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Seaman, Heights' Brede lead city contingent in UKC swimming
By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Seaman boys swim team placed third in the top-heavy United Kansas Conference boys championship meet at Capitol Federal Natatorium Tuesday.
Lansing placed first in all three relays and took first in four of the nine individual events on the night to rack up 264 points. Basehor-Linwood came in second with 227. De Soto finished in fifth but took home three of the individual medals.
Shawnee Heights senior Truman Brede was the lone city gold medalist in Tuesday's UKC swimming championships. [File photo/TSN]
That left just one first-place medal in the Capital City. Shawnee Heights senior Truman Brede took home the gold in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 56.59.
"I’m a little disappointed on the time,” Brede said. “I took first in the city meet with a (55.83), so I kind of added a little bit. I knew the kid from Lansing is tough competition. He beat me in this meet last year, so I was really focused on beating him this year.”
Brede finished 10th in Class 5A state in the backstroke as a sophomore, then moved up to ninth as a junior. He said he is ranked fourth in the state currently. He said the UKC meet is good preparation for the state meet.
“It’s really about facing the teams that I know are going to be up there, Lansing being a big one. They have a lot of top swimmers coming to state,” Brede said. “The only thing we don’t get with the league meet is the Wichita schools. Wichita schools are also a lot of top placers.”
Peyton Holmes helped lead Seaman to a city-best third-place team finish in Tuesday's UKC swimming championships. [File photo/TSN]
City champ in the 50 yard freestyle, Peyton Holmes, shaved .31 seconds off his time from the city meet to finish second at the UKC meet.
“I still think I can go faster,” said Holmes. “This is a really tough meet. I’m happy with second for now.
“Getting third (in the UKC) is cool. We got third at city and there was less competition there. So third here is a lot better than what we did at city. We kind of redeemed it a little bit.”
“Lansing and Basehor-Linwood are great programs, so we feel good about taking third,” Seaman coach Bernie Tuck said. “We’ve had some challenges this season, so making it to this point is exciting. The guys can be self-reflective on their performance. That’s always good to give you an eye-opener going into the state meet.”
In a poll of league coaches, Tuck was voted UKC co-ocach of the Year.
“It’s always nice to be recognized for the work,” Tuck said. “I know I’m not the only coach that, you know, works seven days a week, so it’s good to be in a great community of the coaches who I admire and look up to.”
UNITED KANSAS CONFERENCE SWIMMING
De Soto girls ride early 3-pointers to 59-49 UKC win at Shawnee Heights
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After falling behind by double digits in the opening quarter against No. 7-ranked De Soto, Shawnee Heights girls put together several runs against the Wildcats in Friday's United Kansas Conference matchup.
Junior Reianna Vega scored 20 points in Friday's 59-49 UKC loss to De Soto. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Sophomore KK Emmot scored 14 points, going 8 of 10 at the free throw line, in Friday's 59-49 Shawnee Heights loss to De Soto. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But the T-Birds were unable to ever completely recover from their slow start, dropping a 59-49 decision at Heights.
"We just couldn't get over the hump and it seemed like every time that we would feel like we were grabbing some momentum we would do what we thought we needed to do on defense and the ball would get kicked around or they'd make a good pass out and hit a 3,'' Shawnee Heights coach Bob Wells said.
"That kind of deflated us a little bit and it was just hard to get going. Credit to them, their girls stepped up and hit (those shots) in somebody else's gym.''
Shawnee Heights (11-6 overall, 8-5 UKC) took a 2-0 lead on a hoop by Reianna Vega, but that would be the T-Birds' only lead of the night as the Wildcats (12-4, 8-4) rode three early 3-pointers to a 19-8 first-quarter advantage and five first-half treys to a 33-22 halftime lead.
A1 Lock & Key Performers Feb. 10, 2025
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Kayla Duncan
KAYLA DUNCAN, Seaman
A freshman, Duncan captured the girls individual championship in Friday's second annual Topeka City Bowling Championships, bowling a 623 three-game series to help lead the Vikings to their second straight city team title by a 3,000-2,949 margin over Washburn Rural. Duncan bowled games of 203, 235 and 185.
Logan Glinka
LOGAN GLINKA, Washburn Rural
Glinka, a senior bowler, won his second straight city boys title on Friday at Gage Bowl with a 734 three-game series while leading Washburn Rural to the team championship by a 3,505-3,398 margin over runnerup Shawnee Heights. A former Class 6A state medalist, Glinka rolled games of 278, 232 and 224 in the city meet.
Ja'Corey Robinson
JACOREY ROBINSON, Highland Park
A 6-foot-6 senior basketball standout, Robinson scored 68 points on the week as undefeated and top-ranked (Class 5A) Highland Park posted three wins. Robinson had 17 points in a 54-30 Meadowlark Conference win over Kansas City-Washington, 32 points in a 67-50 win over city rival Topeka West and 19 points in an 81-14 conference win over KC-Wyandotte.
