Welcome to Top Sports News

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Seaman's girls and Washburn Rural's boys earned bragging rights in Friday's third annual Topeka Shawnee County Bowling Championships at Gage Bowl, with the Vikings winning their third straight girls team championship and Rural repeating as the boys champion.

Seaman girls bowling won its third straight city title Friday at Gage Bowl, putting four bowlers in the top six places individually. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]

Washburn Rural won its second straight city bowling team title Friday at Gage Bowl. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]

Individually, Seaman sophomore Leah Crawford shot a 661 three-game series to win the girls title by 36 pins while Topeka High junior Adrian Meraz Jara shocked the boys field with a 700 to win by 16 pins.

Seaman's girls won the team title by a 3,293-2,970 margin over Washburn Rural, including the four Baker format games, as the Vikings put four bowlers in the top six.

"The girls have really been pretty solid all year,'' Seaman coach Bob Benoit said. "When they get to striking they seem to feed off of each other. I'm really pleased with where they're at. We've just got to clean up the spares.

"Their morale's really good. There's no drama with the girls. It's a real pleasure to coach them.'' 

Washburn Rural junior Megan Glinka and Seaman junior Paige Snyder tied for second with 625 series, with Glinka taking second on a tiebreaker with a 256 high game while Snyder had a high game of 235.

Seaman's Claire LaDuke finished fourth with a 613 series while the Vikings' Ava Carlson finished sixth with a 559 series.

Seaman sophomore Leah Crawford won the city girls individual bowling title Friday at Gage Bowl. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]

Crawford bowled games of 224, 211 and 226 as she broke through for the title in her second city meet.

"Last year at the city meet I placed 12th and it was not my best day,'' Crawford said. "I was very surprised with how I did today.

"Normally when I come to Gage I get very nervous because it's not my favorite place to bowl. So I was pretty impressed with how I did and I was trying to keep my head up the whole entire day.''

Washburn Rural took its second straight boys team title by a 3,517-3,474 margin over Shawnee Heights, including the Baker games, as Matthew Richard led the Junior Blues with a runnerup individual finish with a 684 series.

The Junior Blues also got a seventh-place finish from Jackson Keller (644), a ninth from Andrew Faurot (633) and a 10th-place showing from Cody Spangler (631).

"The titles are nice to have, but we're always looking for improvement each time out as we get closer and closer to the end of the season,'' Washburn Rural coach Jo Ricard said. "We know that there's definitely the potential there for them, and it's a matter of staying focused the whole way through the whole time.

"It's not just only about strikes, but also when that spare piece is there you've got to hit your spares and stay focused on that. And that includes Baker. If you're rolling through the first five frames and we're hot and on, we've got to stay focused. That's something obviously we continue to work on constantly because looking ahead we know how tough our regional is going to look like.'' 

Boys runnerup Shawnee Heights put four bowlers in the top six, with Trey Donath third (683), Chevy Stallbaumer fourth (669), Evan Jones fifth (664) and Henry Schattilly sixth (645). Kelton Meier finished eighth (638) for third-place Hayden.

Topeka High's Adrian Meraz Jara won the city boys bowling title with a 700 series. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]

 But the star of the day was Merez Jara, who shattered his previous personal best by about 170 pins with games of 212, 255 and 233.

"I hadn't been close to that at all,'' Merez Jara said. "The closest I got was like 530. I didn't think I was ever going to get this high.''

In fact, Friday was the first time Merez Jara had placed in a meet.

"I have never placed, ever,'' he said. "I'm just shocked because I would have never expected to be up there.'' 

TOPEKA SHAWNEE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Read more …

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

After opening its 2026 season with a 4-1 record in last weekend's Lone Star Classic in Mansfield, Texas, Washburn softball team is back on the road for five games at the Alvy Early Memorial Classic in Bentonville, Ark.

 

Kate Ediger is hitting a team-high .625 for 4-1 Washburn softball with six runs and five RBI. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]

 

The Ichabods wrapped up its 4-1 start to the season with a pair of Sunday run-rule wins, with Washburn taking an 11-3 win over Lubbock Christian and a 10-2 over Texas A&M-Kingsville, both in five innings.

 

Senior Kate Ediger leads Washburn with a .625 batting average, stroking 10 hits with two doubles, six runs scored and five runs batted in.

 

Sophomore Makenzie Sais is hitting .526 with 10 hits, four RBI and 10 stolen bases in 11 attempts.

