Area Sports Roundup 10.02.24

Owen Dalke scores on a pick 6 to bring the final score in the Hillsboro/Halstead game to 27-0 at Friday night’s Homecoming game.

Goessel

Volleyball – The Bluebirds went 2-0 on Tuesday, Sept. 24 in league action at home. Scores were as follows: Goessel defeated Wakefield 25-6, 25-8; Goessel defeated Rural Vista 25-5, 25-8.

The Goessel volleyball team went 5-0 on Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Olpe Round Robin Tournament. Scores were as follows: Goessel defeated Madison 25-9, 25-10; Goessel defeated Wabaunsee 25-19, 25-20; Goessel defeated Northern Heights 25-8, 25-8; Goessel defeated Olpe 25-9, 25-16;

Goessel defeated Bishop Seabury 25-5, 25-13.

“This is the 2nd year in a row Goessel has won the Olpe Tournament. The Goessel JV tournament also went 4-0 today to take the Olpe JV division championship,” said Coach Crystal Guhr.

Goessel Varsity’s overall record moves to 19-2 on the season.

Coming—The Bluebirds will compete at St. Xavier on Monday, Oct. 7.

Hillsboro

Cross-country – The Trojans competed at the Marion meet on Thursday, Sept. 26.

“We had some great runs today at Marion,” said Coach Brielle Loewen.

For the Trojan girls, Quinlyn Funk took first place with a time of 20:47, Riley Richert placed 3rd at 20:52, Jaidyn Frantz was 10th at 23:46, Nora Hein came in at 28:55 and Gabi Sibayan finished in a time of 39:22.

Wyatt Dies had a great PR at 21:32 coming in first for the boys, then Ben Werner with a PR of 23:09 and Elijah Holmes in 28:45.

Coming—The team will compete on Thursday, Oct. 3 at Winfield.

Football – The Trojans had their homecoming game against Halstead on Friday, Sept. 27. Hillsboro won with a final score of 27-0.

After a 0-0 half, Hillsboro came out swinging in the second half with 14 points in the third quarter. The scoring got started with a Zayne Haslett 5-yard run to go up 7-0. Haslett got back in the endzone just a few minutes later with an 11-yard run to put Hillsboro up 14-0.

In the fourth, Jesiah Gooch punched a score in from 10 yards out with 5:50 left in the fourth quarter, and with just one minute left in the game Owen Dalke put Hillsboro up 27-0 with a pick-six interception.

Coming—The Trojans next play on Friday, Oct. 4 at Ellsworth.

Tennis – The Trojan girls played Lyons last week in a double dual on Monday, Sept. 23.

Cassidy Bernhardt played the #1 singles. She lost to Kendal Webb(Lyons) 4-6 and defeated Mylee Smith (Nickerson) 6-1.

“After a tough first-round loss, Cassidy bounced back and won her second singles match. She took control of the match early and never looked back. She played consistent and solid in that match,” said Coach David Ediger.

For #1 doubles, Claire Morey and Maylee Hardey took 1st place. They defeated Nevaeh Becker and Isabel Gonzalez (Lyons) 7-6 (2). They also defeated Kyleigh Hathaway and Amelia Kinast (Nickerson) 6-1.

“Claire and Maylee showed a lot of grit in their first match, winning in a tie-breaker and they dominated their second match of the day for the 1st place finish,” said Ediger.

For #2 singles, Claire Morey lost to Nevaeh Becker (Lyons) 7-6 (4) and defeated Brecken Kelmun (Nickerson) 6-1.

“Claire played really well in singles. She was down 2-5 in her first match, battled back to take a 6-5 lead, then couldn’t quite hold on in the tie-breaker. In her second match, she got ahead early and finished strong. She was very consistent in her singles play,” said Ediger.

Maylee Harder played the #3 singles. She lost to Karson Peter (Lyons) 4-6 and defeated Kyleigh Hathaway (Nickerson) 6-2.

“Maylee did a really good job during her singles play. She could have easily won her first match as she was in every game. She did an outstanding job in her second singles match, earning the win,” said Ediger.

The Trojan girls next hosted an invitational at home on Thursday, Sept. 26. They finished in 7th place out of 8 teams. Classical of Wichita took 1st place in the tournament.

“Overall it was a very tough meet with several good players and teams. I was proud of our girls and the effort they all gave,” said Ediger.

Hardey and Morey had chances in their second doubles match. Tied at 6-6, they took a 30-love lead in a critical game but couldn’t quite put the game away and ended up falling 8-6.

“If they would have gone ahead 7-6, I think they could have won the match. They did respond well in the final match of the day for an 8-0 victory,” said Ediger.

Bernhardt had a back-and-forth match in her second match of the day. She played well but came up just short, dropping that one 8-6.

“Cassidy played well all day long making a few adjustments during the tournament. She finished off the day with an 8-2 victory,” said Ediger.

Coming—The team will close out the regular season with the league meet in Hillsboro on Saturday, Oct. 5.

Volleyball – It was a busy week for the Hillsboro High School volleyball team as they competed in their second league night at Halstead on Tuesday, Sept. 24 and then traveled to Douglass for a tournament on Saturday, Sept. 28.

The Trojans came home Tuesday night with a win and loss, beating Nickerson but losing to host team Halstead. The week ended on a high note as the Trojans went 5-0 on Saturday to win the Douglas Invitational Tournament.

