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Ellinwood senior Chelsea Day in action at Saturday's Class 2A substate tournament in Sterling. (Mike Courson / October 21, 2012) |
Many teams ended their seasons in week 8. Several MCAA teams, however, will continue their seasons this week at their respective state tournaments, including both Ellinwood cross country teams, the Hoisington volleyball team, and the Lady Monarch cross country team.
Ellinwood
The Lady Eagle volleyball team took a 25-11 record into the Class 2A substate at Sterling. The brackets played out mostly like they were drawn up with No. 1 seed Pratt-Skyline downing Ellinwood in the finals 25-16, 25-10.
The Lady Eagles started the tournament with a bang, downing Little River 25-12, 25-14. The Redskins hung around at 5-4 in set one before four kills from Sophie Hayes and an ace from the junior gave the Eagles an 11-8 lead. Senior Lindsey Zink used back-to-back-kills, and Hayes added another ace for a 15-8 advantage. Zink had three more kills down the stretch, and Kelsea Ward added a point to take the set. Ellinwood took a big lead early in set two, leading 6-1 after a Zink ace, and 16-6 after a pair of Zink kills and a point from Ward. Ellinwood got a break in round two after Sterling upset Moundridge in three sets. The Black Bears also fought hard against Ellinwood before the Eagles prevailed 21-25, 25-10, 25-19. Pratt-Skyline won in straight sets to advance to the state tournament in Emporia.
Hoisington
The Cardinal football team is sitting pretty after a district win on Friday night. At 8-0, Scott City will likely cruise to a district title, leaving Hoisington (4-4 overall) and TMP (2-6) to battle for the other playoff spot on Thursday. Friday, the Cards knocked down Russell 42-12.
The Cardinals did it without senior workhorse and quarterback Hagan Hanzlick on the field. Instead, senior running back Chance Demel took over, averaging 10 yards a carry to take 21 totes for 209 yards and three touchdowns. Avery Urban and Chris Jonas also scored touchdowns, splitting 69 yards. Freshman Jacob Warnken tried his hand at quarterback, throwing one interception but otherwise showing his talent by completing 4-of-10 passes for 126 yards. Cody Stetler caught the touchdown pass for a 15-yard strike, and Jeffrey Kaiser added a 60-yard reception. Defensively, Zach Sanders doubled up his closest teammate with 12 tackles.
TMP
State cross country would not be the same without senior phenom Heather Ruder in the mix. That was unlikely to happen Saturday at the Class 3A regional in Cimarron, but Ruder helped her team qualify with a third-place finish, edging out Holcomb by seven points.
Ruder cruised to the title in 17:51, 30 seconds ahead of the next runner. Junior Kayla Walker missed the top 10 by 10 seconds for 12th in 19:36. Freshman Shelby Stouffer finished 22nd in 20:22, senior Annie Mindrup placed 30th in 21:11, and freshman Jordan Manhart finished behind her in 21:12. The boys finished ninth at the regional. In the tough individual race, the Monarchs failed to qualify a runner to state. Senior Nick Dopita led the boys in 22:18 for 32nd, closely followed by freshman teammate Andrew Hess in 22:22.
Larned
After going without a win for three years, the 2012 football season got off to a promising 3-0 start. Friday night’s 52-6 loss to Hugoton all but ended the Indians’ season. Larned has now lost five-straight, falling to 0-2 in Class 4A, District 14. Friday, the Indians will take on Pratt for a game with only pride on the line.
Larned struggled on both sides of the ball Friday, putting up only 129 yards of total offense while allowing 420 rushing yards from the Eagles. The Indians were not out of it early, trailing 19-6 at the half, but Hugoton put up 33 unanswered points in the second half for the runaway. Junior Jamil Shoemaker scored the lone Larned touchdown in the second quarter from a yard out. Senior running back Brady Keith ran for 54 yards on 17 carries. Junior quarterback Easton Palmer threw two interceptions, completing 9-of-19 passes for 66 yards. Grant Unruh had two catches for 34 yards, and Shoemaker added three receptions for 24 yards. Defensively, Jeromy Bartz paced the squad with 13 tackles and Tyler Stetler recorded 11 tackles.
