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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seven of Shawnee County's most accomplished athletes in swimming and wrestling are among the second group of 10 women's honorees in TopSports.news' Shawnee County All-Time Top 100 project.
Picks 81-90, which also includes three local volleyball greats, features five former swimmers who were multi-time state champions, including Hayden's Kristin Strecker, who went on to swim at Nebraska, and Washburn Rural alums Haley Molden and Sammie Schurig, who went on to become standouts at Kansas, as well as former Hayden stars Kristen Carlson and Katie Merriam.
Washburn Rural's Dajia Anderson and Addison Broxterman, who helped Rural establish itself as the state's most dominant girls wrestling program, also earned Top 100 berths along with former county volleyball stars Sandy Werner of Washburn Rural, Seaman's Breanna Lewis and Silver Lake's Alyssa Schultejans.
Both Werner and Schultejans played at Kansas State while Lewis earned All-America honors at Washburn University and is a member of the WU Hall of Fame.
TSN SHAWNEE COUNTY ALL-TIME TOP 100 WOMEN’S ATHLETES
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
When high school football practice for the 2024 season begins across the state on August 19, linemen will go back to laboring in relative obscurity.
But Tuesday's Battle of the Bigs lineman challenge at Shawnee Heights, an annual event since 2017, was all about the men in the trenches.
"This is one of our largest ones,'' Shawnee Heights coach Jason Swift said. "And you've got to credit schools like Highland Park and Topeka West who have definitely brought numbers, and then we've got schools from surrounding areas and a couple of Kansas City schools.''
Approximately 90 linemen representing nine city and area high schools took part in the Battle of the Bigs, competing in a variety of drills/activities while vying for individual and team prizes.
"We do this to kind of celebrate the linemen,'' Swift said. "They don't get to do a lot of glorified stuff in the summer so this is an opportunity for them to compete and build some unity together and have fun.
Participating athletes took part in nine measured events:
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Six former state champs, a pair of baseball All-Americans, a Major League Baseball alum and a current Division I football standout headline the opening men's picks in TopSports.news' Shawnee County All-Time Top 100 project.
TSN's first group of 10 Top 100 honorees includes athletes who participated in seven different sports, including recent stars Tanner Newkirk of Hayden, Tre Richardson of Highland Park and Desmond Purnell of Hayden, who are currently participating at the college level.
The first men's Top 100 selections also include Washburn Rural product Austin Halsey, one of the city's most decorated soccer athletes, as well as former MLB pitcher Larry Miller, college baseball All-Americans Jordan Cooper (Shawnee Heights) and Ben Carlson (Seaman) and NCAA cross country qualifiers Jacob Morgan (Washburn Rural) and Rob Hays (Topeka West).
TSN SHAWNEE COUNTY ALL-TIME TOP 100 MEN’S ATHLETES
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
A group of nine former Shawnee County standouts and one rising star who represent seven different sports kick off the TopSports.news' Shawnee County All-Time Top 100 project.
From gymnastics, which is no longer offered at county high schools, to shooting, which was never a KSHSAA sport, to more traditional sports like volleyball, golf, track and field and cross country and the state's fastest growing sport of girls wrestling, TSN's first group of 10 Top 100 honorees includes seven individual state champions as well as three state champions, including four-time Class 6A team volleyball champ Kelsey Lewis of Washburn Rural.
The first group out of the gate also features the youngest Top 100 honoree, Seaman track and cross country star Ryin Miller, who has already earned her spot as one of Kansas' all-time bests in just two years of high school.
TSN SHAWNEE COUNTY ALL-TIME TOP 100 WOMEN’S ATHLETES
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
On Tuesday, July 9, TopSports.news will kick off its three-week project picking its Top 100 greatest women's and men's athletes in Shawnee County history.
After receiving input from current and past media professionals with more than 100 years of combined experience, TSN will kick things off with its No. 91 through 100 picks on its all-time women's list and will continue posting women's and men's picks 10 at a time before culminating with the Women's Top 10 on July 27 and the Men's Top 10 on July 28.
Topeka sports legend Mike Torrez was a world champion with the New York Yankees and won 185 games as a Major League pitcher in an 18-year career. [File photo]
Former Shawnee Heights star Gary Woodland won the 2019 U.S. Open and continues to compete on the PGA Tour. [PGA Tour]
Topeka High grad Chris Barnes is a PBA Hall of Famer, who also helped the Trojans win a state basketball title. [PBA Tour]
Topeka West state champion Sheri Norris was an All-American tennis player at Arizona State before playing on the pro tennis tour. [File photo]
Former Topeka High star NiJaree Canady received national pitcher of the year and player of the year honors as a sophomore pitcher for Stanford. [Stanford Athletics]
Former Washburn Rural multi-sport star Brooklyn DeLeye is currently a star for Kentucky's volleyball team and a member of the U.S. Under21 national team. [Kentucky Volleyball]
County athletes have made their mark in a variety of sports at the high school, collegiate, national amateur and professional levels over the years and TSN's goal is to recognize as many of those athletes as possible.
The only Top 100 requirement is that eligible candidates must have grown up in Shawnee County or attended one of the county's 10 high schools.
While it's an impossible task to honor all the deserving individuals and not everybody will agree with TSN's selections, we hope that you enjoy this trip down memory lane that recognizes local athletes dating from those born in the 1800s to those just beginning to make their mark.
TSN SHAWNEE COUNTY ALL-TIME TOP 100 ATHLETES TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
July 9 -- Women's No. 91 through 100.
July 10 -- Men's No. 91 through 100.
July 11 -- Women's No. 81 through 90.
July 12 -- Men's No. 81 through 90.
July 13 -- Women's No. 71 through 80.
July 14 -- Men's No. 71 through 80.
July 15 -- Women's No. 61 through 70.
July 16 -- Men's No. 61 through 70.
July 17 -- Women's No. 51 through 60.
July 18 -- Men's No. 51 through 60.
July 19 -- Women's No. 41 through 50.
July 20 -- Men's No. 41 through 50.
July 21 -- Women's No. 31 through 40.
July 22 -- Men's No. 31 through 40.
July 23 -- Women's No. 21 through 30.
July 24 -- Men's No. 21 through 30.
July 25 -- Women's No. 11 through 20.
July 26 -- Men's No. 11 through 20.
July 27 -- Women's No.10 through 1.
July 28 -- Men's No. 10 through 1.