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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural juniors Audrey Appuhn and Rhiannon Good and Seaman senior Joslynn Grace will all take lofty top-four qualifying marks into Saturday's final day of the Class 6A and 5A swimming and diving championships at the Capitol Federal Natatorium.
The 6A finals will get under way at 9 a.m., followed by the 5A-1A finals at 4 p.m.
Washburn Rural junior Audrey Appuhn has been a multi-event Class 6A state medalist the past two seasons and posted two top-four qualifying performances for Saturday's state finals. [File photo/TSN]
Appuhn, a multi-event state medalist the past two seasons, qualifed third for the finals in the 200-yard freestyle in a preliminary time of 1 minute, 56.79 seconds and came back later to earn the No. 4 qualifying spot in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.99.
Good is sitting in the third spot in the one-meter diving standings after the preliminary and semifinal rounds, posting a score of 277.45. The diving finals will kick off the 6A championship finals at 9 o'clock.
Washburn Rural senior Genevieve Miranda garnered the eighth and final spot in the championship finals for the 100 butterfly in 1:02.03 and will be the top seed for the 'B' finals in the 100 backstroke after a preliminary time of 1:03.76.
Seaman senior Joslynn Grace qualified in the top four Friday for a pair of Class 5A-1A state swimming finals. [File photo/TSN]
Seaman's Grace, a returning multi-event state medalist, qualified No. 3 in the 5A 200 individual medley in 2:10.17 and No. 4 in the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.56.
Hayden senior Kaylee Gregg and sophomore Maddie Gregg qualified sixth and ninth for the 5A-1A one-meter diving finals, which will begin at 4 p.m.
Kaylee Gregg has a score of 267.25 after the semifinals while Maddie Gregg has a score of 209.40.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After a 5-10-1 regular season, Topeka High girls soccer has come to life in postseason, posting a pair of road upsets to advance to Monday's Class 6A quarterfinals.
Topeka High girls soccer is headed to the Class 6A state quarterfinals after Thursday's 3-1 win at Wichita Northwest. [Submitted photo]
Topeka High, the No. 14 West regional seed, opened regional competition with a 2-1 win in penalty kicks (5-3) at No. 3 Garden City on Tuesday and followed that up with a 3-1 win at No. 11 Wichita Northwest Thursday to claim a regional championship.
Natalie Barnes scored her first of two goals on the night off a Cierra Belaire assist 5:52 into the opening half to put the Trojans in front 1-0.
Wichita Northwest (7-10-1) tied the game at 1-1 with 7:06 left in the half on a penalty kick, but Topeka High answered with a Raelee Shipley goal with 5:55 remaining to give the Trojans a 2-1 halftime advantage.
Barnes scored her second goal with 11:52 remaining in the match to give High its final margin.
Next up for the 7-10-1 Trojans is No. 1 West seed Washburn Rural (16-2-0), which will host Topeka High in Monday's 6 p.m. state quarterfinal.
The Junior Blues advanced with a 4-1 win over Manhattan Thursday night.
Rural defeated Topeka High 3-1 in a Centennial League game on April 16.
Vikes roll to 5A quarterfinals
Seaman rolled to an 8-0 win over United Kansas Conference rival Basehor-Linwood in Thursday's Class 5A regional final at Seaman.
The Vikings, now 13-5-0, outscored its two regional opponents by an 19-0 margin en route to earning a second straight trip to the quarterfinals.
Seaman will go on the road Monday to face UKC rival De Soto (16-2-0) in a 6 p.m. contest.
The Vikings dropped a 4-3 conference game to the Wildcats on April 17.
Hayden knocks off Bullpups, 2-1
Hayden soccer moved onto the Class 4A-1A state quarterfinals with a 2-1 Thursday road win at McPherson.
Now 11-7-0 on the season, the Wildcats are the No. 4 seed for the 4A-1A quarterfinals and will travel to top seed Wichita Trinity (14-1-2) for a 6:30 p.m. Monday contest.
T-Birds' season ends at St. James
Shawnee Heights' 2025 soccer season ended in a 5-0 loss at St. James Academy in a Class 5A regional final.
The T-Birds finished with an 11-6-1 record on the season while St. James Academy improved to 17-1-0.
The Thunder's lone loss was a 3-1 regular-season loss at 6A power Washburn Rural.
St. James will host St. Thomas Aquinas at 6 p.m. Monday in a state quarterfinal.
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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
Special to TopSports.news
ANDOVER -- On a sunny May afternoon, nine Class 5A schools (Andover, Andover Central, Arkansas City, Emporia, Kapaun Mt. Carmel, Newton, Seaman, Topeka West and Valley Center) competed at Andover Central in one of four regional track meets across the state on Thursday and Friday.
The top three finishers in each event qualified for the state meet next weekend in Wichita. The next four best finishers across all four regional meets will also qualify for the state meet. Those results will not be known until the regional meets at Blue Valley Northwest and Mill Valley on Friday evening.
Seaman junior Ryin Miller qualified for next week's Class 5A state track meet in Wichita in four events in Thursday's regional meet in Andover. [File photo/TSN]
Seaman junior Ryin Miller qualified in four events on Thursday.
