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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka West's boys soccer team went 3-0 on the week to claim the championship in the Salina South Invitational.
The Chargers, now 4-0, finished off their title run with a 3-2 win over tournament host Salina South in Saturday's championship game.
Diego Gonzalez-Talavera was named the tournament Most Valuable Player after helping lead Topeka West to the championship in the Salina Invitational. [File photo/TSN]
West got goals from JP Ayella, Valentin Del Real and Morris Blick against Salina South, while Ayella, Makaly Martinez and Giancarlo Valenzuela were credited with assists.
The Chargers scored all three of their goals in the opening half and West held on for the win despite two second-half goals by the Cougars.
West reached the final with an 8-0 first-round win over Salina Central on Tuesday and a 1-0 win over Hays in Thursday's semifinal.
Diego Gonzalez-Talavera scored four goals with one assist against Central while Blick had a brace with two goals. Camilo Garcia and D'Ante Smith-Dilone both had a goal and an assist for the Chargers while additional assists were provided by Ayella and Del Real.
Gage Kindred-Noragon was in goal behind Valenzuela Kameron Ortiz, Navi Lopez, Martinez and Neko Juarez for the shutout.
Ortiz scored the game-winning goal against Hays on a corner kick from Del Real. Kindred-Noragon was in goal for a team effort in another shutout.
Gonzalez-Talavera was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament while Del Real and Valenzuela were named to the all-tournament team.
Eckert, Vikings claim titles in Seaman Invitational
Elise Eckert carded a 74 to win the individual championship by five strokes in Thursday's Seaman Invitational girls golf tournament at Village Greens, leading the Vikings to the team championship by 22 strokes.
Elise Eckert, Seaman
Eckert was a three-time Class 5A state medalist for Emporia before moving to Topeka for her senior year.
The Vikings won the team title with a four-person score of 328 as Makenna Stuke finished fourth with an 84 and Chloe Schmidtlein and Kaitlynn Frye both shot 85s to tie for fifth place.
Hayden senior Izzy Glotzbach finished second with a 79 while Wildcat senior Lauren Borjon was third with an 81 as Hayden finished third as a team.
Washburn Rural finished second in the team standings, with Lauren Cox tying for fifth individually with an 85 while Kailyn Petersen placed eighth (86), Briley Miles ninth (89) and Peyton Merrick 10th (90).
Hayden's volleyball team poses for a team picture after winning Saturday's Baldwin tournament and improving to 12-0 on the season. [Hayden volleyball]
Hayden volleyball rolls to Baldwin Invitational championship
Top-ranked (Classs 4A) Hayden is 12-0 on the season after capturing the championship in Saturday's Baldwin Invitational.
Hayden finished third in 4A last season.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University soccer dropped a 4-0 decision to University of Mary in the Ichabods' home opener Sunday at Yager Stadium as the Marauders took control with two goals in the opening eight minutes.
Washburn freshman forward Kate Hinck advances the ball in Sunday's 4-0 loss to University of Mary. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
In the seventh minute UMary's Dina Polanco ripped a shot from outside the box to find the top corner to take the lead and Polanco converted a penalty kick about a minute later to give the Marauders a 2-0 halftime advantage.
The Marauders added two more goals in the second half and were able to close out the shutout, dropping the Ichabods to 1-2-1 on the season.
UMary opened the second half the same way it opened the game by scoring inside the opening 10 minutes, with a goal in the 50th minute by Olivia Gardner. The visitors added another in the 69th minute to make it 4-0.
Washburn had chances in the second half to find the back of the net and finished with eight shots and three on goal.
Washburn will be back at home Friday night, hosting Harding in a 6 p.m. contest.
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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
Special to TopSports.news
On a warm Saturday afternoon and evening, Washburn Rural and Seaman competed in the Olathe Twilight Cross Country meet at the Olathe District Activity Center.
Washburn Rural and Seaman competed against 48 other schools from five states with a total of 10 high school races and two middle school races.
Seaman cross country senior star Brody Anderson captured his second straight individual win of the season Saturday in Olathe. [File photo/TSN]
The junior varsity and varsity were divided into two heats and ran the traditional five kilometer distance. The C team races were run at a 3K distance due to the heat throughout the day.
Washburn Rural's Kenzie Maddox earned an individual medal in Saturday's Twilight event in Olathe. [File photo/TSN]
In the varsity girls race, Washburn Rural finished in ninth place and had one medalist, senior Kenzie Maddox, who finished 16th in a time of 18 minutes, 47.90. Seaman’s lone runner in the race, junior Brynn Spencer, ran a time of 19:50.30 for a 48th-place finish.
In the varsity boys race, Seaman senior Brody Anderson won his second straight race to start the season, finishing in a time of 15:11.40. The Viking team finished in 18th place overall.
This was a race Brody attended last season as a spectator and hoped to compete in his senior year.
