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Daniel Allen, Baylee Ayres the Dan Key Farmers Agency Rising Stars of the Week
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural junior boys swimming standout Daniel Allen and Seaman freshman girls basketball player Baylee Ayres have been selected by the Dan Key Farmers Insurance Agency as the Rising Stars of the Week.
The Dan Key Agency will recognize top Shawnee County underclassmen throughout the bulk of the 2025-2026 school year.
Here's a brief look at the recent accomplishments of Allen and Ayres over the past week.
Daniel Allen, Washburn Rural
DANIEL ALLEN, Washburn Rural
After a season away from high school swimming, Allen has returned to post seven wins and a second-place finish in eight races for Washburn Rural to open the 2025-2026 season.
Allen opened the season in last week's Topeka West Invitational with individual wins in the 200-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly while also swimming on the Junior Blues' winning 200 free relay and runnerup 400 free relay.
Allen followed that up with four wins in Wednesday's Hayden Invitational, winning the 200 individual medley and 100 freestyle and swimming on Rural's winning 200 medley and 200 free relays.
Baylee Ayres, Seaman
BAYLEE AYRES, Seaman
After making her high school debut with four points in a season-opening loss to Piper, Ayres followed that up with a game-high 14 points on Tuesday as Seaman picked up its first victory of the season in a 65-18 United Kansas Conference romp past Lansing.
Ayres, who did not enter the game until the second quarter, connected on 5 of 7 field goal attempts and hit 4 of 6 free throws against the Lions.
No. 4-ranked Chargers ride dominant first three quarters to 71-57 win over No. 2 Vikings
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka West boys basketball coach Christian Ulsaker wasn't happy that his team was outscored 23-6 by Seaman in the fourth quarter of Friday's United Kansas Conference game.
Topeka West senior Keimani Paul scored 15 first-half points in the Chargers' 71-57 UKC road win over No. 2-ranked Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"I told them that fourth quarter's going to give me nightmares tonight,'' Ulsaker said. "I wasn't overly pleased with it and I said, 'Guys, when you come off the bench you guys are not just role players you're part of this team and we've got to make sure we finish the game where we started.'
"But I was pretty happy with the game other than that.''
And thanks to a dominant performance by the Chargers over the first three quarters, the finish was little more than a coaching talking point as No. 4-ranked Topeka West stayed unbeaten with a decisive 71-57 road win over No. 2-ranked Seaman.
Topeka West, now 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the UKC, never trailed on the night after exploding out of the gate with a 30-point opening quarter to take command at 30-11.
The Chargers hit about everything they put up over the first eight minutes, including four 3-pointers.
"We were shooting about 70 percent from the field over the first two games and I said, 'That's pretty unrealistic to maintain,' but I think after watching the film we might still be shooting 70 percent from the field,'' Ulsaker said.
The Chargers' pace slowed down somewhat in the second quarter, but West outscored the Vikings 15-10 to take a huge 45-21 advantage to the locker room at the half as seniors Keimani Paul and Malakyah Duncan combined for 25 points.
West continued to pour it on in the third quarter, leading by as many as 33 points and forcing a running clock over the final eight minutes with a 65-34 advantage.
Gragg powers No. 7-ranked Viking girls to 45-26 UKC win over Chargers
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
As a three-time All-Shawnee County first-teamer and by far Seaman's most experienced player, a lot is expected out of Maddie Gragg.
And the senior star delivered in a big way Friday night, posting game-high totals of 24 points and 16 rebounds to power the No. 7-ranked Vikings to a home 45-26 United Kansas Conference victory over Topeka West.
Seaman senior Maddie Gragg scored 24 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in Friday's 45-26 UKC win over Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"I had a talk with her about what a senior leader needs to do and that's what she needs to do,'' Seaman coach Matt Tinsley said. "I told her after the game, she played hard on both ends of the floor. She played a full game today, and other girls stepped up, too.''
Topeka West, 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the UKC, jumped out to an 8-5 first-quarter lead, but the Vikings used a 12-2 second quarter to take a 17-10 halftime advantage and continued to pad their advantage in the second half en route to improving to 2-1 overall and in the conference.
Seaman opened up an 11-point advantage (29-18) lead at the end of the third stanza and led by as many as 24 points in the fourth on the way to the 19-point win.
Tinsley said the Viking were trying to play at too frantic of a pace offensively in the first half, but got things under control as the game wore on.
"The first half, I told the girls on a scale of one to 10 our offensive pace was 12 out of 10,'' Tinsley said. "We were highway driving in the city. We were running stop signs, we were hitting parked cars, we were all over the place.
"I threw out that we needed to play at a six or seven out of 10 and slow down the pace down a little bit and be strong with it and you saw that in the second half. We were more in control and our defense and rebounding, that was 12 out of 10. We got after it, and I was really proud of that.''
