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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
TUESDAY'S GAMES
Connor Hanika, Hayden
EMPORIA (8-0, 0-0) at HAYDEN (3-5, 0-0)
Hayden is coming off a 79-60 non-league loss at Shawnee Heights on Friday while Emporia remained undefeated with a 73-38 non-league romp past Circle. Both the Wildcats and Spartans will be opening Centennial League play Tuesday. Senior Connor Hanika led Hayden with 20 points against Shawnee Heights while junior Mason Becker added 17 points.
Cam Ross, Shawnee Heights
DE SOTO (2-3, 0-2) at SHAWNEE HEIGHTS (3-3, 2-2)
Shawnee Heights evened its record at 3-3 with a 79-60 home win over Hayden last Friday while De Soto closed out 2025 with a 56-40 loss to Seaman on Dec. 19. Junior Cam Ross led Shawnee Heights with 28 points and four 3-pointers against Hayden while senior Ja'Veon Alston added 19 points with a pair of 3-pointers.
WABAUNSEE (5-1, 3-0) at CAIR PARAVEL (4-2, 2-0)
Cair Paravel Latin is off to a solid start, including a 60-39 Flint Hills League win over Chase County on Dec. 19, and faces a tough test Tuesday against a Wabaunsee team that is also unbeaten in league play after a 63-56 win over Osage City to close out 2025. Sophomore Chase Hastert leads Cair Paravel with a 16.3 scoring average and also pulls down 7.5 rebounds a game.
Keimani Paul, Topeka West
TOPEKA WEST (5-1, 4-0) at LEAVENWORTH (2-3, 1-2)
Topeka West will be looking to bounce back Tuesday after the No. 2-ranked (Class 5A) Chargers dropped a 53-49 non-league game at 6A Free State Monday night. Senior Keimani Paul led West with 19 points and four 3-pointers against the Firebirds while senior Malakyah Duncan added 12 points. Leavenworth dropped a 66-36 United Kansas Conference decision to Basehor-Linwood last Friday.
WASHBURN RURAL (5-2, 0-0) at JUNCTION CITY (4-2, 0-0)
Washburn Rural stretched its winning streak to four games with a 68-53 non-league win at Olathe West on Saturday while Junction City has won three straight games after a 56-53 win over Shawnee Mission North last time out. Sophomore Brooks Ballard scored 21 points with six 3-pointers in the Junior Blues' win over Olathe West. Tuesday's game is the Centennial League opener for both Rural and Junction City.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural girls basketball coach Kevin Bordewick knew that his No. 6-ranked Junior Blues were going to face a tough task to knock off No. 9 Olathe North Monday night.
Freshman Brynn Anderson scored 14 first-half points with three 3-pointers in Washburn Rural's 50-35 loss to Olathe North Monday night. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
And that task became a lot tougher after 6-foot freshman Brynn Anderson, who scored 14 first-half points with three 3-pointers, missed the second half for precautionary reasons after Anderson hit her head on the court after drawing a charging foul.
Olathe North, now 6-1 on the season, took advantage of Anderson's absence while also forcing 23 turnovers en route to a 50-35 road win.
"(Brynn) was shooting it well, she was in a great rhythm,'' Bordewick said. "(Losing her) took the wind out of our sails a little bit, but we're not going to make excuses. We've got other people that can play, other people on that floor.
"And it's not that you have to do what Brynn does, but we have to do what we can do as a team to do a little better than what we did.''
Anderson hit all three of her 3-pointers in the first quarter to help Rural (4-2) go up 14-7 and opened the second stanza with an old-fasioned 3-point play to give the Junior Blues a 17-7 advantage at the 6:48 mark of the second quarter.
But Olathe North used a 13-0 run to take a 20-17 advantage before Anderson scored her final points of the night with 22 seconds remaining to cut Rural's halftime deficit to a point at 20-19.
