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Created: 29 July 2021

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Jacob Morgan proved himself over and over again as one of the all-time great distance runners in Shawnee County history, establishing himself as a superstar at Washburn Rural before going on to excel at the NCAA Division I level for both Colorado State and Kansas.

A two-time Class 6A state champion and four-time top-10 finisher for the Junior Blues, including an undefeated senior season, Morgan went on to compete in the NCAA Championships for both Colorado State and KU, twice earning All-Big 12 and All-Region honors for the Jayhawks.

 Jacob Morgan [KU Athletics]

And while the TopSports.news Shawnee County Best of the Best Top 25 list is crowded with outstanding runners dating back to the 1960s, Morgan's impressive resume earned him the No. 1 spot.

Former Topeka West great Rob Hays, a two-time state champion for the Chargers and a standout at Kansas State, takes the No. 2 spot on the Best of the Best list while two-time state champion Grant Cain of Seaman, current Hayden star and state champ Tanner Newkirk and former Silver Lake state champ Chad Brake round out the top five.

Tegan Michael [Saint Mary Athletics]

Topeka West two-time state placer Tegan Michael, No. 17 in the No. 25, was a runaway winner in the Readers Choice Awards, garnering more than 750 votes, while Morgan and Newkirk finished two-three in reader votes. 

Here's a look at the Top 25 and Readers Choice Awards:

TSN TOP 25 BEST OF THE BEST MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY RUNNERS

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Created: 09 August 2021

Three-time defending Top Fuel champion and current points leader Steve Torrence will race at Heartland Motorsports Park this weekend in the Menards NHRA Nationals. [Photo by NHRA]

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Chris Payne is the first to admit that it's a gradual, sometimes slow process, but Heartland Motorsports Park is starting to look like what he envisioned when he took over the financially troubled multi-faceted facility prior to the 2016 racing season.

Heartland Motorsports Park, which opened in 1989, will host Topeka's biggest sports event, the Menards NHRA Nationals, Friday through Sunday at its nationally-renowned dragstrip, but HMP is well on its way to be known for more than just a race track, which has always been Payne's goal.

Chris Payne

"My intention for the facility was always to take it out of its box that it's been in for decades,'' Payne told TopSports.news "Obviously, that box didn't work financially for the facility.''

While the national NHRA drag racing event, which Topeka has hosted since HMP opened in '89, continues to be a staple event for the city, but Heartland Motorsports Park got a huge boost when Payne brought the wildly-popular Country Stampede country music festival to Topeka in 2019 and HMP has also continued to boost the number of smaller, community-style events it hosts.   

"Over the past six years there's been a lot of events that were non-racing that the general public just didn't notice, but they paid the bills -- different community events out there that were small, but they all add up. There's 100s of small events out there,'' Payne said. "I think having the Country Stampede there, with 100,000 people in four days, made people really realize, "Hey, this facility might actually be beyond something on the race track.'

"I've known it since Day 1, but I think some of the public -- not all of the public, but some of them -- are just now catching on to it. I see people looking at Heartland differently and not just as a race track, but they see it as a festival ground. Some of them don't even know it's a race track. Of the 100,000 people came over the four days (one or more days) to the Stampede I'd bet 99 percent of them had never been there before (attending the Stampede), which is telling. That's what we want.''

And Payne sees the potential for the facility to reach higher heights. 

"It is gradual, and as unfortunate or frustrating as that can be, it is gradual and it doesn't happen overnight,'' Payne said. "Different events bring in different sponsorships and other different events.

"We've been approached by other organizations, other promoters other than racing more often now. We've already had a circus out there this year. We've had a carnival out there on the grounds. The property itself is more like an event space and that's how I look at it. Yes, it's a premier dragstrip and there's different tracks there, but we also want it to be a premier outdoor event space.''

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Created: 07 August 2021

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Heartland Motorsports Park has been on the NHRA national drag racing schedule since the facility opened in 1989, hosting at least one national event every season except 2020 when Topeka's largest sporting event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But the facility that bills itself as the "House of Speed'' will be back in business Friday through Sunday when the stars of the Camping World Drag Racing Series return to Topeka for the Menards NHRA Nationals presented by PetArmor.

Gearing up for race week, here’s a look back at 10 of the great moments in Topeka drag racing history from the perspective of someone who's had the honor of attending every national since '89:

1. John Force called his Funny Car win at Heartland in 2008 the biggest of his career. That’s saying a lot for a driver who has won 16 championships and an NHRA-record 153 national events as a driver and 21 world championships as an owner with John Force Racing.

What made the 2008 victory stand out was that it was Force’s first victory after a serious crash at Dallas in '07 that ended his season and put his career in jeopardy.

The legendary John Force holds a track-record nine Funny Car victories at Heartland Motorsports Park, where he will race Friday through next Sunday in the Menards NHRA Nationals. {Photo by NHRA]

“Coming back from that wreck, that race was key,” Force told The Topeka Capital-Journal in an interview. “It showed that I could still drive, that I could still cut it.

"I knew even then my legs were still weak. I struggled just getting in and out of the car, but to get that win after a year of rehab was huge — to be there and hear those fans scream the way they did.”

The ’08 win was Force’s ninth Funny Car national-event win in Topeka, still a track record.

2. In 1990 Gary Ormsby put Topeka on the national racing map, becoming the first driver in NHRA history to break the 4.9-second and 295 mile-per-hour barriers in his Top Fuel dragster, clicking off a pass of 4.881 seconds at 296.06 mph.

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Created: 29 July 2021

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

By her own admission, cross country was never Trisa Nickoley's favorite sport, with the Shawnee Heights legend always more fond of the shorter distances in track and field, particularly the 800 meters.

But Nickoley, a member of the Topeka Shawnee County and Kansas State High School Activities Association halls of fame, still became one of the state's best-ever, becoming one of just six cross country runners in state history to capture four straight individual titles.

That title legacy earned the former T-Bird and Missouri Tiger the No. 1 spot on TopSports.news' Shawnee County Best of the Best Top 25 list for women's cross country.

Trisa Nickoley [Submitted]

Avery Clifton [Submitted]

Nickoley, who continues to hold the state record in the 800 and never lost an individual race in state cross country or track competition en route to earning 17 state gold medals, took the No. 1 position in the TSN Top 25 over former Washburn Rural two-time state champ Avery Clifton while a pair of former Seaman state champs, Sydney Messick and Shauna Burrell, hold down the No. 3 and 4 spots and four-year state medalist Cate Holston rounds out the top five.

Clifton, also a multi-event 6A state champ in track, was the Readers Choice champion, topping Nickoley for that honor, while another former Rural star, Jaybe Shufelberger, ranked No. 3 in reader balloting. Shufelberger, currently running for Kansas State is No. 6 on the Top 25.

The TSN Top 25 includes seven Shawnee County athletes who won at least one individual state title and nine who helped their schools win at least one state team championship.

Here's a look at the Top 25 and Readers Choice Awards:

TSN TOP 25 BEST OF THE BEST WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY RUNNERS

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