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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The first season of the Joy Marie Galliart era in Washburn Rural softball will end in the destination that all teams shoot for -- the state tournament.
The Junior Blues, who have posted back-to-back runnerup finishes in Class 6A, punched their ticket for another trip to state with a come-from-behind 8-1 win over Maize in Thursday's regional final at Rural.
Washburn Rural softball celebrates after wrapping up its regional championship with an 8-1 win over Maize Thursday at Rural. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
After rolling to a 14-4 win over Liberal in its regional semifinal, Washburn Rural fell behind Maize (19-9) 1-0 in the championship game as the Eagles pushed across a run in the top of the second.
But the Junior Blues dominated the rest of the game, riding a complete-game five-hitter from senior pitcher Makayla Ekis and a 12-game hitting attack that included three doubles from sophomore Reagan Chapman.
"This is always everybody's goal, I feel like, at the beginning of the season,'' said Galliart, who came to Rural this season after a very successful career in Oklahoma. "Everybody around here, and everybody in the state of Kansas knows the talent that this program has graduated in recent years and we believed from the very beginning that we still had a shot, that we were still going to be in the mix despite the talent that they graduated.
"So this was always our goal. We had some kids who have had to wait their turn and specifically Makayla Ekis has waited her turn to throw until she was a senior and she was outstanding today. She has progressively, as the season has gone on, gotten better and better and better and she was outstanding today and earned the opportunity to have the ball and she got the job done for us.''
Washburn Rural senior Makayla Ekis (center) pitched a complete-game five-hitter in Thursday's 8-1 win over Maize in Thursday's Class 6A regional tournament. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural, now 18-7, has been installed as the No. 6 seed for next Thursday and Friday's 6A state event at Lawrence's Arrocha Ball Park and will face No. 3 Blue Valley West (22-6) at 1 p.m. Thursday.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Junior standout Kate Hinck and the Washburn Rural girls soccer team took care of business in Thursday's Class 6A regional final with a huge first half on the way to a decisive 8-0 win over Wichita East at McElroy Field.
Junior Kate Hinck (9) scored four first-half goals Thursday night to lead the way as Washburn Rural rolled to an 8-0 win over Wichita East in a Class 6A regional final. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hinck scored the only goal the Junior Blues would need just 1 minute, 58 seconds into the match and had four goals by the 3:19 mark of the opening half as Washburn Rural opened up a commanding 6-0 halftime advantage.
Junior Delaney Hill (front), battling for a loose ball, scored a goal in Washburn Rural's 8-0 win over Wichita East in a Class 6A regional final. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Junior Destiny Higgs (24) scored a goal in Washburn Rural's 8-0 regional romp past Wichita East Thursday night [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
The Junior Blues, who improved to 15-3-0, also got first-half goals from juniors Delaney Hill and Destiny Higgs to put the Blue Aces (10-8-0) in a big hole.
Washburn Rural added second-half goals from sophomore Peyton Merrick and freshman Erika Bovell to close out the 8-0 win.
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Cair Paravel Latin School girls advanced from the regional round of the soccer playoffs with a 6-0 win over Eudora Thursday at the Bettis Family Sports Complex.
Sophomore KellyAnn Chada (11) is congratulated by her Cair Paravel teammates after scoring one of her four goals in Thursday's 6-0 win over Eudora in a Class 4A-1A regional. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
Senior Katherine Keys (left), who had three assists, congratulates sophomore KellyAnn Chada after a goal in Cair Paravel's 6-0 regional win over Eudora. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
Sophomore KellyAnn Chada accounted for four of the Lions’ six goals, including one in the opening minutes of the contest.
“It was crazy,” Chada said. “I definitely couldn’t have done it without my team. They had some great assists. I got the first one and that just started the game off on the right foot and then they just kept coming.”
“She is a goal-scoring machine” Cair Paravel coach Doug Woolery said of Chada. “She is one of those players who always seem to put themselves in the right spot.”
Zahra Friess and Clare Everhart added goals for the Lions while Katherine Keys tallied three assists.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
It became apparent early on that a big play or two was probably going to decide the pitcher's duel between Silver Lake junior Kendra Cook and Santa Fe Trail senior Kaelee Washington in Wednesday's Class 3A regional softball final at Hayden.
Winning pitcher Kendra Cook (25) exchanges a hug with senior teammate Kaibryn Kruger (9) as Silver Lake celebrates its 1-0 win over Santa Fe Trail in Wednesday's Class 3A regional final. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Silver Lake softball celebrates its Class 3A regional championship after Kira Lowrey scored the winning run in Wednesday's 1-0 win over Santa Fe Trail. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
And after Cook and Washington matched goose eggs through six and a half innings, a triple by Silver Lake junior Kira Lowrey and a perfectly-executed bunt from senior McKinley Kruger in the bottom of the seventh were enough to give Eagles a berth in next week's 3A state tournament with a 1-0 victory over the Chargers.
