Freshman Amalachi Wilkins came off the bench to lead a balanced Washburn attack with 13 points in the Ichabods' 90-54 road win at William Jewell. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Freshman Amalachi Wilkins came off the bench to lead a balanced Washburn attack with 13 points in the Ichabods' 90-54 road win at William Jewell. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Ichabod soccer will square off with tournament host and No. 1 Central Region seed Minnesota State at 1 p.m. Sunday in Mankato, Minn.
Leah Henke, Washburn University
Kate Hinck, Washburn University
The Ichabods are 12-3-5 while Minnesota State is 18-1-3.
No. 4 seed Washburn is coming off a 2-0 first-round win over No. 5-seed Missouri Western while Minnesota State advanced with a 2-0 win over No. 8 Harding.
Freshman Leah Henke had a goal, her 10th of the season, and an assist in Friday's win while freshman Kate Hinck had Washburn's first goal of the game, her sixth of the season.
Sophomore Sam Searcey had the assist on Henke's goal against the Griffons and has five goals and four assists on the season.
The Ichabod defense recorded its 12th clean sheet of the year while freshman goalkeeper Lili Everley made a career-high eight saves in the match.
Defenders Rilyn Snyder and Shaye Taylor played all 90 minutes against Missouri Western and are one-two in minutes played for the Ichabods this season.
Minnesota State enters Sunday's match on a five-match unbeaten strea.
The Mavericks won the NSIC regular-season and conference tournament titles. They have three players tied for the team lead in goals with five apiece.
Sunday will be the first meeting between Minnesota State and Washburn.
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural, which captured the Class 6A state championship, leads the 2025 Topeka All-City boys soccer team with five first-team picks.
The Junior Blues are represented on the 16-member first team, selected by city coaches, by seniors Draden Chooncharoen (midfield), Brandon Hamilton (defense), Liam Morrison (defense) and Dylan Willingham (forward) and junior Brodye Kocher-Munoz (forward) while Rural coach Brian Hensyel was voted the city coach of the year after the Junior Blues posted a 19-1-1 record.
Draden Chooncharoen, Washburn Rural
Brandon Hamilton, Washburn Rural
Dylan Willingham, Washburn Rural
Brodye Kocher-Munoz, Washburn Rural
Hamilton, Morrison and Willingham are all first-team repeat picks.
Shawnee Heights, Topeka High and Topeka West all put three players on the All-City first team, while Cair Paravel Latin and Seaman both put one player on the team.
Camden Granado, Shawnee Heights
Shawnee Heights is represented on the All-City team by seniors Camden Granado (forward) and Jason Slay (defense) and junior Mason Haas (midfield), with Granado and Haas first-team repeat picks.
Neri Diaz-Mayorga, Topeka High
Neri Diaz-Mayorga, Topeka High
Topeka High put three players on the All-City team -- seniors Neri Diaz-Mayorga (midfield) and Billy Lutz (goalkeeper) and junior Carlos Acosta-Martinez (midfield).
Lutz is a repeat first-team selection while Diaz-Mayorga made the first team in 2024 for Highland Park.
Valentin Del Real, Topeka West
Diego Gonzalez-Talavera, Topeka West
Giancarlo Valenzuela, Topeka West
Topeka West is represented on the first team by sophomore Valentin Del Real (midfield), junior Diego Gonzalez-Talavera (forward) and senior Giancarlo Valenzuela (midfield), with Del Real and Gonzalez-Talavera first-team repeaters.
Cair Paravel put senior Nathan Keys (forward) on the All-City team while Seaman is represented by senior Cody Quy (forward).
Willingham was named the Centennial League player of the year this fall for the second straight season while Rural's Chooncharoen, Hamilton, Kocher-Munoz and High's Acosta-Martinez and Diaz-Mayorga were also first-team picks.
Shawnee Heights' Granado was named the United Kansas Conference player of the year while Haas and Slay and Topeka West's Del Real, Gonzalez-Talavera and Valenzuela were all named to the All-United Kansas Conference first team.
2025 TOPEKA ALL-CITY SOCCER
- Details
By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Since at least 2006, the Topeka West girls basketball program has not had a winning season. However, looking back at the last two seasons under head coach Angie Ketterman, the win total is adding up.
