Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

How could I not have written about this? The Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission had its award ceremony on Friday night and the winners were Andover Central’s Bailey Gee and Southeast’s Jordan Cyphers.

I appreciate that these awards are given. I’ve voted most every year. But I always waffle on who to vote for. Should it be the most outstanding athlete who excels at a high level in more than one sport? Or should it matter if the athlete is a one-sport athlete or not?

(Feel free to state your opinions on this.) I tend to think if I’m going to vote for the athlete of the year, they’ve got to be leaps and bounds better than everyone — and I like the multi-sports athletes. Which is why, as talented as Cyphers is, I didn’t vote for him. Yet I go against this when I voted for golf stud Katy Nugent and swimming sensation Jamie Bruce. As I’m trying to dissect my own reasons for this, what I come up with is that they were so far above their competitors.

OK, so Cyphers was clearly one of the state’s best basketball players in the state, much less the area — which is why he was All-State and All-Metro. So why not vote for him? The way I felt was that there were quite a few multi-sport athletes that excelled in a variety of sports — such as Andale’s Ethan Ungles (football, basketball, track) — who deserved that honor. But on the girls side, I don’t think there were as many standout athletes that fit like Ungles did.

So clearly I’ve set myself up for quite a few of you to ream me. Feel free. But it is a decision that you have to figure out when you’re looking at athlete of the year honors. So who would yours have been?

by joanna

Garden Plain’s Markus Hilger won the Kansas Golf Association Junior Amateur title on Thursday at Manhattan’s Stagg Hill Golf Club. Hilger won on the second hole of the playoff with a birdie to beat Paola’s Brad Pfaltzgraff. Hilger now has an exemption for the Kansas Amateur, which is in July at the Wichita Country Club.

Katy Nugent, a recent Andover grad, won Wichita’s women’s city championship, also on Thursday. She beat Alex Beury 1-up. She’s going to play golf at Arkansas.

by joanna

It was a hot day for golf today for the state tournaments across the state. Now, that’s certainly not unusual for Kansas at this time of year, but it was by far the hottest day these golfers had experienced this season. And some of them struggled. Ark City’s  Mike Osterthun was one who admitted that he was pretty exhausted from the heat — and last night was graduation.

Aquinas’ Joseph Winslow won 5A - -he’s a freshman. Last year in 5A, Kapaun’s Max Lazzo won as a freshman. Winslow was a stud, with a 68, four shots better than second and third. He got a little tired late in his round, but a backup at 17, where he waited about 10-15 minutes to tee off, actually helped him. Winslow said he’s leaving Wednesday for a junior PGA tournament in Florida.

Osterthun finished third and Kapaun’s David Auer was fourth, with a 73. I followed him briefly, walking with his dad, Joe (the Heights basketball coach) and his mom, Kay. It was hilarious at one point that Joe said golf is a tough sport for parents. You can’t cheer, yell instructions, and there’s no 30 second timeouts to take your player aside and give them a chance to cool down and get refocused. (by the way, I did clear this with Joe that it was a blog interview — he said it was fine.) I really thought it was a good point, though. The parents who follow the golfers are quiet, whispering if they actually do talk. (sidenote: I know I’m not the first person to ask this, but why can’t golfers deal with talking while they play? And why can’t fans yell when volleyball players serve?)

One of the golfers who caught my attention was Pittsburg’s Jon Nichols. The kid is a freshman and he shot a 33 on the front nine. Impressive (Osterthun  also shot a 33 on the front). But what caught my attention was his size — the kid is 6-3, 230 (or thereabouts) and he’s a lineman for Pittsburg. Hello. How many linemen do you see golfing — and golfing well?

Chatted with McPherson basketball coach Kurt Kinnamon today. Another one of my favorites because he always tells it like it is. If he’s mad, he tells you. If he’s happy, he tells you. And he’s gruff. I’ve definitely got a soft spot for the gruff coaches — like Carroll’s Don Racine, Joe Auer, Southeast’s Carl Taylor. At least I always know they’re honest. Anyway, Kinnamon called me Paula Creamer –I was definitely in the pink mode today — pink Vikings hat, pink shoes, pink adidas. Creamer loves pink, too. Hey, as many men as I’m surrounded every day of my life, sometimes I need to break out the girlie-girl stuff.

How about the two craziest hits by Osterthun and Auer — each one eagled No. 17 at McPherson’s Turkey Creek Golf Course by getting a bounce off the cart path and onto the green. That is crazy. And lucky. And both admitted such.

Kapaun (6th) and Carroll (10th) should have finished better today in 5A, but Kapaun at least knows that five of its top six return next year (two freshmen, two sophomores, one junior).

So anyone else get burnt while out on the golf course today? I saw some folks who looked like lobsters. Unfortunately, the spray sunscreen I used didn’t seem to work. My neck took a beating.

