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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The No. 24-ranked Washburn Ichabods softball team wraps up the regular season after two weeks off from game competition as WU travels down the turnpike on Saturday to face Emporia State in an MIAA twinbill (11 a.m. start).
Senior Marrit Mead, a former Santa Fe Trail star, holds multiple Washburn softball career records. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn enters the weekend 36-12 overall and 17-7 in the MIAA after sweeping Missouri Southern and being swept by Pittsburg State the weekend of April 12-13.
The Hornets are 29-19 and 12-12 after defeating Rockhurst in a single game on April 23 in Kansas City.
Washburn has already secured its 19th season with at least 30 wins and its fourth under head coach Brenda Holaday, who won her 600th career game as a head coach earlier this month. Holaday had 351 career high school coaching wins and has 251 wins at Washburn entering the weekend.
Hitting the 30-win mark for the third straight season is the longest streak since the Ichabods won at least 30 games in six straight seasons from 2002-07.
The Ichabods are ranked seventh in the nation with 94 doubles and are also ranked seventh in the nation in doubles per game (1.96), eighth in earned run average (1.63) and third in shutouts (17).
The Ichabods need five more doubles to tie the Washburn single-season record of 99 set in 2022.
Individually, sophomore pitcher Sadie Walker is eighth in the nation in wins (20) and seventh in games started (26) as well as 15th in shutouts and 21st in earned run average at 1.26.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Senior Jaycee Ginter will go down in history as one of the best players in Washburn University softball history.
Senior Jaycee Ginter has put together a record-setting career for Washburn University's softball team, currently No. 24-ranked in the nation. [File photo/TSN]
Entering the final stretch of her outstanding four-year Ichabod career, Ginter already holds WU career pitching records for wins (84), strikeouts (779) and appearances (142) and is the program leader for single-season wins (30), strikeouts (290) and appearances (45).
Ginter, who helped lead Shawnee Heights to three straight Class 5A state titles, also ranks among the top 15 all-time in numerouss offensive categories, with a career batting average of .337, 28 home runs and 166 runs batted in entering Saturday's MIAA twinbill at Emporia State.
"Jaycee is a unicorn -- one of one,'' Washburn coach Brenda Holaday said. "She is arguably the best to ever play at Washburn given what she has done at the plate and on the mound -- a rare combination of excellence.''
But all those accolades aside, Ginter may never get the credit she truly deserves for being able to overcome the multiple obstacles she's faced along the way.
Ginter, whose senior season at Heights in 2020 was wiped out by COVID-19, battled a forearm issue as a freshman at Washburn and overcame a concussion at the start of her sophomore campaign and her continuing forearm problem to earn first-team All-America recognition with a 30-7 pitching record (1.76 earned run average, 290 strikeouts) and a .385 batting average (10 homers, 57 RBI).
Ginter faced her biggest injury challenge, a torn labrum in her shoulder, midway through the 2023 season, but still posted a 24-10 record (1.72 ERA, 243 strikeouts) and hit .303 (7 homers, 41 RBI).
"She is a warrior and never even thinks about not playing when she is hurt or injured -- doesn't cross her mind,'' Holaday said. "She is the ultimate competitor and performs pretty stress free and without fear. Success and failure does not change her.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University baseball heads to Tahlequah, Okla. for its final regular-season series of the year against Northeastern State, beginning on Friday at 2 p.m.
Washburn junior Payton McHarg is hitting .351 and leads the Ichabods in home runs and runs batted in. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Last time out the Ichabods won 14-3 over Southern Nazarene on the road Wednesday afternoon and are currently 26-19 overall and 18-12 in the MIAA.
The RiverHawks enter the series with a 20-27 record and an 11-19 record in the MIAA after falling 17-5 to Oklahoma Baptist on Tuesday.
Washburn enters the MIAA Tournament next weekend which is played on the campus sites of the top four seeds. Washburn currently sits in fifth place in the MIAA standings. The Ichabods can go no lower than the fifth seed and could climb as high as third.
To finish in third the Ichabods would need to sweep the RiverHawks, with Central Oklahoma losing all three games in its weekend series and Pittsburg State winning no more than one. If Washburn is tied with the Gorillas the Ichabods would have the tiebreaker to move up to fourth or fifth in the standings. The Bronchos have the tiebreaker over the Ichabods.
Through 45 games Washburn is scoring 9.13 runs per game while allowing 7.49.
At the plate the Ichabods are hitting .324 with a .418 on-base percentage and are slugging .573 as a team. They have 85 home runs and have drawn 224 walks.
Washburn's pitching staff has an earned run average of 7.26 this season in 385.2 inning pitched. The Ichabods have struck out 337 batters while allowing 427 hits and issuing 246 walks.
The Ichabods are second in the nation in home runs with an average of 1.89 per game and 85 total blasts.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Silver Lake junior baseball player Logan Cathcart and Topeka High freshman track and field standout Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton have been selected by the Dan Key Farmers Insurance Agency as the Rising Stars of the Week.
Here’s a brief look at the accomplishments of Cathcart and Rayton over the past week:
Silver Lake junior Logan Cathcart is the Dan Key Farmers Insurance Agency boys Rising Star of the Week after helping lead the Eagles to a doubleheader sweep over Hayden. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
LOGAN CATHCART, Silver Lake
Cathcart helped Silver Lake earn a 9-8, 8-7 doubleheader road sweep at Hayden on Tuesday, with the 9-4 Eagles extending their winning streak to six games.
Cathcart got the pitching save in the first game for the Eagles when he recorded a strikeout to end the game and he started the second game and pitched the first five innings to pick up the pitching win, allowing two earned runs.
Cathcart went 2 for 4 with a double and knocked in a run and scored twice in the first game and went 2 for 3 at the plate with two runs scored in the second game.
Topeka High freshman Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton (right) is the Dan Key Farmers Insurance Agency girls Rising Star of the Week after winning three events in the Washburn Rural Invitational. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
ASHIEYRHUAJH RAYTON, Topeka High
A multi-sport standout for the Trojans, Rayton posted three individual victories and a second-place finish in last Wednesday's Washburn Rural Invitational track and field meet.
Rayton won the girls 100-meter dash in a time of 13.51 seconds, won the long jump with a best effort of 16 feet, 7 inches and was the triple jump champ at 35-3.50. Rayton finished second in the 200 dash in 27.52.
Rayton ranks No. 1 in Shawnee County in the long jump and triple jump and is No. 2 in the 200.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
TopSports.news will honor All-America track and field thrower Braden Rose and All-America soccer player Khloe Schuckman as Washburn University's outstanding male and female athletes for 2023-2024 at the Topeka Shawnee County Sports Awards and Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on June 26 at Washburn's Memorial Union.
Washburn graduate student Braden Rose is a four-time track and field All-American and holds the school record in the weight throw, discus and hammer throw. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Washburn junior Khloe Schuckman helped lead the Ichabods to a 21-4-1 record and the NCAA Division II soccer national championship game last fall. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Rose, a Hutchinson native (Buhler High School), is already a four-time NCAA Division II All-American in track and field, with his final NCAA meet still to come, and holds the Washburn school record in the indoor weight throw, discus and hammer throw.
Schuckman, a Wichita Bishop Carroll product, has scored 25 goals with nine assists over her first three WU seasons and helped lead the Ichabods to a 21-4-1 record last fall, earning third-team All-America recognition.
TopSports.news will honor outstanding Washburn athletes for the fourth time in conjunction with the Topeka Shawnee County Sports Awards and Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.
In 2023 Grant Bruner and Jaycee Ginter were named Washburn outstanding male and female athletes of the year.
Washburn Athlete of the Year capsules:
