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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After winning the United Kansas Conference title on Tuesday, the Seaman girls' tennis team added a Class 5A regional championship on Saturday at Kossover Tennis Center, qualifying its entire team for Friday and Saturday's state meet at Salina, while Shawnee Heights junior Jette Glasenapp punched her ticket to state with the regional singles title.
Senior Katie Krumins and sophomore Molly Gorman won the doubles championship witn a win over teammates Kate Eckert, a senior, and freshman Camryn Lux in an all-Seaman doubles final while Viking freshman Emma Sweeney and junior Sidney Chinn finished second and third in singles.
Krumins and Gorman, who have now swept city, UKC and regional titles, topped teammates Eckert and Lux 6-1, 6-1 in the doubles championship
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By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Topeka West football coach Trey Parker’s Chargers have been fighting for their first win all season, and Friday night against Kanss City-Turner they found it, riding the legs of senior Josh Nitschke.
Nitschke led the Chargers with 271 rushing yards and four touchdowns as Topeka West rolled to a 35-15 United Kansas Conference decision over the Bears at Hummer Sports Park.
Parker picked up his first victory as a head coach Friday night.
"Hopefully, it's the first of many wins here at Topeka West,'' said Parker, in his first season as West's head coach after taking over as the Chargers' interim coach for the final three games of the 2022 campaign. "I'm glad we got it out of the way. It felt like a monkey was on our back.
"We had a tough road to this point, but we're just glad to finally be here.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Coming off a 14-point loss to Silver Lake in the War on 24 last week, Rossville bounced back with a 21-0 non-league road shutout at perennial state power Holton Friday night.
The Bulldawgs, who evened their record at 3-3, scored the only touchdown they would need at the 5:57 mark of the first quarter, with senior quarterback Camden Horak connecting with sophomore Jack Donavan for an 8-yard score.
Rossville stretched its lead to 14-0 at the half, with the Bulldawgs scoring at the 11:25 mark of the second quarter on a 1-yard run by C. Horak.
The Bulldawgs finished their scoring with 54 seconds left in the third quarter, getting a 37-yard run from junior Tayson Horak.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Hayden's girls tennis team will be out in full force Friday and Saturday in Winfield as the Wildcats defend their Class 4A state championship.
The Wildcats put themselves in position for another strong state performance in Saturday's regional tournament at Kossover Tennis Center, qualifying all six players for state while winning the regional team title by a 19-18 margin over Bishop MIege.
Hayden's doubles team of junior Lauren Sandstrom and sophomore Emily Sheetz, now 26-3, repeated as regional champions with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Bishop Miege's Livi Shull and Ellie Gudex and the Wildcat standouts will enter state as the defending state doubles champs.
The Wildcats also got a fourth-place double finish from sophomores Izzy Glotzbach and Avery O'Bray while sophomore Grace Funk posted a runnerup finish in singles and junior Sofia Sexton qualified for state with a sixth-place regional finish.
"I'm thrilled,'' Hayden coach Christy Sheetz said. "I knew that they could play this well and I knew that they had it in them. To watch them come out here and be able to put into practice all the things that they've learned and worked for this season is really, really gratifying and satisfying.''
Funk (17-13) placed 10th at state last season and is one of three Hayden returners from last year's state title team, along with Sandstrom and Sheetz.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Saturday's city girls cross country meet at Kanza Park went about as expectected, with one noteworthy change.
Washburn Rural won its fifth straight team championship in a tight battle with Seaman while two of the state's best runners, Seaman sophomore Ryin MIller and Rural junior Payton Fink battled it out for the individual championship.
But this time if was Miller that took the individual title after finishing second to Fink in the 2022 city meet, winning by nearly 11 seconds with a five-kilometer time of 17 24.3.
Matt Swedlund's Junior Blues, ranked No. 2 in Class 6A, went 2-3-4 and put all of their top five in the top 13 places as Rural took the team title by a 27-36 margin over Seaman, No. 4 in 5A.
Fink finished second for Washburn Rural in 17:35.1 while sophomore Emily Graf was third (18:46.1) and junior Rylee Ismert fourth (18:59.7).
Junior Brooklyn Nolte finished sixth (19:28.8) and sophomore Kenzie Maddox 13th (20:56.5) to round out Rural's top five.
Swedlund said he appreciated the tough team battle the Junior Blues got from Seaman.
"We like that, that's what we were looking for,'' Swedlund said. "It's nice getting into October and we love competing against Seaman. The've got a good team tnat gets us kind of primed for league, regionals, state.''
Miller pushed Fink throughout the early stages of Saturday's race before pulling away down the stretch to beat the Junior Blue star for the first time.
"I know that I have more experience on this course than she does and I figured that usually she sits on me the first mile and then she kicks and just goes,'' Miller said. "I thought maybe if I could get out hard enough the first mile that would maybe intimidate her enough to where she wouldn't be able to kill me as hard the second and I'd be able to hopefully stay with her.''
But even though Miller was able to open up some distance over Fink entering the home stretch, she still looked back multiple times to make sure Fink wasn't gaining on her.
"I saw her shadow behind me and it was freaking me out,'' Miller said. "I kept looking behind me and I was like, 'Oh, she's coming.' ''