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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
There was no shortage of scoring opportunities for Topeka High's soccer team Monday night against Topeka West, beginning early in the contest.
But it took a while for the Trojans to find the back of the net before turning the tide with three second-half goals in a 4-2 non-league victory over the Chargers at Hummer Sports Park.
Topeka High, which improved to 3-2 on the year, trailed twice in the game, including a 2-1 halftime deficit, before dominating the second half.
"We did find a way,'' Topeka High coach Derek Snook said. "I went ahead and threw out a new formation at them because these boys kept saying they wanted to attack, wanted to attack, wanted to attack and quite honestly we haven't hit the back of the net with much regularity.
"We've had our chances, just like early on when we missed a couple of point-blanks, missed a couple of passes here and there and then just go spun out defensively. Topeka West always has runners up front and they did a great job of counter-attacking.''
Topeka West (0-6) drew first blood at the 29:05 mark of the first half on a shot from junior Isaac Gonzalez-Talavera off an assist from junior Brendan Komma, but Topeka High squared the match with 21:13 left in the half on a goal from junior Chris Gomez.
Senior Lenny Njoroge made the score 2-1 West with 16:39 left in the half and the Chargers maintained that advantage through the remainder of the half.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman senior golf star Lois Deeter broke 70 in last Thursday's Seaman Invitational at Village Greens, shooting a 69 to take medalist honors.
Thursday's win was Deeter's second on the season and helped the Vikings finish second to Emporia (321-332) as a team.
Topeka High junior Avery Zimmerman finished fourth individually with a 79 while Hayden freshman Izzy Glotzbach tied for fifth with an 82.
Seaman's Jaycee Zimmerman tied for seventh with an 83 while Hayden's Avery Grunert and Seaman's Avery Samuelson tied or ninth place with 84s.
Hayden finished third as a team at 347 while Shawnee Heights finished fifth at 389.
The T-Birds were led by Karlyn Bowman with a 94 and Rachel Donaldson with a 95.
FINK PACES RURAL HARRIERS
Washburn Rural sophomore Payton Fink placed sixth out of 210 runners to lead the Junior Blue girls cross country team in Saturday's Olathe North Twilight Invitational at the Olathe District Athletic Complex.
Fink clocked a five-kilometer time of 18 minutes, 29.40 seconds to lead Rural to a fifth-place team finish.
Sophomore Rylee Ismert also posted a top-20 finish for the Junior Blues, finishing 19th in 19:16.20.
Seniors Davin Johnson (16:21.20) and Grayson Fink (16:35.80) finished 46th and 55th in the boys race for Rural, which finishe 13th as a team.
WRENCH POSTS TOP-20 SHOWING AT WAMEGO
Hayden sophomore girls standout Elliot Wrench finished 20th individually in last Saturday's Wamego Invitational at Wamego Country Club.
Wrench clocked a time of 22:09.50 to lead the Wildcats.
Hayden's boys finished seventh as a team, with junior Aiden Amis finishing 21st (17:48.80) and senior Jake Muller 23rd (17:51.00) out of 119 runners.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
ALLEN BAUGHMAN, Shawnee Heights
Baughman, a junior running back, turned in a career-best performance in Shawnee Heights' 46-23 United Kansas Conference football win over Lansing last Friday. Baughman, a 5-foot-8, 180-pounder, carried the ball 22 times for 222 yards and five touchdowns for the T-Birds, who evened their record at 1-1 overall and in the UKC.
EASTON BRADSTREET, Washburn Rural
A senior, Bradstreet scored four goals in a game for the second time in four games, leading the Junior Blues to a 5-0 non-league soccer victory over De Soto last Thursday at McElroy Field. Bradstreet has now scored at least one goal in every game this season and has 11 goals on the year.
GRANT BRUNER, Washburn University
Bruner, a 6-foot, 220-pound senior linebacker, had a career-high 23 tackles (11 solo) with two interceptions for 10 return yards in Washburn University's 40-32 road win at Central Missouri last Thursday, including 17 total tackles in the second half. The 23 tackles by Bruner were the most by an Ichabod since Casey Curran had 22 against Missouri Western in 2009.