In the first contest of the evening on Tuesday, the Trojans faced the Nickerson Panthers. It was the first meeting for the two teams this season. Hillsboro rolled to a 25-12 first-game win but found themselves in a battle in the second game. Coming from behind Hillsboro clawed their way back in behind the serving of sophomore Daisy Klein to tie the game at 22. The score then see-sawed back and forth the rest of the game. Tied at 24, Hillsboro called a timeout. Nickerson then missed the next serve to give the Trojans a one-point advantage. Hillsboro sealed the game with a kill on the next play. Juniors Kingzley Ratzlaff, Lauryn Vogt and Talia Jost led the way with 13,10 and 6 kills respectively.

In the late game, Hillsboro took on the host Halstead Dragons. Halstead used an array of attackers and tough serving to beat the Trojans in the first set 25-15. The second set started differently and Hillsboro also used constant attacking and tough serving to build an early lead. The Dragons would not go away, pushed their way back into the lead and never let it go. It was the first league loss of the season for the Trojans.

The final scores were: Hillsboro defeated Nickerson 25-12, 26-24; Halstead defeated Hillsboro 25-15, 25-22.

“The girls did some good things against Nickerson. I was happy the way they came back from a deficit in the second game to win it. Of course, we are disappointed in the Halstead loss, but they are a good team and we learned a lot about ourselves and more areas that we need to improve. We will use this to drive us to improve as we continue our season,” said Coach Sandy Arnold.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, Hillsboro traveled to Douglass for their third tournament of the season. In pool play, Hillsboro faced Eldorado, Douglass and Leon-Bluestem. The Trojans played consistent volleyball with some sound passing, constant attacking and tough serving to win each match in two sets. Vogt had five aces in the Douglass contest and Ella Potucek handed out 17 assists. The Trojans continued to use tough serving to keep Douglass out of system. This time it was Amyah Werth who dropped in six aces.

In the semi-finals, Hillsboro was matched up against Augusta. Several Trojans went on serving streaks in the match to limit Augusta’s offense. Vogt, Potucek, Skylar Voran, Ratzlaff and Werth all went on 4-8 point runs for Hillsboro at different points in the match.

In the finals, the Trojans met their toughest opponent of the day in the Garden Plain Owls. Garden Plain has a strong volleyball tradition and program. In the first set it was again Hillsboro’s serving and constant attack that proved the difference for the Trojans as they did not let the Owls get much set up in the game. Garden Plain, however, made some adjustments before game two and built an early lead at 10-4. It was Hillsboro who then had to make adjustments and they fought their way back into the game—only to see the Owls make another run and go up 24-19. The Trojans never quit and served their way back to 23-24 before Garden Plain sealed the win with a kill and forced a third and deciding set.

In the final set, Hillsboro worked their way to a small two-point lead and then extended that lead to five behind the serving of Ratzlaff. Hillsboro maintained that lead to the 21-16 point when Ratzlaff returned to the service line and helped the Trojans increase the lead to eight—the point difference at the end of the final set.

The final scores were: Hillsboro defeated Eldorado 25-14, 25-11; Hillsboro defeated Douglass 25-7, 25-6; Hillsboro defeated Leon-Bluestem 25-9, 25-13; Hillsboro defeated Augusta 25-5, 25-9; Hillsboro defeated Garden Plain 25-14, 23-25, 25-17.

Hillsboro’s Lauryn Vogt, Kingsley Ratzlaff and Amyah Werth were all named to the Douglass All-Tournament team.

“I was very proud of the girls for the way they played throughout the day. First, it was the day after Homecoming, and second, we were late to the tournament due to an unforeseen detour and a train delay. I thought the girls played each match at their level and that was important going into the finals because we knew Garden Plain was going to be a tough opponent. They have good athletes and they are very well-coached. The girls made good adjustments throughout the match—particularly the last two sets—to find new ways to score and they also did some great things defensively that we haven’t done as much of up to this point. It was a good way to end the week,” said Arnold.

Coming—The Trojans will compete on Thursday, Oct. 8 at Smoky Valley.

Marion

Cross-country – The team competed in their home meet on Thursday, Sept. 26.

“What a day for our Wildcat and Warrior runners. It was a great showing at our home meet,” said Coach Jason Hett.

For the varsity girls, Izy Branson had a great race with a PR time on the season.

“She medaled in 12th place, and she is learning the 5K race,” said Hett.

Brooklyn Beery attacked the day and finished in 5th place with a great time.

“She is getting stronger from two to three miles and it showed today,” said Hett.

For the varsity boys, the team was led by Luke Wessel who took home gold.

“He set the pace for the whole race and never looked back,” said Hett.

Eli Klenda placed 6th with a season-best time.

Harrison Beery medaled in 15th, Zayden Janzen medaled in 18th and Owen White in 19th.

Keenan Lange ran a season-best time and competed well placing 30.

“Josh Smith rounded us out today and will look to continue to push for spot seven,” said Hett. “The boys captured the team title today for the 4th year in a row. Hard work pays off! We had a great week of practice and challenged them this week and it showed up today in how they ran! Proud of this group. They know the work is not done yet.”

Coming—The team will compete on Thursday, Oct. 3 at Halstead.

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