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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Ryin Miller's biggest and toughest cross country meet of the season is on tap Saturday at Rim Rock Farm, but the undefeated Seaman junior star just wants to run her best and will accept the outcome.
Seaman junior cross country star Ryin Miller remained undefeated in last Saturday's Class 5A regional and will take aim on her first state cross country title Saturday at Rim Rock Farm. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Miller finished third in last year's state meet and the two runners who beat her in 2023, Salina Central senior two-time state champ Katelyn Rupe and sophomore Kaylie Shultz are both in the field for Saturday's 10 a.m. 5A race.
Miller, a two-time state champ in track, beat both Central standouts earlier this fall on the same course in the Rim Rock Classic.
"Honestly, I'm just going to go out there with full confidence in myself,'' Miller said about state. "I'm just going to run the best race that I have on that day and if (a title) happens, amazing. Obviously that's what everybody wants to happen for themselves, but if it doesn't happen I'm still going to be incredibly proud of my season regardless.''
Miller said she enjoys the challenge of racing against Rupe and Shultz.
"It's great racing against them,'' Miller said. "They're obviously great competition. It's fun running against them, it's fun to finally kind of have somebody there with you. Always fun, but always hard, too, so it really could be anybody's race. It's just whoever has the best race on the day.''
Seaman qualified its entire team for state with a second-place regional finish behind defending 5A team champ St. James Academy, with Viking sophomore Brynn Spencer and senior Stella Appelhanz finishing eighth and ninth while sophomore Kinley Robinson placed 16th and freshman Avery Villines was 22nd (21:16.6) to round out Seaman's top five.
Seaman's boys also turned in a solid regional performance, earning a state team berth with a third-place team finish and will compete in Saturday's 11:30 a.m. state race.
Seaman junior Brody Anderson finished second in Saturday's Class 5A regional cross county meet as the Vikings qualified as a team with a third-place finish. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Junior Brody Anderson led the Vikings with a runnerup individual finish while Seaman also got an 18th-place showing from senior Alex Newell, a 20th-place finish from sophomore Conner Bloom, a 23rd from senior Corbin Murrow and a 25th-place finish from junior Drake Spurlock.
Topeka West senior Adrian Lehman qualified for the Class 5A state cross country meet with a third-place finish in Saturday's 5A regional at Kanza Park. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Topeka West qualified seniors Adrian Lehman and Mark Wilkie for state as individuals, with Lehman finishing third while Wilkie placed 12th.
The 5A girls race is scheduled for a 10 a.m. start Saturday while the boys race is set for 11:45 a.m.
CLASS 6A
Senior Rylee Ismert followed up her Centennial League individual cross country title with a Class 6A regional win last week while leading Washburn Rural to the team championship in the Junior Blues' tuneup for Saturday's state meet at Rim Rock Farm.
Washburn Rural senior Rylee Ismert enters Saturday's Class 6A state meet on a two-race win streak with Centennial League and regional titles . [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Ismert took individual honors in last Saturday's 6A regional, one of four Junior Blues in the top eight spots as Rural took the team title by a 45-55 margin over Lawrence Free State.
Washburn Rural senior Payton Fink, the Class 6A runnerup in the 2023 state meet, finished third in Saturday's Class 6A regional, helping the Junior Blues win the team title. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Rural senior Payton Fink finished third in the regional meet while junior Emily Graf was fifth, senior Brooklyn Nolte eighth and junior Kenzie Maddox 29th to round out the Junior Blues' top five.
Rural's girls have now swept city, league and regional team titles and are on the short list of state title contenders Saturday.
"That's where we want to be, that's the plan,'' Washburn Rural coach Matt Swedlund said at regionals. "We have a few things to figure out. We'll work on tweaking some stuff this week and want to be competing for that title (on) Saturday.''
The Junior Blue boys tied Manhattan for second place with 86 points and finished third on a tiebreaker to garner the final team berth for state.
Washburn Rural freshman Henry Laubach (1935) posted a third-place individual finish in last Saturday's Class 6A regional cross country meet, helping the Junior Blues earn a Class 6A state berth. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Freshman Henry Laubach finished third to pace Washburn Rural at regionals while junior Brooks Kehoe finished eighth, senior Bodie King 15th, freshman Clayton Fink 28th and senior Chris Quarles 32nd.
