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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights baseball has a new coach in Jason Brown but the T-Birds' legacy of winning and state tournament appearances remains intact.
Shawnee Heights baseball celebrates its Class 5A regional championship last Tuesday night at the Bettis Family Sports Complex. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
Longtime T-Bird coach Ryan Schmidt, who led Heights to two Class 5A state titles, retired after appearance in last year's state tournament, but the T-Birds haven't missed a beat in Brown's first season at the helm and will take a 21-7 record into Thursday and Friday's state event at Wichita State's Eck Stadium.
Shawnee Heights, which won United Kansas Conference and regional titles, will the state tournament as the No. 4 seed at will open its state bid at 1:15 p.m. Thursday against No. 5 seed Hays (18-8).
Heights punched its latest ticket to state with a 5-2 regional win over United Kansas Conference rival De Soto last Tuesday at the Bettis Family Sports Complex.
With a win Thursday Shawnee Heights will advance to an 11 a.m. semifinal on Friday to face the winner of the first-round game between No. 1 seed St. Thomas Aquinas (24-4) and No. 8 Valley Center (17-11).
On the other side of the bracket No. 2 seed Great Bend (23-5) will face No. 7 Piper (17-10) and No. 3 seed Blue Valley Southwest (21-6) will face No. 6 Eisenhower (18-10).
The 5A state championship game is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Friday, following the 3:30 third-place game.
Rural back in 6A field
Washburn Rural is headed to the Class 6A state tournament for the first time since a third-place finish in 2022.
The Junior Blues earned their state bid with a 1-0 win over Campus in last Thursday's regional final at Campus.
Washburn Rural, the No. 8 seed for state, is now 15-11 on the season and will face top seed Free State (25-2) at 11 a.m. Thursday at Hoglund Stadium in Lawrence.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Hayden's boys golf team put itself in position to challenge for a Class 4A state championship after a solid opening round in the state tournament at Newton's Sand Creek Station.
Hayden senior James Kuta shot a 77 in Tuesday's first round of the Class 4A state tournament, tying for fifth individually, while the Wildcats are second as a team entering Wednesday's final round at Newton. [File photo/TSN]
Hayden is in second place in the team standings entering Wednesday's final round at 28-over-par, seven strokes behind Wamego. The Red Raiders and Wildcats went one-two in last week's regional tournament at Wamego.
"We left some strokes out there, but we are excited that we've put ourselves in position to compete for a championship tomorrow,'' Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldson said in a text.
The Wildcats are seven strokes in front of third-place Bishop Miege after Day 1. The Stags placed third as a team in the Wamego regional.
Senior James Kuta led Hayden Tuesday with a 5-over-par 77 and is tied for fifth place starting the final 18 holes.
Junior Mateo Garcia and senior Nick Gorman shot 79s to tie for ninth place Tuesday while senior Tagen Rodriguez shot an 81, senior Colin Scott an 83 and junior Austin Bean an 86.
Lions fourth in 2A entering final round
Regional champion Cair Paravel Latin is in fourth place in the Class 2A state tournament after the opening round at the Turkey Creek Golf Course in McPherson, advancing to Wednesday's final round.
Cair Paravel junior Caleb Cleverdon led the Lions with a 76, tying for sixth in the opening round, while senior Jase Pavlik shot a first-round 81 and freshman Chase Hastert and junior Luke Budden carded 85s.
Also advancing to Round 2 as individuals are Rossville junior Jack Donovan, a regional champion, and Bulldawg senior Jonathan Hart.
Donovan is tied for sixth place with a 76 while Hart is tied for 11th after a 78.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Hayden girls soccer posted a 2-0 road win at Wichita Trinity Monday night, advancing to the Class 4A-1A state semifinals.
Now 12-7-0 on the season, Hayden will play a 6 p.m. semifinal at Louisburg Wednesday.
Hayden junior Reese Huscher scored the Wildcats' first goal in Monday's 2-0 Class 4A quarterfinal win at Wichita Trinity. [File photo/TSN]
Junior Reese Huscher scored the only goal Hayden would need with 10:13 remaining in the opening half, giving the Wildcats a 1-0 halftime lead.
Hayden junior Grace Funk scored the Wildcats' second goal in Monday's 2-0 Class 4A-1A quarterfinal win at Wichita Trinity. [File photo/TSN]
Junior Grace Funk added Hayden's second goal six minutes into the second half and the Wildcats blanked Trinity (14-2-2) the rest of the way.
Louisburg (16-3-0) advanced to the semifinals with a 2-0 quarterfinal win over Eudora Monday night.
Seaman drops 1-0 heartbreaker
Seaman's soccer season came to an end in a Class 5A quarterfinal Monday night, with the Vikings dropping a 1-0 decision to United Kansas Conference rival De Soto on the Wildcats' home field.
Monday's loss was the Vikings' second one-goal loss to the Wildcats' this season, with De Soto taking a 4-3 decision over Seaman in the regular season.
Seaman ended its season 13-6-0 while De Soto improved to 17-2-0.
De Soto will play a 5 p.m. semifinal at Bishop Carroll (19-0-0) on Wednesday.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural soccer is the position it set its sights on way back in March.