Did you all see anything good in golf today? Anyone going golfing tomorrow?

by joanna

Just in case you wanted to know some results from state golf today (These came off e-mail, so they’re a little different than will appear in Tuesday’s paper):

Class 6A –Team Scores –Shawnee Mission East 307, Blue Valley West 312, Manhattan 315, Washburn Rural 318, Blue Valley North 322, Olathe South 333, Maize 338, Olathe Northwest 338, Goddard 345, Olathe East 347, Wichita Southeast 354, Dodge City 354

Individual Scores — Curtis Yonke, BV West 74, Harry Higgs, BV North 74, Joe Lynch, SM East 74, Tommy Kennedy, SM East 76; Brax Ball, Washburn Rural 77; Scott Willman, SM East 77; Tyler Norris, Manhattan 77; Jim Chang, BV Northwest 78; Gordy Chang, Manhattan 78;Sean Connolly, Olathe Northwest 78; Trey Siegel, Washburn Rural 78; Jeff Inman, BV North 79; Trevor Johanson, Maize 79; Chase Chamberlin, Olathe South 79; Chris Boden, BV West 79; Mitch Carlson, BV West 79; Michael Fischer, BV Stilwell 80 ;Clarke Fry, Manhattan 80; Alex Hofmann, BV West 80; Ben Lowman, Manhattan 80; Chase Lucas, SM East 80; Elliot Soyez, Goddard 80; Jarret Tagtmeyer, Dodge City 80; Park Ulrich, BV Stilwell 80

Class 5A– Team totals: 1. St. Thomas Aquinas 298, 2. Emporia 303, 3. Hutchinson 310, 4. McPherson 314, 5. Shawnee Heights 317, 6. Kapaun Mount Carmel 320, 7. Winfield 324, 8. Bishop Miege 326, 9. Pittsburg 333, 10. Bishop Carroll 335, 11. Salina South 344, 12. Topeka Seaman 346

Individual medalists: 1. Joseph Winslow, St. Thomas Aquinas 68; 2. Bren Fisher, Emporia 72 3. Mike Osterthun, Arkansas City 72 4. David Auer, Kapaun 73; 5. Cody Christie, Miege 74; 6. Jon Nichols, Pittsburg 74; 7. TJ Holgerson, McPherson 74; 8. Treg Fawl, McPherson 74. 9. Fletcher Harder, Emporia 75; 10. Evan Holcomb, Hutchinson 75; 11. (tie) Brian Bergman, Aquinas; Thane Ringler, Hutchinson 75; 13. (tie) Steven Jablonowski, Shawnee Heights; Eric Reimer, Emporia 76; 15 (tie) Jimmy Clifford, Aquinas; Christian Bechard, Topeka West 77; 17. (tie) AJ Frederes, Aquinas; Sam Sawyer, Winfield; Wilson Long, Winfield; Daniel Trout, Aquinas 78.
Class 4A Topeka Hayden 294, Andover High 301, Andover Central 309, Buhler 320, Paola 326, Andale 327, Chanute 328, Fort Scott 331, Wamego 338, Jefferson West 341, Louisburg 351, Concordia 354.

Top 20 individuals

1. Falley, Topeka Hayden, 69; 2. Walker, Topeka Hayden, 73; 3. Sherman, Andover Central, 73; 4. Reimer, Heston, 73; 5. Mihelic, Andover High, 74; 6. Miller, Wellington, 75; 7. Morgan, Andover High, 75; 8. Carney, Andover Central, 75; 9. schulte, Buhler, 76; 10. Walker, Topeka Hayden, 76; 11. (tie) Gant, Chanute; Piles, Topeka Hayden; Meisch, Andover High; Brown, Fort Scott; Michel, Topeka Hayden & Heiland-Driver, Andover High, 76; 17. (tie) Hale, Chanute; Heatherly, Girard; Pfaltzgraff, Paola & Belt, Andover Central, 77.

Class 3A — (Collegiate’s fifth player gave the Spartans the title)

Team scores

Wichita Collegiate 319-x, Phillipsburg 319, Marion 325, KC Christian 334, Jayhawk Linn 335, Wichita Independent 335, Lakin 338, Maur Hill Mount Academy 341, Hillsboro 343, Caney 347, Beloit 365, Council Grove 425.

Individuals — -Jeff Jarvis, Phillipsburg 70; Andrew Folston, Wichita Collegiate 74; Daniel Kunantaev, Hillsboro 74; Gary Roberts, Republic County 76; Markus Hilger, Garden Plain 76; Bryce Rowe, Baxter Springs 76; Craig Howell, Wichita Collegiate 76; Trace McDiffett, Rossville 77; Luke Gordon, Marion 77; Chad Purdy, Jayhawk Linn 77; Brent Arnold, Maur Hill Mount Academy 78; Michael Theiss, Caney Valley 78; Alden Slack, Wichita Trinity 78; Chris McKinney, Sacred Heart 78; Jake Bredemeier, Marion 79; Jerry Chase, Sabetha 79; Matt Pestinger, Beloit 80; Chris Ramos, Lakin 80; Keith Jones, Marion 80; Greg Huenercardt, Wichita Trinity 80

by joanna

 Swimming’s over, now golf is about to bite the dust.

I’m getting ready to go to McPherson to cover golf today — Class 5A is at Mac’s Turkey Creek Golf Course; 6A is in Olathe; 4A in Manhattan; 3A in Salina, 2A in Garden City; 1A in Dodge City; Sand Greens in Mankato.

It’s going to be a hot day, but is there any other way to play golf? Yep, I’m thinking a nice cool, 70 degrees would be about perfect. What do you think?

Golf is always an interesting sport to cover because it’s not like you can just sit there and watch everything. It’s also not like professional golf where the scores are posted as a hole is finished.

It usually works that the scores are posted after the front nine, so you see who’s done well that front nine and then try to catch up with the golfers and see how they’re doing. That’s where parents come in handy. They of course know everything and who’s doing well and who’s just shot a double bogey or birdied the last hole, so they’re helpful to know who to watch.

Any one golfer or team everyone should pay attention to? And if you’re reading this after golf is over, what did you see out there that we should know about?