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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural freshman softball player Reagan Chapman and Seaman sophomore baseball standout Max Huston have been selected by the Dan Key Farmers Insurance Agency as the Rising Stars of the Week.
The Dan Key Agency will recognize top Shawnee County underclassmen throughout the bulk of the 2022-2023 school year.
Here’s a brief look at the accomplishments of Chapman and Huston over the past week:
Washburn Rural freshman Reagan Chapman reacts to a home run in her first at bat as a high school softball player. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
REAGAN CHAPMAN, Washburn Rural
Chapman turned in an outstanding perormance in her high school softball debut last Friday, helping lead the Junior Blues to a 4-3, 8-3 Centennial League sweep over Topeka High in a rematch of the 2022 Class 6A state championship game.
Chapman, Rural's leadoff hitter, started the day in storybook fashion, opening the bottom of the first with a solo home run over the left field fence.
Chapman went on to add a pair of doubles in the opener while knocking in a pair of runs and scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh. Chapman continued her big day in the nightcap, tripling and then breaking open the game with a three-run home run.
Sophomore Max Huston watches the flight of his three-run home run in Seaman's 13-3 UKC win over Shawnee Heights Tuesday at the Bettis Family Sports Complex. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
MAX HUSTON, Seaman
Huston had three hits, including a home run, and drove in four runs in Seaman's 13-3 United Kansas Conference baseball win over rival Shawnee Heights on Tuesday at the Bettis Family Sports Complex.
Huston had a pair of singles and broke open a close game in the top of the third with a three-run home run to give Seaman an 8-3 advantage.
Huston, who started for the Vikings last season as a freshman, also pitched a scoreless inning in relief as Seaman improved to 3-0 overall and in the UKC.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
The Washburn University bullpen threw four scoreless innings to close out a 4-2 victory at Northwest Missouri on Wednesday.
Washburn pitcher Jack Brimacombe picked up his second win of the season in Weddnesday's 4-2 MIAA win at Northwest Missouri. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The Ichabods will be back in the Show Me State this weekend for a three-game set at No. 24 Central Missouri.
The Bearcats (6-22 overall, 4-13 MIAA) got on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
The Ichabods (20-11, 13-4) answered with a run of their own in the top of the third.
Caden Bressler drew a walk and with two outs he moved over to third on a single by Trevor McCollum. On a 1-1 pitch, McCollum successfully stole second base and on the throw down, Bressler broke for home and scored Washburn's first run.
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
TopSports.news is pleased to announce the newest MVP to its lineup with local business, 785Athletics.
785Athletics welcomes new members to its building who want to improve their strength, conditioning, agility, speed and basketball skills.
785Athletics co-owner Rich Brown broke ground on the official facility for 785Athletics two years ago.
When Brown took over the facility, located at 1239 SW Western Ave., he had a lot of work to do in putting his touch on rehabbing an old church.
785Athletics stumbled upon the church and thought it would convert into an operating performance-enhancing facility. The church had tall ceilings and didn't have poles or fans that would be in the way. But, with the eye of a picture-perfect setup, the possibility of making a dream happen could become a reality.
"Buildings like this are kind of hard to find," Brown said. "The vision started with how to throw it together and help the community. With what he had in mind, this building could pay for itself over time. We know we're not going to get rich quickly by any means. But over time it'll sustain memberships with the building also standing. I'm happy with it."
When you walk through the doors of 785Athletics, the basketball court is directly to the right. With tremendous additions, subtractions, and fixes, the unique gym on the main floor provides a great playing experience for basketball players that want to develop their skills. Therefore, it was important for the business to have the best playing surface possible for its athletes.
"We had to get the floor level first, and then we had a company at a Kansas City that does gym floors install the floor, and it was a sub-contract type deal," Brown said. "It was important to me to have the right kind of flooring. Having tile or anything we didn't like wouldn't have been right. The basketball court had to be just right."
Brown credits his team for the success and growth of 785Athletics. The 785Athletics team consists of co-owners Brown and Josh Akognon, along with Cody Wilson, Geo Lyons, Jameel Anderson, Eric Ray and others. All the coaches and trainers at 785Athletics are former athletes, and some even played professionally.
Wilson is front and center of athletic performance and specializes in recovery for athletes. Wilson grew up in Dallas, Texas, eventually finding his way to playing football for Haskell Indian Nations University. Wilson also has arena football playing experience as well as coaching.
Wilson credits his beginning knowledge of athletic performance and eye for a swift recovery from watching strength and conditioning coach Sean Edinger. Edinger was Haskell's head strength coach for football and volleyball in 2008. Edinger is now the assistant athletics director for athletic performance at Syracuse University.
