- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman sophomore boys cross country standout Brody Anderson and Hayden sophomore girls golf standout Lauren Borjon and 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 2023-2024 school year.
Here’s a brief look at the accomplishments of Anderson and Borjon over the past week:
Seaman sophomore Brody Anderson has posted three straight top-eight individual finishes to open the 2023 cross country season. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
BRODY ANDERSON, Seaman
Anderson continued his hot start to the 2023 cross country season, posting a city-best eighth-place finish among 82 runners in last Saturday's Shufelberger Top City Classic at Washburn Rural.
Anderson clocked a five-kilometer time of 16 minutes, 33.1 seconds to lead three city runners among the top 15 individual finishers.
Anderson began his sophomore season with a fifth-place finish in the Manhattan Invitational and led the Vikings to the team title in the Joe Schrag Invitational with a third-place finish.
Lauren Borjon finished second in a playoff in Monday's city girls golf tournament, helping lead the Wildcats to the team title in the city and Topeka West Invitational meets. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
LAUREN BORJON, Hayden
Borjon helped lead Hayden to the team title in Monday's Topeka City Girls Golf Championship at Western Hills Golf Course, with the Wildcats winning by a 322-335 margin over Washburn Rural to end the Junior Blues' 10-year championship run.
Borjon shot a 76 to tie Topeka High's Avery Zimmerman for the individual title, with Borjon finishing second in a playoff.
Borjon tied with Zimmerman for second in the Topeka West Invitational, which was held in conjunction with the city meet, as Hayden also won the team championship in that meet by a 322-333 margin over Blue Valley West.
- Details
By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
Seaman volleyball cruised to two wins at the Vikings' home triangular Tuesday and added an important piece to their team in the process.
The Vikings handled Shawnee Heights and Topeka West, continuing their mission to return to the state tournament for the third consecutive season.
Seaman senior Brooklyn Gormley serves the ball during the Vikings' UKC sweep over Shawnee Heights and Topeka West Tuesday at Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Seaman senior Taylin Stallbaumer sets the ball during Tuesday's UKC triangular at Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
“I feel like we’re really progressing well. We’re still not completely flowing together, but I think it will come,” Seaman senior Brooklyn Gormley said. “We’ve got to just keep working and know that we can beat any team if we play together and play our game.”
“I think we just need to put it all together all the time,” added Seaman coach Tatiana Dowling. “We do something really good one night, then something else really great the next night. We just need all the parts to come together and make it a whole.”
Gormley said that the 25-13-, 25-11 victory over Shawnee Heights in particular demonstrated progress by the Vikings.
“We’ve been really going at it lately in practice, working to keep our energy up,” Gormley said. “The last time we played Shawnee Heights we were kind of down and it was a back-and-forth match. This time I think we really stuck with it and pushed and made it our speed.”
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After suffering heavy graduation losses from last year's Class 6A state championship team, including All-American Brooklyn DeLeye, and being without injured star senior Zoe Canfield for the early portion of the 2023 season, veteran Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick knew his Junior Blues were going to go through some growing pains this fall.
Washburn Rural senior star Jada Ingram (6) celebrates a kill with her teammates during Tuesday's 3-1 dual victory over Spring Hill. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
And while that has certainly been the case in an up-and-down start to the year, Bordewick said there's no doubt his Junior Blues are making progress, including a 22-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-17 home dual victory over Spring Hill Tuesday night that pushed Washburn Rural above .500 at 5-4.
"We play such good teams and you still have to look at some of the things like missed serves or not being in the right spots, sometimes not pressing over on a block, but we have made a significant amount of progress, we really have,'' Bordewick said.
"It's just a totally different group. Even Jada (Ingram), she's not playing in the spot she's played in for three years, and all of us are in different spots and we don't have Zoe yet (at setter). Stella (Kelly) is doing a great job for being on the freshman team last year and being in varsity against really good competition and just progressivly gotten a lot better.''
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural gutted out a 1-0 Centennial League win over Emporia Tuesday night at McElroy Field, with the Junior Blues improving to a perfect 7-0 on the season and 3-0 in the league as they take aim on a 29th straight league crown.
Washburn Rural senior soccer star Devon Rutschmann (10) scored the game-winning goal in Tuesday's 1-0 Centennial League decision over Emporia. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Senior star Devon Rutschmann netted the game's only goal with 30:54 remaining and the Junior Blues held on the rest of the way for the shutout over the upset-minded Spartans.
"Our games with Emporia are always competitive, always tough, always physical,'' Rural coach Brian Hensyel said. "It's a league rival and they've had good teams certainly over the last few years.
"They kind of mixed it up on us a little bit tonight and played with a pretty defensive mindset and made it very tough to create any chances. And then every time they were going the other way with long balls or transition they were dangerous, so I told their coach (Victor Ibarra) afterwards I thought that was one of the closest and toughest games we've had with Emporia in a long time. It was really good.''
- Details
By KEVIN HASKIN
TopSports.news
Musing at the mid-month:
• All of us who wanted Chris Jones to fade away during his holdout learned something as the Chiefs smothered Jacksonville.
• Superior defensive linemen remain a rare breed.
• Jones kept himself in superb condition while losing money during training camp.
• Jones came in sufficiently motivated despite finally agreeing to a deal that didn’t seem to favor him much.
• And the Chiefs won because of his impact on a defense that excelled on the road in hot, humid conditions.
• Although the offense sputtered, we all know Patrick Mahomes is capable of incredible feats.
• His most startling achievement of late is passing Progressive Flo as TV’s most recurring spokesperson.
• Not sure anyone predicted that a new, handsomely-paid right tackle would provide as much intrigue as anyone on the Chiefs roster.
• Seems to me that Eric Bieniemy is a pretty good offensive coordinator. Do the Chiefs miss him?
• The outcome of the Missouri game represents a bad loss for K-State.
• Face it, MU fans chant SEC better than their sports teams identify with the SEC.
• The move to that conference made little sense geographically, as evidenced by the rare sellout against a Big Six and beyond rival Saturday at Faurot Field.
• Oh, except for the SEC money. It’s great and all, but Mizzou has not been a factor in football since Gary Pinkel helped lead the charge to a new conference.
• Maybe this is the Tigers’ year with the SEC looking a bit shaky at the start.
