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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Mike Williams stepped down as Highland Park's boys basketball coach on Monday after a highly-successful seven-year run that included five Class 5A state tournament appearances and a runnerup state finish this past season.
Mike Williams resigned Monday as Highland Park's boys basketball coach after a highly-successful seven-year stint. [File photo/TSN]
Williams, who informed his Scot players of his decision Monday afternoon, said that stepping down at Highland Park, which gave him his first head coaching job in 2018, was one of the toughest decisions he's ever had to make.
"I'm wiping tears from my eyes right now,'' Williams told TopSports.news. "Highland Park took a chance on a young asstantant coach that had no head coaching experience and I had applied for jobs before and hadn't gotten an opportunity.
"I knew what I could do, or what I believed that I could do, but I wasn't proven and Highland Park and Topeka Public Schools as a whole, they had to kind of step out on a ledge to put me in the position that I've been in and I'm thankful for that, to be given this opportunity to be the head coach at Highland Park.''
Williams, the TopSports.news Shawnee County boys coach of the year the past three seasons after leading the Scots to a 71-4 record over that span, said that a big factor in his decision to step away from basketball was to be able to devote more attention to his family and his education.
Williams' son, Mike Jr., is a 2025 Highland Park graduate and will play college basketball at Barton County Community College, while Micah is a star sophomore soccer player for the Scots. Mike Sr. is scheduled to earn his Master's Degree in the summer of 2026.
"I want to make sure that people know that this wasn't because I got another job or I had a job offer waiting,'' Williams said. "I never put in for a head coaching job since I've been the head coach at Highland Park and I've never been offered another job, so it wasn't like I was running out for the next best opportunity.
''I wear my emotions on my sleeve when I get involved in something. I'm neck deep in it because I want to do a good job and I want to impact people, so I've been so wrapped up in Highland Park every day for the last seven years that there were a lot of times in my life when the basketball program came before me and the basketball program came before my family. I hate to say that because that's not the man I want to and as a father, but it was the coach that I wanted to be and the leader that I wanted to be for Highland Park.''
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The 2025 All-City boys tennis team -- Front, from left: Chase Blaser, Hayden; Evan George, Hayden; Ethan Winters, Seaman; Tres Lassiter, Topeka High; Keegan Knudtson, Washburn Rural; Kieffer O'Connor, Washburn Rural; Greyson Jones, Washburn Rural. Back, from left: Drew Fay, Cair Paravel Latin; Cole Fay, Cair Paravel Latin; Eric Buchenau, Cair Paravel Latin; Ben Tryhus, Washburn Rural; Cale Deutscher, Washburn Rural; Dylan Willingham, Washburn Rural. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Cair Paravel Latin Class 3A-1A state doubles finalists Eric Buchenau and Drew Fay headline the 2025 All-City boys tennis team, which includes seven state medalists and 12 state qualifiers.
Buchenau and Fay, both juniors, went 29-2 on the season, with both losses coming against Wichita Collegiate's undefeated state champions, Carter and Maddox Drumright, who took a three-set win over Cair Paravel in the state final.
Hayden seniors Chase Blaser and Evan George placed fourth in 4A doubles while Washburn Rural juniors Cale Deutscher and Dylan Willingham finished seventh in 6A doubles and Cair Paravel freshman Cole Fay was 10th in 3A-1A singles.
All six Washburn Rural players earned All-City spots as the Junior Blues swept city, Centennial League and Class 6A regional team championships before finishing ninth in the 6A state tournament at Junction City.
In addition to Deutscher and Willingham, Rural is also represented on the All-City team by Greyson Jones, Keegan Knudtson, Kieffer O'Connor and Ben Tryhus.
Rounding out the All-City team are junior city No. 1 singles champion and 6A state qualifier Tres Lassiter and Seaman senior 5A state singles qualifier Ethan Winters, who helped lead the Vikings to United Kansas Conference and 5A regional team titles.
All-City tennis capsules:
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Eric Buchenau and Drew Fay used a gritty second-set comeback to give themselves a chance to win Cair Paravel Latin's first-ever state tennis championship Saturday at Kossover Tennis Center.
