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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Game is obviously a game of numbers, and the numbers 21, 11 and 3 were the difference Monday night in No. 5-ranked (Class 6A) Washburn Rural's 41-31 girls non-league loss to No. 6 Blue Valley at Rural.
Washburn Rural, the defending Class 6A state champion, turned the ball over 21 times on the night while scoring just 11 points in the second half and three points in the fourth quarter as Blue Valley, third in 6A a year ago, pulled away down the stretch for the double-digit victory.
Washburn Rural senior MaRyah Lutz shared team-high honors with nine points on three 3-pointers in Monday's 41-31 loss to Blue Valley. [File photo/TSN]
Rural coach Kevin Bordewick admitted that the Junior Blues' turnover woes were the single biggest factor in Monday's loss.
"I don't think there's any question about that,'' Bordewick said. "We weren't smart with the ball and it's not only the person making the pass but the person the pass is going to, we're not going to the ball. We're just expecting it to magically appear while they're jumping the passing lanes like crazy.
"Turnovers have been our bugaboo for a long time now and it caught up to us tonight. In offense you want to get in a rhythm and then everything kind of flows together. We couldn't get in a rhythm because we handed them the ball so many times.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights senior Nick Freeland won the 150-pound regional championship in Saturday's Class 5A regional boys wrestling tournament at Blue Valley Southwest, leading 19 local 5A state qualifiers.
Nick Freeland
Freeland improved to 38-7 on the season, recording a 3-2 overtime win over Spring Hill's Miles Bell in the title match.
Shawnee Heights finished a city-high fourth place as a team with 158 points while qualifying eight wrestlers for state.
In addition to Freeland, the T-Birds got second-place finishes from 132-pound junior Andrew Bonebrake (34-9 record), 138-pound freshman Gavin Hartman (26-19) and 215-pound senior Sean Wunder (39-3).
Heights got a third-place regional finish from 285-pound junior Rykan Carver as well as fourth-place finishes from 106-pound freshman Tristan Buce (21-16), 175-pound junior Allen Baughman (34-9) and an eighth-place qualifying effort from 157-pound freshman Evan Johnson (22-18).
Seaman finished sixth as a team with 136 points and had 10 state qualifiers, led by senior 285-pounder Jaxson Thomas, who posted a runner-up regional finish while improving to 42-5 on the season.
The Vikings also got a third-place finish from 132-pound junior Colin Little (29-9), a fourth from 113-pound freshman Cole Rosenberger (22-12), a fourth from 126-pound senior Draven Bennett (29-14), fifth-place showings from 120-pound sophomore Jayden Foster (18-7), 138-pound senior Lain Anderson (24-19) and 144-pound senior Zach Jowers (27-11), a sixth from 106-pound freshman Brayden Rice (7-7) and seventh-place finishes from 165-pound sophomore Samson Tootie (7-5) and 175-pound senior Zachary Adams (20-14).
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Easton Broxterman
EASTON BROXTERMAN, Washburn Rural
A sophomore 113-pounder, Broxterman bounced back from a scary incident early in the match to win a Class 6A regional wrestling title with a 15-3 major decision over Junction City junior Eziekiel Witt in a rematch of the 2022 state 106-pound state title match, won by Witt. With Saturday's regional victory, Broxterman improved 45-3 on the season while posting his first win over Witt.
Nick Freeland
NICK FREELAND, Shawnee Heights
Freeland, a senior, won the 150-pound championship in Saturday's Class 5A regional wrestling tournament at Blue Valley Southwest, improving to 38-7 on the season. Freeland won his regional championship with a 3-2 overtime decision over Spring Hill senior Miles Bell.
Barrett Lietz
BARRETT LIETZ, Rossville
Lietz, a junior 215-pounder, captured a Class 3A-1A regional wrestling championship Saturday at Sabetha, taking a 6-1 decision over Oskaloosa sophomore Colsen Perry in the title match. Also an All-Shawnee County pick in football, Lietz will take a 32-8 record into this Friday and Saturday 3A-1A state meet at Hays.
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By KEVIN HASKIN
TopSports.news
Musings at the mid … dang, February flies by:
• Kinda enjoy hearing all the whiners sick of the Chiefs.
• The complaints don’t stand up to scrutiny. Like …
• How can you call defensive holding for the first time … inside the 2-minute warning?.
• How can you call Patrick Mahomes one of the all-time great QBs … when he looks so lucky?
• How can you call bad footing equal for both teams … when Kansas City’s own George Toma plays a role in preparing the turf?
• You can’t revise rules as you go. I won’t try to explain the accepted norms behind this.
• It ain’t luck; it’s precision. Mahomes belongs in the Hall of Fame. Now. Especially after posting a second Super Bowl win on one ankle.
• At 94, Toma is an American legend, but yes, the field was bad. But for both teams, not just one. Be good enough as a staff to figure out the right cleats.
• The week I spent before writing this gave me time for additional Superlatives:
• Biggest whiff: The unanimous Eagles picks by everyone on the Fox crew who desperately wanted their conference, the NFC, to win.
• Worst announcer: Terry Bradshaw. He’s not funny. Nor do I don’t want any of his money.
• Best coach: Andy Reid. In part for putting up with Bradshaw.
• Dumbest stat emphasized: Time of possession. Psst, Fox, the Chiefs scored a defensive touchdown, so yes, the Eagles controlled the ball longer.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
It's no big secret that the bats have been a tad cold for the No. 21-ranked Washburn University softball team, including a 5-0 shutout loss on Saturday.
Jaycee Ginter (12) is congratulated by her Washburn teammates after a three-run home run in Sunday's 6-1 first-game win over Concordia-St. Paul. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Washburn coach Brenda Holaday congratulates Jaden LaBarge after her two-run home run in Sunday's 6-1 first-game win. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But the Ichabods took a couple of big steps towards curing those ills on Sunday going 2-0 in the second day of the ESU Classic at Gahnstrom Field with a 6-1 win over Concordia-St. Paul and a 9-0 win over Winona State.
In addition to scoring 15 runs on the day, the 10-3 Ichabods lashed out 18 hits and five extra-base knocks, including first-game home runs from Jaycee Ginter and Jaden LaBarge.
All-American Ginter, a former Shawnee Heights star, threw nine shutout innings to pick up the pitching wins in both games and also got Washburn off to a hot start offensively with a mammoth three-run shot in the bottom of the first inning of the opener.
LaBarge addded her two-run blast in the third and the Ichabods were off and running.
"We haven't been hitting very well so it was very important that we came out today and hit like we did,'' Ginter said. "I feel like everyone was hitting the ball much better than we have been the whole time we've been out this season.''
Washburn coach Brenda Holaday agreed.
"We're very fortunate to have the record that we have because we really haven't hit the ball much this year,'' Holaday said. "We've had some timely hitting but we haven't strung anything together and we've been hard on our kids in practice the last couple of weeks about just doing the little things right so you can move runners along and good things will happen.
"We were ready for that to happen yesterday and it just didn't, but I thought today they played really good softball in both games.''