"At some point you just put it in their hands, right, and they've got to take care of business,'' said Silver Lake head coach Nick Hamilton, who picked up his 100th career win as the Eagles improved to 22-2 on the season entering next Thursday's state tourney at the Envista Softball Complex at Lake Shawnee.
"It gave us a test for sure. To be honest with you, I think we've just seen the best pitcher in 3A and if we can figure out how to hit her and get better I think we'll be tough. Competition always helps you.''
Silver Lake junior Kira Lowrey rounds second base on her seventh-inning triple and scored the game-winning run in Wednesday's 1-0 win over Santa Fe Trail. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washington, a Kansas signee, kept Silver Lake in check for most of the day while recording 12 strikeouts, but Lowrey broke through with a leadoff triple down the right-field line in the seventh.
Senior Lake senior Makenzie McDaniel threatened to end things with a blast well over the left-field fence, but the ball went foul and McDaniel eventually went down on strikes, leaving it up to Kruger to be the hero.
Silver Lake senior McKinley Kruger (12) celebrates with her teammates after delivering the game-winning bunt in Wednesday's 1-0 Class 3A regional win over Santa Fe Trail. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"I just told her to do her job,'' Hamilton said. "She knew what she had to do and no better person to have do it.''
Kruger took one ball and one strike on her at bat before Hamilton put on the bunt sign.
"He trusted me to swing it and then he saw an opportunity to win the game and I'm willing to do whatever it takes,'' said Kruger, who is headed to Washburn for her college career.
Kruger said she felt confident that she could get the bunt down.
"I haven't bunted very much this year but I have confidence in my bunting ability,'' Kruger said. "It's just harder against a tougher pitcher obviously, so I really just had to hone in on where the ball was being pitched and put it down.''
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Trey Brown wasn't looking to leave Hayden after coaching the Wildcats to a Class 3A state tournament berth this past season in his only year at the school.
Trey Brown, who announced his resignation as Hayden's coach on Monday, has accepted a position as an assistant coach at MidAmerica Nazarene University, where he was a standout point guard. [Photo by Kyle Grunert/Special to TSN]
But when the opportunity arose for the former MidAmerica Nazarene standout point guard to return to his alma mater as an assistant coach, Brown knew he needed to jump at it.
"I wasn't planning on anything and it kind of just happened out of the blue,'' Brown told TopSports.news. "It happened really fast but they had some turnover with their staff this year and had an opening and coach (Adam) Hepker reached out and said they might have an opening for me.
"We kind of talked about it and I took a lot of time to think about it and went through the whole process there and talked with my family and thought it was the best situation for me.''
Hepker, also a MidAmerica grad, returned to MNU as an assistant Brown's senior season and has been the Pioneers head coach the past two years after longtime coach Rocky Lamar retired.
"I thought it was a great opportunity to learn under him because he has just done a phenomenal job in following in coach Lamar's footsteps, which is no easy task at all, but he hasn't skipped a beat and I have the utmost respect for coach Hep and just the way he carries himself and what he's all about,'' Brown said.
"And obviously it's a bonus to get to go back home to a place where I got to play and a place that really changed my life on the court but more importantly off the court. It's home and it just felt like an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.''
The 25-year-old Brown helped lead Shawnee Heights to the Class 5A state championship in 2017 and the All-Stater began his college playing career at Missouri Western before transferring to MidAmerica Nazarene.
Brown averaged 13.4 points as a senior and scored more than 1,000 career points for MidAmerica, where he earned his criminal justice degree in 2022.
Brown's first coaching job was at Cair Paravel Latin, which he led to a 9-13 record in the 2022-2023 season before he accepted the Hayden position. The Wildcats posted an 8-16 record this past season, but posted three straight sub-state wins to earn a trip to the 3A state tournament.
Hayden dropped a 56-42 decision to top seed Beloit in the first round.
Even though Brown began his coaching career at the high school level he said the idea of coaching in college intrigued him.
"I think it was always in the back of my mind for further down the line,'' Brown said. "I didn't really plan on going anywhere now, and like I told the (Hayden) guys the other night, I definitely didn't think I'd get this chance to do this so early in my coaching career.
"But life is crazy and God works in mysterious ways, so I was presented with a great opportunity and thought long and hard about it and felt it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.''
