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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The Washburn University football team will be in Yager Stadium for the first time this season on Saturday, hosting No. 5-ranked Colorado School of Mines in a 1 p.m. contest.
Ichabod coach Craig Schurig played at Colorado School of Mines before beginning his long coaching career.
Veteran Washburn football coach Craig Schurig will lead his team against his alma mater, Colorado School of Mines, in Saturday's 1 p.m. home opener at Yager Stadium. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Ichabods have been idle since a 30-14 loss at Emporia State on Aug. 29 while the Orediggers, who are ranked No. 5 in the AFCA Coaches Poll and No. 6 in the D2football.com poll, dispatched West Texas A&M 41-13 in their season opener on Sept. 5.
"We feel like it's been very productive,'' Schurig said of the Ichabods' time off. "Obviously you know by how you play the coming week but hopefully we'll be a much better team. Obviously, we're playing a very good opponent in Mines, but I think we've improved and we've grown as a team having a game under our belt.''
Redshirt freshman quarterback Keller Hurla passed for a career-high 116 yards in his first career start against Emporia State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Redshirt freshman quarterback Keller Hurla led Washburn with 137 total yards of offense against the Hornets, including 116 passing yards, while Jacquez White led the Ichabods with 10 tackles, including seven solo stops, against ESU while adding a tackle for loss.
White's 10 tackles were a career high and is tied for second in the MIAA for tackle average this season while Hurla's 116 passing yards came in his first career start after taking over for injured Ichabod starter Sam Van Dine.
Former Highland Park star Tre Richardson caught five passes for 42 yards in his Washburn debut against Emporia State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Former Highland Park star and Hutchinson Community College All-American Tre Richardson made his debut for the Ichabods against Emporia State, catching five passes for 42 yards and returning two kickoffs for 37 yards. Richardson also carried the ball two times for five yards.
"I feel pretty good to have a game in and a lot of practices under my belt,'' Richardson said.
And despite the Ichabods' loss to the Hornets, Richardson said he saw numerous positives in WU's performance.
"Nobody fell apart from Sam getting hurt,'' Richardson said. "We all wished him the best, but we had to move on to the next man up. That's the mindset that the team has and we still had the same goals going in there -- playing hard, winning the game -- and there were a lot of positives.
"Our defense played good. They just got tired of playing back to back to back, so all we've got to do is work on scoring the ball and we'll be good.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural posted an 11-stroke victory in Thursday's Seaman Invitational girls golf tournament at Village Greens Golf Course, led by senior Reece Randall, who tied for the individual title.
Washburn Rural golf posted an 11-stroke victory in Thursday's Seaman Invitational at Village Greens Golf Course, with six Junior Blues posting top-15 finishes. [Submitted photo]
Randall shot a 76 to share medalist honors with Hayden junior Izzy Glotzbach while Washburn Rural finished with a four-person score of 327 as the Junior Blues had six players post top-15 finishes.
Rural senior Natalie Peterson and junior Lauren Cox tied for third place with 83s while Kailyn Petersen finished eighth (85), senior Colbey Stead was 10th (91) and junior Briley Miles tied for 13th (93).
Hayden golf finished second as a team in Thursday's Seaman Invitational at Village Greens. [Submitted photo]
Glotzbach led Hayden to a second-place team finish at 338 while host Seaman finished third at 364.
Hayden junior Lauren Borjon shot an 84 to tie for sixth place individually while Addyson Baer placed ninth (86) and Nora Allphin finished in a tie for 11th (92).
Senior Jaycee Zimmerman led Seaman with a tie for sixth place (84) while Makenna Stuke tied for 11th (92) and Chloe Schmidtlein tied for 13th (93).
Shawnee Heights' Lyla Blair tied for 13th place (93).
SEAMAN INVITATIONAL
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
With a lot of volleyball talent in the Midwest region to pick from, veteran Washburn University volleyball coach Chris Herron opted not to recruit Alex Dvorak out of Park Hill South (Mo.) High School.
But when Herron got a second chance to land Dvorak after the 6-foot-1 middle hitter played two seasons at William Jewell, he didn't hesitate -- a decision that has paid early dividends for both WU and Dvorak.
Alex Dvorak
"I knew her in high school, I knew her in club, and I kind of hesitated and I never really recruited her out of high school or out of club,'' Herron admitted. "But then when she went to William Jewell I saw her work ethic, I saw that she had gotten better her freshman year and had gotten way better her sophomore year.
"And then when I found out the coach was leaving, the coach actually called me and asked if I would be interested in Alex and I jumped on that immediately because I felt like Alex could come in here and start.''
