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By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
Hayden broke into the win column with a much-needed 31-21 victory over Baldwin Friday night after starting the season winless in four tries.
Hayden senior Jace Wolff scored a pair of touchdowns and came up with a big fourth-quarter defensive play in Friday's 31-21 district win over Baldwin. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Wildcats avoided starting 0-5 for the first time since 1989 by holding off Class 3A District 3 foe Baldwin.
Hayden's backs were against the wall and it took a gritty effort on a sloppy field behind a backup quarterback to get the job done.
“You know, a lot of programs at 0-4 would just fold the tent and say, ‘We’re done.’ But these guys came out and they fought really hard tonight,” Hayden coach Bill Arnold said. “Now we’ve still got some mistakes to clean up, but I’m very proud of them tonight. It was hard fought. Baldwin is a good team.”
Senior Mason Becker scored 19 points in Hayden's 31-21 Class 3A district win over Baldwin Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Hayden got a 58-yard scoring run from Mason Becker to start the scoring. The junior followed that up with a 30-yard field goal to put Hayden up 10-0. But Baldwin responded with a touchdown just before half to cut the lead to 10-7.
A Logan Power interception early in the third period set up a short scoring run by senior Jace Wolff. But as before, Baldwin responded, this time with a 70-yard touchdown dash by quarterback Bryis Alford to go to the fourth quarter trailing 17-14.
Wolff scored his second short touchdown on the first play of the fourth period. The home team held onto the 24-14 lead until late in the game, but a Hayden fumble in Wildcat territory gave Baldwin renewed hope late.
On the first play after the fumble, Baldwin struck with a rare completed pass, shocking the Wildcats with a 30-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 24-21.
Hayden failed to move the ball and was forced to punt to Baldwin with 1:29 remaining. But the Wildcats’ Wolff had one more big play left in him. The Bulldogs’ quarterback dropped back to pass on third and long, but left the pocket, desperate to keep the drive alive. From his linebacker position, Wolff raced after him.
“I was dropping back (in coverage), I saw him roll out, started chasing him,” Wolff said. “He steps up and I wrapped him and punched it. When I got up, I saw the ball on the ground and started celebrating.”
Becker added an 11-yard touchdown to put the game on ice.
Sophomore Jairus Todwong rushed for 123 yards in Friday's 31-21 Hayden win over Baldwin. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Jairus Todwong led Hayden with 123 yards rushing while Becker and Wolff added 90 and 82 yards, respectively.
Sophomore quarterback Grant Lenherr helped lead Hayden to a 31-21 win over Baldwin in his first varsity start. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Sophomore Grant Lenherr was called on to fill in for injured starting quarterback Ryker Tetuan. Lenherr avoided any costly mistakes and executed Arnold’s Wing T offense smoothly despite the wet field conditions.
“I thought Grant did a good job,” Arnold said. “He managed the game well, ran the plays the way they’re supposed to go. He was in a tough situation on a couple of those pass plays out there, throwing a ball that’s probably double the weight and wet. But that’s kind of what (Baldwin was) giving us, so we were going to give it a shot. I’m very proud of him.”
The Wildcats got off the mat after the 0-4 start to insert themselves in the District 3 race. Arnold wasn’t surprised his team responded to adversity.
“They’ve been around enough they understand it’s a one-week thing,” Arnold said. “I’m looking for some enthusiasm at practice. You know, you get a W,’ maybe they come out a little more excited about going to practice and doing the extra conditioning.”
“We knew we could do better,” said Wolff. “It was one of those where we know we can go out and win. We just had to do it. We’re the only ones holding ourselves back. Now we’ve got some momentum going into next week. The belief was always there. This just gives us some confidence that we definitely needed.”
The Wildcats face a familiar foe in Perry Lecompton next Friday after playing two teams from Missouri, plus Tonganoxie, a team Hayden hadn’t faced since 2005.
“It’s always weird playing different teams each year because (they have) new tendencies and new players, but I mean, it was nothing we shouldn’t have been able to handle,” Wolff said. “We just weren’t getting the job done.”
HAYDEN 31, BALDWIN 21
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Highland Park football has fought through a series of setbacks over the first five games of the 2026 season, falling to 1-4 on the year after a 52-0 non-league loss to Blue Valley Southwest Friday night at Hummer Sports Park.
Highland Park's football team takes the field for Friday's Senior Night game against Blue Valley Southwest. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"Going into this year with all the seniors that we had on our roster from the start we had a lot of hopes, but everything you could think of that can hurt a season, at least the first half of the season, has happened to our team,'' Highland Park coach Jermaine Monroe said.
The Scots suffered a huge blow the second week of the season when they lost returning All-Shawnee County Top 22 pick G'Honi Montgomery for the season with a knee injury, and Highland Park's travails have continued since then.
‘’G'Honi is a huge loss,'' Monroe said. "We base the offense around G'Honi and then we're working from there, but now we have some young guys that need to step up. They are doing great things in practice and now we're calling their number and these are the guys that are going to be the future of the program and I'm looking forward to that.''
