the defensive end to get it going on offense and I thought we did a pretty good job.''
Short-handed Rural boys drop 55-54 heartbreaker to No. 6-ranked Blue Valley
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Playing without injured senior starters John Hoytal and Simon Rowley, Washburn Rural boys basketball came within 4.2 seconds of pulling off an upset victory over No. 6-ranked Blue Valley Wednesday night, with the Tigers escaping with a 55-54 road win over the Junior Blues on Brendan Walsh's game-winning 3-pointer.
Sophomore Brooks Ballard scored a game-high 22 points with five 3-pointers in Washburn Rural's 55-54 loss to Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
"I'm proud of our guys,'' Washburn Rural coach Alex Hutchins said. "I'm proud of the way we fought and proud of the way we played. It just comes down to a couple of possessions here and there at the end, just a little bit of execution.
"I thought we played really, really smart and really sound to the scout until about the last two minutes of the game.''
The short-handed Junior Blues led for much of the night in a game that was close throughout as sophomore Brooks Ballard powered 9-6 Rural with a game-high 22 points and five 3-pointers, but Walsh, a junior, scored the Tigers' final seven points as Blue Valley improved to 11-5.
"When the other team's got the best player in the gym, you try to make other people make plays and we let their best player score their last seven points,'' Hutchins said. "We've got to be smarter than that. We've got to make someone else do it.''
Blue Valley led 13-11 at the end of the opening quarter, but Ballard scored the final five points of the first half to give the Junior Blues a 27-21 at the break.
Rural went up by eight points (29-21) on a bucket by junior Cooper Schmidt to open the second half, but Blue Valley battled back to tie the game at 38-38 entering the fourth quarter.
There were two ties and three lead changes the rest of the way, including four straight points by Ballard to give Rural a 54-52 advantage with 11.6 seconds left before Walsh struck the final blow for the Tigers.
Washburn Rural junior Cooper Scmidt scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Wednesday's 55-54 loss to Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Ballard was the lone Junior Blue in double figures while 6-foot-10 Schmidt scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