Alex Dvorak (left) has made an immediate impact for 3-0 Washburn volleyball, leading the Ichabods with 31 kills and 11 total blocks. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Dvorak, who transferred to Washburn for the spring semester, made an immediate impact for the Ichabods in last week's season-opening Kansas City Classic, helping WU post three straight wins while leading Washburn with 31 kills (2.82 per set) and hitting .472. She also leads the squad with 11 combined blocks and ranks 24th in the nation and third in the MIAA in hitting percentage and is eighth in the conference in blocks per set. She hit over .300 in all three matches.
"She played exceptionally,'' Herron said. "Offensively she was just really unstoppable. She just did whatever she wanted to do pretty much the whole way.''
Dvorak said the move to Topeka has worked out very well from both a personal and volleyball standpoint.
"I love it here,'' Dvorak said. "I hate to say that I'm so glad that I transferred, but I'm so glad that I transferred.''
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
Big plays more than smoothed over the rough edges Topeka High showed in a 27-14 win over Wichita Heights Thursday at Hummer Sports Park.
The Trojans scored two non-offensive touchdowns and forced five turnovers to collect their second victory of the season, matching their win total from 2022 and 2023 combined.
First-year Topeka High football coach Jason Filbeck congratulates senior running back Tevante Ewing during Thursday's 27-14 win over Wichita Heights. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
First-year High head coach Jason Filbeck pointed to athletic and opportunistic players who made plays despite some breakdowns in fundamentals throughout the night.
“We are blessed to have some kids who can really run, and they can step up at the right times,” Filbeck said. “We’re lucky that we’re athletic, so we can win some of these games while we’re still learning.”
The game was bookended by a defensive score in the first quarter and a kickoff return in the fourth quarter when the outcome was in doubt.
Linebacker Payton Stevicks picked up a fumble and raced 42 yards to stake Topeka High to a lead late in the first quarter. The play inspired the defense, which forced two more Falcon fumbles in the first half.
“We worked hard in practice, and we were pumped for the first home game of the season,” Stevicks said. “We practiced for their flexbone offense and were ready for it.”
Senior Tevante Ewing celebrates a touchdown in Topeka High's 27-14 win over Wichita Heights. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior running back Tevante Ewing got rolling in the second period, carrying for 31 yards in one drive which ended with him rushing 3 yards for a score.
Smelling blood, the Trojans dipped into their bag of tricks late in the second period.
Topeka High seniors Saron Carter (7) and Jayden Norman (2) hooked up for a 67-yard touchdown pass in the Trojans' 27-14 win over Wichita Heights. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Quarterback Zane Smith fumbled the ball in the backfield, but kept his presence of mind to pitch to Saron Carter to trigger a designed halfback pass. Carter had time to find receiver Jayden Norman, who slipped behind the Falcon defense undetected. Norman ran out the 67-yard scoring strike to put Topeka High up, 21-0.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman volleyball got through a tough early-season stretch without senior star Maegan Mills and is now back at full strength and beginning to flash the form that produced the first Class 5A state championship in school history last fall.
Mills, the reigning Topeka Shawnee County Player of the Year and a 5A All-Stater, missed the Vikings' first three matches after suffering a minor knee injury in Seaman's jamboree, but Seaman went a respectable 2-1 during that stretch and has not lost since, improving to 6-1 with a sweep of Thursday's home quadrangular.
Seaman celebrates a point in Thursday's volleyball quadrangular sweep on the Vikings' home court. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman, ranked third in 5A by the Kansas Volleyball Association, opened its night with a 25-19, 25-14 win over Manhattan, followed by a 25-14, 25-21 decision over Silver Lake and a 25-14, 25-17 win over Shawnee Heights.
"You never complain when you go 3-0 against some pretty decent teams,'' Seaman coach Tatiana Dowling said. "I think that we definitely have our stuff that we've got to work on -- defensively, connecting with our hitters, speeding up our offense -- but I'm happy with how they stayed calm, cool and collected no matter what the situation is.
"I think that their experience really shows in those situations. They don't seem rattled.''
Seaman senior Maegan Mills spikes the ball in Thursday's quadrangular sweep at Seaman. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Mills, who has orally committed to Tulsa, also gave her team passing grades for its performance thus far, but is expecting more as the season moves on.
"I think we're doing pretty good,'' said Mills, who has committed to Tulsa. "I would say we definitely have a lot of ways to improve. We've worked on blocking a lot, but I think today we blocked pretty well. Our defense has been struggling a bit but we've just been doing a lot of defensive work in practice and we just need to work on coming out strong.
"The first couple of games we kind of came out kind of weak in a sense and we've just been focusing on coming out strong. We have our areas where we need to improve, but it's been a really good season so far.''
Mills said Seaman realizes that teams will be shooting for the Vikings as the defending state champion, but she said her team is up to the challenge.
"I would say we know there's pressure, but I don't think we feel it,'' Mills said. "We just know that everyone's going to come in guns blazing and they're not going to lay off so, we have to come out stronger and just really focus on our side and keep our errors down and that just comes from being a mentally strong team.''