And with three straight Meadowlark Conference contests coming up, Monroe is confident his Scots can end the regular season with a bang.
"We knew playing against a team like this that's a real quality opponent is going to prepare us for our games when we get back to our league games, so we're looking forward to those,'' Monroe said.
Blue Valley Southwest entered Friday's game winless after wading through a brutal Eastern Kansas League schedule, but the T-Wolves came out firing on all cylinders, putting the game out of reach with a 32-point first quarter.
Southwest boosted its lead to a commanding 45-0 advantage at halftime and a running clock was used throughout the second half.
Highland Park will travel to Kansas City-Harmon for a Meadowlark Conference contest next Friday.
BLUE VALLEY SOUTHWEST 52, HIGHLAND PARK 0
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University men's basketball coach Brett Ballard gets fired up for the start of every new season.
Washburn men's basketball coach Brett Ballard is thankful to start a new season after surviving serious truck crash in August. [File photo/TSN]
But given the events of Aug. 4 and the dramatic recovery that the 46-year-old Ballard has made since that serious accident on I-470 outside of Topeka, the start of preseason workouts and the beginning of official practice for the 2026-2027 season on Oct. 10 hold a special meaning for the highly-successful Ichabod coach.
Doctors determined that Ballard's one-vehicle crash was caused by a neurological episode, and after a week in Stormont Vail Hospital, the very thankful WU coach has spent the past two months recovering and inching back to normalcy.
"Physically I feel probably about back to normal,'' Ballard told TopSports.news on Friday. "I was fortunate from that standpoint. Mentally I'm getting there. There's still a little bit of brain fog, but I feel like I'm tracking in a really good direction, and I'd say if I had to put a percentage on it, I'm probably 85-90 percent.
"The good news is the doctors feel like over the next couple of weeks and couple of months I'll be back to 100 percent. It's just going to take a little time for the brain to heal itself.''
Doctors have continued to keep a close eye on Ballard's recovery but have allowed him to return to the court -- albeit on a limited basis -- for the Ichabods' preseason workouts.
"They limited me for awhile and they've been allowing me to ease back into kind of a fuller load,'' said Ballard, whose Ichabods are coming off a 31-2 season. "I would say coming up this month I'll be back to full time. I'm at about 6 to 7 hours a day right now, then I'll go back up to full speed here in the next couple of weeks. I'll kind of be inching up with that. I've been trying to be careful about making sure I don't come back too quickly.
"It was hard on me when they were holding me back and not letting me do much. It was smart and I understood that, but I'm not a guy that really likes to sit around and not having a routine was kind of tough on me. So getting back into the routine of things has been really good for me.
"And without question I'm as excited about officially starting practice this year as any year. I'm always excited, but it's just a little bit different feeling this year and being able to get back in a routine is really nice.''
OUT OF THE BLUE
Ballard, who has led the Ichabods to a 198-81 record and multiple NCAA Tournament appearances, said he had no inkling that his health was in danger prior to the accident and said that doctors are still trying to determine exactly what happened.
"That's what's kind of crazy about it,'' he said. "I feel like I try to take good care of myself with my nutrition and my health and working out, so I felt fine and even that day I felt fine. The doctors are a little bit confused on exactly what happened.
"They've kind of pinpointed it down to a couple of different things. That's got me a little bit anxious that they don't exactly know why this happened. Something definitely happened, but they don't know exactly why. I try not to worry about that and continue to attack each day, but when something like that happens to you out of the blue, it's got me a little spooked.''
Brett Ballard's Washburn Ichabods are coming off a 31-2 season and back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths, including a Final Four appearance in 2025. [File photo/TSN]
READY TO EMBRACE THE FUTURE
Although the accident was clearly a life-changing moment for Ballard, he is determined to approach the future with the same zest he always has.
"It put things in perspective of how precious life is and how quickly things can be taken from you,'' he said. "It definitely put that into perspective, so there is a level of gratitude that I have. But on the other side of it, though, life goes on and you've got to continue to put one foot in front of the other.
"I still have a job to do and a family to take care of, so you can't just sit back and relax the rest of your life. I still have things I want to accomplish, so it's a balance. I'm definitely grateful and pretty fortunate to be sitting here right now, but at the same time I've got a team that I'm excited to coach this year. God was definitely watching over me that day and he had a plan and he's got me here.
"My faith is important to me and I believe in that even more since this wreck. I'm excited about the job I have to do. From what the doctors told me I'm going to be back to 100 percent. I'm pretty close right now, but I'm going to be back to 100 percent in the next couple of months, and I'm excited to coach this team. This team has got a chance to be really good again and I'm really excited about being around the guys.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
On Monday night Hayden's volleyball team, ranked No. 2 in Class 4A, felt like it let a win get away in a five-set home dual loss to Kansas City-St. Pius X, Mo.
