- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's soccer team lost its head coach midway through the second half of Tuesday's Class 6A quarterfinal against Derby, but not the game, with the Juniors advancing to the state semifinals for the third straight season with a 3-2 win at McElroy Field.
Washburn Rural senior Cayden Lee (3) advances the ball against Derby's Angel Vielmas in Tuesday's 3-2 Junior Blue win in a Class 6A state quarterfinal. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural celebrates its 3-2 state quarterfinal win over Derby Tuesday night at McElroy Field. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
The Junior Blues, who improved to 16-3-0, trailed 1-0 after an early penalty kick and had to protect a slim one-goal advantage over the final 26:33, but got the job done, moving on to a Friday 6A semifinal at Wichita's Stryker Field.
The game included multiple yellow cards and a rare red-card ejection for veteran Junior Blues coach Brian Hensyel, who picked up yellow and red cards in rapid-fire succession with 22:49 remaining while attempting to discuss an official's decision.
Longtime assistant David Chooncharoen guided the Junior Blues the rest of the game, with Rural able to hold on for the win.
Chooncharoen, Rural's junior varsity coach and a longtime assistant, said he wasn't nervous about taking over the team down the stretch.
- Details
By JOSH ROUSE
Special to TopSports.news
Topeka anglers Nick and Kyle Herrman followed up their season-opening win on Wilson Reservoir earlier in the month with a top-five finish during the second of two Kansas BASS Nation high school tournaments this past weekend on Milford Reservoir.
Topeka's Nick and Kyle Herrman took fourth place Sunday, Oct. 30, at Milford Lake near Junction City with 4.72 pounds of fish. [Submitted]
The twins posted 4.72 pounds of fish Sunday, Oct. 30, to finish fourth in their second tournament, which was the fourth overall tournament in the high school division this season.
"We were throwing a different bait than the other teams and were catching fish behind boats," Kyle Herrman said. "We would also mix in a drop shot when we weren’t getting bit. We managed to catch one keeper in about three to five feet of water, and our best keeper came in less than one-and-a-half feet of water. What didn’t go as planned was the size of the fish we would catch. Usually in the area we were fishing, when we caught a fish, it was a pretty good one."
Circle’s Trevor Cowman and Cooper Chadwell won the tournament with 7.46 pounds, followed by Buhler’s Evan Goering and Reid Stubbs in second place with 5.77 pounds. Hanover’s Maxwell Sawin and Brandt Beikmann took third place Sunday with 4.77 pounds, narrowly edging the Herrman twins out of the top three. Kickback Club’s Gavin Essex and Hayden Seume rounded out the top five Sunday with 4.45 pounds.
But the big bag of the weekend came the day before.
The Basehor-Linwood Bobcat Bass team of Cydney and Colton Hutchinson won the weekend’s first high school event on Saturday, Oct. 29, posting a 15.51-pound bag with a big fish of 4.21 pounds to blow the other competition out of the water. Manhattan’s Jacob Harmon and Isaac Lopez took second place with 4.48 pounds, followed by Kickback’s Philip Cooper and Leo Cain with 4.35. The fourth-place Bobcat Bass team of Joey Batesal and Agustaf Ulreich caught just one fish, but it was the second-largest fish of the day at 2.55 pounds. Sawin and Beikmann had similar luck, netting a 2.40-pounder for fifth place.
The Herrmans currently sit in second place in the Opens Division Angler of the Year standings with 19.39 points, trailing only Louisburg's Lucas Sheafer (23.38). The Hutchinsons are in third place with 17.44 points, followed by Kickback's Cale Harlan and Derek Landis in fourth with 17.01 and Buhler's Drew Stivers and Logan Snyder in fifth with 16.95.
"It feels pretty good to have a good start to the season," Nick Herrman said. "We have put in a lot of effort for the two tournaments we have had so far, and it's nice that our hard work has paid off. We will need to stay patient in the spring tournaments and we need to start throwing what we plan on throwing in the tournament now so we can gain confidence in those baits and techniques."
In the West Division AOY standings, Welch and Coughlin lead the way with 20.76 points, followed by Sawin and Beikmann with 17.94 for second place. Rounding out the top five are Circle's Brooks Clevenger and Hal Leep with 16.46, Cowman and Chadwell with 14.28 and Essex/Seume with 14.07.
The KBN youth fishing season is on hiatus now through the winter break and will pick back up in the spring, with tournaments April 1 and 2 on Melvern Lake. The anglers will then head to Perry Lake to wrap up the regular season with tournaments April 29 and 30, with the two-day state championship June 1-2 on La Cygne.