Cair Paravel juniors Eric Buchenau (left)and Drew Fay posted a runnerup state doubles finish Saturday at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But like they had all season, Wichita Collegiate senior Carter Drumright and his sophomore brother, Maddox, found a way to get the job done, dominating the third set to take a 6-2, 6-7 (5-7 tiebreaker), 6-0 victory in the state final.
The three-set victory capped off a perfect 25-0 season for the Drumrights while Buchenau and Fay, both juniors, went 29-2, with both losses coming against Collegiate's top team.
Cair Paravel junior Drew Fay returns a shot in Saturday's Class 3A-1A state doubles final at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"The end didn't finish how we wanted, but I'm proud of how we played,'' Fay said. "We played hard and gave it our all and I don't have any regrets personally.
"We definitely did better this time around. It was 8-2 the first time so I'm proud of how we played today.''
Cair Paravel junior Eric Buchenau (above) teamed with Drew Fay to post a runnerup doubles finish in Class 3A-1A state doubles Saturday at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"It didn't end how we wanted it to,'' Buchenau said. "We believed we had a shot and we never stopped believing it.''
A foreign exchange student from Germany, Buchenau was disappointed that he couldn't end his stint in the United States with a storybook finish.
"I had one shot at a state championship and I didn't make it, but of course I'm proud of how we did,'' he said.
Buchenau and Fay, the No. 3 seed, opened their day with a 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 2 seeds William Farha and Vihaan Ganganola of Wichita Collegiate in the semis.
Cair Paravel freshman Cole Fay posted a 10th-place state singles finish Saturday at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Cair Paravel freshman singles player Cole Fay also earned a state medal in his first state tournament, finishing 10th in singles.
Wichita Trinity senior Alex Hobson took an 8-1 win over Fay in the ninth-place match.
Wichita Collegiate rolled to the team championship by a 58-24 margin over Conway Springs, with Collegiate junior Charlie Gentile and freshman Amir Khisha finishing one-two in singles as Gentile took a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win over his teammate.
Cair Paravel tied for fourth place with 19 points.
Hayden's Blaser and George fourth in 4A semis
Hayden seniors Chase Blaser and Evan George posted a fourth-place Class 4A doubles finish Saturday in Winfield to close out their high school tennis careers.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Cair Paravel Latin juniors Eric Buchenau and Drew Fay had to sweat out a few anxious moments in their Class 3A-1A quarterfinal doubles match Friday at Kossover Tennis Center, but the Lion standouts got the job done, advancing to Saturday's 9 a.m. state semifinal.
Cair Paravel Latin's Drew Fay (left) and Eric Buchenau advanced to the Class 3A-1A doubles semifinals Friday at Kossover Tennis Center. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Buchenau and Fay, the No. 3 seed, went 2-0 on the day, including a 6-2, 6-4 quarterfinal win over Central Plains' Paxton Dody and Peyton Dody to improve to 28-1 on the season and will face No. 2 seeds William Farha and Vihaan Ganganola of Wichita Collegiate in the semis.
After a 6-0, 6-0 romp in their first match of the day, Fay and Buchenau jumped in front 5-2 in the second set of the quarterfinals before Dody and Dody cut their deficit to 5-4.
Central Plains seemed to have some momentum at that point, but the Lions were able to hold serve and close out the win.
"It was definitely frustrating,'' said Buchenau about the close second set, "but even if you play bad you have to find a way to win and we did that.''
Fay agreed.
"It definitely wasn't how we wanted it to go and we struggled for sure, but we were just scrapping out every point and got the win,'' Fay said.
"We hopefully got the bad bullets out today so we can just play our game tomorrow.''
Cair Paravel freshman singles player Cole Fay advanced to Saturday's Class 3A-1A medal matches with a 3-1 day. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Cair Paravel freshman singles player Cole Fay also advanced to Saturday's medal matches, going 3-1 on the day.
Cole Fay moved on to Saturday with an 8-5 win over Phillipsburg senior Nathan Fischer and can still finish as high as fifth place.
