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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The Washburn University football team hits the road for the first time this season, traveling to Golden, Colo. to face Colorado School of Mines at 1 p.m. CST on Saturday.
Washburn linebackers J.C. Heim (9) and L.J. Minner Jr. are both among the top tacklers in the MIAA. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The Ichabods are 1-1 after falling in their MIAA to Northwest Missouri State 34-7 last Saturday while the Orediggers are 1-0 after opening the season with a 33-31 win at West Texas A&M.
"It may sound weird, but I like the way the first two weeks have gone where we've had some success and confidence and the guys know we're doing it the right way and we can win,'' Washburn coach Zach Watkins said. "Obviously, you never want to losea game, but I think that loss and the way we lost kind of re-focused us in practice and showed us some weaknesses that we had to address.
"Sometimes wins can gloss over some things, but I think we're a better team now than we were going into last week.''
Mines took a 31-28 win over Washburn last season in Yager Stadium.
The Ichabods are 13-6 all-time against the Orediggers after having their six-game winning streak snapped last season.
"It's another playoff-caliber team on our schedule and the long road trip and the two-day travel and all of that will be a challenge, but you have to manage it and it's part of college football,'' Watkins said. "We'll have to play well to win.''
Former Washburn Rural star J.C. Heim is second in the MIAA in tackles with 26 for the Ichabods and L.J. Minner Jr. is fourth with 24 stops. Minner has recorded double-digit tackles in each of his last five games dating back to last season.
Heim led the Ichabods with a career-high 15 tackles against Northwest while Minner had 13 tackles.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 12-ranked Washburn University volleyball will play at home for the first time in 2025 on Friday and Saturday in the Washburn Invitational, playing four matches in the two-day event.
Washburn volleyball, 4-0 and ranked No. 12 in the nation, will host its invitational tournament this weekend in Whiting Fieldhouse. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn will play its 2025 home schedule in Whiting Fieldhouse as renovations continue in Lee Arena.
"I think we're really excited,'' said sophomore outside hitter Keilah Rivers, who earned Oredigger Classic All-Tournament Team honors last weekend after recording 25 kills with four aces, 27 digs and seven blocks. "Unfortunately we can't play in Lee as it's getting re-done, but I think we've just kind of switched our mindset to being like, 'Oh, we can't play in Lee, but we get to play in Whiting.'
"We get to make that our own gym. We're the only team that gets to play in there, so we're just going in with the mindset that we're going to be undefeated in our own gym and we're going to make that place our own.''
Veteran Washburn coach Chris Herron had similar thoughts.
"I'm anxious to see it because we have never played up there in a match,'' Herron said. "I know it's going to be loud, I know it's going to be tight. We'd like to be playing in Lee, but we're going to make the most of this year and we're going to try to use that to our advantage, the loudness and the tightness and all of that stuff.''
The Ichabods open the tournament against Truman State at 11 a.m. on Friday and will face Minnesota State-Moorhead in the nightcap. On Day 2 Washburn will take on Newman at 10 a.m. and William Jewell at 6 p.m. in the tournament finale.
The tournament will include Washburn, Emporia State and Newman out of the MIAA, while Truman State and William Jewell will come from the GLVC and Minnesota State-Moorhead from the NSIC.
The Ichabods enter the weekend with a 4-0 record after opening the season at the Oredigger Classic with an undefeated record, including three sweeps and a 3-1 win in a dominating performance.
"To be honest with you, at the end of the weekend I didn't know if we were that good or maybe it was just not very good teams,'' Herron said. "And then (Tuesday night) the No. 2 team in the country is Angelo State and they got beat 3-0 by Colorado Christian, who we beat 3-0, so it makes me feel better.
"The greatest thing about the weekend for me was just seeing how well our kids get along and how much they like each other and that's really cool. And the other thing was we got to play everybody and with 22 kids I'm excited that everybody got some game experience.''
Austin Broadie leads the Washburn offense with 34 kills while hitting .364, second best on the team. She has started all four matches and also has logged 10 blocks with nine digs. The senior has two double-digit kill matches.
Senior Corinna McMullen has started all four matches this season to lead Washburn with 80 assists. She has also chipped in three service aces while tying for second on the team with 34 digs. McMullen has recorded two matches with 20-plus assists and two double-doubles.
Alex Dvorak leads WU with 20 blocks on the season while starting all four matches. Offensively she has 21 kills along with hitting .362, third best on the team. She has recorded five or more blocks in two matches. Dvorak earned Oredigger Classic All-Tournament honors.
