Maranatha Academy wins Class 2A All-Sports Award

Maranatha Academy is the Class 2A All-Sports Award winner for the 2011-12 school year. This is the first All-Sports Award Maranatha Academy has won. It finished in the top five in the first two years of the award’s existence in 2008 and 2009, but was never able to crack the top five again until this year.

The Eagles scored 24 points to take the title. Its girls’ track and cross country teams both won state titles, its boys track team took fourth at state and its boys’ tennis team took sixth place at the state meet in May.

The emergence of Maranatha girls’ track and cross country is a somewhat new development. While the boys’ team finished in the same place in 2011 as it did in 2012, the girls’ team went from eighth place in 2011 to the top in 2012.

Freshman sprinter Caroline Bingham put on a solid show as she won gold in the 400 meter dash, the only 2A girl to run the race in under a minute. She took second in the 200 meter dash and third in the 100 meter. The team won with a score of 64 points, 10 ahead of second-place Bennington.

Another freshman in Lauren Harrell backed up her teammate with a first-place finish in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:25.42. She also took third in the 1600 meter run behind first-place Jenna Farris of Lincoln and Paige Wells of Wichita County.

Hope Manning, a Maranatha freshman, took third in the 3200 meter run, behind first-place Farris and Emma Huskey of Lincoln.

The Marantha girls won the 2A state cross country meet with 59 points, 36 points ahead of second-place Ellinwood, who finished with 95. The two teams were the only ones to score under 100 points.

Harrell, Manning and teammate Taylor Morrow all finished in the top 15 to help secure the title for the Lady Eagles.

A model of consistency, the boys’ cross country team for Maranatha took home fourth place for the second year in a row.

The top finisher for the Eagles was Luke Miller in 28th place, followed closely by Caleb Hartig in 29th and in 30th was Ian Bower.

How we scored it: We awarded points to the top eight team finishers at the state championships in every sport. Eight points went to the champion, seven to the runner-up, six to the third-place team and so on, down to one point for eighth place.

In the event of ties, we split the points. In sports that did not have contests to decide all places, such as football, we split third-place points among the semifinal losers and split the points for fifth through eighth places among the quarterfinal losers.

Place    School    Points

1 Maranatha Academy           24
T-2 Ellinwood                        23
T-2 Meade                           23
4 Berean Academy                21
5 Prairie Village-KC Christian  19
6 Stanton County               15.5
7 Olpe                                15
8 Plainville                        13.5
T-9 Ness City                       12
T-9 Washington County        12
T-9 Medicine Lodge              12
12 Syracuse                      10.5
T-13 Bennington                  9
T-13 Republic County           9
T-13 Sterling                       9
T-16 Ell-Saline                   8.5
T-16 Jefferson Co. North     8.5
18 Chase County                 8
19 Oskaloosa                    7.5
T-20 Sedan                        7
T-20 Smith Center               7
22 Kiowa County                  6
23 Pittsburg Colgan            5.5
T-24 Jayhawk Linn               5
T-24 Lyndon                       5
T-24 Pratt Skyline               5
T-24 Valley Falls                 5
T-24 Ellsworth                     5
29 Decatur Community        4
30 Oakley                        3.5
T-31 Hill City                      3
T-31Lincoln                        3
T-33 Claflin-Central Plain    2.5
T-33 Doniphan West          2.5
T-33 Ellis                          2.5
T-33 Marmaton Valley        2.5
T-33 Mission Valley            2.5
T-33 Wabaunsee               2.5
T-33 Wathena                   2.5
T-33 Little River                 2.5
T-41 Herington                    2
T-41 Trego Community        2
43 Immaculata                   1