“The field was great with some of the best in the state and out of state and I wanted to come out and prove that I could hang with and compete with the best,” Anderson said.
Anderson made the decision following a false start (one of the runners tripped) to go out and lead from the beginning. “I pushed the pace and it was rough because I ran out of fuel over the last 200 meters. I gutted it out and was fired up and excited to get the win.”
Anderson also recognized that the work in the off season is paying off.
“I had some great people to run with this summer -- Huey Counts from Salina and Coach (Luke) Wiens (Seaman coach) are both great coaches, I owe a lot to them and they’ve helped me.”
Washburn Rural, which finished sixth as a team, was led by sophomore medalist Henry Laubach, who ran 15:32.10 and finished sixth overall.
This week, both schools will be running at the Scott Shufelberger Invitational hosted by Washburn Rural on Saturday morning.
Team Scores & Individual Results
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Local sports greats Jerad Head, Trey Lewis, Brenda Stolle, Duane Zlatnik and the late Bob Davis will be inducted into the Topeka Shawnee County Sports Hall of Fame on Monday at Washburn University.
The Topeka Area Sports Commission will host the 20th annual Topeka Shawnee County Hall of Fame induction ceremony from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Washburn's Memorial Union.
Head was a multi-sport star at Hayden and Washburn University before embarking on a long career in professional baseball, including a Major League stint with the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians).
Lewis was a standout at Washburn Rural and earned NCAA Division II All-America honors as a defensive lineman before being drafted by the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons.
Stolle, a Silver Lake graduate, was a standout pitcher for the Emporia State softball team from 1979-81. During that time, she guided the Hornets to a national championship in 1980 and a second-place finish in 1981.
Zlatnik was a star lineman and three-time state wrestling champion at Rossville before becoming a three-year starter in the offensive line for the University of Kansas.
A Topeka West graduate, Davis carved out a legendary broadcasting career, including long stints for the University of Kansas and the Kansas City Royals.
The 2025 Hall of Fame event will feature a luncheon followed by the official program.
Established in 2006, the Topeka Shawnee County Sports Hall of Fame continues its mission to preserve and honor the legacies of those who have significantly advanced athletics in Shawnee County.
Hall of Fame Class of 2025 capsules:
Jerad Head
JERAD HEAD
Head earned All-Class 4A honors in football, basketball and baseball at Hayden and played basketball and baseball at Washburn University before being signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Cleveland Indians in 2006.
Head was promoted to the majors on August 28, 2011 and played in 10 games as a left fielder and pinch hitter.
Head also played Minor League Baseball for the Detroit Tigers and Washington Nationals organizations before ending his playing career in 2013.
He was named as manager of the Auburn Doubledays of the Class A Short Season New York-Penn League in 2016 and managed through 2018.
Trey Lewis
TREY LEWIS
After graduating from Washburn Rural, Lewis played for the Washburn Ichabod football team from 2003-06 as a defensive lineman and became the first Ichabod to be named to the Associated Press Little All-American team since 1963. Lewis was also named to the American Football Coaches Association All-American team after recording 62 tackles as a senior with 36 solo stops, 10 tackles for loss and four sacks.
Lewis finished his career at Washburn with 156 total tackles, including 68 solo stops, 23 tackles for loss and 10 sacks. Lewis was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the 6th round as the 185th overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft.
He played from 2007-11 for the Falcons, appearing in 31 games.
Brenda Stolle
BRENDA STOLLE
A Silver Lake native, Stolle was a standout pitcher for the Emporia State softball team from 1979-81. Stolle led the Hornets to a national championship in 1980 and a second-place finish in 1981. Her career pitching record was 66-15, and she picked up six saves during her career.
During the 1980 championship season, Stolle compiled an 0.33 earned run average. She received numerous honors, including all-American honors twice, NAIA most valuable player in 1981, and Kansas Female Athlete of the Year from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Stolle was the first female ever inducted into the Emporia State Athletic Hall of Honor in 1988 and was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
Duane Zlatnik
DUANE ZLATNIK
Zlatnik starred in football and wrestling at Rossville before becoming a three-year starter in the offensive line at Kansas.
Zlatnik was a three-time state wrestling champion for the Bulldawgs and finished his career with a 148-13 record and a school-record 110 pins. He was a two-time All-Stater and Kansas Shrine Bowl pick in football.
Zlatnik was an All-Big 12 honoree for the Jayhawks and made 27 consecutive starts at right and left guard.
He is currently an assistant football and wrestling coach at Washburn Rural.
Bob Davis
BOB DAVIS (Inducted posthumously)
A Topeka West graduate, Davis passed away on March 20 at the age of 80 after a legendary career in sports broadcasting.
