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2012 High school athletes of the year

June 26, 2012 @ 2:14 p.m. by Joanna

By Joanna Chadwick

The Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission will host the Johnny Bench Awards on Thursday night, giving an award to the nation’s top college catcher. It will also honor the top area college male and female athletes, top pro athlete and top boys and girls high school athletes.

Who would you choose for the top high school athletes? The three boys and three girls are below — is it a good list? Is anyone missing?

Barry Sanders High School Male Athlete of the Year Finalists

Alex Bontz, Andover Central (football, wrestling)
Perry Ellis, Wichita Heights (basketball)
David Thor, Bishop Carroll (cross country, track)

Lynette Woodard High School Female of the Year Finalists

Sydnee Eck, Andale (softball)
McKenzie Hartzog, Maize (soccer, volleyball, basketball)
Megan Sorlie, Andover Central (softball)

This is a great list of athletes, athletes who had outstanding careers throughout high school and were dominating.

Alex Bontz is a wrestler who I have enjoyed watching throughout his career and he is thoroughly deserving.

Perry Ellis, well, we all know what Perry Ellis has done. I’d be shocked not to see him win.

David Thor had a heck of a career, too, and really finished it out in fantastic fashion.

For the girls, Sydnee Eck was a dominating pitcher, who if she wanted, could have a Division I softball career.

McKenzie Hartzog was All-Metro in soccer and volleyball and played in the state tournament in all three sports. I think she told me she had been to 14 state tournaments in the three sports.

Megan Sorlie is a softball player headed to Notre Dame, and like Eck, was an All-Metro selection.

These are all athletes of the highest level — and good, smart kids.

Tough choices here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 at 2:14 p.m. and is filed under The Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • JJFlash

    Maybe alittle bias here, but Kenzie Hartzog is one of the best HS Girl All-Around Athletes you’ll ever see! Great career at Maize High School in Soccer, Volleyball and Basketball for the Eagles all 4 years in all 3 sports. Did not just play all 3 sports, but excelled at all 3! Good-luck to her in the future at Cowley County while playing Volleyball!

  • http://twitter.com/Hovpen Bob Hovey

    Hard to understand why Kelsey Stewart is regarded by ESPN as the No. 2 softball player in the country but can’t make the top three athletes around Wichita.

  • JJFlash

    As much as Stewart probably should have made the cut…Hov, you and I both know, there was no way they were gonna put two Maize girl athletes on that ballot. If that would have happened, there would be even more Maize hater’s out there than there already is!

  • http://twitter.com/Hovpen Bob Hovey

    As long as they have a proceedure to narrow it down and follow it, I’m fine with what they select.   Our problem is there aren’t just a lot of good female athletes in the area, there are so many excellent athletes to choose from.  It’s as bad as all metro.  No matter who gets picked, there is always someone else who could have been there.

  • freedame

    Person marketing will get you national recognition. Look at the “Browns”. That don’t make you the best. I will take a athlete that is humble and a team player who finishes the goal. Championships. Even you don’t think Andale has any notable athletes as you don’t have a single one on returning stars yet they won State 3 years in a row under the arm of Sydnee. She refused in EVERY interview to take the credit. She turned to her teamates. Playing the whole senior year with a stress fracture in her throwing arm tapped up and refused to even mention it once all year. It was only after the season was over that the coach mentioned it. That, my friend, is the female athlete of the year in my books, even if she wasn’t my Grandaughter.

  • JJFlash

    Congratulations Kenzie…well deserved for being chosen Female Athlete of the Year! If you want to meet someone who is humble and a blue-collar, hard working athlete through and through, who would do anything and everything for her team and teammates, then meet McKenzie Hartzog. One of the best and most gracious athletes you’ll ever meet.

  • freedame

    I agree she definitely worthy and a great athlete. Of course, my vote would go to Sydnee. Kenzie has done it on the field and court while some rely on the coach or parents to market them for scholarship reasons. Nothing wrong with that but i still love to see the players play do the talking. That way, when the season is over, we can look back and see who has the respect of the fans. Congrat’s to Kenzie.