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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Obviously Washburn Rural's girls basketball team was happy to earn a trip back to the Class 6A state tournament for the first time since winning the state title in 2019.
But the initial reaction after Rural's 47-27 win over Centennial League rival Manhattan in Friday's sub-state final at Rural was more of concern than celebration after a late-game injury to junior standout Brooklyn DeLeye.
DeLeye, Rural's 6-foot-2 frontliner, led the 20-2 Junior Blues with 13 points, but went down with an injury to her right knee with 55.9 seconds remaining and had to be helped from the floor.
The severity of DeLeye's injury was not immediately known, with Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick hoping for the best.
"We're hoping and praying for the best,'' Bordewick said. "She's obviously an integral part of who we are as a team, and aside from her playing ability and athleticism, she's just a great kid, a great teammate.''
Washburn Rural's girls basketball team earned a spot in next week's Class 6A state tournament with a 47-27 win over Manhattan Friday night. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural beat Manhattan for the third time Friday night, but the 9-13 Indians remained within striking distance through the first half before Rural put the game away with a 20-9 third quarter.
Bordewick was not surprised that Manhattan gave a tougher battle the third time around.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka West's boys basketball team notched yet another in a growing list of impressive accomplishments Friday night.
The Chargers picked up win No. 21 on the season with their 20th straight victory while earning a return trip to the Class 5A state tournament with a 73-59 victory over Andover at West.
"It's this whole program, it's not just these guys but it's last year's team, the year before and the teams that worked to get us to this level,'' Topeka West coach Rick Bloomquist said. "To go to state back to back is pretty special for anybody.
"For Topeka West to get there twice in a row and win 20 games back to back says a lot for the kids that we have here, that they believe in what we're doing. They've bought into our system, they bought into our discipline, they bought into everything that we threw at them and this is their reward and I'm so proud of them because they're a great bunch of kids.''
Topeka West's boys basketball team poses with its sub-state championship trophy after Friday's 73-59 win over Andover. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Topeka West, the 5A runner-up last season, took control early against the Trojans and never looked back as senior Elijah Brooks and junior Malachi Berg combined for 47 points.
The Chargers opened up a 19-11 first-quarter lead and pushed their advantage to 33-20 at the half.
West led 53-39 at the start of the fourth quarter and led by a game's biggest 22 points (61-39) with six minutes remaining before Andover (17-5) used its pressure to defense to get as close as 10 points twice over the final 2:50.
That was about the only aspect of West's performance that Bloomquist was disappointed in.
"We didn't handle their press very well, but we can fix that,'' Bloomquist said. "We press each other every damn night in practice and we looked like we'd never seen a press before.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
WICHITA -- Seaman's bowling team set the bar extremely high with its team championship in the early session of Friday's Class 5A-1A state tournament at Northrock Lanes.
But the Viking girls were definitely up to the challenge, giving Seaman a sweep of the state titles with a 3,173-3,144 win over Bishop Carroll.
Seaman Makenzie Millard reacts to a strike during Friday's Class 5A-1A state bowling tournament. Millard finished second individually as the Vikings won the team title. [Photo by Selena Favela/Special to TSN]
Seaman sophomore Cheyenne Turkin beams after receiving her 14th-place medal in Friday's Class 5A-1A state bowling tournament. [Photo by Selena Favela/Special to TSN]
Sophomore Cheyenne Turkin said that watching the boys claim the title inspired the girls team to follow suit.
"It's such a good day and just knowing the boys are bringing home first, too, it's so exciting,'' Turkin said. "After the boys won all of us girls were kind of just talking and we were like, 'OK, we have to go out there and bring this home. We can't let them beat us.' ''
Viking senior Makenzie Millard agreed.
"It fired us up a lot,'' Millard said of the boys title. "Seeing them win, it was great. That was a push of extra motivation for us.''
Seaman coach Bob Benoit said the boys and girls have a friendly rivalry between the two teams.
"They compete against each other all year long,'' Benoit said. "It's been that kind of atmosphere all year so when (the boys) won that's the first thing (the girls) thought, 'Now we've got to go do the same thing the boys did or we'll never hear the end of it.'
"I'm just super, super proud of all of them.''
Seaman went into the 2021 state meet undefeated before finishing fourth and Millard said Friday's title was a great bounce back.
"It really is redemption,'' Millard said. "We work very hard at practice, we have been working hard all season, this just pays off. It just shows.
"I'm just very happy with what we did. I'm excited to go home with a trophy.''
Seaman ended the three American Tenpin games with a slim nine-pin lead over Salina South in a crowded team battle and briefly fell behind after the first of four Baker format games before using a pair of 200 games (202 and 211) to take control.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
WICHITA -- Seaman bowling coach Bob Benoit has said all season that if his team is just within 100 pins entering the four Baker format games it has a chance.
The Vikings proved that in Friday's biggest meet of the season, rallying from a 98-pin deficit at the start of Baker to claim the Class 5A-1A state championship by a 3,483-3,472 margin over Goddard Eisenhower. Kapaun Mt. Carmel, which was in command after the three American Tenpin games, slipped to third with a 3,462 total.