Davis was the "Voice of the Jayhawks" for more than 30 years before retiring in 2016. Davis called eight KU trips to the Final Four, six football bowl games, including the 2008 Orange Bowl, and thousands of regular-season basketball and football games. Davis was also on the call for the 1988 and 2008 men's basketball national championship victories. In 1997 Davis joined the Kansas City Royals, calling games for radio and television for the franchise for 16 years.
A 48-year veteran of broadcasting in the state of Kansas, Davis was born in Iola and grew up in Topeka, where he graduated from West in 1962. Davis stayed in Topeka to attend Washburn, where he graduated in 1967 with a degree in history.
Davis is a member of numerous Halls of Fame, including the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Veteran Washburn University volleyball coach Chris Herron isn't necessarily known for passing out praise freely.
So Herron's comments about Ichabod 6-foot senior rightside hitter Austin Broadie Saturday night after the Ichabods wrapped up a perfect 4-0 weekend in the Washburn Invitational should carry some real weight.
"Austin Broadie's playing like an All-American,'' Herron said. "She's hitting the crap out of the ball.''
Senior Austin Broadie (23) is congratulated by her Washburn teammates after one of her 17 kills Saturday against William Jewell in the Washburn Invitational. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Broadie was named the tournament most valuable player after helping 12th-ranked Washburn cap off a dominating weekend with 3-0 wins over Newman and William Jewell in the final day of the tournament.
Shawnee Heights product Taylor Rottinghaus was one of four Washburn players named to the Washburn Invitational All-Tournament Team after the Ichabods went 4-0 on the weekend. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Broadie was joined on the all-tournament team by WU teammates Taylor Rottinghaus, Bella Limback and Brynne Topolski after the Ichabods beat Newman 25-10, 25-16, 25-20 and William Jewell 25-22, 25-16 and 22-12.
"I felt good,'' Broadie said. "We started out a little rusty and then everyone started flowing. I felt like the setters were doing a really good job reversing the flow, so that's helpful.
"We did what we wanted to do. We know some stuff we need to work on now and I feel like that's going to give us an objective for the next weekend.''
Washburn is now 8-0 on the season, the first time the Ichabods have done so since the 2022 season that began 11-0.
The Ichabods started slowly against winless William Jewell (0-8) in the tournament finale, trailing as late as 18-17 in the opening set, but the Ichabods rallied for the three-point win and got stronger as the match wore on.
Herron admitted that he was not happy with the Ichabods' play out of the gate against the Cardinals.
"Absolutely, I was upset,'' Herron said. "This is something I try to tell these kids all the time, 'You're going to get people's best shot,' and that's the best they played all weekend, that team we just played. They were scrappy, they were hitting the crap out of the ball, they were finding holes and doing things that they hadn't done all weekend and good for them.
"But we didn't respond in kind. We were just like, 'Oh, they'll make mistakes and we'll beat them in the end,' and that's the way we played for all of Set 1. In Set 2 we kind of found ourselves at the end and it carried into Set 3.''
With the second set score at 20-16, Washburn started a run of five straight kills, three coming from Broadie to end the set with a nine-pont win.
The Cardinals got out to a 7-6 lead in the third set until a Topolski kill started a 6-1 Washburn rally.
The Ichabod offense took over shortly after, hitting .481 as a team in the set, including a 7-0 burst to create some separation at 20-11. The momentum carried over into a streak of five points to end the set and match on a Sydney Conner ace.
Washburn celebrates a match-ending ace from Sydney Conner (15) against William Jewell in Saturday'sWashburn Invitational. Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn tallied 49 kills across the three sets to hit .388 while William Jewell hit .128 and managed just 26 kills. The Ichabods nearly doubled the assist total at 46-24 while each team picked up exactly 37 digs.
Broadie started the match hot and stayed hot, registering a team-high 17 kills while hitting .607 for the match, good for the 17th highest attack percentage in a game in program history with a minimum of 20 attempts.
Corinna McMullen led the way with 23 assists while Rottinghaus snagged 10 digs from the back row.
The Ichabods set the tone early in Saturday's first match against Newman, rolling to a 15-point win in the first set before securing 25-16 and 25-20 victories in the next two sets to top Newman (2-5).
A 9-1 run highlighted the beginning of the match and was capped off by a kill from Natalie Hedlund that put Washburn up 10-2.
Newman was able to keep the match close until a 6-0 Ichabod burst pushed the lead to double figures, ending at 20-7 with an Abby Leaf block. Washburn's offense highlighted the first set, hitting .516 as a team with 18 kills.
After leading just 5-4 in the second set, a 6-0 run for the Ichabods was capped off by an ace from Autumn Gibbs to create separation at 11-4.
As Washburn worked its bench into the game the lead continued to grow, reaching 10 at 21-11 after Shannon Frakes set up Josie Cleveringa for a kill. Washburn closed out the set shortly after with three straight points.
Both teams split the first 10 points in the third set before the Ichabods took six of the next seven, with kills by four different players in the stretch.
