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Washburn baseball opens 2026 season with four games in Florida
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Senior Jackson Mervosh is a top returner for Washburn, which opens its season this weekend in Florida. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
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.
Topeka West girls earn regular-season sweep over Highland Park, 65-33
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
City and USD 501 girls basketball rivals Topeka West and Highland Park faced off again Wednesday night in a rematch from Dec. 3rd when Topeka West took a 23-point win at Highland Park.
The Chargers finished off the regular-season sweep over the Scots with a 65-33 romp on West's home court.
Senior Addaline Hall scored a game-high 15 points in Topeka West's 65-33 win over Highland Park Wednesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Chargers were coming off a seventh-place Glaciers Edge finish in Emporia over the past weekend by defeating Shawnee Mission West 57-54 in overtime and the Lady Scots were coming off a 50-31 win over Kansas City-Washington on Tuesday.
With both teams entering the game off wins 6-foot junior Sydney VanDyke stole the show for the Lady Chargers as she would use her length to turn the game into a block party down low all night long.
VanDyke would get the first basket of the night before the Scots' Zayah Kincade would hit two shots at the free throw line to tie it up at 2-2 before VanDyke would score again to give her team the early 4-2 lead.
Kincade tied things back up at 4 before Charger Patience Allen hit the first of her two 3s to make it 7-4.
Highland Park would go on a 9-0 run with Kincade scoring five more points during the run as the Scots would end the first quarter with a13-9 advantage.
The Scots would start the second quarter with nine quick points to stretch the lead to 22-15, but the Chargers would tighten up and go on a 9-2 run to force a tie at halftime, 26-26.
“We kind of challenged them to come out the second half and put it together and they did, they worked hard and earned it,” Topeka West coach Angie Ketterman said.
The Lady Scots would come out of the locker room ice cold as West, led by VanDyke, would out-score the Scots 25-2 with VanDyke scoring nine more points in the third quarter.
“We have been like that all season where we play better in the second half of games then we do in the first half,” VanDyke said.
Topeka West would end the third quarter with a commanding lead of 51-28. The fourth quarter would see Highland Park try to come up with an answer, but the Lady Chargers would lock the Scots down and out-score them 14-5 in the fourth to finish the season sweep with the 32-point victory.
Senior Addaline Hall led Topeka West with a game-high 15 points while Allen had 14 points and VanDyke 13.
The Scots would be led in scoring by Kincade with 12.
No. 2-ranked Chargers take 84-60 win over Highland Park
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Class 5A No. 2-ranked Topeka West hosted crosstown rival Highland Park on Wednesday night, seeking a regular-season sweep after dropping two games to the Scots last season.
Senior Malakyah Duncan led Topeka West with 19 points Wednesday as all five Charger starters cracked double figures in West's 84-60 win over Highland Park. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
And the Chargers delivered in convincing fashion, taking an 84-60 win to improve to 14-2 on the season.
After West trailed 5-2 early, senior Keimani Paul would score five straight points to put his team up 7-5 and the Chargers would go on a 12-0 run to stretch the lead to 19-5 before ending the first quarter with a commanding 26-11 lead.
Paul scored 10 of his 14 points in the first quarter while West senior Gad Munganga would score the first basket of the second quarter and the eighth point of his 16 total on the night.
“Gad is never afraid of the big moment,'' Topek West coach Christian Ulsaker said. "I think he's kind of developed that over the past year with just tons of reps and shots in the gym in the summer. And that's what it takes to become a great shooter, just repetition after repetition.”
Highland Park junior JoJo Kingcannon would get to the basket for the Scots, but they would keep chasing the Chargers, who would turn to their size with 6-foot-4 senior Malakyah Duncan and 6-6 junior Prince Lassiter.
West would start to feed Lassiter but the Scots would crash on Lassiter and force him to pass it out to others.
“I told them just keep on attacking in terms of slashing to the rim,'' Ulsaker said. "When Prince gets it, if they do double, he'll be able to find you either when you relocate for 3 or when you slash backside, cut back door to get an easy bucket from Prince.”
The Scots would hold Lassiter to only seven points at halftime, but West would take a commanding 52-29 lead into the locker room.
Paul would drive to the basket at the start of the third and pick up the and-one for an old fashioned three-point play. Kingcannon would try to get the Scots back in it as he would hit back to back 3-pointers and go on a 10-1 run by himself to make it 56-38.
But that would be the Scots' last gasp of air as the Chargers would just start to pound it inside and force contact with the Scots to get fouls and get to the free throw line.
Lassiter would score six in the third quarter, helping Topeka West push the lead to 70-47 going into the fourth quarter.
Ulsaker would pull his starters and let his backups get some minutes in the fourth as they would pull out the 24-point rivalry win.
“It was good to get the monkey off our back,'' Ulsaker said. "I don't think our boys had ever beat Park yet, so it was just another milestone for them. The first one was they beat Shawnee Heights at Shawnee Heights for the first time in their career and the same thing now as beating Highland Park for the first time in their career.
"Whenever you beat a storied program like Highland Park, It's always a monumental thing.”
Duncan led Topeka West with 19 points as all five Charger starters cracked double figures.
Highland Park junior JoJo Kingcannon led all scorers with 23 points in Wednesday's 84-60 loss to Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Scots got another huge night from Kingcannon, who would lead all scorers with 23.
