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Created: 23 February 2025

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

It took some waiting and a lot of snow shoveling, but the Washburn University softball team finally got the opportunity to play its home openers on Sunday, running its winning streak to four games with a pair of victories in the Washburn Invitational at Gahnstrom Field.

Washburn opened its tournament bid in the delayed event with a 9-3 win over Missouri S&T, followed by a 4-3 victory over Minot State.

Junior Sadie Walker picked up her fifth pitching win of the season in Sunday night's 4-3 Washburn win over Minot State. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]

Washburn went through some ups and downs, not a surprise given how early it is in the season, but veteran coach Brenda Holaday was pleased overall with her team's performance.

"I thought we had a lot more positives than we had negatives, but our negatives are things we can clean up and will clean up,'' Holaday said. "The first game we had a couple of errors that gave them the runs they had, but I liked our response to that. It was early in the game and I thought we really took control after that and had some good defensive plays and had good pitching and some key hits. The second game was a lot tighter game.''

The Ichabods will be back in action on Monday at 3:30 p.m., hosting Concordia-St. Paul, followed by a contest against Minnesota Crookston in the nightcap.

The Ichabods, 9-4 on the season after Sunday's wins, jumped on the Miners (0-11) in their first at bat in Sunday's opener, scoring three runs on four hits to take a 3-0 lead.

Erin Boles led off the inning with a single and then, after Makenzie Sais singled down the third base line, Kaylee Wagner singled to score Boles.

Sais then stole third and scored on a throwing error. Kate Ediger finished the inning with a single, scoring Wagner as the Ichabods took a 3-0 lead.

The Miners came back with three runs of their own in the top of the second to tie the score, but in the next Ichabod at bat in the bottom of the frame, Jaden LaBarge led off the inning with a solo home run to center field.

Wagner picked up her second RBI of the day, scoring Sais who singled and then stole second base.

Washburn then scored on a passed ball to go in front, 6-3.

Washburn added three more runs in the fifth inning when Mariah Wheeler doubled to left with a pinch-hit RBI and LaBarge picked up a sac fly, scoring Ellington Hogle. Danielle Schlader continued the inning with a single, driving in Wheeler to wrap up the scoring.

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Created: 23 February 2025

BY ISAAC DEER

TopSports.news

After not being able to practice on its own field and the weather forcing them to take serious time off, the Washburn Ichabods baseball team looked like it was in midseason form after sweeping an MIAA doubleheader against the University of Central Oklahoma on Sunday at Falley Field.

Washburn's Darian Duhon (right) is congratulated by his teammates after hitting a first-game home run against Central Oklahoma Sunday at Falley Field. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Connor Scott hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to give Washburn a 4-3 win in Game 1 and a barrage of runs in the early innings in the second game helped the Ichabods win, 10-5.

Washburn coach Harley Douglas was content with the way the Ichabods showed out in the home opener, especially with Mother Nature forcing them to pause for a couple of weeks.

“It was tremendous,” Douglas said. “We haven’t even been out on our field to practice yet. This was our first chance to really play on it. Being able to go out there and do that and also UCO is a great team. I thought we went toe-to-toe with them today and played pretty well, for the most part. Pretty good in the month of February to go out and get a couple of wins.”

Washburn's Cash Jay, applying a tag, drove in the Ichabods' first run in a 4-3 first-game victory over Central Oklahoma. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Washburn scored first in the opener after Cash Jay drove in Jett Buck off an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning to give the Ichabods an early 1-0 lead.

UCO temporarily tied the game in the fourth inning with an RBI single. The Ichabods broke the 1-1 tie after Darian Duhon hit a solo home run to give Washburn a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning.

UCO capitalized on a Washburn error on the throwdown from home plate to second base in the top of the sixth inning. The Broncho runner made it from first to third, which led to a sacrifice bunt in the following at-bat to score the runner from third to tie the game 2-2. Another throwdown mis-fire occurred on a UCO batter stealing from first. The ball went into the outfield, scoring a UCO runner to break the tie, 3-2.

Washburn’s Easton Bruce brought the game even after a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the eighth to tie it, 3-3.

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Created: 23 February 2025

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Washburn Rural, coming off a third-place team finish in last year's Class 6A state tournament, placed third Saturday in the Garden City 6A West regional, with the Junior Blues qualifying 10 wrestlers for Friday and Saturday's state meet at Overland Park.

Washburn Rural senior Easton Broxterman (top) will be aiming for his third straight Class 6A state wrestling championship this weekend in Overland Park. [File photo/TSN]

Rural, which scored 218.5 points to finish behind Manhattan and Garden City, was led by individual champions Landen Kocher-Munoz, Easton Broxterman and Kristan Marshall.