Junior Taylor Rottinghaus has started all four games as the libero, leading the team with 47 digs. She has chipped in 12 assists while serving four aces as well. Rottinghaus has a season-high of 15 digs this season.
Senior Bella Limback is slashing a team-high .735 with 25 kills while starting all four matches. She has also added 10 blocks and served an ace. She has hit over .500 in every match on the season.
Sophomore Brynne Topolski is second on the Ichabods with 32 kills while hitting .344 and recording eight blocks. She has come off the bench in all four matches and earned a spot on the Oredigger Classic All-Tournament team.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Four Shawnee County schools earned Top 10 spots in the Kansas Volleyball Association's Week 1 state rankings released Wednesday, led by Class 4A No. 1 Hayden and 3A top-ranked Silver Lake.
Hayden volleyball is ranked No. 1 in the KVA Week 1 Class 4A state rankings. [File photo/TSN]
Silver Lake volleyball holds down the No. 1 spot in the KVA Class 3A rankings after starting the seaon 7-0. [Photo by Silver Lake volleyball]
Hayden, 4-0 at the time of the rankings, moved up from its preseason No. 2 ranking in 4A while while Silver Lake, 7-0, jumped all the way from No. 8 in preseason to the No. 1 spot in 3A.
Rossville, 7-0, also made a big jump in 2A, moving from 10th in preseason to No. 4.
Washburn Rural, 4-2, remained No. 5 in 6A after also being ranked fifth in preseason.
Current classifications for the rankings are based on enrollments from the 2024-25 school year.
The rankings will be adjusted when the updated KSHSAA classifications are released at the end of September.
Kansas Volleyball Association Week 1 State Rankings
Class 6A
1. Mill Valley 2-1
2. Blue Valley West 3-0
3. Olathe West 3-1
4. Olathe Northwest 3-1
5. Washburn Rural 4-2
6. Blue Valley North 2-2
7. Manhattan 3-2
8. Lawrence Free State 6-2
9. Garden City 5-2
10. Wichita Northwest 2-0
Class 5A
1. St. Thomas Aquinas 3-1
2. Blue Valley Southwest 3-1
3. St. James Academy 8-1
4. Maize South 12-1
5. Bishop Carroll 7-0
6. Lansing 4-2
7. Kapaun Mt. Carmel 4-3
8. De Soto 3-0
9. Salina South 6-1
10. Salina Central 6-1
Class 4A
1. Hayden 4-0
2. Bishop Miege 0-2
3. Clay Center 7-1
4. Andale 7-0
5. Holton 7-1
6. Rock Creek 8-2
7. Concordia 5-3
8. McPherson 4-3
9. Eudora 0-3
10. Mulvane 5-2
Class 3A
1. Silver Lake 7-0
2. Hoisington 7-1
3. Hesston 6-1
4. Halstead 3-3
5. Beloit 5-1
6. Nemaha Central 5-3
7. Neodesha 2-0
8. Riley County 6-2
9. Girard 2-0
10. Jefferson West 7-1
Class 2A
1. Ellinwood 3-0
2. Moundridge 7-0
3. Sedgwick 9-2
4. Rossville 7-0
5. Maranatha Christian 1-0
6. Inman 5-2
7. Oakley 9-0
8. Medicine Lodge 9-1
9. Hillsboro 4-3
10. Valley Heights 5-3
Class 1A Division 1
1. Little River 3-1
2. Rock Hills 4-0
3. South Gray 9-1
4. Centralia 6-1
5. Spearville 4-1
6. Greeley County 5-2
7. Olpe 5-2
8. Clifton-Clyde 1-1
9. Flinthills 3-1
10. Pretty Prairie 4-4
Class 1A Division II
1. Ingalls 7-0
2. Marais des Cygnes Valley 5-1
3. Hanover 0-2
4. Argonia 3-0
5. Cheylin 4-1
6. Lebo 1-1
7. Attica 5-1
8. Linn 2-0
9. Dighton 4-1
10. Victoria 4-0
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By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights' soccer team used its speed and attacking style to post eight scores in the first half against Cair Paravel Latin Monday at the Bettis Family Sports Complex, taking an 8-0 non-league win.
Senior Camden Granado sliced through the Lions’ defense for four goals to lead the T-Birds.
The game gave the T-Birds a boost of confidence going into a match versus Topeka High on Thursday at Hummer Sports Park. For Class 2A Cair Paravel, it was a chance to challenge itself against a much bigger school.
Defeating Cair Paravel was another step in the journey for the T-Birds who bounced back with a win last Thursday over Free State after dropping the season opener at Washburn Rural.