Hayden seniors Chase Blaser (left) and Evan George will compete in a Class 4A doubles semifinal Saturday in Winfield. [File photo/TSN]
Hayden's Blaser and George in 4A semis
Hayden regional doubles champions Chase Blaser and Evan George won both of their Class 4A doubles matches Friday in Winfield to advance to Saturday's 9 a.m. semifinals.
The fourth-seeded Wildcat seniors, now 25-6, advanced to the semifinals with a hard-earned 3-6, 7-6 (7-5 tiebreaker), 6-3 win over McPherson.
Blaser and George will face No. 1 seed Asher Deutschendorf and Braiden Liechty of Hesston in the semifinals.
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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
Special to TopSports.news
LEAVENWORTH -- On the warmest day of the 2025 track season, Leavenworth High School hosted the United Kansas Conference track meet on Thursday.
Seaman junior Ryin Miller was a double UKC individual champion in Thursday's conference meet at Leavenworth. [File photo/TSN]
Seaman junior Ryin Miller continued her winning ways this season with a sweep of the 1,600-meter (4:47.54) and 800- meter (2:22.53) races.
“I was happy with the 1,600 and the main goal was to secure the points for our team,'' Miller said. "In the 800, once I noticed that Kelsie (Kudzia of Leavenworth) wasn’t running, I decided to run a smarter race and get the 10 points for the team.”
Seaman junior Brody Anderson (1) won the 800 meters in Thursday's UKC meet at Leavenworth. [File photo/TSN]
Seaman junior Brody Anderson came back after a fourth-place finish in the 1600 meters to win the 800-meter championship in a time of 1:57.70.
He commented on his comeback after the 1,600 meter race:
“I wasn’t mad, I just gotta come back strong, can’t give up and have to have a positive mindset,'' Anderson said. "It was a great competition and I'm thankful to race these other guys. I’m looking forward to getting a little more out of myself over the next couple of weeks.”
Seaman senior Bryce Cochran won the 400-meter title with a time of 48.43 seconds.
Cochran commented on his preparation not only during the season but last offseason:
“The race went well,'' Cochran said. "I like running against tough competition like Austin Lindsay (De Soto). I’ve worked really hard this past offseason and the hard work is paying off.”
He came back later in the evening to finish second in the 200 dash with a time of 22.10 seconds.
Topeka West senior Adrian Lehman won the 1,600 UKC title in Thursday's conference meet at Leavenworth. [File photo/TSN]
Topeka West senior Adrian Lehman followed up on his exciting victories in the 1,600 meters and 3,200 meters at last week’s city meet by winning the 1,600-meter race in a time of 4:20.77. He also placed fourth in the 800 meters with a time of 1:59.08.
Other local highlights
- Seaman senior Ally Steiner finished third in both the 100-meter (13.00) and 200-meter (26.29) races.
- Seaman sophomore Brynn Spencer finished second in the 3,200 meters with a time of 11:50.86.
- Seaman senior Stella Applehanz finished third in the 3,200 meters in a time of 11:52.89.
- Seaman senior Jaida Stallbaumer placed second in the 100-meter hurdles (16.28) and third in the 300-meter hurdles (48.89).
- The Seaman girls 4x100 meter relay team finished third in 50.93 seconds.
- The Seaman girls 4x400 meter relay team finished second in 4:01.58.
- Seaman senior Grace Jowers placed third in the pole vault with a height of 9-6.
- Seaman junior Peyton Henry finished third the javelin with a throw of 109-6.
- Senior Peyton Holmes of Seaman finished second in the 100 meters in 10.92 seconds. He also finished third in the long jump with a jump of 21-1.
- Senior Liam Benz of Shawnee Heights finished third in the 400 meters with a time of 49.63.
- Senior Mark Wilkie of Topeka West finished second in the 800 meters with a time of 1:58.39 and second in the 1,600 meters in 4:21.37.
- Junior Kellan Parcaro of Seaman finished third in the 300-meter hurdles in 41.86 seconds.
- Senior Kaden Whitehurst of Seaman finished second in the triple jump with a jump of 41-6.
- Freshman De’drian Keeling of Topeka West finished third in the triple jump with a jump of 39-8.
- Junior Brogen Brown of Seaman finished third in the shot put with a put of 47-9.
