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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural and Hayden fell short in their bids for the Centennial League girls golf championship Monday at Shawnee Country Club, with Manhattan successfully defending its league title.
But the Junior Blues and Wildcats both carded season-best team scores en route to second and third-place finishes and both Washburn Rural coach Jared Goehring and Hayden coach Jayson Duncan felt like Monday was a step forward for their teams with postseason rapidly approaching.
Washburn Rural posted a four-person score of 319, five strokes behind Manhattan, with five Junior Blues scoring between 76 and 83 and finishing in the top 11.
Washburn Rural senior Reece Randall tied for third place in Monday's Centennial League tournament, helping lead the Junior Blues to a second-place team finish. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural senior Natalie Peterson tied for sixth in Monday's Centennial League golf tournament. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Senior Reece Randall paced the Junior Blues with a a tie for third, shooting a 76, while senior Natalie Peterson tied for sixth (78), senior Colbey Stead placed 10th (82) and junior Lauren Cox and sophomore Kailyn Petersen tied for 11th place (83).
"Overall, it was a good day,'' Goehring said. "It was our lowest team score of the year and that's what you want to be doing this time of year. We had five girls all at 83 or better today and that's what we're going to need more of going into postseason in a week.''
Hayden junior Lauren Borjon finished second in Monday's Centennial League golf tournament, helping the Wildcats finish third as a team. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden, the defending Class 4A state champion, finished five strokes behind Washburn Rural at 324, led by junior individual runnerup Lauren Borjon, who shot a 75 to finish three strokes behind individual champion Maddie Myers of Manhattan.
"It was good,'' Borjon said of her round. "It started off a little bad, but I finished really strong, and the team played good.
"I think we've come together a lot. I think we're definitely getting a lot closer and the scores are starting to get a lot closer and we're all starting to play really well.''
Hayden senior Addyson Baer posted a fifth-place individual finish in Monday's Centennial League golf tournament. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
The Wildcats also got a fifth-place finish from senior Addyson Baer (77) while junior Izzy Glotzbach tied for eighth (80).
"There's not a lot of teams in this, but there's a lot of quality,'' Duncan said. "You throw us and Rural and Manhattan in a tournament and there's some good things. We played really well and came up a little short, but it's a good sign of things to come.''
Rural's Randall put herself in position to challenge for the individual title most of the day before being derailed by a triple bogey, but still finished just a stroke behind Borjon, tying Emporia junior Elise Eckert for third place, and was happy with the way she battled throughout her round.
"I think I played really well today,'' Randall said. "I think I stayed positive even after that bad hole because I didn't let that snowball. I went to the next hole and I parred. I feel like that was kind of how I was all day. I didn't let a bad hole affect me, I just moved on.''
Randall was also proud with how the Junior Blues played as a team.
"We just put up our lowest team score, which is super exciting,'' Randall said. "Our team goal is to have four counting scores under 85 and we definitely accomplished that today.''
CENTENNIAL LEAGUE GOLF
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Alex Baxter
ALEX BAXTER, Topeka West
A senior golf standout, Baxter shot an 87 to win her first United Kansas Conference individual championship last Tuesday at Lakw Shawnee after finishing third in the conference tournament as a sophomore and second as a junior. Baxter's UKC title came a day after Baxter shot an 88 to tie for eighth place in the city championships.
Maegan Mills
MAEGAN MILLS, Seaman
The Seaman senior was voted the Most Valuable Player in Saturday's seven-school Seaman Invitational volleyball tournament after helping lead the Vikings to the team championship with a perfect 6-0 record. Mills helped Seaman, the defending Class 5A state champion, win all six of its matches in the round-robin event in straight sets as the Vikings improved to 21-1 on the season.
Ryin Miller
RYIN MILLER, Seaman
A junior cross country star, Miller won her fourth individual championship in as many starts this fall on Saturday, posting a five-kilometer time of 17 minutes, 14.1 seconds to win the Gold Division title in the prestigious multi-state Rim Rock Classic at Rim Rock Farm, north of Lawrence. Miller topped two-time Class 5A state champion Katelyn Rupe of Salina Central by just over three seconds (17:17.4).
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
With the exception of a six-goal win, Washburn University soccer had found it to be a challenge to put the ball in the net over its first seven games of the 2024 season, with the Ichabods failing to score more than more than two goals in six starts and being held without a goal in three contests.
Washburn senior Ana Muruzabal scored a pair of goals in Sunday's 3-0 MIAA win over Newman. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn junior Aubrey Tanksley (9) is congratulated by her teammates after scoring the first goal in Sunday's 3-0 Ichabod win over Newman. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But the Ichabods showed signs of an offensive resurgence in Sunday's 3-0 MIAA home win over Newman while continuing to excel on the defensive end.
Senior Ana Muruzabal keyed Washburn's offense with a pair of second-half goals while the Ichabods never trailed after getting a goal from junior Aubrey Tanksley at the 36:13 mark of the opening half as WU improved to 4-2-2 overall and 1-0-1 in the conference.
"In our pregame talk I said we've got to be committed to the long process in this game and it may take us 60 minutes before we get a goal,'' Washburn coach Davy Phillips said. "We're the better team and you just have to keep doing the right things.
"Getting the goal before half helped a little bit, it took a little bit of that edge off. We had 23 shots, so it was coming. We have to be more clinical up front. That's something we've got to get right before the heart of conference and playoffs, but foundationally speaking we are in a really good place. It's figuring out that very last detail now.''
And while Washburn was able to get its offense cranked up against the Jets (0-7-1, 0-2-0), the Ichabods made program history on the the other end of the field.