“Opening with Rural, that was a pretty tough way to open the season,” Shawnee Heights coach Nic Simons said. “But we bounced back really well against a great Free State team, and it was great to see us come out tonight and kind of take care of some things and get things where we want going into Thursday against Topeka High.”
The Lions held Shawnee Heights off the board for the first five minutes of the game. But once Granado got rolling, the T-Birds took command. They netted four goals in the next nine minutes, three of them off the foot of the senior captain.
“To score as many goals as we did in the first half just gives us confidence in our offense,” Granado said. “I can’t take the credit because (my teammates) did great getting me the ball. We did great just making passes in order to move the ball up the field.”
“Some of the creativity on the offensive side of the field is kind of what I’ve been wanting to see,” Simons said. “And I think our ability to push the ball up the field is something that we’re going to need to bring on Thursday.
Once the T-Birds were comfortably in the lead, Simons began substituting liberally.
“It’s good for us to get some guys some experience,” Simons said. “We played quite a few sophomores off our bench tonight and it was incredible to see some of those guys step on the field and give us some great minutes.
“We knew coming into the season that we could have a good team. Almost everybody played varsity last year,” Granado said. “It’s just living up to those expectations. Obviously, we have goals that are going to come later in the season, but it’s just working towards them every game and making sure that every game matters.”
Though the score wasn’t what the Lions would have liked, they had several near misses that kept things interesting. Coach Mark Congdon believed trying to match the speed and intensity of the 5A T-Birds was a good learning experience.
“We’ve got more experience than we usually do, but we’re still starting several freshmen and sophomores,” Congdon said. “They were a little bit shell-shocked – this was a pace of play they hadn’t experienced before. They were chasing their tails most of the night.
“We played a team last night that is struggling and having a down year, so we mercy-ruled somebody last night, and tonight we get mercy-ruled. So, it was great to see both sides of the spectrum, to learn things like how to play with class no matter what the score is.”
Congdon said he expects this to be the best team the Lions have fielded in the last several years. Playing a powerful opponent early in the season can be to their benefit.
“That’s great soccer. How can we mimic that?” Congdon said. “I told the guys, 'You learn from your opponent. What made them so difficult to defend? What were the passes that broke our backs? What things can we take into the rest of our season and copy them?’ ”
Congdon noted a goal scored by Cair Paravel senior Nathan Keys that was wiped out by an offside penalty.
“This is the first game Nathan Keys was shut out since 2023,” Congdon said. “He scored in every game last year, and in our first three games this year. That (call) was unfortunate because I thought he might keep his streak going.”
SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 8, CAIR PARAVEL 0
Cair Paravel (2-2-0) 0 X — 0
Shawnee Heights (2-1-0) 8 X — 8
Shawnee Heights — Goals: Granado 4, Curvelo-Montenegro 2, Lindecrantz, Retana. Assists: Lilly. Shutout: Arteaga.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural boys soccer coach Brian Hensyel knew that visiting Blue Valley West would present a tough challenge in Tuesday night's non-league game and that's exactly what he wanted.
Senior Dylan Willingham scored a pair of goals, giving him seven on the season, in Washburn Rural's 3-2 double-overtime loss to Blue Valley West Tuesday at Rural. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
And even though the Junior Blues dropped a 3-2 double-overtime heartbreaker at McElroy Field, the veteran coach is counting on the loss to make Rural better as the 2025 season wears on.
"No. 1, we always want to play the best teams we can play,'' Hensyel said. "The only way you're prepared to play people at the end is to play teams like Blue Valley West, we play Blue Valley North later in the year and we take a trip to Iowa and play some good teams. You have to test them and we told our guys before the game, we've won a couple of games and we've been pretty impressive doing it, but we needed to play somebody really good and they're good.
"So from the perspective of the third game of the year, playing a really good team, it's good for us to kind of find out where we were. And what we found out is we can be pretty good and we had a pretty good first half and put in a couple of set piece goals, which is something that we do. I thought we just let off the gas and let off the energy a little bit to start the second half.''
Washburn Rural, now 2-1, jumped out in front 2-0 at halftime on a pair of goals from senior star Dylan Willingham, but Blue Valley West (4-1) battled back with two second-half goals to force overtime and scored the game-winning goal with just 42 seconds remaining in the second OT.
Willingham put Rural up 1-0 when he converted a free kick with 16:10 left in the opening half and added a second goal, his seventh of the season, off an assist from senior Brandon Hamilton with 7:06 remaining in the half.
