Mari Ruvalcaba secured Garden City’s fifth straight season without a loss in the Western Athletic Conference by netting a goal off of Vicky Benitez’s direct-kick assist in last week’s 3-1 win over Liberal.
Ruvalcaba scored both second-half goals for the Lady Buffaloes, rallying Garden City from a 1-1 halftime tie. Liberal scored the first goal of the game before Ana Guevara knotted the score at 1-1.
"That’s hard to do and the girls have worked hard enough to stay with it," Garden City soccer coach Joaquin Padilla told the Garden City Telegram of his squad’s streak of 40 straight league games without a loss. "But everybody plays us hard and I don’t know if we’ve been just lucky or good to win those games. Liberal wanted to win that one because they even scored first."
Garden City finished the regular season as the top seed in its regional with a 13-1-1 record, including a 7-0-1 conference mark.
Osborne gets first track crown in more than three decades
Time was running out on the Osborne boys' hopes of securing a Mid-Continent League title of any kind for the seniors, so Steven Mick stepped up and did his part. The junior jumper secured the league’s triple jump title with a leap of 43 feet, 8 inches, bettering his season-best effort by 17 inches. Mick also broke the school’s high jump record by clearing 6-4 and had a third-place effort of 20-1 in the long jump, leading the Bulldogs to the school’s first boys track and field league title since the mid-1970s.
"I think that is a motivating point," Osborne coach Ken Ubelaker told the Hays Daily News. "Those kids that are seniors haven’t won MCL titles in anything all of the way through high school, and this was something that we always felt like from the beginning of the year that we had the pieces of the puzzle to give us the opportunity to do this. They wanted to put their place up there because once they are up there, they are there forever. We wanted our place in history."
Joe Sumpter led the way for the Bulldogs in the hurdle events by claiming the top spots in the 110 and 300-meter hurdles in times of 15.80 and 40.13 seconds, respectively. The senior also ran a leg on the gold medal-winning 400 relay and the second-place 1,600 relay. Damon Schurr took the 100 and 200 meters with times of 11.53 and 23.32.
Thomas no-hits Falcons
While Dodge City pitcher Ty Thomas stymied Wichita Heights batters during his 1-0 no-hit win last week, nothing was secured until Demon right fielder Zach Harvey snagged a sinking line drive off of the bat of Justin Akins.
Then Harvey alertly finished off a game-ending double play in the seventh inning by turning and firing to third to get pinch-runner Tim Olsen out. Thomas, who walked two batters and had two reach because of errors, fanned 12 hitters to become the 10th Demon pitcher to throw a no-no. The senior left-hander is the first Dodge City hurler to reach the milestone since Paul Gonzales and Todd Griffin completed the feat in 1977.
"I felt like I had my best stuff this game," Thomas told the Dodge City Daily Globe. "Heights is a great-hitting team. I think they have three guys in the top eight on this side of the state. I was just really feeling it."
Thomas’ one-run win was the 16th of his career, tying Ruben Kirbs’ Demon record set from 1997-99. Beginning in the second inning, Thomas, who threw 98 pitches in the complete-game effort, struck out the leadoff hitter in five straight frames.
Other no-hit performances
Udall’s Skylor Kistler struck out 11 batters during his five-inning no-hit performance in last week’s 12-2 win over Elk Valley during first-round action of the South Central Border League baseball tournament in Udall. The Eagle senior also went 2 for 3 from the plate, including a double.
New hires
- Garden Plain assistant basketball coach Ty Unrau has been tabbed to replace former Douglass head boys basketball coach Clint Meitler. Meitler took the Washburn Rural (Topeka) head boys position after posting an 18-2 mark for the Bulldogs last season.
- Former Iowa State point guard Jacy Holloway has been introduced as the new head boys basketball coach at Garden City.
- After stepping down as the boys and girls soccer coaches at Lawrence last December, Matt Anderson has changed his mind. Well, sort of. Last Friday, Anderson informed his girls team that he would be back to coach them next season.
- After he served as an assistant coach the past three seasons, East (Olathe) recently hired Clint Evans to replace Jeff Hulse as the school’s girls head basketball coach.
- Hayden (Topeka) volleyball coach Jesica Farmer-Walter will double as the school’s girls basketball coach as well. The former Fort Hays State basketball player replaces Wes Meier.
Record breakers
- Ashland high jumper Spencer Amerin recorded a personal-best and school-record leap of 6-8 at Friday’s Southern Plains-Iroquois Athletics Association track and field meet. Amerin, who told the Dodge City Daily Globe that he was stuck on 6-6 since last spring, bettered the old school mark of 6-7.
- For the second straight week Alex Reed broke Dodge City’s long jump record. His latest leap of 23-10 1/4 bettered last week’s record-breaking mark by 7 3/4 inches.
- Heather Ruder established her fourth school record of the season at Thursday’s Mid-State Activities Association track and field meet in Larned by hitting the tape in a time of 59.44 seconds in the 400 meters. The Thomas More Prep-Marian freshman also owns school marks in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200.
- Hillsboro senior Nathan Vogel broke his own school record of 50 seconds flat in the 400 meters Thursday by finishing third in the event with a time of 49.89.
- Frankfort thrower Chelsea Keating broke the track record in the shot put with a toss of 40-2 at Riley County Friday.
- After leading the state of Kansas for much of the season in the shot put, Ottawa thrower Kearsten Peoples leads the state in the discus as well. Peoples, who holds the state’s top shot put throw of 49-11, broke the school and Frontier League discus record with her toss of 160-0 to top the state’s leaders chart in her second event of the season.
- Girard seniors Andrew Augustin and Tessa Westhoff broke Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League records Thursday. Augustin ran 4:32.62 in the 1,600-meters, while Westhoff threw the javelin 127-11.
- The Salina South girls 200-yard medley relay posted a school-record time of 2:44.00 at the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League Division I meet. The Cougars latest performance betters the 1997 school mark by 1.5 seconds.