With Sunday's win, Washburn has now recorded six shutouts in a row and has set a school record for consecutive minutes played without allowing a goal.
The Ichabods have kept opponents off the scoreboard for 568 minutes and 44 seconds, dating back to the 62nd minute of the game against Maryville on Sep. 7. The previous record was set in 2014, when the Ichabods recorded 564 minutes and 36 seconds of shutout defense in a span from Sep. 28 to Oct. 19.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 24-ranked Washburn volleyball was on the wrong end of a five-set match for a second straight day as the Ichabods fell 3-2 to Missouri Western on Saturday.
Washburn sophomore Taylor Rottinghaus had 33 digs in Saturday's five-set MIAA volleyball loss at Missouri Western. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The Ichabods will play next in Topeka for the first time this season on Thursday against Pittsburg State at 6 p.m.
Just like on Friday at Northwest Missouri the first set belonged to Washburn (9-3 overall, 0-2 MIAA) with a 25-23 win.
The next two went to the Griffons (11-2, 2-0), 29-27 and 25-21 before the Ichabods forced a fifth set with a 25-17 win in the fourth. Missouri Western was able to pull away in an extended fifth set, winning 18-16.
Washburn held an early lead in the first set before the Griffons won six of seven points to go ahead by four. Four points in a row from the Ichabods tied it back up and won five out of six to go in front at 16-15. Both sides went back and forth down the stretch until they won the final three to take the set.
After both teams hit under .150 in the first set it was more of the same early in the second with Washburn taking a 7-5 lead after a pair of attack errors.
Missouri Western won four points in a row to pull ahead before both sides began to trade points through the middle of the set. A kill from Brynne Topolski sparked a 3-0 run to put the Ichabods up 21-18.
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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
Special to TopSports.news
The Rim Rock Classic, one of the largest cross country meets in the region, took place on Friday evening with four races followed by eight races on Saturday at Rim Rock Farm. There were over 3,000 runners from Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa and Texas participating in the two-day event.
Seaman junior Ryin Miller won the Girls Gold title Saturday in the prestigious Rim Rock Classic, her fourth win of the season. [Photo by Charles Spurlock/TSN]
Seaman junior Ryin Miller (front, right) won the gold medal in Saturday's Rim Rock Classic. [Photo by Charles Spurlock/TSN]
The highlight of the races on Saturday for the local schools occurred during the Girls Gold varsity race where Seaman junior Ryin Miller continued her winning ways by leading from start to finish in a five kilometer time of 17 minutes, 14.1 seconds, leading her team to a 15th-place finish.
Washburn Rural senior Payton Fink posted a 10th-place finish in the Rim Rock Classic Girls Gold race on Saturday at Rim Rock Farm. [Photo by Charles Spurlock/TSN]
The Washburn Rural girls finished in sixth place, only one point from fifth. The Junior Blues were led by senior Payton Fink, who finished in 10th place with a time of 18:32.9. Rylee Ismert, also a medalist, finished in 23rd with a time of 19:12.9 while Emily Graf just missed out on the medals with a 26th-place finish of 19:22.7.
Seaman coach Rick Brading discusssed his team’s performance: “We ran very well. We were hopeful that Ryin could pull it off, but we wanted to see our fourth and fifth runners get some improvement today and they did. Sophomores Kinley Robinson and Hannah Wempe ran really well. Senior Stella Applehanz also had the best race of her career today.”
Miller, winning her fourth race of the season, said, “I felt like I ran really smart. Usually when she (Salina Central senior Katelyn Rupe) gets too far ahead, it gets to me. I wanted to stick with her, so I pushed the pace. I like to lead because that’s what makes me run the best and feel the most confident. So that was my goal and I just tried to hang on at the end because they (Rupe and sophomore teammate Kaylie Shultz) were coming hard at the end. I was happy with how it went.”
In the Boys Gold race, Seaman junior Brody Anderson was a medalist, finishing 23rd, with a time of 16:16.7, leading Seaman to a 24th- place team finish. The Washburn Rural boys finished in 21st place.
Seaman coach Luke Wiens discussed his team’s performance: “I really liked our competitiveness. We got out aggressive, maybe too aggressive, but I really liked their heart. If we’re too aggressive, it’s a lot easier to tone that back, rather than to take someone who is not aggressive and make them aggressive. We’re not there yet, but I thought it was a big step forward.”
There were several other great performances from local schools throughout the two-day event.
The Boys Gold JV race on Friday evening saw Washburn Rural finish in second place as a team with two runners in the top ten -- senior Anderson Leinwetter finished in fifth while junior Wyatt Shorb finished in 10th. The Seaman boys finished in 13th place.
Both C Team races on Friday saw success from both Washburn Rural teams -- the boys finished first, while the girls finished second. The Seaman boys finished the C Team race in 11th place.
In the Saturday JV races, Seaman’s girls finished in sixth place, while the Shawnee Heights girls finished in 14th place. In the boys race, Shawnee Heights finished in 14th, Hayden finished in 23rd and Topeka High finished in 25th.
The remaining varsity races on Saturday saw two medalists in the boys races.
Topeka West senior Adrian Lehman finished second in Saturday's Rim Rock Classic Crimson division. [File photo/TSN]
Topeka West senior Adrian Lehman finished second with a time of 16:12.2 and Shawnee Heights senior Evan Carter finished 22nd in a time of 17:02.2. In the girls races, senior Elliot Wrench of Hayden was a medalist, finishing in 16th with a time of 20:39.7.
