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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
WICHITA – Cair Paravel Latin fought off a barrage of scoring chances from powerhouse Bishop Miege for 92-plus minutes in Saturday’s Class 4-1A championship game at Stryker Sports Complex.
But Miege finally broke the dam with less than eight minutes in the second overtime.
On Miege’s 16th corner kick of the game, Dory Latenser headed home a perfectly-placed kick from Isabella McGaugh for the golden goal with 7:38 left in the second OT, securing a 1-0 win and the Stags’ state-record eighth consecutive championship.
Junior goalkeeper Veronica Ignoto and the Lions’ back line worked tirelessly to keep it scoreless, but offensive opportunities were scarce for Cair Paravel (15-4-1). The Lions weren’t officially credited with a shot on goal while Miege had 10.
“Really proud of my girls. That was an amazing show of courage against a tough team, perennial state champs,” Cair Paravel coach Doug Woolery told KSHSAA Covered. “We just couldn’t get our offense generated. We were on our heels most of the game.
“I knew my girls had it in them, but we just couldn’t seem to get the break that we had last time we played them (2-1 loss). We had a couple through balls to capitalize on and even had a couple missed opportunities in that game, and today those just didn’t show themselves. At the end of the day, they finally got one in the net and we didn’t.”
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
WICHITA -- Seaman sophomore star Ryan Miller's weekend didn't get off to the start she wanted on Friday morning, with Miller losing contact with Salina Central junior Katelyn Rupe midway through the Class 5A 3,200 meters as Rupe went on to notch her third straight win in the event by more than 16 seconds.
But Miller bounced back on Saturday while flashing the form that has established her as one of the state's all-time bests, posting dominating victories in both the 1,600 and 800 before helping the Vikings to a runnerup finish in the 4x400 meter relay.
"The 32 I went out and I tried to reserve some, and it didn't work,'' Miller said. "She beat me pretty good those last three laps so today I was like, 'I'm just goint to get out, run my race.'
"I normally get out fast and I was just going to try not to let anybody get in my head.''
And Miller said Friday's loss in the 3,200 served as a big source of motivation on Saturday.
"It was frustrating; I'm not sure what happened,'' Miller said of the 3,200. "It was just so early, I'm not used to running that early, but I just felt awful and I was like, 'This is the state meet. I may get hurt next year because of soccer,' and I was, 'If I'm going to do it, it has to be now,' so it was definitely motivation for sure.''
Miller started off her busy Saturday by jumping out to an early lead in the 1,600 and never looked back, winning her first state title in a 5A meet-record time of 4 minutes, 51.58 seconds.
She came back later in the day to take control of the 800 from the outset en route to the championship in 2:10.80 in windy conditions.
"I was looking at my weather app this morning and I was like, 'Oh my God, 85 and windy,' '' Miller said. "You could feel it on the frontstretch, but the big crowd definitely helped push me through it.''
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Washburn Rural girls soccer team bounced back from a heartbreaking semifinal loss Friday to blank Maize 3-0 for third place in the Class 6A state tournament Saturday at Hummer Sports Park.
Kate Hinck ruled the day, putting all three goals in the net for Washburn Rural. The junior raised her goal total to 28 on the season, second best in school history.
Placing third for the second consecutive season was a disappointing outcome for a team still seeking its first title.
“We’ve been in the Final Four a bunch of times. We’ve played (the consolation) game a number of times,” said Washburn Rural coach Brian Hensyel. “This was hard because our goal was to be the state champions. We didn’t quite get there.”
The Junior Blues regrouped with a strategy for Saturday.
“You have to rally for the second day,” Hensyel said. “We decided two things. We were just going to put all our players on the field today throughout the game. We have a lot of depth, so we used the whole roster today.
“But the second part was, we have a great group of girls, so I wasn’t worried about whether they would be ready to play or not. They wanted to finish with a win. It’s not quite what we wanted this weekend, but a great ending to the season.”
Using her speed and ball-handling skills, Hinck navigated her way through the Maize defense to two first-half goals. Early in the second half, she took a pass near the goal and punched a shot through traffic past the Maize goalkeeper.
“She’s crazy great,” Hensyel said. “She’s a go-to player. She made it happen today.”
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 7 seed Hayden completed its Cinderella run to the Class 3A state baseball championship Friday night, taking a 5-3 win over top seed Wichita Trinity at Tointon Family Stadium.
Hayden junior pitcher Liam Annand went 6.2 innings, picking up the win while allowing three runs on just four hits before sophomore Aiden Roberts closed out the victory with an inning of relief as the Wildcats picked up their first state title since 2015.
You look across our roster, we don’t have many seniors, almost everyone is coming back,” Hayden coach Bill Arnold told KSHSAA Covered. “It means a lot just for the growth they made throughout the year. I’m very proud of them.”
The Wildcats, who finished an 18-12 season, pushed three runs across in the first inning to take control.
After singles by Mason Becker and Brady Heinen, a fielder's choice by Cooper Grace and a single by Evan Lenherr produced the first run.
Sophomore Kade Mitchell then doubled in two runs to make it a 3-0 Hayden lead.
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By KYLE MANTHE
TopSports.news
LAWRENCE -- For a third straight season Washburn Rural softball is coming back with hardware to end its season after a 6-4 win over Olathe South (15-16) in the third-place game of the Class 6A tournament Friday afternoon at Arrocha Ballpark.
The No. 6 seeded Junior Blues came back on three separate occasions after the No. 8 seeded Falcons took the lead to wrap up a 20-8 season, the first under Joy Marie Galliart.
“I’m super proud of this group, they have come so far from when we started together as a group to where we are now.” Galliart said. “These kids worked hard and they bought into a new way of doing things and some new philosophies … we definitely saw tremendous growth from the beginning of the season to where we are today and I couldn’t be more proud.”
The Junior Blues also bounced back from a 10-0 loss to No. 2 seed, and eventual champion, Olathe Northwest earlier in the day.
“Once that game was over the only thing we could do was learn from it and there was no sense of stewing on it. We had another one that we wanted to take care of and we wanted to leave here with a win, so I’m proud of how they responded after this morning,” Galliart said.
The first lead for Olathe South, which lost to No. 5 Campus 2-1 in the semifinals, came in the top of the first after an RBI groundout scored the first run of the game for the Falcons.
Ava Fowler led off the home half of the second with a single and moved to third on a pair of productive outs. Sophomore Josie Carlgren set down a bunt for a single while also driving in Fowler to tie the game.