By Dean Backes
MaxPreps.com
It’s been a long time since Iola has won a boys basketball game over Southeast Kansas League foe Fort Scott. In fact, it’s been 23 years. Not since February 1985 has a Mustang team tasted victory over the Tigers. And Alex Barner made sure that streak didn’t end Friday.
Barner scored 20 of his game-high 24 points in the first half to keep the Tigers headed in the right direction. John Leek added 12 points to the Tiger attack.
Iola did keep the score close early, and trailed just 14-11 after a period of play. But Barner scored eight points early in the second period to stake the Tigers out to a 25-13 advantage with 3:50 remaining until halftime.
Leek connected on five of seven shots and tossed in six assists in the win, including a 3-pointer that started a 9-0 Fort Scott run in the third period that sealed the deal for the Tigers. Barner was true on 11-of-19 shots from the floor.
Iola’s Greg Hayes jumped out to a quick start, but the Tigers stepped up and slowed him down.
“The kids came out and played hard,” Fort Scott coach Jeff DeLaTorre told the Nevada Daily Mail. “(Greg) Hayes was shooting well early but we tightened things up in the second quarter.”
Cushon Scores 55 On Elyria
Elyria Christian’s Shawna Penner scored a career-high 31 points and teammate Cari Tippin added 22 points last week against Flint Hills Job Corps. But the duo’s scoring outburst wasn’t enough to overcome a 55-point effort by Flint Hills’ Mia Cushon.
The 5-foot-9-inch senior scored 20 of her game-high 55 points in the fourth period , and tallied 32 points in the second half to lead her team to a 69-67 win. Cushon connected on 22 field goals in the win and made 11-of-12 free throws to lead her team.
Volleyball: Delimont and Sauls Named All-Americans
The American Volleyball Coaches Association announced its All-American team last week, and two of the 32 members reside in the state of Kansas.
Andover’s Melanie Delimont, a 6-1 middle blocker, and Shawnee Mission East’s Kasey Sauls, a 5-10 setter, made the short list of the top high school volleyball players in the country.
Delimont, who was chosen first team All-State and was chosen to the state tournament’s Class 4A All-Tournament team, has elected to continue playing volleyball at Kansas State next fall.
Sauls, who paced her team with 930 set assists during her senior season, was named Class 6A first team All-State. She has opted to play her college volleyball outside of Kansas at Appalachian State.
Miscellaneous: Hall of Fame to Induct Five New Members
Three faculty members, a student and an administrator have been chosen as the newest inductees into the Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame. Here is a run down on some of the highlights in each inductee’s career, according to a release put out by the Kansas State High School Activities Association:
Holton’s Ron Bowen spent the last 23 years of his 39-year teaching and coaching career at Topeka Washburn Rural High School. Bowen won Class 5A football championships in 1985, 1986 and 1989 and finished runner-up in Class 6A in 1991. He sported a 220-127-3 record, which included four undefeated regular seasons, 10 Centennial League championships and a pair of Chisholm Trail league titles.
Jeff Buckingham was a three-time state pole-vaulting champion at Gardner-Edgerton High School before going on to star at the University of Kansas. Buckingham, who remains second on the all-time Kansas high school pole vault list, became the second high schooler to soar over 17-feet. He jumped his age in height three times at 15-feet, 16-feet and 17-feet to set world age-group records.
Buckingham’s record-setting career at Kansas was highlighted by indoor and outdoor championships. He set a new American record in 1983 by clearing 18-feet, 10-inches. Buckingham made the Olympic Trials in 1984, 1988 and 1992.
In his 23 years at Girard High School, Craig Crespino touched student’s lives in many ways. In football, he posted a 96-42 record and led his student athletes to five CNC League titles. Crespino also won nine conference championships in track for the Trojans and officiated basketball games, including several in the postseason.
During his tenure of more than 29 years, Wellsville’s Kermit Deterding put up some impressive numbers as the Eagle basketball coach. Wellsville earned their way to 11 state tournament appearances under Deterding, winning state titles in 1987 and 1994. The Eagles also finished runner-up twice, came in third twice and also had a fourth place finish as Deterding built a 431-236 career record at the high school. He was named the Class 3A Coach of the Year in 1988 and 1994, and earned the NFICA Kansas Basketball Coach of the Year award in 1995.
Mike Karl served Hays High School as assistant principal and athletic director for 32 years. He earned many awards throughout his career, including Region 6 Athletic Director of the Year in 1986 and Kansas Area 4 and Athletic Director of the Year in 1993. But most importantly, Karl always made time for school students whether they were involved in athletics or not.
Bowling: Kanicki, Seaman Roll to League Championships
Topeka Seaman’s Michael Kanicki donned a new bowling ball just in time for the Centennial League Bowling Tournament and the result netted the sophomore an individual league championship and the Vikings, the team title.
Kanicki rolled games of 200, 245 and 264 for a 709 series and finished just ahead of teammate Kenny Benoit who rolled a 257 high game and a 705 series.
But the story doesn’t stop there. Five of Seaman’s six bowlers rolled three game series of 613 or better. Kyle Turner rolled Seaman’s high game of 279 on his way to a 687 series. Tony Nelson and Greg Sheetz rolled series of 621 and 613 respectively. Since only the top four individual scores make up the team scores, Sheetz pin total didn’t count towards the Vikings pin fall.
Topeka Hayden’s Patrick Schmidtlein interrupted a 1-2-3-4-5 finish for Seaman by finishing with a fourth best individual series of 651. But Kanicki, Benoit and Turner took the top three individual spots. Nelson and Sheetz finished fifth and sixth.
“We’ve been just kind of bowling the same thing over and over, week after week, and we’ve kind of been waiting for this kind of game to come through,” Seaman coach Bob Calderwood told the Topeka Capital Journal.
With their hot hands at work, Seaman was able to take any drama out of the team race by rolling past league runner-up Topeka West 2,722-2,335. Topeka Hayden finished third with a team score of 2,279.