RYIN MILLER, Seaman
A freshman, Miller claimed her first individual championship in last Saturday's Joe Schrag Invitational cross country meet while helping lead the Vikings to the team title by 27-45 margin over Lee's Summit West, Mo. Miller clocked a winning five-kilometer time of 19 minutes, 01.22 seconds, knocking 90 seconds off her time from the previous week. .
TRE RICHARDSON, Highland Park
Richardson, a senior, scored eight touchdowns Friday night as Highland Park ran its record to 2-0 with a 48-29 Meadowlark Conference road victory at Kansas City-Schlagle. Richardson has now had a hand in 14 touchdowns in the first two weeks of the season for the Scots.
TY WEBER, Washburn Rural
A senior linebacker, Weber was in on 24 tackles last Friday night as Washburn Rural improved to 2-0 with a come-from-behind 28-21 non-league road victory at De Soto. Weber was the TopSports.news Shawnee County defensive player of the year in 2021.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Former Washburn Rural star Belle Kennedy scored a pair of goals Sunday at Yager Stadium as Washburn University soccer improved to 5-0-1 on the season with a 2-1 MIAA victory over Nebraska-Kearney.
Kennedy, the Class 6A midfielder of the year in 2021 and 2022, scored the first two goals of the game to put the Ichabods up 2-0 before the Lopers (0-5-1) got on the scoreboard late.
Washburn remains unbeaten through six games for the first time since 2006.
After a slow start offensively for both teams, the Ichabods increased their offensive tempo in the final 20 minutes of the first half, recording seven total shots in the first 45 minutes.
In the 27th minute, Riley Wells maneuvered down the right sideline before delivering a ball to Kennedy in the middle of the field, which was deposited in the top right corner of the net for the first goal.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Veteran Washburn University volleyball coach Chris Herron would be happy any time the Ichabods are able to show the grit to rally from a 2-0 deficit and pull out a victory.
The fact that No. 2-ranked WU was able to make that happen Saturday at Lee Arena against Nebraska-Kearney, one of the MIAA's most storied programs, made the occasion extra special.
No. 7 Nebraska-Kearney jumped out in front 2-0 with 26-24 and 25-22 wins, but the Ichabods anwered with 25-17, 25-18 and 16-14 wins to improve to 10-0 overall and 2-0 in the MIAA while handing the Lopers (10-1, 1-1) their first loss of the season.
"It's a huge win,'' Herron said. "Look, Kearney's Kearney, man. Every year they're Kearney so what are you going to say. They're awesome. (Rick Squiers) is a great coach, he's got a great program and we're fortunate to be able to play with them.''
With Saturday's win the Ichabods have now won three matches in a row against the Lopers, marking just the second time that has happened in program history and the first since 1983-85.
The Lopers jumped out to a 5-2 advantage to start the match before the Ichabods went in front 10-6 on an 8-1 run that included seven kills, four by Jalyn Stevenson.
Nebraska-Kearney slowly chipped away at Washburn's lead and tied the game at 12 and then pulled within one point on three occasions before the Ichabods created a little breathing room and got back-to-back kills to reach set point at 24-21.
The Ichabods were unable to close out the win, however, as the Lopers poste five unanswered points to take the two-point first-set win. The Ichabod offense knocked down 19 kills while the Lopers recorded 13 kills.
Nebraska-Kearney won the opening point of the second set and quickly built a 13-5 advantage, benefitting from eight Washburn errors during that stretch.
The Ichabods put together 5-0 and 5-1 runs to pull within three at 19-16.
With Washburn trailing 23-18, the Lopers committed three errors in the midst of a 4-0 Ichabod spurt to make it a one point affair, 23-22. UNK was able to get the last two points with back-to-back kills from Emersen Cyza to take a 2-0 lead.
Washburn came out firing on all cylinders in the third set and took the first five points with four kills and a UNK attacking error.