 

Maddie McGee, Dalaney Anderson and Aspen Burghart are all hitting .400 or higher.

 

Junior Kierra Goos has a pitching record of 2-0 with a 1.00 earned run average and 14 strikeouts in 14 innings.

 

Senior Sadie Walker is also 2-0 with a 2.15 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 13 innings.

 

On tap this weekend are games against Missouri S&T (11 a.m. Friday), Harding (1:30 p.m. Friday), William Jewell (11:30 a.m. Saturday), Southeastern Oklahoma State (2 p.m. Saturday) and Truman State (11 a.m. Sunday).

 

Missouri S&T went 3-1 last weekend, including a win over No. 11 Central Oklahoma in a 5-4 victory.

 

Harding went 2-2 at the Lone Star Classic, with wins over Maryville and Texas Woman's.

William Jewell will be opening its 2026 season this weekend. 

Southeastern Oklahoma was 2-3 last weekend at the D2 First Pitch Invitational.

 

Like William Jewell, Truman State will be opening its season this weekend in Arkansas.

Brenda Holaday is 283-169 in her 10th season as the Ichabod softball coach and is the all-time winningest coach in program history.

Holaday coached 19 seasons at Washburn Rural, compiling a 351-93 (.791) record.

 

The Ichabods will return to the road next week for five games at the Cherokee Classic in Tahlequah, Okla. before opening up their home slate with the Washburn Invitational, starting Feb. 20 with six home games over the weekend.

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

The 74th season of Washburn Ichabod baseball begins this weekend in Florida with four games in four days.

The Ichabods take on Lynn, Palm Beach Atlantic, Nova Southeastern and Barry.

Senior Jackson Mervosh is a top returner for Washburn, which opens its season this weekend in Florida. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics] 

Washburn baseball begins the 74th season in program history heading to Florida for four games in four days to open 2026. 

The Ichabods begin the season on Friday at 1 p.m. against Lynn University. They take on Palm Beach Atlantic on Saturday at 12 p.m. and Nova Southeastern at 12 p.m. on Sunday. They wrap up the trip against Barry on Monday at 12:30 p.m.

 

Washburn is coming off a fourth straight winning season in 2025, going 28-25 overall and 18-18 inside the MIAA. They finished seventh in the regular season and won two games in the MIAA Tournament before falling in the semifinal round.

They were picked to finish fifth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll for a second straight year.

Washburn will return 19 players from the 2025 roster with eight of them as seniors, four juniors and seven freshmen. 

Washburn had nine players earn All-MIAA honors a season ago and will return a pair of them in 2026.

Jackson Mervosh returns to the Ichabod infield after earning All-MIAA second-team and All-Region honors last season.

As a junior he started in 52 games and played in all 53 hitting .356 with 77 total hits and 10 home runs. He set a program record with 24 doubles. He had eight games with three or more hits. 

Jackson Mervosh has the 18th highest batting average in program history at .356. He is tied for 47th among all Ichabods with 24 doubles.

Mervosh led the MIAA and ranked fifth nationally last season with 24 doubles.

Caleb Lunnon returns for his senior season after earning All-MIAA third-team recognition last season.

In his first season with Washburn he appeared in 14 games making 12 starts and tossing 65.0 innings, second most on the team. He finished with a 5-1 record, a team-high in victories, with 51 strikeouts. Lunnon tossed five or more strikeouts in seven outings last season.

Washburn is adding 28 newcomers to the 2026 roster with nine freshmen and 19 transfers joining the team. 

The group of transfers features a pair of seniors, 15 juniors, one sophomore and a redshirt freshman.

The transfer group includes Topeka natives Zach Sharshel, Maclane Finley and Scout Jellison, who are all pitchers.

Washburn's 47-man roster consists of players from eight different states. There are 21 players on the roster who are from Kansas.

In the 2026 MIAA Coaches Preseason Poll, the Ichabods were picked fifth, the same place they were picked to finish in the 2025 preseason poll as well.

Central Missouri was picked to repeat as the regular season champion, earning 12 of 13 first-place votes with 144 total points. Pittsburg State and Central Oklahoma are picked to finish second and third respectively. 

Harley Douglas enters his 12th season at the helm of the Washburn baseball program.

In eleven full seasons, Douglas carries an all-time record of 284-242 with seven appearances in the MIAA Tournament and led the program to its first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2022.

Griffin Huiatt is tied for fifth in program history with seven career saves and is tied for seventh in Washburn history with 53 career appearances.

Read more …