Senior Addaline Hall (13) is a top returner for Topeka West girls basketball. [File photo/TSN]
Teairra Gonzales (22) will be counted on for senior leadership this winter for the Topeka West girls. [File photo/TSN]
In 2023-2024 the Chargers won eight games and in 2024-2025, they had six wins. That’s 14 wins in a two-year span. Before that, it took West five years to notch at least 14 wins total. Not to mention, the last season where they had at least five wins before 2023 was 2016.
“Every school has seasons where they’re really good,'' Ketterman said. "Eventually, you’re going to fade back out and then you start coming back up. I really feel like we have kids coming in now and we’re on our way up.
"They’re starting to see it, they’re starting to believe it and that they can win, so it’s going to be a fun year.''
Ketterman played for the Chargers and also coached at one point before coming back. She said with this being the third year and the same coaching staff, the girls are starting to figure it out.
“They know what we expect. This year feels different because I feel we’re all on the same page. They come in and know exactly what we’re wanting,” Ketterman said. “We didn’t have any seniors last year and now we have four. It’s a good group.”
Ketterman is excited about what the seniors are bringing in terms of a leadership standpoint because the younger girls, especially the bigger freshmen class, are buying into that. That’s the route Ketterman wants this team to take.
“It’s a good mixture. I can honestly tell you, we don’t know who we’re starting, it’s a good problem to have, it’s kind of exciting,'' Ketterman said.
Seniors Teairra Gonzales and Addaline Hall have been in the program for four years and in the UKC with tough competition and Gonzales said it's their time to shine and grow.
“I like how everybody on our team is interchangeable. We’ve all played together for so long, play each part of the game and we can switch it up sometimes,” Gonzales said.
- Details
By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
The 2024-2025 campaign ended at 14-8 and a first-round appearance in the State Tournament for Topeka West boys basketball last year under then first-year head coach Christian Ulsaker.
That was the Chargers' first trip back to the big dance since 2022 after they were the runnerups in Class 5A in 2021.
Topeka West senior Malakyah Duncan was a second-team All-Shawnee County pick last season for the 14-8 Chargers. [File photo/TSN]
Senior Keimani Paul is a top returner for Topeka West, receiving Second 10 All-Shawnee County honors last season. [File photo/TSN]
Ulsaker is appreciative of what legendary coach Rick Bloomquist brought to the USD 501 community and the tradition of having all his players ready for any situation, and Ulsaker said it’s his job to uphold that.
“My saying this year is the standard is the standard, this is what we want it to be and where it’s going to stay and we got to continue to do that,” Ulsaker said.
The Chargers will have three starters back from last year's team but the goal is to develop the collective with what the Chargers have and Ulsaker is confident this group can do that.
“I’m ready to see some of those now upperclassmen fill those voids that might be missing from last year,” Ulsaker said.
“My goal this year is a player-led team. I want a group that’s going to stick together through thick and thin, deal with adversity really well and be able to do that together. They won’t need a rah rah speech from the coach at halftime, they’ll be able to do it themselves.”
Ulsaker said West wants to continue to be a top team in 5A like area schools Shawnee Heights, Highland Park, Seaman, etc. and the United Kansas Conference helps with that and there’s never any Tuesday or Friday nights off.
Some things you’ll see with the Chargers are athleticism, high basketball IQ and that the players are in the gym constantly.
Ulsaker said they’ve seen a lot of different scenarios which he said is hard to coach if they’ve never seen it but they have.
“I genuinely think this team loves each other,'' Ulsaker said. "That’s a huge thing for a team to have success is to see their teammates have success. It doesn’t have to be about ‘me’, they want them to have success and be happy for their teammates because they’re almost like brothers,” Ulsaker said.
Guys who can help with that are MalakyahDuncan, Keimani Paul and Jayveon Traylor to name a few.
“Our chemistry is through the roof and I’ve been playing with them for a while now and it’s been great,” Traylor said.
“Our quickness and our size (are plusses). Our size will be nice this year.”
Ulsaker will show his intensity and emotion in practices and games and that feeds into the team
“I’m able to coach them that way because they know I truly love them,” Ulsaker said. “They understand that they can come into my office and call me whenever they need and I’ll be there for them.
"You can’t have a relationship where you can constructively criticize a player if they don’t think you love them. These kids are allowing me to coach them hard because they know off the court I’ll do whatever I can for them.”




