- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
City and United Kansas Conference rivals Shawnee Heights and Seaman dominated Saturday's Class 6A-5A girls wrestling regional tournament at Seaman, with the T-Birds and Vikings going one-two in the team standings and the two schools combining for 18 qualifiers for the state meet at Park City.
Shawnee Heights' girls wrestling team followed up its United Kansas Conference championship with a Class 6A-5A regional team crown Saturday at Seaman. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman finished second in Saturday's Class 6A-5A regional girls wrestling tournament, qualifying eight of eight wrestlers for state. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Senior 190-pounder Lilly Blair was Shawnee Heights' lone individual champion, but the T-Birds also posted six runner-up finishes, two thirds and a fourth en route to a 173-147.5 margin over host Seaman.
"Everybody contributes,'' Shawnee Heights coach Chad Parks said. "We're freshman and sophomore heavy, which is exciting for the future, and then we have a couple of juniors and a couple of seniors in there, but overall we're a very young team.''
Blair improved to 19-9 on the season with a win by fall over Kansas City-Washington junior Breanna Neal at the 3-minute, 44-second mark of the second period.
Shawnee Heights got runner-up finishes from freshman 100-pounder Connie Burns, sophomore 125-pounder Reece Taylor, sophomore 130-pounder Isabel Reyes, sophomore 135-pounder Madison Freeland, 140-pound senior Hannah Sixkiller and junior 145-pounder McKenna Haltom, thirds from 110-pounder Odessa Schmidt and 155-pound freshman Cianna Graves and a fourth from junior 105-pounder Emberlynn Phillips.
The Vikings also had a big day, with all eight regional entrants earlying berths for the state meet Feb. 22 and 23 at Hartman Arena.
"We're good at taking second,'' joked Seaman coach Jordan Best, whose team had six open weight classes. "I can't complain. At the beginning of the year I looked at the lineup and I was kind of guessing as to what my starting lineup was and who would make it (to state). I had seven down, so getting eight was a good number, especially when that's all we had wrestling today.''
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Silver Lake's girls and boys basketball teams took a pair of rivalry wins over Rossville Friday night at Silver Lake, with the Eagle girls taking a 76-61 Mid-East League victory over the Bulldawgs and the Lake boys avenging an earlier loss to Rossville with a 58-41 win.
Junior Makenzie McDaniel scored a game-high 29 points in Silver Lake's 76-61 Mid-East League victory over Rossville Friday night. [File photo/TSN]
Junior Makenzie McDaniel powered No. 3-ranked Silver Lake with a 29-point performance Friday, including 20 points in the second half, as the Eagles improved to 16-1 overall and 7-1 in the league.
Silver Lake opened up a 22-8 lead at the end of the opening quarter, which proved to be the difference, as the Eagles outscored the Bulldawgs by just a 54-53 margin over the final three quarters.
Kaibryn Kruger and McKinley Kruger scored 12 points each to join McDaniel in double figures.
Rossville (12-5, 4-4) got 18 points from freshman Rylee Dick while juniors Emma Mitchell and Kinsey Perine added 14 points apiece for the Bulldawgs.
Silver Lake's boys bounced back from a seven-point loss to the Bulldawgs earlier in the season with Friday's 17-point win.
Friday's game was still tight at the end of the start of the fourth quarter, with Silver Lake holding a 43-36 advantage, before the Eagles closed with a 15-5 scoring edge over the final eight minutes.
Freshman Dayne Johnson paced Silver Lake (5-12, 4-4) with a game-high 16 points while senior Troy Heiman added 14 points and junior Elijah Lopez 13 points.
Rossville (6-11, 2-5) got 14 points from sophomore Tayson Horak, who canned four 3-pointers on the night.
EMPORIA GIRLS 37, TOPEKA HIGH 31 -- The No. 6-ranked (Class 5A) Emporia girls rallied down the stretch to take a 37-31 home Centennial League victory over No. 4 (6A) Topeka High.
- Details
By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
Class 5A No. 8-ranked Topeka West boys led 3-1 over Seaman on Friday night and it was the only lead of the game for the home team as the Vikings were able to pick up a key United Kansas Conference road victory while winning nearly wire-to-wire, 48-40.