She won the 800 meters with a time of 2 minutes, 13.98 seconds, the 1,600 meters in 5:01.64 and the 3,200 meters in 11:23.87. She was also the anchor leg of the Vikings' 4x400-meter relay team that finished third in a time of 4:06.58.
Competing in four events on the day played a role in Miller’s strategy during the meet.
“Definitely regionals are survive and advance,'' Miller said. "I wasn’t trying to run a personal best today. The goal in the mile was to do enough to move on and I did that. Also doing four events in one day is pretty rough. I’m excited for next week.”
The Seaman boys were the regional runnerup to Kapaun Mt. Carmel, amassing 80.5 points during the meet.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Red-hot Washburn Rural soccer continued to roll Thursday night at McElroy Field, with the Junior Blues claiming a Class 6A regional championship with a 4-1 win over Centennial League rival Manhattan.
With Thursday's win Washburn Rural improved to 16-2-0 overall with its ninth straight victory.
Washburn Rural senior Kate Hinck (9) hoists the Class 6A regional trophy as the Junior Blues celebrate Thursday's 4-1 win over Manhattan. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural soccer poses for a team picture after Thursday's Class 6A 4-1 regional win over Manhattan. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
"This is what we've been working for all season,'' said Rural senior captain Destiny Higgs, who had a pair of goals to lead the Junior Blues. "We know what we want and we're going to try our hardest to get it.''
Rural, 6A's top West seed, advanced to Monday's 6 p.m. state quarterfinal to host city rival Topeka High, a 3-1 winner over Wichita Northwest.
"We've worked hard all season to be here and get home field advantage and get the best possible draw,'' Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel said. "The girls have so far this week taken things real serious and Manhattan played with a lot of energy.
"I told their coach (Mike Sanchez) that over the last six weeks (since an 8-1 Rural win over the Indians) they've made a lot of improvement. They played really hard today and we had to match that.''
The Junior Blues never trailed after an own goal at the 35:02 mark of the opening half.
Higgs made it a 2-0 game with her first goal at the 22:15 mark of the first half off an assist from junior Dayne Shriver and Rural opened up a commanding 3-0 advantage with 7:45 left in the half on a goal from senior Zahra Friess off a pass from sophomore Emery Hall.
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By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural’s version of “small ball” overcame a home run barrage by Campus Thursday, propelling the Junior Blues to the Class 6A state softball tournament.
After handling Wichita East 15-0 in the semifinal round of the 6A regional at Rural, the Junior Blues held off Campus 8-6 to advance to state next week at the University of Kansas.
Washburn Rural celebrates its Class 6A regional softball championship after Thursday's 8-6 win over Campus. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
To get through the regional, the Junior Blues had to face Campus, a team Rural beat twice the previous week.
“We talked about this several times, beating a team three times in a row is one of the hardest feats to do in athletics,” said Washburn Rural coach Joy Marie Galliart. “We ended our regular season with them, so those games were fresh in their mind. We knew it was going to be a dogfight.”
While the Junior Blues pecked away with singles, walks, stolen bases and sacrifices, Campus swung for the fences. Four of the Colts’ six hits cleared the outfield wall.
“They swing the bat very well,” Galliart said. “We’ve been preparing that they were going to come in and swing the bat and they were going to get their runs. It was a matter of us making defensive plays when they gave us a chance to get them out.
“After they hit a couple of two-run home runs, I said, ‘We have to throw a punch right back.’ And every time they scored, we responded, and we were able to score again in the next half inning.”
Washburn Rural sophomore Olivia Koch hit a home run in Thursday's 8-6 Class 6A regional win over Campus. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
The Junior Blues rapped 11 hits in the second game, the only extra-base hit being a homer by sophomore Olivia Koch.
“I was super proud of the way we executed offensively and moved runners up into scoring position to give the next person the chance to drive them in,” Galliart said. “We hit some boring ground balls, but boring ground balls with runners on third score runs.”
Galliart went with junior pitcher Reagan Chapman in the first game, a 15-0 four-inning romp over Wichita East. For the second game, the coach put the ball in the hands of two senior pitchers with the trip to state on the line.
Addie Keys went three innings, surrendering two two-run homers in the third. The Colts led momentarily, 4-3, before the Junior Blues rallied for three runs to regain the lead.
“I was excited to get the opportunity, and I knew that if something went wrong, I had a team behind me and that I had a phenomenal pitcher behind me that could also help me out if I needed it,” Keys said. “We like to change it up, and especially once they started hitting a little bit, it helped us getting another pitcher in there.”
Fellow senior Madi Davison took over, promptly surrendering a homer to the first batter of the fourth inning. But Davison settled in and gave up just a solo shot in the top of the seventh.
“I get super anxious when I’m pitching,” Davison said. “Everybody had to tell me to keep breathing. We had played (Campus) before and they had home runs off of me. I just knew that I had a good defense behind me. Their only runs were off home runs, so I think that shows how good our defense did this game.”
Washburn Rural softball poses for a team picture after Thursday's 8-6 Class 6A regional win over Campus. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
The Junior Blues are in search of their first state title since 2014. They finished third in 2024, the first season under Galliart.
“This program has a really strong history of getting to the state tournament and having players that go on to play at the elite level,” Galliart said. “So, it’s important to me, and it’s important to our kids, that we continue that tradition. The expectation is that we get there, so that’s our goal from the very beginning.”