JUNIORS
In the juniors division, Kickback’s Sam Keely and Braydyn Stubenrauch scored back-to-back victories on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the pair won narrowly, weighing one fish for 2.38 pounds to top Wheat State Anglers’ Caleb and Isaac Toubia, who weighed 2.28 pounds. On Sunday, the victory was less narrow, as they weighed 4.81 pounds of fish to outlast the only other team competing in Hanover’s Aysha and Myles Wolfgang. The Wolfgangs were runners up despite posting the big fish of the day at 2.47 pounds.
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
As soon as Washburn University completes its 2022 volleyball season, Ichabod 6-foot redshirt freshman hitter Austin Broadie will switch gears and join the WU women's basketball team.
Washburn redshirt freshman Austin Broadie spikes the ball in a volleyball match earlier this season for the 20-6 Ichabods. [File photo/TSN]
Former Wichita Trinity standout Austin Broadie is a two-sport athlete in basketball and volleyball for Washburn University. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
But the two-sport athlete is in no hurry.
"Hopefully we go all the way in volleyball, but once volleyball stops then I'll start up with basketball,'' said Broadie, who is doubling up for the second straight year.
Broadie said that both first-year WU women's basketball coach Lora Westling and veteran Ichabod volleyball coach Chris Herron have been supportive of her desire to play both sports.
"I was a little worried about it this year since it was a new basketball coach, but (coach Westling) came in and she was willing to work with me and (coach Herron) has been cool with it.''
In fact, the opportunity to be a two-sport athlete is what cemented Broadie's decision to attend Washburn.
"A majority of it was being able to play both sports,'' said Broadie, a former multi-sport standout at Wichita Trinity Academy. "Coach (Ron McHenry's) daughters (Dani and Sami) played both for them so (Washburn) had a good understanding and experience with that because they had done it before.
"The facilities here are great, the coaches are great, but it was mainly the coaches and how they dealt with a player doing both sports that made me pick Washburn.''
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The 2022-23 Washburn Ichabods will open their 118th season of men's basketball Tuesday night with a 7 p.m. exhibition game at Kansas State, which will be making its debut under new coach Jerome Tang.
"I love playing in the bigger gyms and playing against tougher competition,'' said Ichabod 6-foot-6 sophomore Michael Keegan, a top returner for the Ichabods. "It really tests who you are as a person but also as a team. It will be really fun.''
Michael Keegan (right) is a top returner for Washburn men's basketball after being named the MIAA Freshman of the Year last season. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn men's basketball coach Brett Ballard has led the Ichabods to four NCAA Tournament berths in five seasons. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods are coming off a 22-11 season while recording the program's fourth 20-win season and fourth NCAA Tournament berth in coach Brett Ballard's five seasons at the school.
Ballard is104-49 record at Washburn while Tang takes over at K-State after 19 seasons as an assistant at Baylor, helping lead the Bears to the 2021 national championship.
The Wildcats, picked 10th in the Big 12 preseason poll, return All-Big 12 honorable mention pick Markquis Nowell (12.4 points, 5.0 assists) and junior Ish Massourd (6.8 points, 2.8 rebounds) and signed seven additional players, including five transfers and two freshmen. Kansas State was 14-17 overall and 6-12 in the Big 12 a year ago.
Keegan said the Ichabods have been doing whatever they can to get ready for the new-look Wildcats.
"With a new coach it's kind of tougher, but we'll definitely get a scout one way or another and have an idea of what they're going to try to do and definitely have a game plan for what we're going to do,'' Keegan said.
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Katie Borough
KATIE BOROUGH, Washburn Rural
A 5-foot-7 senior libero, Borough helped Washburn Rural win the Class 6A state volleyball title Saturday in Salina, with the Junior Blues capping a 45-1 season with a 25-21, 26-24 win over Blue Valley in the state championship match, Rural's 44th straight win. Saturday's championship was the eighth in Rural school history and first since 2012.
Easton Bradstreet
EASTON BRADSTREET, Washburn Rural
A senior forward, Bradstreet scored a pair of goals in Rural's 5-1 soccer win over Wichita Northwest in last Thursday's Class 6A regional final, earning a share of the school career scoring record. Bradstreet is currently tied with former Junior Blues star Austin Halsey with 57 career goals and has 29 goals on the season, one behind Halsey's single-season record of 30.
Brooklyn DeLeye
BROOKLYN DELEYE, Washburn Rural
The 6-foot-2 senior was a dominant force throughout the Class 6A state tournament, helping lead 45-1 Washburn Rural to the eighth state volleyball championship in school history, capped by a 25-21, 26-24 win over Blue Valley. Also a state champ in basketball, DeLeye played on Rural volleyball teams that finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th at state over her four seasons.