The 6A girls race is scheduled for an 11 a.m. Saturday while the boys race is the final race of the day at 12:30 p.m.
CLASS 4A
Hayden's boys earned a team berth for Saturday's Class 4A state meet at Wamego Country Club with a third-place regional finish, one point behind second-place Baldwin.
Junior Connor Baldwin led the Wildcats with a fifth-place regional finish, while freshman Nick Newkirk finished seventh, senior Jonah Stewart 13th, junior Luke Franklin 22nd and senior Derek Ahlstedt 31st to complete Hayden's scoring runners.
Hayden senior girls standout Elliot Wrench qualified for state as an individual, posting a fourth-place regional finish.
The 4A girls race is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday while the boys race is set for a 12:30 p.m. start.
CLASS 3A
Silver Lake will have a pair of runners in both the boys and girls Class 3A state events Saturday at Rim Rock Farm.
The Eagle boys will be represented by senior Aemon Coffman and sophomore Hunter Rooks in the 10:30 a.m. boys race, with Coffman finishing sixth at regionals while Rooks qualified 15th.
Silver Lake sophomore Alessandra Gerber and senior Tessa Gerber will compete in the 3A girls race at 12 p.m.
Alessandra Gerber posted a sixth-place individual finish at regionals while Tessa Gerber placed 13th to earn a state berth.
CLASS 2A
Rossville's boys posted a second-place regional team finish to punch its ticket for Saturday's Class 2A state meet at Wamego Country Club while Bulldawg sophomore Madelyn Wonnell qualified for the girls state meet as an individual.
Rossville's boys posted a regional team score of 70 points to finish nine points behind Solomon.
Junior Dalton Verschelden led the Bulldawgs with a 16th-place regional showing, while junior Torin Culbertson was 22nd and senior Logan Kufahl 27th to lead Rossville.
Wonnell qualified for state with a 14th-place regional finish.
The 2A girls race is set to start at 10 a.m., with the boys race scheduled for 11:30 a.m.
SHAWNEE COUNTY STATE QUALIFIERS
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Veteran Washburn University football coach Craig Schurig gave his Ichabods high marks overall for its performance last week at Central Missouri, but WU fell just short in a 31-28 loss and will try to bounce back in Saturday's 1 p.m. Homecoming game against Nebraska-Kearney.
Topekan Tre Richardson had 11 catches, two TDs and 264 all-purpose yards in last Saturday's 31-28 loss at Central Missouri. [File photo/TSN]
"It was really a well-played game,'' Schurig said. "Central Missouri played well, we played well and we did all the things that you need to do to win a game and a number of guys stepped up their play.
"We had numerous opportunities to take the lead (late) and did not but I was proud of the way our kids responded, particularly our defense in that fourth quarter. We kept giving ourselves a chance.''
Washburn is 2-6 overall, 2-5 in the MIAA, while Nebraska-Kearney (4-4, 2-4) lost to No. 14-ranked Emporia State 42-35 as the Hornets scored the go-ahead touchdown with 4:45 left in the fourth quarter.
Nebraska-Kearney took a 27-21 decision over the Ichabods in last year's meeting in Kearney.
The Washburn Ichabod football team had three turnovers in its final three drives of the game as the Ichabods came up on the short end of a back-and-forth contest.
Highland Park product Tre Richardson finished with 229 receiving yards and two touchdowns on 11 catches with 172 yards after the catch as he averaged 20.8 yards per catch, not counting an 87-receiving yard TD pass that was called back with an Ichabod penalty.
Richardson's 229 receiving yards is third on the Ichabod single-game chart trailing only Sam Sissom's 231 yards against Colorado Mines in 2005 and Troy Slusser's 252 yards against Emporia State in 1988.
Richardson's 264 all-purpose yards against Central Missouri was the most by an Ichabod since James Brania-Hopp had 258 against Emporia State on Oct. 27, 2018.
Richardson is eighth in the nation and first the MIAA in all-purpose yards, averaging 152.4 yards per game, and the Highland Park product is also 14th in receiving yards with 737 and 13th in receiving yards per game with 92.1.
"The more we got the quarterback situation figured out (after an early-season injury to starter Sam Van Dyne) the more I got used to it, the more they tried to get me the ball,'' Richardson said. "I'm starting to get used to it and the numbers are starting to go up.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball will finish out its week with the second half of the Sunflower Showdown Friday night, heading to Lawrence to face Kansas in a 6:30 p.m. exhibition.
