By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The top Shawnee County athletes from the class of 2025 are getting ready to embark on their college careers while offseason preparations for the 2025-2026 school year are well under way.
But it's also important to remember the accomplishments that made the '24-'25 campaign a special one for county athletes and teams.
Shawnee County schools claimed three state girls team championships and seven others came up just short over the past school year while three county standouts combined to claim five individual titles in three different sports.
While a case can always be made for any number of stories to sit at the top of the list, here's just one opinion on the Top 10 county girls prep stories of '24-'25.
Washburn Rural soccer celebrates its first Class 6A state championship after a 1-0 win over Mill Valley in PKs. [Photo by KSHSAA Covered]
1. HISTORIC BREAKTHROUGH -- Washburn Rural, already well established as one of the state's premier girls soccer programs, added the only missing piece from its impressive resume with its first Class 6A state championship on May 31 in Wichita. Making their 11th straight Final Four appearance, including four runnerup state finishes, the Junior Blues broke through with a 1-0 win over Mill Valley, taking the win with a 4-1 edge in penalty kicks as senior Madison Lemke came up huge in goal for Brian Hensyel's 19-2-0 Rural team.
Seaman junior Ryin Miller won three gold medals in the 2025 Class 5A state track meet at Wichita, giving her five wins in her career. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
2. MILLER TIMES -- Seaman superstar runner Ryin Miller capped off her junior track and field season by sweeping Class 5A state championships in her three individual events, taking wins in the 3,200 (10:19.53), 1,600 (4:57.33) and 800-meter (2:11.14) runs at Wichita State. Miller's three wins in 2025 gave her five career titles and came on the heels of a banner cross country season last fall, which included the fastest five-kilometer run in Kansas history (16:32.62) and a runnerup finish in the 5A state meet (17:26.36) by the Viking four-sport athlete.
Hayden senior Ainzley Zulueta earned her third Class 4A singles title last fall, leading the Wildcats to their second team title in three seasons. [File photo/TSN]
3. ZULUETA, WILDCATS BACK ON TOP -- After sitting out her junior high shool tennis season due to KSHSAA eligibility guidelines, Zulueta returned to the courts last fall and turned in a dominating postseason performance (eight straight 6-0, 6-0 wins in regional and state competition) en route to her third Class 4A singles championship in as many tries while leading Hayden to its second team title in three seasons by a 40-28 margin over McPherson. In addition to Zulueta's title, Christy Sheetz's Wildcats got a runnerup doubles finish from senior Emily Sheetz and freshman Sophia Wichman, a ninth-place singles finish from junior Grace Funk and an 11th-place doubles showing from juniors Izzy Glotzbach and Avery O'Bray.
Hayden's girls golf team captured its second straight Class 4A state championship last fall by 15 strokes over Wellington. [Submitted photo]
4. REPEAT FEAT -- Hayden rolled to its second straight Class 4A girls golf team championship last fall, posting a 698-713 win over Wellington at Hesston as three Wildcats earned individual medals. Junior Lauren Borjon paced Hayden with a third-place state finish (76-81 -- 157) while junior Izzy Glotzbach tied for 12th (89-82 -- 171) and senior Addyson Baer tied for 16th (86-88 -- 174). Glotzbach helped the Wildcats win state titles in tennis and golf three days apart.
Highland Park junior Makayla Cadet has her hand raised as the Class 5A 190-pound state champ last winter. [Photo by Selena Favela/Special to TSN]
5. A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY -- Highland Park junior Makayla Cadet celebrated her 17th birthday in one of the best ways you could imagine last winter, with a Class 5A state wrestling championship. Cadet, who went 23-4 on the season, became the first girls wrestler in Highland Park history to win a state championship when she pinned Basehor-Linwood junior Izzy Renfro at the 1:36 mark of the first period in Park City. Cadet's win over Renfro avenged a regional loss to the Bobcat standout.
6. OH SO CLOSE -- After sweeping city, Centennial League and Class 6A regional team titles, Washburn Rural's girls cross country team put itself in position to win a state championship when Rural and reigning four-time state champ Olathe West tied with 80 points before the Owls took the title on a tiebreaker (top finish by its sixth runner) to extend their title streak to five straight seasons. Senior Rylee Ismert paced the Junior Blues with a third-place individual finish while senior Payton Fink placed fifth and junior Emily Graf 14th.
7. OH SO CLOSE PART II -- Silver Lake's girls golf team was on the brink of a second straight Class 3A-1A state championship after the Eagles and St. Marys Colgan both finished the 36-hole event at Emporia with identical team scores of 718 before the Panthers won the title on a tiebreaker (lowest fifth score). Silver Lake senior Taylor Zordel finished fourth individually (86-78 -- 164) while Kailyn Hanni finished 13th (90-90 -- 180) and Makenna Miller was 14th (95-86 -- 141).
8. OH SO CLOSE PART III -- In addition to Washburn Rural cross country and Silver Lake golf, a whopping five other Shawnee County teams posted second-place team finishes in 2024-2025. After winning state titles a year earlier, Seaman volleyball and girls basketball in Class 5A and Silver Lake girls basketball in 3A both posted runnerup finishes last winter while Washburn Rural in 6A and Silver Lake in 3A posted second-place finishes in softball this spring.
9. OH SO CLOSE PART IV -- In addition to Ryin Miller's runnerup finish in Class 5A cross country and Emily Sheetz and Sophia Wichman's second-place doubles finish in 4A tennis, 10 other local athletes posted runnerup state finishes in two other sports. Washburn Rural star wrestler Molly Spader finished second in 6A at 105 pounds for the second straight season while Seaman's Taylie Heston (120) and Koti Best (125) and Shawnee Heights' Isabel Reyes (130) finished second in 5A. Topeka High sophomore track and field standout Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton finished second in the 6A triple jump while Washburn Rural junior Morgan Ray finished second in the 6A javelin and Rural seniors Rylee Ismert, Brooklyn Nolte and Payton Fink and junior Emily Graf finished as the runnerup in the 4x800-meter relay.
10. HARVESTING HARDWARE -- In addition to the championship and runnerup teams mentioned above, eight other county teams earned state tournament trophies with third-place finishes, including Washburn Rural in 6A golf, bowling and wrestling, Seaman in 5A tennis and bowling, Hayden in 4A volleyball and basketball and Shawnee Heights in 5A wrestling.