Now the Junior Blues are just two wins away from their ultimate goal -- the first Class 6A girls state championship in Rural's proud program history.
Washburn Rural claimed its 11th straight trip to the 6A Final Four with Monday's 5-0 state quarterfinal win over city rival Topeka High in a persistent rain at McElroy Field and the Junior Blues will be back at home Wednesday for a 6 p.m. semifinal contest against Blue Valley.
Washburn Rural senior Zahra Friess (right) scored two goals in Monday's 5-0 Class 6A quarterfinal win over Topeka High. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural senior Kate Hinck (right) scored a goal in Monday's 5-0 Class 6A quarterfinal win over Topeka High. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"We've been looking forward to this game all year,'' Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel said of the semifinal clash. "From the first day of practice we said we want to host the semifinal on May 28th, so we've got to battle through a tough schedule, get the top seed, do whatever we've got to do.
"But we've been in that semifinal game 10 straight years, and I think we're 4-6 or something like that. That's a hard game to win because you're playing a good team from Kansas City every time, but I love our chances on this field against whoever has to come here and play us.
"So all year, for three months, we've talked about homefield advantage and playing the semifinal on our field so to accomplish that's a pretty good deal. We'll be ready to go Wednesday night for sure.''
Rural, which improved to 17-2-0 with its 10th straight victory, took control of Monday's game with two goals in the first 5:47 of the game.
Senior Bristol Karr scored the only goal Rural would need at the 37:06 mark and senior Zahra Friess scored the first of her two goals on the night less than three minutes later.
Topeka High was still within two goals at halftime and well into the second half bfore Friess scored again with 23:43 remaining to put Rural in front 3-0.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Four Shawnee County schools earned team berths in four different classes for state golf, which will be contested across the state Tuesday and Wednesday.
Cair Paravel Latin posted an eight-stroke team victory in last Monday's Class 2A golf regional at Horton while Hayden qualified for state with a runnerup finish in the 4A regional at Wamego, Washburn Rural was third in the 6A regional at Topeka Country Club and Seaman placed third in the 5A regional at Lake Shawnee.
This week's state tournaments at a glance:
Washburn Rural golf earned a Class 6A state tournament berth with a third-place finish in last Monday's regional tournament at Topeka Country Club. [Washburn Rural golf]
Class 6A at Winfield
Washburn Rural qualified for the Class 6A state tournament at Winfield with a solid third-place finish in last Monday's regional tournament at Topeka Country Club.
All of the Junior Blues' top four posted top-10 individual medals as Rural carded a team score of 316 to finish behind Manhattan (306) and Free State (313). The Junior Blues earned their state berth by a whopping 41 strokes over fourth-place Gardner-Edgerton.
Senior Tagan Monasmith tied for fourth place with a 77 to lead Rural while senior Tadd Armstrong tied for seventh with a 79 and junior Higgins Hawks and senior Brady Goeden tied for 10th with 80s.
Juniors Michael Wilson (81) and Peyton Goehring (91) rounded out the Junior Blues' lineup, tying for 13th and 23rd, respectively.
SHAWNEE COUNTY QUALIFIERS
At Quail Ridge Golf Course, Winfield
(Tuesday's tee times in parentheses)
Washburn Rural -- Peyton Goehring, jr. (10 a.m, No. 10); Brady Goeden, sr. (10:10 a.m., No. 10); Michael Wilson, jr. (10:20 a.m., No. 10); Higgins Hawks, jr. (10:30 a.m., No. 10); Tagan Monasmith, sr. (10:40 a.m., No. 10); Tadd Armstrong, sr. (10:50 a.m., No. 10).
Seaman golf earned a team berth for the Class 5A state tournament on a tiebreaker. [Seaman golf]
Class 5A at Emporia
Seaman earned a team berth for the Class 5A state tournament at Emporia Municipal Golf Course by the narrowest of margins last Monday at Lake Shawnee, topping Basehor-Linwood on a tiebreaker to claim the third and final state berth.
The tie with Basehor-Linwood was broken by the score of the fifth man of each team and Seaman’s Alex Flanagan shot an 88 while the Bobcats’ fifth man recorded a 92.
Leading the Vikings' regional performance was sophomore Evan Michalski with an 82 while senior Bradley Williamson was right behind with an 83.
Joining the Vikings at state will be Shawnee Heights junior Ayden Valdivia, who shot an 81 to qualify as an individual for his second straight state tournament.
SHAWNEE COUNTY QUALIFIERS
At Emporia Municipal Golf Course
(Tuesday's tee times in parentheses)
Seaman -- Jordan Burghart, jr. (10 a.m, No. 10); Nicholas Hill, so. (10:10 a.m., No. 10); Hunter Gerhardt (10:20 a.m., No. 10); Evan Michalski, so. (10:30 a.m., No. 10); Alexander Flanagan, sr. (10:40 a.m., No. 10); Bradley Williamson, sr. (10:50 a.m., No. 10).
Shawnee Heights -- Ayden Valdivia, jr. (9:40 a.m., No. 10).