Facing another tough test in the second set of Thursday's Senior Night match against 3A No. 2 Holton, the 16-6 Wildcats showed their grit in a 27-25 come-from-behind win before closing out the 3-0 sweep with their second 25-17 win of the night.
Mallory Tanking, Hayden's lone senior, receives Senior Night gifts from Wildcat teammates Hailey Schmidtlein (22), Sophia Wichman (3) and Clare Chisham (21) Thursday night in the Bueltel Activity Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Mallory Tanking exchanges hugs with her Hayden teammates after being introduced on Senior Night Thursday. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden led St. Pius 2-1 in Monday's match but was unable to close out the win and coach Corrinne McGreevy said her Wildcats, the 2025 4A state runnerup, did a much better job of handling the pressure-packed situation against Holton, the 3A state runnerup a year ago.
"(St. Pius) was a great team, but we got complacent and we're too good of a team to not kick teams while they're down and not finish matches,'' McGreevy said. "We called a time out (tonight) and we said, 'Hey girls, this kind of feels like Monday night. We've got to flip the switch, but we're going to go up and not down.' ''
Holton (21-7) led 25-24 before Hayden ran off three straight points, ending the set on a kill from sophomore Clare Chisham.
"They flipped the switch up, they stuck together and they played as a team,'' McGreevy said. "They fought through it and we found a way to win in front of our crowd. It was really cool.''
Mallory Tanking, Hayden's lone senior, agreed with McGreevy that the Wildcats played much better against Holton.
"I feel like we realized that we didn't play to our full potential on Monday and we didn't play Hayden volleyball,'' Tanking said. "So I feel like we came in today wanting to show our full potential.
"We knew we had a lot of people coming to watch us today and it's our last regular-season home game, so we had to give it our all.''
After the Wildcats rallied for the second-set win, Hayden honored Tanking.
"I look to her all the time,'' McGreevy said. "She is not only an incredible volleyball player, she's an incredible person, and the thing I love about her is that she stuck with me from Day 1.
"We came in together and she trusted in the process, she trusted me as her coach and she's been thriving the last four year because of that. And she has my back and I have her back.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 14-ranked Washburn University volleyball will face its first MIAA road tests of the season this weekend, traveling to Pittsburg State at 6 p.m. on Friday before facing No. 17 Emporia State at 7 p.m. on Saturday in White Auditorium.
. @HaydenGirlsVb takes 3-0 Senior Night sweep over Holton. @HaydenHigh @TopsportsN ... https://loom.ly/7pi7LvM
Washburn is 14-3 on the year overall and 3-1 in the MIAA after defeating Northeastern State 3-0 last Saturday.
The Ichabods posted three straight wins last week after being swept by Nebraska-Kearney, but Washburn coach Chris Herron said his team will have to step up its game against the Gorillas and Hornets.
"The level of competition is much, much greater this week, and the next three games to be honest with you,'' Herron said. "I don't even know who we play after the next three but I know who we play the next three (Central Missouri after Pitt State and ESU) and the level of competition is really high and you're going to be on high point alert because every single point is going to be meaningful.
"Our level has got to rise to meet this challenge.''
Pittsburg State enters Friday's match with a 11-5 record overall and an 0-3 mark in the MIAA while Emporia State is 15-2 on the year with a 2-1 mark in the conference.
Washburn moved up to No. 14 in the latest AVCA poll with 528 total points in the poll. freshman through senior.
Ichabod junior Brynne Topolski has played in 16 matches while making 14 starts and leads the offense with 193 kills (3.51 per set) while also hitting a team-high .327.
She has added 92 digs along with making 32 blocks. The Lincoln, Neb. native has recorded double-figure kills in 12 matches with one double-double.
Topolski is second in the MIAA in kills per set while ranking sixth in the conference in points per set. She is also 10th in the MIAA in hitting percentage. She was named the MIAA Offensive Player of the Week after recording the highest hitting percentage in a match of any player with 20 attempts this season hitting .810 against Northeastern State.
Emma Siron is second for the Ichabods with 182 kills (3.53 per set) while hitting .216 on the outside. She has started in 14 matches and played in 15 while serving a team-high 23 aces and also scooping 134 digs and making 16 blocks.
The Sedalia, Mo. native has tallied 10 double-digit kill matches with six double-doubles. She is second in the MIAA with 4.13 points per set while ranking third in the MIAA in kills per set. The junior ranks third in the MIAA in aces per set with 0.44.
Shannon Frakes leads Washburn with 539 assists (10.37 per set). The junior has played in 15 matches while starting in 14. She is second on the team in digs with 152 while also recording 46 kills, 22 blocks and serving 17 aces.
The Spring Hill native has four matches with 40-plus assists and has recorded a team-high seven double-doubles. She leads the conference and is 15th in the nation in assists per set.
Shawnee Heights product Taylor Rottinghaus has started 15 matches at libero. She has recorded a team-high 248 digs (4.86 per set) and has six matches with 20-plus digs. The senior has also added 44 assists with 16 aces served. The senior ranks third in the MIAA in digs per set.