The Eagles took control with an 18-6 third quarter to build a 38-25 advantage and the Junior Blues got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Senior Hallie Walker scored 9 points and grabbed five rebounds in Washburn Rural's 50-35 loss to Olathe North Monday night. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSNl
Anderson was the lone Washburn Rural player to crack double figures while senior Hallie Walker added 9 points and senior Ella Hirschi 7 with a pair of 3-pointers.
Senior Asia Lee led Olathe North with a game-high 19 points while sophomore Lailah Boyd recorded a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
TUESDAY'S GAMES
EMPORIA (4-4, 0-0) at HAYDEN (6-2, 0-0)
The Spartans and Wildcats will open Centennial League play on Tuesday, with Hayden opening defense of the league title it captured last season. The Wildcats dropped a 38-36 non-league decision at Shawnee Heights last Friday, Hayden's second straight loss after six straight wins to start the season. Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein led Hayden with 16 points against the T-Birds while senior Lauren Borjon added 11 points. Emporia is coming off a 32-25 win over Circle.
KK Emmot, Shawnee Heights
DE SOTO (2-3, 1-1) at SHAWNEE HEIGHTS (4-3, 3-1)
Shawnee Heights climbed above .500 with a 38-36 non-league win over Hayden last Friday at home. T-Bird junior KK Emmot scored 9 of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning free throws with 2.9 seconds remaining. Shawnee Heights has now won three straight games after starting the season 1-3. De Soto dropped a 45-34 United Kansas Conference decision to Seaman to close out its pre-holiday slate.
WABAUNSEE (5-1, 2-1) at CAIR PARAVEL (3-3, 0-2)
Cair Paravel Latin ended its 2025 slate with a tight 40-37 Flint Hills League decision to Chase County while Wabaunsee is also coming off a loss, dropping a 68-37 league game to Osage City. London Backman leads CPLS with a 9.8 scoring average while Karsyn Hastert pulls down 5.7 rebounds per game.
Addaline Hall, Topeka West
TOPEKA WEST (1-5, 0-4) at LEAVENWORTH (3-2, 1-2)
Topeka West will be looking for its first United Kansas Conference victory Tuesday night at Leavenworth. Senior Addaline Hall leads the Chargers with a 10.8 scoring average while junior Sydney VanDyke averages 8.8 points and leads the city of Topeka in rebounding with 14.0 per game and in blocked shots with a 3.8 average.
Brynn Anderson, Washburn Rural
WASHBURN RURAL (4-2, 0-0) at JUNCTION CITY (1-4, 0-0)
Washburn Rural will be playing its second game of 2026 in as many nights, opening Centennial League play against the Blue Jays after dropping a 50-35 non-league decision to Olathe North Monday night. Junior Blue freshman Brynn Anderson scored 14 first-half points with three 3-pointers against Olathe North, but sat out the second half after an injury late in the first half. Senior Hallie Walker had 9 points and 5 rebounds for Rural.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
As we wade into the first full week of a new year, it's natural to get excited about the future.
But while we look ahead to 2026, it’s also important that we don't forget those we lost in 2025.
In '25 we said goodbye to Bob Uecker (baseball). George Foreman (boxing), D. Wayne Lukas (horse racing), Dave Parker (baseball), Ryne Sandberg (baseball), Davey Johnson (baseball), Ken Dryden (hockey), Bob Trumpy (football), Lenny Wilkens (basketball), Fuzzy Zoeller (golf) and Greg Biffle (auto racing), but the losses were also felt close to home.
Longtime local radio broadaster and TopSports.news founder Bill Griffin passed away at the age of 69 just 20 days into 2025 while WIBW, Kansas state and University of Nebraska broadcaster Greg Sharpe passed away on Feb. 14 at the age of 61.
The year was also marked by the passing of Hayden Hall of Famer Rick Strecker on June 28 at 67 years old, Washburn University basketball Hall of Famer Ryan Murphy on July 9 at 45 years old and Hayden Hall of Famer Tom Stringer on Nov. 28 at the age of 64 .
