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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Kaitlyn Aldridge

KAITLYN ALDRIDGE, Shawnee Heights

A junior swimming standout, Aldridge won the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 1 minute, 11.39 seconds and finished second in the 100 backstroke in 1:11.31 in Thursday's Topeka High Invitational at the Capitol Federal Natatorium while also swimming on the T-Birds' third-place 200 free relay (2:03.17) and fourth-place 200 medley relay (2:21.17). Aldridge also posted an individual win and runnerup finish in last Tuesday's meet.

Brody Anderson

BRODY ANDERSON, Seaman

Anderson, a senior cross country and track star, shattered the Seaman school record in the boys 1,600 meters by nearly six seconds in Thursday's Jerry Beardslee Invitational at Washburn Rural. Anderson clocked a winning time of 4 minutes, 11.94 seconds and came back later in the day to win the 800 in 1:56.49 giving him four victories in four races on the season.

Taylor Brees 

TAYLOR BREES, Washburn University

A freshman outfielder, Brees had a big weekend as Washburn University softball posted a pair of MIAA doubleheader road sweeps at Nebraska-Kearney (9-1, 4-0) and Fort Hays State (12-1, 6-0). Brees went 7 of 13 at the plate in the four games with six runs batted in and five runs scored. Brees went 5 of 6 in Friday's wins over Fort Hays State with five RBI and four runs scored.

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By TODD FERTIG

TopSports.news

A wild ending to the second game of a doubleheader between the Silver Lake and Rossville softball teams produced a split at Rossville Monday night between the two rivals.

After Silver Lake won the opening contest 8-3, Rossville appeared to be in control throughout the second game but struggled to put the feisty Eagles away in the final inning.

Rossville scored six runs on seven hits in the bottom of the sixth inning to build what appeared to be an insurmountable 12-3 lead. But the Eagles refused to go quietly, scoring seven runs before the Bulldawgs were able to close out the 12-10 victory.

Rossville softball, celebrating a run during Monday's home doubleheader with Silver Lake, earned a split with a 12-10 second-game win. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN] 

Silver Lake rapped out eight hits in the top of the seventh and cut the deficit to just two runs. With runners on first and third, they appeared poised to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But a smash deep into the outfield was snared by the Rossville fielder for the second out of the inning. Once the ball was in the infield, a throw to third base produced the final out on the Eagle runner who left the base on contact.

“I’m just glad we were able to hang on to get the win,” said Rossville coach John Nitsch following the nightcap. “The main thing is just to keep on fighting. I’m glad we scored enough the inning before to give us that cushion.

“The difference between this year and last year was we’d let games like that get away from us. But this year we’re able to fight back and get it.”

Rossville withstood four Silver Lake home runs and a triple in the second game by stringing together long rallies in the second and sixth innings. The Bulldawgs compiled 17 hits in the late game, all but one of which were singles.

The opening game loss to Silver Lake was Rossville’s first defeat of the season. The nightcap made the Bulldawgs 7-1 on the season.

“My biggest thing was I didn’t like how we competed in the first game,” said Nitsch, who recorded his 100th career victory earlier in the season. “We’ve got to show up to compete every pitch, every play, not extend innings by not making plays.”

Senior pitcher Riley Mohler picked up an 8-3 complete game first-game victory as Silver Lake and Rossville split Monday's doubleheader. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Silver Lake got a complete-game victory in the opener from pitcher Riley Mohler. The senior helped herself out with two big plays in the sixth inning, neither coming from her pitching arm.

Knotted at 3-3 in the top of the sixth, the pitcher stepped to the plate with runners on second and third. She cracked a drive to the opposite field that banged against the right field fence, plating both runners to take the lead.

“I personally love hitting. I know pitching is a big thing for me. I’ve been pitching for as long as I can remember,” Mohler said. “But once I sit in that box and I can hit, it really changes the game because I can affect the score and who wins.”

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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Rossville was the first school to give Brandon McDonnell the opportunity to be a head basketball coach and he's cherished his four years there, leading the Bulldawgs to back-to-back Class 2A state tournament berths the past two seasons.

Brandon McDonnell has been selected as Shawnee Heights' new boys basketball coach after leading Rossville to back-to-back Class 2A state berths. [File photo/TSN]

But the chance to move up to the 5A level in his hometown of Topeka was too good to pass up, with McDonnell tapped to replace retiring local legend Ken Darting as Shawnee Heights' new boys coach.

"For your first head coaching job and then to have such a great group of kids, it's obviously hard to leave that,'' McDonnell said about leaving Rossville. "For the four years I've been embraced by our players and it's been a Godsend, so obviously this is not an easy choice by any means, but at the end of the day I always explore opportunity and at this particular moment my name was just kind of out there for this (Shawnee Heights) job.

"When your name's out there, you know there's people that kind of want your leadership and your expertise and your mentorship and you always want to pursue something that you think you'll be a good fit for, so that's what happened here.''

A former Topeka High standout and assistant at Topeka West, McDonnell said it has always been in the back of his mind to someday land a head coaching job in his hometown.

"One hundred percent,'' said McDonnell, who played collegiately at Baker. "Nothing against Rossville, I loved it out there, but it was always a thing for me to come back and coach in the city where I played in, where I grew up.''

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