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Short-handed Washburn Rural soccer blanks Kapaun Mt. Carmel, 2-0
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural soccer coach Brian Hensyel had several reasons to be concerned entering Tuesday's non-league game against Kapaun Mt. Carmel.
Washburn Rural senior Liam Morrison (24) scored Tuesday's first goal in a 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural senior Liam Morrison (24) celebrates his goal in Tuesday's 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
First of all, Rural was facing a good Crusader team that had won six straight games.
Secondly, the Junior Blues were coming off a road trip to Iowa, where they played three hotly-contested games in three days.
And Washburn Rural would also face Kapaun without two of its top players, senior leading scorer Dylan Willingham and juior Brodye Kocher-Munoz.
But Rural put all of Hensyel's concerns to rest with one of its best performances of the season en route to a 2-0 shutout over the Crusaders at McElroy Field.
"This is as good of a win as we've had all season and all of those things add in,'' Hensyel said. "Obviously, we just played Thursday, Friday, Saturday against high-level competition and yesterday was pretty much a non-practice day to be honest. We were just trying to rest up.
"And with Dylan out with his ankle and a guy out with a redcard, you're down your two starting forwards, so we had to play with a more defensive emphasis in the second half. We thought we could score off set plays and we did, so we got the lead and then we were able to be strong defensively and our defense was really good.''
Senior Liam Morrison scored the only goal the Junior Blues would need at the 29:15 mark of the first half off a free kick assist from senior Brandon Hamilton.
Washburn Rural senior Higgins Hawks (21) scored Rural's second goal in Tuesday's 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Rural, now 8-1-1, added its final goal of the night with 16:38 remaining in the opening half when senior Higgins Hawks scored off an assist from senior Brady Loeffler.
Senior Miles Cook (99) picked up the shutout in goal in Washburn Rural's 2-0 non-league home win over Kapaun Mt. Carmel. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
The Junior Blues were unable to find the back of the net the remainder of the game, but Rural's defense was able to keep 7-3-0 Kapaun off the scoreboard as senior Miles Cook registered the shutout in goal.
A1 Lock & Key Performers Sept. 29, 2025
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Elise Eckert
ELISE ECKERT, Seaman
A senior golf star, Eckert shot a 2-under-par 68 to win the city individual championship by eight strokes last Monday at Western Hills, leading the Vikings to their first-ever city team title by a 14-stroke margin over runnerup Hayden. Eckert is a three-time Class 5A state medalist.
Molly Gorman
MOLLY GORMAN, Seaman
Gorman, a senior tennis standout, won her second straight city title in No. 2 singles and her third city championship overall, helping lead the Vikings to the city team championship by a 32-28 margin over runnerup Washburn Rural last Thursday at Kossover Tennis Center. Gorman's back to back No. 2 singles titles came after she teamed with Katie Krumins to win the No. 1 doubles title as a sophomore.
Camden Granado
CAMDEN GRANADO, Shawnee Heights
A senior two-sport athlete for the T-Birds, Granado recorded a three-goal hat trick last Monday as Shawnee Heights took a 4-1 United Kansas Conference soccer victory over Topeka West at Hummer Sports Park. Granado has helped Shawnee Heights post seven straight victories since a season-opening loss. Granado also handles placekicking duties for Heights and is 11 of 11 on extra-point attemps.
Seaman rolls to fourth straight UKC girls golf title by 52 strokes behind one-two-three finish
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The only surprise in Monday's United Kansas Conference girls golf tournament at Shawnee Country Club would have been if Seaman hadn't won.
Seaman's girls golf team won its fourth straight UKC girls golf title by 52 strokes Monday at Shawnee Country Club. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
After all, the Vikings were coming off a 14-stroke victory in the city tournament and had won the previous three UKC tourneys by an average of 51.7 strokes.
Suffice it to say that were no surprises Monday, with senior Elise Eckert leading a one-two-three individual finish as Seaman won its fourth straight conference championship in an many years in the league by a whopping 52-stroke margin over De Soto (327-359).
Seaman senior Elise Eckert shot a 73 to take an eight-stroke individual win in Monday's UKC meet. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Seaman senior Makenna Stuke finished second with an 81 in Monday's UKC meet. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
City champion Eckert shot a 73 for an eight-stroke win while senior Makenna Stuke was second with an 81 and junior Kaitlynn Frye third with an 84.
The Vikings also got a tie for fourth from junior Chloe Schmidtlein (89) and an 11th-place finish from senior Molina Quintana (96).
"I felt like overall we had a good solid day,'' Seaman coach Julie McLaughlin said. "There's always room for improvement. All of them were saying there's things they want to work on, but I like where we're sitting right now.
"All we're focusing on is getting stronger mentally, physically and just being ready for that postseason play when it's here.''
Although she was happy to get the league title, Eckert wasn't particularly pleased with Monday's round.
"I especially struggled a bit with my putting today,'' Eckert said. "Everything else was alright, but putting definitely got me today.''
Seaman has two more regular season tournaments before regionals and state and Eckert, a three-time Class 5A state medalist, wants to continue making strides to get ready for her postseason run.
"I definitely need to work on putting more, but I also need to work on some just basic fundamentals with my swing that I can fix on the course, but l just need to practice more to get everything solid,'' she said.
Shawnee Heights finished fourth as a team, with T-Bird junior Lauryn Valdivia tying for seventh with a 92.
Topeka West's Berlyn Kolean tied for 12th with a 98.
UNITED KANSAS CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
