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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
The Washburn Rural volleyball team is returning to the Class 6A state tournament again after a clean sweep at sub-state.
Washburn Rural rolled over its sub-state competitors Saturday afternoon at Washburn Rural, improving to 40-1 on the season.
Washburn Rural volleyball poses with its championship trophy after winning Saturday's Class 6A sub-state tournament while improving to 40-1 on the season. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
With a 25-6, 25-6 semifinal win over Dodge City and a 25-12, 25-11 over Centennial League rival Manhattan, the Junior Blues punched their ticket to the 6A state tournament next Friday and Saturday at the Tony's Pizza Events Center in Salina.
"Every year is different, but the feeling never gets old," Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said. "We know we have a lot of things to do to get better, but we have four days of practice to work on it.
"We can't think about a championship yet because we need to take it one day at a time."
Washburn Rural senior Brooklyn DeLeye, regarded as one of the best volleyball players in the nation, was a difference maker on Saturday.
The Kentucky commit's serves, shiftiness and kills in the sub-state matches gave the Lady Blues the boost they needed.
"I don't know if I would be the player I am today without all of the support that I have been given," DeLeye said. "Being in this gym for the last four years has been life-changing. It's going to be sad not to play volleyball in this gym again. I've come so far since I got here.
"I couldn't have done any of this without my teammates. They have always had my back. My teammates have made me better on and off the court. I wouldn't be anywhere without my teammates."
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's cross country team came up short in its bid for regional team championships Saturday at Manhattan, but both Junior Blue teams earned runner-up team finishes at Warner Park to earn berths for next Saturday's Class 6A state meet at Rim Rock Farm, north of Lawrence.
Rural's girls finished just two points behind Free State (45-47) while the Firebirds also claimed the boys title, by a 35-61 margin over the Junior Blues.
Washburn Rural's girls cross country team finished second in Saturday's Class 6A regional at Manhattan, just two points behind Free State. [Twitter photo/Washurn Rural cross country]
Washburn Rural's boys cross country team finished second in Saturday's Class 6A regional at Manhattan to earn a berth in the 6A state meet. [Twitter photo/Washurn Rural cross country]
Sophomore Payton Fink made it a sweep of individual city, Centennial League and regional titles with a win in a five-kilometer time of 18:49.90 while her Rural teammate, senior Madeline Carter, was second in 19:08.40.
Rural also got a 12th-place finish from sophomore Rylee Ismert (20:46.20) while freshman Vilde Tronstad (21:08.30) was 14th and sophomore Brooklyn Nolte (21:34.10) 21st to round out the Junior Blues' top five.
Senior Christine Gutierrez (21:54.50) and junior Sydney Laster (22:07.70) added 26th and 27th-place finishes.
Senior Easton Dial paced Rural's boys, finishing second in 16:49.20.
Seniors Davin Johnson (17:18.60) and Grayson Fink (17:21.10) also posted top-10 finishes, with Johnson seventh and Fink ninth, while junior Hayden Keller (17:51.70), sophomore Conner Olsen (17:54.30) and senior Trevor Cain (18:04.30) finished 21st, 22nd and 23rd.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University's football team found the best way to get over heartbreaking loss -- a runaway win.
After taking a 32-30 last-second loss the previous week at nationally-ranked Northwest Misouri, the Ichabods rolled to a 37-9 Homecoming win over Central Oklahoma on Saturday at Yager Stadium, improving to 5-3 on the season.
Washburn senior star James Letcher Jr. scores his third touchdown of the day on a 78-yard punt return in Saturday's 37-9 Homecoming win over Central Oklahoma. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
James Letcher Jr. (left) celebrates his third touchdown of Saturday's 37-9 win over Central Oklahoma with teammate Andrew Pujado. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"This was huge, huge,'' Washburn coach Craig Schurig said. "The kids were good all week but you just tell that type of loss we had last week still stung and it was still on everyone's mind.
"This helps a lot and we played real well. We didn't wallow in it and the leadership of our seniors really took over.''
Washburn senior defensive back Channon Ross, who had one of the Ichabods' three interceptions against Central Oklahoma, said that after being burned on Northwest's game-winning drive, it was important for the Ichabod defense to show out Saturday.
"All week in practice the defense felt like it was on us last week,'' Ross said. "The offense played great, so we felt like this game was us. Everybody was looking at us thinking they could throw the ball and we had to make them pay for it.