Lora Westling's Washburn women's basketball team will play an exhibition at Kansas on Friday night. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Washburn is coming off a 13-16 season in 2023-24, finishing 10th in the MIAA with an 8-14 record in the conference and advancing to the first round of the MIAA Tournament.
The Ichabods were picked to finish ninth in the MIAA Preseason Media Poll and were tabbed 10th by the coaches.
Kansas was picked to finish eighth in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll. The Jayhawks are coming off a 20-13 (11-7 Big 12) season where they advanced to the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament and the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Washburn played its first exhibition game of the season on Wednesday at No. 13-ranked Kansas State, falling 89-36.
Friday's matchup against Kansas is the first since an 87-43 exhibition loss on Nov. 4, 2018.
Yibari Nwidadah leads a group of eight Washburn returners after earning All-MIAA honorable mention honors as a sophomore. The Olathe native was second on the team with a 12.4 scoring average while shooting a team-high 54.8 perceent from the field. She also was tops on the team with a 9.1 rebounding average.
Aniah Wayne averaged 7.6 points and made a team-high 45 3-pointers last season as a sophomore in her first season at WU.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The Washburn University women's soccer team returns to Yager Stadium this weekend for its final two home games of the regular season, facing off against Northwest Missouri State and Missouri Western in two critical MIAA contests.
The Ichabods sit in a tie for second place in the MIAA standings, six points behind Missouri Western with three games to play.
Washburn soccer will honor its seniors on Sunday before the Ichabods' 1 p.m. game against Missouri Western at Yager Stadium. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Washburn will face Northwest Missouri at 6 p.m. Friday and the Ichabods will honor 11 seniors on Senior Day before its 1 p.m. Sunday match against the Griffons.
Washburn is 10-3-2 on the 2024 season and is ranked 20th in the latest United Soccer Coaches Division II Women's National poll.
The Ichabods split their two road contests last weekend, defeating Central Missouri 1-0 last Friday before falling to Fort Hays State, 2-1, on Sunday.
Sophomore WU goalkeeper Hailey Beck is tied for second nationally with 10 shutouts, is fourth with a goals against average of 0.313 and her 0.879 save percentage is good for a tie for 14th.
Junior Belle Kennedy is tied for 29th with three game-winning goals.
Ichabod senior Khloe Schuckman has now scored in her last three games and five of Schuckman's six goals this season came in the month of October.
With her goal against Fort Hays State, Schuckman now has 75 points in her career (31 goals, 13 assists).
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By NICHOLAS GAINEY
Special to TopSports.news
The Topeka West Chargers' boys soccer season came to a close Thursday night in a 2-0 defeat to the Hays Indians in Class 5A regional championship at Hummer Sports Park.
The matchup was the second of the season between the two teams, with Hays coming out on top 2-0 on Sep. 10.
The 11th-seeded Indians earned a 2-1 win over Bishop Carroll on Monday night, while the third-seeded Chargers downed Goddard 7-0 to set up the rematch.
The teams were unable to be separated for the first 10 minutes of the contest. The Chargers survived an early scare in the fifth minute after Hays earned a corner kick, but a wide-open header from sophomore defender Brecken Otte sailed just over the crossbar.
The match would not remain scoreless for long, as the Indians took the lead in the 10th minute. Following a foul, Ivan Maldonado launched a free kick into the box, where senior Cooper Johnson was waiting to put a right-footed shot into the Charger net.
The situation would go from bad to worse for Topeka West, which gave up possession shortly after the kickoff and were forced to defend an attack from Hays. Just 19 seconds after assisting on his team’s first goal, Maldonado scored the Indians’ second goal to put the visitors in control.
Hays looked to stay aggressive, once again repelling the Charger attack and taking the ball into the hosts’ half of the pitch. The Indians nearly had a third goal in three minutes, but a shot by Henry Speno off a volley hit the crossbar before being corralled by West goalkeeper Gage Kindred-Noragon.
After the onslaught of pressure by the Hays attack, the Chargers settled in and held possession for longer periods of time. Despite the improved offense, West was unable to claw back into the contest, entering halftime with a two-goal deficit.
