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THE PENNANT PLAYER PROFILE
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
K.J. Turner grew up in Texas and even started his college football career there.
But the Mesquite, Texas native has found a second home in Kansas after being lured to the state to finish his career at Washburn.
"I played at Tyler Junior College and I transferred here in February of 2019 and it was a great decision,'' said Turner, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound defensive back. "I came here and met a lot of fun guys and a lot of them are my close friends now. That's really what's made the experience even better.''
Washburn senior K.J. Turner and the Ichabods will be looking to improve to 2-0 when WU hosts Central Missouri Thursday night. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Tuesday marked Aliyah North's one-year anniversary in high school golf and the Washburn Rural senior gave herself and the Junior Blues a gift to mark the occasion.
After playing primarily softball and volleyball growing up, North took up golf last fall as a junior and made her competitive debut as a member of the Junior Blues' split squad (second six) in the Washburn Rural Invitational last September at Wamego Country Club.
Aliyah North
And although her score of 105 wasn't anything to send ripples through the golfing community, North knew right away that she had made the right decision.
"I kind of just saw my brother and dad playing a lot and I figured I'd give it a shot,'' North said. "I wasn't planning on playing my junior year, but after getting a lesson from Josh (Nahm, a teaching pro), he convinced me it would be good to join the team my junior year and I'm so extremely glad that I did.
"I was pretty nervous (for the first meet) and it was really rainy and windy that day, so it was a rough one to start off on, but after the first couple of holes I kind of settled in. I loved it.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
WAMEGO -- Coach Jared Goehring will be looking for lower numbers moving forward as his Washburn Rural girls golf team closes in on postseason.
But given Tuesday's hot, windy conditions at Wamego Country Club, Goehring was happy to take a 15-stroke victory in Rural's invitational tournament and move on.
"We had some consistent numbers and today's conditions were tough,'' Goehring said. "This golf course was a great challenge to these ladies and I thought the middle of our lineup handled it the best today.''
Washburn Rural senior Aliyah North tied for sixth Tuesday at Wamego Country Club with an 82, leading the Junior Blues to a 15-stroke win in their invitational tournament. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Senior Aliyah North tied for sixth with an 82 to lead the balanced Junior Blues, who had four players in the 80s to finish with a four-person team score of 335 to easily out-distance two-time defending Class 6A state champion Shawnee Mission East.
Juniors Avery Scott and Mallory Nelson shot 83s and were part of a three-way tie for eighth place while senior McKenna Merrick shot an 87 to round out the Junior Blues' top four. Senior Kaitlyn Crough added a 90 and sophomore Raegan Petersen a 91 for Rural.
"A goal of ours is to win our home invitational and shooting in the mid-330s out here today was a great team score, so I'm proud of them.,'' Goehring said.
Seaman junior Lois Deeter tied for eighth in Tuesday's Washburn Rural Invitational at Wamego Country Club., shooting an 83. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman junior Lois Deeter was part of the three-way tie for eighth place with an 83 while sophomore Avery Zimmerman led Topeka High with a 101 and senior Olivia Morgan led Shawnee Heights with a 102.
Washburn Rural fielded two teams in Tuesday's invitational tournament, with sophomore Olivia Smith shooting a 95 to lead Rural's second squad.
St. James Academy senior Beth Grant shot a 4-over-par 74 to take medalist honors while Shawnee Mission South senior McLain Neal was second with a 75 and Free State junior Claire Berquist third with a 77.
Mill Valley senior Libby Green and SM East Tess Roman tied for fourth with 80s.
WASHBURN RURAL INVITATIONAL
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Kansas State High School Activities Association is currently in the midst of its 50 for 50 project, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which opened the door for female athletes across the United States. As part of that project TopSports.news contributor Rick Peterson wrote the following story on former Shawnee Heights and Washburn University multi-sport star Dani (McHenry) Schmidt.
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Former Shawnee Heights multi-sport star and Washburn University Hall of Famer Dani (McHenry) Schmidt was never shy about trying any sport and will be forever grateful that she had that opportunity.
Title IX, which is marking its 50th anniversary during the 2021-22 school year, opened doors for female athletes across the United States and Schmidt took full advantage, participating in soccer, softball, volleyball and basketball growing up.
By the time Schmidt entered Shawnee Heights High School in the late 1990s Title IX had been in effect for some 26 years and she said she had plenty of options to further her skills.
“I would honestly say that where I fell into it, I never felt like we were second to boys sports or that there wasn’t an opportunity,’’ Schmidt said. “If I wanted to do something I felt like I was afforded the opportunity.
“Obviously there was a lot of hard work and all of that before me to get to that point by the women who started Title IX and got things up and running, and because of all their hard work I never felt like I was at a disadvantage by being a female or that I couldn’t go do something if it was really something I wanted to go do.’’