Senior Aron Davis scored a game-high 14 points in Seaman's 48-40 UKC road victory at Topeka West Friday night. [Photo by Trevor Falcon/Special to TSN]
Seaman senior Kaeden Bonner scored 13 points in Seaman's 48-40 UKC win at Topeka West despite missing time with an injury. [Photo by Trevor Falcon/TSN]
“We have struggled over here and have struggled against them everywhere we play them, so to come into their place and get a win was outstanding for our guys and hopefully something that we can build on,” said Seaman coach Craig Cox.
The defensive slugfest of a game was the exact opposite of the first time the two teams matched up this year, a 74-64 win for the Chargers at Seaman on Dec. 6 in a game that senior starter Aron Davis did not play for the Vikings.
“He was a big factor defensively with a number of blocked shots and rebounds and his ability to score brought a lot for us that we didn’t have last time,” Cox said.
With the win Seaman moved to 9-7 on the year and 6-6 in the UKC while Topeka West fell to 12-5 and 9-4 with a second straight loss.
- Details
By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
In early December Seaman and Topeka West's girls squared off the second game of the season in a game that ended 60-26 in favor of the Vikings on their home floor. It was a nearly identical outcome in the second part of the home-and-home as Class 5A No. 1 Seaman (15-1 overall, 11-1 in the United Kansas Conference) won 60-28 over the Chargers (5-12, 4-9).
Junior Taylin Stallbaumer scored a game-high 23 points with four 3-pointers in Seaman's 60-28 UKC win at Topeka West. [Photo by Trevor Falcon/Special to TSN]
Seaman junior Anna Becker, who had 12 points, drives to the hoop in Friday's 60-28 UKC win over Topeka West. [Photo by Trevor Falcon/TSN]
“I thought the third quarter was big because we got back to being patient. That was one thing that we stressed,” said Seaman coach Matt Tinsley. “I just felt like we were calm, cool and collected, the game wasn’t sped up for us, and we were taking shots that we wanted to shoot.”
The top-ranked Vikings showed why they have that distinction with an 18-0 run to end the third quarter and put the game out of reach.
Many of those points, including buzzer-beating 3-pointers at the end of the first and second quarters, were from junior Taylin Stallbaumer, who had 23 points on the night.
“This team is very unselfish. Taylin, Anna (Becker), Maddie (Gragg), any one of those three can get us 20 any night and they recognize that. Tonight was Taylin’s night, and they fed her the ball and that’s what’s special about this team is that they play unselfishly,” Tinsley said.
Topeka West will be at home next week, taking on De Soto on Tuesday, while Seaman will be on the road against Leavenworth as the Vikings look for a 10-game winning streak in the final weeks of the regular season.
“We are on a good run here and we just have to continue to build on it and understand that we aren’t where we want to be yet and obviously we can still get better,” Tinsley said.
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Over the course of a long basketball season, even the most successful teams are likely to have nights where they're not at their best and have to find a way, and a will, to win.
Friday was one of those nights for the Centennial League-leading Washburn Rural boys, who stared defeat in the face, particularly at the end of regulation, to escape with a 43-39 overtime league win over Hayden at Rural.
Washburn Rural senior Jack Bachelor celebrates Friday's 43-39 overtime Centennial League win over Hayden at Rural. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Washburn Rural junior JC Heim (25) attempts to block a shot from Hayden's Joe Otting in the Junior Blues' 43-39 overtime win over the Wildcats. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"That's what we said in the locker room afterwards, that sometimes you've got to win ugly,'' Rural coach Alex Hutchins said. "Sometimes there's nights where easy shots aren't falling and you've got to find a way to get it done.
"We were proud of the way they kind of locked down and found a way.''
Washburn Rural, which improved to 13-4 overall and 6-1 in the league, led by a slight margin for most of the night, but missed opportunities to put the Wildcats away until opening the extra session with a 7-0 run and getting four free throws from senior Jack Bachelor over the final 33.5 seconds to clinch the Junior Blues' sixth straight victory.