"I think we responded very well and did what we had to do.''
After a scoreless first quarter, Kameron Lake got the Ichabods on the scoreboard with a 26-yard field goal with 6:47 to play in the second quarter, capping a 16-play, 66-yard drive to take a 3-0 lead.
After the Ichabods forced a punt, Washburn then wrapped up the opening half with a 15-play, 87-yard drive, capped by Kellen Simoncic's 1-yard run on a quarterback keeper.
Washburn the proceeded to dominate the second half, opening up a commanding 37-3 advantage midway through the fourth quarter.
"We just wanted to continue to keep playing hard,'' said Washburn senior James Letcher Jr., who had three touchdowns on the day. "We knew what we were trying to do. A lot of stuff we tried in the first half wasn't really working so we fixed that in the second half.''
UCO took the opening kickoff of the second half and went backwards one yard in its three plays. Ater a 33-yard punt Washburn needed five plays to march 57 yards in 87 seconds, with Ichabod record-holder Letcher taking a direct snap and scoring from 12 yards out to put Washburn up 16-0 with 12:31 to play in the third quarter.
The Ichabods; Brendan Harden picked off a pass on a Broncho third-down play and returned it to the UCO 20, setting up Simoncic's to 11-yard TD pass to Letcher that stretched Washburn's lead to 23-0.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman's girls cross country team entered Saturday's Class 5A regional at Kanza Park as a heavy favorite and lived up to that billing, with the Vikings placing all of their top five runners in the top 10 on the way to a decisive 22-46 victory over Lansing in the team standings.
Seaman's girls won the team title in Saturday's Class 5A regional cross country meet at Kanza Park by a 22-46 margin over Lansing. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman freshman Ryin Miller finished second individually in Saturdays Class 5A cross country regional, helping lead the Vikings to the team championship. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"I felt really good about it,'' Seaman coach Rick Brading said. "We had a couple of kids who were kind of running all by themselves and that's a hard way to run. And then this is a place where you go out too fast, so a couple of them suffered a little from going out really hard, but in the end we had good performances.
"Kids ran well and we kind of ran where I thought we would be.''
:Freshman Ryin Miller (18:36.38) senior Bethany Druse (19:41.27) and sophomore Stella Appelhanz (19:51.90) finished second, third and fourth behind individual champion Grace Hanson of Piper while the Vikings also got an eighth-place finish from senior Leah Spurlock (20:06.08) and a 10th from junior Savannah Sampson (20:40.25).
Sophomore Anna Becker added a 14th-place finish (21:11.44) and junior Elinor Stallbaumer a 25th-place finish (22:13.40).
"We wanted to take a positive experience into the state meet and it has been,'' Brading said. "I think the kids feel good about it because you run fast here.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka schools swept the boys titles in Saturday's Class 5A cross country regional at Kanza Park, with Topeka West senior Lenny Njoroge posting a 30-second individual win and Shawnee Heights placing three runners in the top eight places en route to winning the team title by a 53-61 margin over Lansing.
Shawnee Heights won the boys team championship in Saturday's Class 5A cross country regional at Kanza Park. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Topeka West senior Lenny Njoroge and Shawnee Heights junior Jackson Esquibel finished one-two in Saturday's Class 5A cross country regional at Kanza Park. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Njoroge, who also plays soccer for the Chargers, continued his dominant season, posting a winning five-kilometer time of 15 minutes, 17.04 seconds while earning his third 5A state berth in as many tries.
"I felt so good,'' said Njoroge, a two-time state placer. "I was ready, I felt prepared. We only had one (soccer) game this whole week so I had time to recover and relax.
"Coming into this race I was really ready and happy.''
Shawnee Heights junior Jackson Esquibel (15:47.09) and senior Kory Sutton (16:04.25) finished second and third behind Njoroge and senior Andrew Emerson (16:55.86) added an eighth-place finish as the Heights trio powered the T-Birds to the eight-point win in the team race.
Evan Carter finished 13th (17:16.88) and Landon Staniec 27th (18:29.42) to round out the T-Birds' top five.
"I'm real excited about how our team's developed and I hope we can get top-five at state,'' Esquibel said.
Sutton was also thrilled with the T-Birds' team win Saturday.
"That was the goal. That's what we were all looking to do today,'' Sutton said. "I felt like everybody did their part, everybody did well. We've been working towards doing well at regionals and then hopefully doing the best we can next week and compete with some of the top teams.''