After winning two state volleyball titles at Shawnee Heights, Dani (McHenry) Schmidt went on to earn All-America volleyball honors and play on a national cham[ionship basketball team at Washburn University. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Schmidt’s father, Ron McHenry, is the longtime women’s basketball coach at Washburn University, coaching the Ichabods to the 2004-05 NCAA Division II National Championship, and Dani said her father was very good about encouraging her and her siblings’ athletic endeavors without pressuring them.
Dani’s younger sister, Sami, is the head volleyball coach at Shawnee Heights while her younger brother, Ronnie, is Washburn’s head men’s golf coach.
“My dad obviously wanted to provide us opportunities, but I never had to have a conversation with him where I was like, ‘You’re making me do something that I don’t want to do,’ ‘’ Schmidt said. “And I think he would have been OK with that if it ever got to that point.
“He was very realistic, and he had coached kids for a long time so he kind of knew what you had potential in and would kind of nudge you in that direction, but he was never over the top in terms of me not wanting to do something and being forced to do it. I never specialized and it was never like, ‘You’re going to have to pick one,’ or any of that. I was able to do it all.’’
Schmidt eventually narrowed her focus to volleyball and basketball, leading Shawnee Heights to back-to-back Class 5A state volleyball championships in 1999 and 2000 while also starring for the T-Birds' basketball team.
After a stint with Kansas’ volleyball team, Schmidt transferred to Washburn, where she continued to be a multi-sport athlete.
Dani (McHenry) Schmidt [Washburn Athletics]
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After opening the 2021 season with a perfect 5-0 record, including two victories over ranked opponents, Washburn volleyball moved up four places in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 Poll to No. 4 in the nation.
Last week the Ichabods swept Cameron, Minot State and then No. 19-ranked Harding and also picked up a pair of four-set wins over Colorado-Colorado Springs and No. 15-ranked Northern State.
Chris Herron's Washburn University volleyball team has climbed to the No. 4 spot in the national rankings. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Concordia-St. Paul moved up one place to claim the No. 1 spot in the AVCA rankings while Angelo State moved down to second.
There are now four undefeated MIAA teams represented in the top 10 of the AVCA rankings as Nebraska-Kearney checks in at No. 3, Northwest Missouri No. 8 and Central Missouri No. 10.
Washburn will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo. this week to play four matches in the Mountain Lion Invitational, starting Friday at 9 a.m. against Lubbock Christian.
AVCA NATIONAL VOLLEYBALL RANKINGS
| Rank | School (First-Place Votes) | Total Points Adjusted |
2021 Record | Previous Week Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Concordia - St. Paul (20) | 1114 | 4-0 | 2 |
| 2 | Angelo State (21) | 1086 | 4-0 | 1 |
| 3 | Nebraska-Kearney (2) | 979 | 4-0 | 4 |
| 4 | Washburn | 911 | 5-0 | 8 |
| 5 | Lewis | 895 | 4-0 | 6 |
| 6 | Cal State San Bernardino (1) | 860 | 3-1 | 3 |
| 7 | Tampa | 718 | 3-1 | 5 |
| 8 | NW Missouri State | 698 | 4-0 | 16 |
| 9 | Western Washington | 648 | 3-0 | 14 |
| 10 | Central Missouri | 619 | 4-0 | 17 |
| 11 | Minnesota Duluth | 610 | 3-1 | 7 |
| 12 | Oklahoma Baptist | 594 | 3-1 | 9 |
| 13 | St. Cloud State | 555 | 4-0 | 19 |
| 14 | Winona State | 496 | 4-0 | NR |
| 15 | Colorado School of Mines | 464 | 3-1 | 12 |
| 16 | Southwest Minnesota State | 441 | 4-0 | NR |
| 17 | Wayne State (Neb.) | 347 | 3-0 | 24 |
| 18 | Hillsdale | 324 | 2-2 | 13 |
| 19 | Northern State | 287 | 2-2 | 15 |
| 20 | MSU Denver | 277 | 2-2 | 11 |
| 21 | West Florida | 231 | 4-0 | NR |
| 22 | Colorado Mesa | 208 | 2-2 | 10 |
| 23 | Texas-Tyler | 192 | 4-0 | 20 |
| 24 | Simon Fraser (3) | 162 | 4-0 | NR |
| 25 | Rockhurst | 146 | 3-1 | 25 |
Others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots: Harding 128; Ferris State 107; Texas A&M-Kingsville 98; Regis 97; Alaska-Anchorage 93; Gannon 84; Chaminade 79; Michigan Tech 62; Missouri-St Louis 50; West Texas A&M 49; Cal Poly Pomona 44; Southern Indiana 43; Wheeling 43; Lynn 39; Nova Southeastern 32; Cal State L.A. 31; Wingate 28; Hawai'i-Hilo 27; Palm Beach Atlantic 25; Northern Michigan 20; Barry 17; Grand Valley State 17; Central Oklahoma 7; Colo State-Pueblo 6; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical (FL) 5.