Washburn Rural senior Kristjan Marshall (top) enters this weekend's Class 6A state wrestling tournament as a defending state champion. [File photo/TSN]

Washburn Rural junior Landen Kocher-Munoz is a two-time state finalist and a former Class 6A state champ. [File photo/TSN]

Broxterman, a 144-pound senior, will be shooting for his third straight 6A state title this weekend while Marshall, a 157-pound senior and 138-pound junior L. Kocher-Munoz will be looking for their second state championships.

Broxterman will take a 37-2 record into the state tournament while Marshall is currently 33-5 and L. Kocher-Munoz 30-3.

Rural sophomore 190-pounder Jadyn Baum, 31-7 on the season, also advanced to the regional championship match, finishing second.

The Junior Blues also got third-place finishes from junior Cooper Stivers (132) and sophomore Brodye Kocher-Munoz (150), fourth-place finishes from junior Ryder Harrison (120) and senior Walker Doyal (126), a fifth from freshman Kaiden Marshall (215) and a sixth from sophomore Gavin Homeyer (175).

Topeka High qualified four wrestlers for state, led by senior 165-pounder Nick Davis (38-5), who posted a fourth-place regional finish.

The Trojans got a fifth-place finish from sophomore Landon Snyder (175), a sixth from senior Cooper Martin (190) and an eighth-place finish from sophomore Jose Gomez (106).

Friday and Saturday's state meet will get under way at 9 a.m. at the AdventHealth Sports Park.

Hayden junior Jude Krentz won the 175-pound title in Saturday's Class 4A regional at Tonganoxie. [File photo/TSN]

Hayden's Krentz, Silver Lake's Clelland win 4A regional titles

Silver Lake sophomore Kayden Clelland and Hayden junior Jude Krentz won regional championships in Saturday's 4A tournament at Tonganoxie as Silver Lake posted a third-place team finish and Hayden finished sixth.

Krentz won the 175-pound championship while improving to 38-0 on the season while Clelland won the 165-pound title, improving to 32-11.

Silver Lake got runnerup finishes from junior Jayden Waterer (144) and senior Trent Rollenhagen (175), thirds from freshman Carter Spreer (215) and senior Trent Harris (157) and fourths from junior Garrett Holmes (132) and freshman Kendrick Vande Velde (285).

In addition to Krentz, Hayden got second-place finishes from sophomore Caleb Menke (157) senior Broderick Desch (190) and a third from senior Hunter Diederich (285).

The 4A state tournament will be held Friday and Saturday at the Tony's Pizza Events Center in Salina (9 a.m. starts both days).

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Created: 22 February 2025

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

For a Washburn University men's basketball team with national title aspirations, there's still plenty of work to be done.

But Saturday was a day of celebration as the Ichabods claimed their 11th regular-season MIAA championship with a 90-60 Senior Day win over Rogers State on Saturday afternoon in Lee Arena while also becoming the seventh team in NCAA Division II history to reach the 1,700-win plateau.

Washburn coach Brett Ballard hoists the MIAA championship trophy during Saturday's post-game title celebration after Washburn's 90-60 win over Rogers State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Washburn celebrates late in Saturday's 90-60 win over Rogers State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

"This is a surreal feeling,'' senior Michael Keegan said. "To win (the title) here, it's something special to cut down your own nets. When there's a lot riding on the line, this team comes together more than ever. We know what's at stake for us, especially this game and going forward so especially when we fight adversity that's when we tend to bind together even more.''

Washburn senior Andrew Orr cuts down the net after Saturday's 90-60 MIAA title-clinching win over Rogers State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

"This is amazing,'' said senior Andrew Orr. "There's been a lot of ups and downs so it kind of feels like all these losses we had beforehand it feels like we really did learn something from those losses and it was bound to happen. We do the right things.''

After honoring seniors Jacob Hanna, Keegan, Orr and Jake Schadegg, Washburn, which improved to 24-2 overall and 15-2 in the MIAA, needed only 28 seconds to take a lead they would not give up as a jumper by Hanna in the paint and a 3-pointer by Schadegg put Washburn up 5-0 out of the gate.

After a bucket by the Hillcats (20-9, 11-6), a layup by Orr followed by 3-pointers by Jack Bachelor and Brayden Shorter pushed the Ichabods to an 11-point lead, forcing a Rogers State timeout.

Coming out of the timeout, the Hillcats used a 10-0 run to cut Washburn's lead to one, but Washburn responded with a 9-0 run to go back up by 10 before the Ichabods went into the break with a 14-point margin (44-30).

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