"When it came to Baker, 'Oh my gosh,' '' Benoit said. "They're just so good at Baker. All I ask of them is, 'Give me two shots each, just give me two great shots in a game. That's all I want from you.' And that's how they approached it.''
"I don't know how to really react,'' Seaman senior Jack Easum said. "We didn't think it was going to happen, but once we heard the names, we're still kind of on cloud nine.
"As a team it was so fun just to see everyone smiling knowing it will probably be one of our top-five memories forever as a team. We'll all bowl league together and we'll remember this.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
WICHITA -- Washburn Rural's girls bowling team fell a big short of its ultimate goal of winning a Class 6A state championship Thursday at Northrock Lanes.
But the Junior Blues took home some nice consolation prizes that a lot of bowlers and teams would have loved to have.
After building a 112-pin lead through the first two games of the day Washburn Rural slipped in the final game of American TenPin and the four Baker Format games, but the Junior Blues still captured the third-place state trophy with a score of 2,925, finishing behind Centennial League rival Junction City (3,014) and Campus (2,965).
Washburn Rural's girls bowling team poses with its third-place Class 6A state bowling trophy Thursday at Northrock Lanes in Wichita. [Photo by Selena Favela/Special to TSN]
After finishing third to earn the final team berth out of the Washburn Rural regional, Junior Blues coach Jo Ricard was happy overall with Rural's state showing.
"We kind of said, not to the girls but Steve (Peoples, assistant coach) just talking between the two of us that we were really coming in kind of in an eighth-place position based on how we came out of regionals and the score we had in regionals,'' Rural coach Jo Ricard said. "But we also knew that we had a ton of potential and we do have that between our girls to do some diffferent things that we didn't do last week at our regional.''
Adding to Washburn Rural's state haul were top-six finishes by senior Kaitlyn Doyal and sophomore Gabriella Martinez.
Doyal posted a fourth-place finish with a three-game series of 616 while Martinez finished sixth with a 583 series.
Washburn Rural got its day off to a fast start with a 848 four-person score as Doyal rolled a 235 game, Amaya Buchanan a 215 and Martinez and Taylin Sakers adding 199s.
The Junior Blues added to its lead 753 series behind 205s from Doyal and Martinez, but Rural fell to a 661 in Game 3 as Junction City bowled an 804 third game to take the team lead by 31 pins (2,293-2,262) heading into Baker play.
"Struggling in that third one, that's always kind of a scary piece struggling in that third one going into Baker because you want to build that momentum going into Baker,'' Ricard said.
Campus and Junction City continued to bowl well in Baker, riding a 217 game to a 727 total to move past Washburn Rural into second while Junction City finished Baker with a 219 to finished Baker with a 721 series to clinch its victory.
Washburn finished Baker with a 663 total, with a high game of 173.
Buchanan added a 524 series (21st individually) while Claire Ireland had a 473 series to round out Rural's top four.
Doyal's opening 235 and second-game 205 put Doyal in a position to challenge for the individual title, but Madison Walker of Campus took top honors wiht a 653 series.
"After my first game I knew I was aiming for higher than what it was,'' said Doyal, who posted a second straight top-10 state finish. "But even though I didn't finish as well as I wanted to, I still tried to move off of shots, switch a ball if I had to and try to make the adjustments as much as I could.''
Martinez, who was making her first state appearance, turned in one of her top finishes of the year.
"I was really just trying to come and do what I could for the team and not even thinking about individual,'' said Martinez, a state alternate for Rural last season. "And then I just really had some of my best games ever.
"It all just came together and I'm really happy with it. It's pretty awesome.''
Junction City placed three bowlers in the top 20, led by third-place Olivia Oliver (625).
CLASS 6A STATE BOWLING
GIRLS
Team scores
Junction City 3,014, Campus 2,965, Washburn Rural 2,925, Garden City 2,837, Olathe East 2,796, Wichita Northwest 2,783, Olathe Northwest 2,636, Olathe North 2,563, Olathe South 2,508.
Individual results
1. Madison Walker, Campus, 653; 2. Audrey Valdez, Olathe North, 637; 3. Olivia Oliver, Junction City, 625; 4. Kaitlyn Doyal, Washburn Rural, 616; 5. Camryn Lenz, Dodge City, 602; 6. Gabriella Martinez, Washburn Rural, 583; 7. Avery Schippers, Wichita Northwest, 577; 8. Yumi Yoshikai, Wichita Northwest, 571; 9. Lily-Ann Leeper, Garden City, 567; 10. Jordan Hunt, Junction City, 562; 11. Kellie Kritzler, Olathe East, 561; 12. Holly Bridges, Garden City, 561; 13. Myranda Rogers, Gardner-Edgerton, 554; 14. Dylan Holmes, Olathe Northwest, 554; 15. Nicki Culp, Wichita South, 548; 16. Breanna Warren, Campus, 545; 17. Skyler Holmes, Olathe Northwest, 544; 18. Josephine Richards, Olathe East, 542; 19. Cassidy Eschlimann, Junction City, 536; 20. Savannah Hsu, Campus, 533.
Other Washburn Rural -- Amaya Buchanan 524, Claire Ireland 473, Callie Hart 458, Taylin Sakers 419.
