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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's boys swimming team dominated the Topeka City Championships at Capitol Federal Natatorium Thursday, winning its fifth straight team title by almost 200 points and claiming nearly all the spots on the All-City team.
The Junior Blues racked up 612 points, far outdistancing the 417 scored by Seaman and 408 by Topeka High.
Washburn Rural claimed eight of the 12 spots on the All-City first team, which is determined by individual points scored in the meet.
The Junior Blues also saw four swimmers – Brogan Meier, Will Powell, Daniel Allen and Jack Miranda – win all four of their races.
In his first season as coach at Washburn Rural after coming over from Topeka West, and as a former swimmer at Seaman, Janson Garman understands the importance of the city meet.
"It’s a big meet. It’s fun to go out there and see how our boys compete,” Garman said. “We swam well, got a lot of best times. We’re excited for (the Centennial League meet).”
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Playing for the first time in 15 days, the ninth-ranked (Class 6A) Washburn Rural girls showed very little rust in their return to the court Thursday, rolling to a 67-27 victory over Lawrence in the opening round of the Capital City Classic at Seaman.
The Junior Blues quickly put the game out of reach with a 23-6 first quarter as senior Zoe Canfield and sophomore Josie Carlgren both canned three 3-pointers in the opening eight minutes.
Washburn Rural opened up a commanding 35-12 halftime advantage and then hit the Lions with a 21-7 third quarter to force a running clock throughout the fourth quarter.
"Probably the first thing I'm going to hear is that we should take more days off during the season,'' Rural coach Kevin Bordewick cracked. "But I do think they didn't show very many signs of rust.
"There were times in our offense when we were a little stagnant but when you shoot that well from outside it makes everything else look very good.''
The Junior Blues hit 14 3-pointers in the game, including five treys apiece from Canfield and Carlgren.
Canfield led all scorers with 21 points while Carlgren added 15.
Freshman Brooklyn Rutherford added nine points, including a pair of 3-pointers, for the Junior Blues while junior Kate Hinck scored eight points and senior Destiny Ochs seven.
"We were within ourselves and we weren't trying to do too much extra too many times,'' Bordewick said. "I thought we were playing decent defense. I think there's some things we need to point out and get better at, but for the first game in 15 days, I can't argue with that.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University men's basketball has a tough stretch of four straight road games on the horizon, but it is a confident group of Ichabods that hits the road, starting with a 7:30 p.m. MIAA contest at Fort Hays State on Thursday night.
Washburn (12-5 overall, 8-3 MIAA) has won three games in a row and seven of its last eight after an 81-74 win over Pittsburg State last Saturday in Lee Arena, rallying from a 10-point deficit midway through the first half.
"I feel really good about this team,'' Washburn junior Michael Keegan said. "We're really starting to click and playing well together.''
Washburn coach Brett Ballard agreed.
"We're playing well and a young team coming together,'' Ballard said. "I think it's encouraging on both ends. We're leading the conference in scoring but also leading the conference in rebound margin and second in field goal percentage defense, so I think there's balance there.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Fresh off a win over nationally-ranked Pittsburg State, Washburn women's basketball is set to take on another ranked opponent, with the Ichabods starting a four-game road swing on Thursday against No. 19 Fort Hays State at 5:30 p.m.
Washburn's 75-62 home win over No. 25 Pittsburg State snapped a three-game Ichabod losing streak.
"We had had two losses to really great teams and then we had a quote-unquote bad loss that makes you question yourself and our players did a great job of kind of staying the course through those hiccups that happen in a season, putting their foot down and really competed well Saturday,'' Washburn coach Lora Westling said.
"I think we still have a lot of gaps where we want to play better basketball but they competed and decided that we weren't going to take it anymore.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights bowler Henry Schattilly turned in a very solid 2023 season as as a freshman, narrowly missing a trip to the Class 5A-1A state tournament.
But Schattilly has taken a big step forward this winter, including the individual championship in Wednesday's five-school Shawnee Heights meet at Gage Bowl.
Schattilly recorded a season best 673 series on Wednesday, edging Piper's Darron Spak by a single pin, and Schattilly has now recorded four straight 600-plus series to open the season.
"I've been doing way better than I did last year,'' Schattilly said. "I've gone from a 197 average to so far 207 out of all our meets this year. For this being just my third year of bowling, it's amazing.''