Here’s a brief look at the legacy the five Topeka sports figures left:
BILL GRIFFIN
TopSports.news founder and longtime local radio broadcaster Bill Griffin passed away on Jan. 20, 2025 at the age of 69 after a 10-month battle with esophageal cancer.
Bill Griffin, who passed away Monday at the age of 69, was recognized during a 2022 Washburn University football game in Yager Stadium. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Griffin grew up in the greater Kansas City area and played baseball and football at the University of Kansas before carving out a long multi-faceted business career in Topeka, including a stint as the general manager of the Heartland Park Topeka racing facility.
It was Griffin's brainchild in 2020 to launch TopSports.news, a website dedicated to Shawnee County high school and Washburn University sports, and he was the heart and soul of the organization from its debut on Jan. 1, 2021.
Griffin also put together a 30-year career broadcasting high school sports with Hall of Famer Mike Manns, with Griffin continuing to broadcast games during his cancer fight, working his final high school basketball doubleheader six days prior to his death.
Manns said his longtime broadcast partner was a perfectionist in everything he did.
"Even if he made a little mistake he just knocked himself out, feeling bad about making a mistake and making sure he never ever made that mistake again,'' Manns said. "He told me one time, 'This is something I really enjoy, I love doing games and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else with my life right now than doing games.' ''
GREG SHARPE
Former WIBW and Kansas State broadcaster and 17-year voice of the Nebraska Cornhuskers Greg Sharpe passed away on Feb. 14 at the age of 61 after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Former WIBW broadcaster and longtime voice of the Nebraska Cornhuskers Greg Sharpe passed away on Feb. 14 of 2025. [Roper & Sons Funeral Home]
Sharpe graduated from Stanley-Blue Valley High School in 1982 before earning a broadcast journalism degree at Kansas State.
Following graduation from K-State, Sharpe worked in both radio and television for WIBW in the sports department. Sharpe was hired as the voice of Kansas State in 1996 and called games for his alma mater until 2002. He then served as program director and hosted Sports Sanity for WIBW radio until he was hired as the voice of the University of Nebraska in 2007.
Sharpe was named sportscaster of the year twice in both Kansas and Nebraska and was inducted into the Kansas Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2024.
RICK STRECKER
Rick Strecker, a member of Hayden Catholic High School's first class of inductees into the school's Hall of Fame in 2021, passed away on June 28 at the age of 67 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Rick Strecker, who led Hayden to five state titles and served his alma mater in a variety of roles, passed away on June 28 after a battle with cancer. [File photo/TSN]
A 1976 Hayden graduate, Strecker served his alma mater as a physics and chemistry teacher, state championship coach, athletic director, principal and the school's president for nearly two decades before moving on to Blue Valley West in 2016.
Strecker, the student council president and athlete of the year as a senior at Hayden, led the Wildcats to three Class 4A state championships in girls basketball and two in track during his coaching career at the school.
Strecker continued to teach and coach in multiple sports at Blue Valley West, including serving as the Jaguars' head girls basketball coach, until being forced to step away after receiving his cancer diagnosis early in 2025.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Brooks Ballard
BROOKS BALLARD, Washburn Rural
A 6-foot-2 sophomore, Ballard connected on 6 of 10 3-point attempts and hit 7 of 11 shots overall and his only free throw attempt on the way to a career-high 21-point performance in Saturday's 68-53 non-league road victory at Olathe West, helping the Junior Blues improve to 5-2 on the season.
Hailey Caryl
HAILEY CARYL, Topeka High
Playing only her second game of the season after missing four games with an injury, the 5-foot-10 sophomore scored a career-high 26 points Friday night, including a 6 of 7 performance at the free throw line, as Topeka High posted its second straight victory, an 87-31 road decision over USD 501 rival Highland Park.
KK Emmot
KK EMMOT, Shawnee Heights
Emmot, a 5-foot-8 junior, scored 9 of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning free throws with 2.9 seconds remaining, as Shawnee Heights took a 38-36 home non-league victory over city rival Hayden Friday night. Emott scored 7 of the T-Birds' final 8 points as Heights improved to 4-3.