"I got to watch (Edinger) from a coach, not from an athlete, but from a coach's perspective, and see the impact that he had on the team," Wilson said. "He had a significant impact on every athlete in there. You can just tell as soon as he walked into a room, he had a certain amount of influence over people. And the way he used it, to help them improve was huge. So that was my initial learning. And then from there, I've learned from a whole lot of different people.
"I'm constantly learning through my own trial and error and through working with athletes for the last 15 years or so. One of the things that I say all the time is a balanced athlete is a better athlete. So we're constantly doing things evenly on each leg and evenly on each arm. So if I'm doing a push, we're working the front of the legs, and we're working the back of the legs. The risk of injury goes down significantly if we're balanced."
Wilson's most considerable emphasis is on prehabilitation. 785Athletics use Bosu balls to strengthen ankles, joints and ligaments. In addition, Wilson works on perfecting warm-up stretches, jogging, shuffles and speed mechanics. Decreasing the risk of injury, technique, and constant improvement is a big emphasis from 785Athletics.
"The goal here is not only to increase their athletic performance, but do it in a way that that's going to lower the risk of injury as well," Wilson said. "If you have good speed mechanics, when you're running, the risk of you pulling your hamstring has gone down significantly. Whereas if you have poor posture and poor running mechanics, you're more likely to injure yourself. My goal is to put a lot less energy into what they're doing and getting better results while not injuring themselves."
785Athletics prides itself on exclusive development with an offered membership. Right now, the business services around 50 athletes regularly. The monthly membership cost is $75, which is $3.25 per workout.
785Athletics also organizes and runs camps and teams. The business runs summer and holiday camps for younger kids and high school athletes. In addition, 785Athletics has a pair of AAU teams that also represents the organization.
You can contact 785Athletics at (785) 608-3234 or email
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
If Hayden's girls soccer team had capitalized on a few more of its first-half scoring opportunities, Wednesday's home non-league match against Lansing might have come to an early end.
Hayden senior Sloane Sims (5) scored a pair of goals in Wednesday's 6-0 non-league soccer win over Lansing. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden senior Noelia Cruz (left) had a penalty-kick goal and an assist in Wednesday's 6-0 soccer win over Lansing. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Freshman Reese Huscher (center) executes a header in Hayden's 6-0 non-league soccer win over Lansing Wednesday at Hayden. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But other than that, veteran Wildcat coach Klaus Kreutzer had very little to be disappointed about after Hayden improved to 3-0-1 on the season with a 6-0 victory.
"That's something we talked about at halftime, that we created a lot of opportunities, we just didn't finish,'' Kreutzer said. "I'm happy with the effort. I'm not all that crazy about the execution but the effort's been good.
"We've got the talent. Now it's just up to the coach to kind of try to shape them up a little bit, but we're getting there.''
Senior Sloane Sims scored the only goal Hayden would need just 5:10 into the game.
The score remained 1-0 for nearly 18 minutes before junior Jill Lenherr made it a 2-0 game with 16:54 remaining in the first half and Lenherr added her second goal of the game with 2:13 left in the half to give the Wildcats a 3-1 halftme advantage.
Hayden converted back-to-back penality kicks by seniors Noelia Cruz and Briahna Barnett to open up a commanding 5-0 lead with 12:34 remaining and Sims scored her second goal as the final seconds ticked off to end the match.
Cruz had an assist to go with her goal while juniors Hanna Bartlett, Lauren Sandstrom and Kiley Egnoske also dished out assists.
Freshmen Kadence Watts and Lauren Bourjon combined for the shutout in goal.
HAYDEN 6, LANSING 0
Lansing 0 0 -- 0
Hayden 3 3 -- 6
Hayden -- Goals: Lenherr 2, Sims 2, Cruz, Barnett. Assists: Cruz, Bartlett, Sandstrom, Egnoske. Shutout: Watts, Borjon.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Sophomore Lailah Benz scored a three-goal hat trick Tuesday night as Shawnee Heights' girls soccer team improved to 2-1 on the season with a 5-0 non-league win at the Bettis Family Sports Complex.
Shawnee Heights sophomore Lailah Benz (2) scored three goals in Tuesday's 5-0 non-league win over Ottawa. [File photo/TSN]
Shawnee Heights posted its second straight shutout win after blanking Kansas City-Harmon 10-0 last Thursday.
Benz scored the T-Birds' first two goals against the Cyclones and also scored Shawnee Heights' final goal of the night.
Shawnee Heights also got goals from seniors Peyton Hack andd Lily Martin while freshman Mackenzie Mertel registered the shutout in goal.
