Subway Sports Spotlight, Oct. 1

Here's a quick rundown of a few noteworthy sports stories in our Subway Sports Spotlight:

Wichita Trinity wins Cheney tournament; Broadie with big season

Wichita Trinity jumped from sixth to fourth in the Class 4A Kansas Volleyball Coaches Association rankings last week. On Saturday, the Knights captured the Cheney tournament with five victories, three by three sets: Wellington (2-0), Wichita Collegiate (2-1), Hutchinson Trinity (2-1), Haven (2-1) and host Cheney (2-0).

Trinity has won 12 straight matches and is 13-1 overall with a 26-5 advantage in sets won.

Trinity was 1-13 in its last 14 matches versus Cheney and defeated the Cardinals for the first time since Oct. 15, 2013. Trinity’s defense limited Cheney to a .161 hitting percentage.

Longtime coach Marie Goscha has led Trinity since ’04 and has coached the Knights to three state showings: second in ’13, third in ’17 and a pool play finish last year. Goscha earned metro coach of the year honors in ’13 and ’17.

Trinity returned three of its four all-conference players. Six-foot junior outside/middle Austin Broadie was first team all-league, while junior Ashley Sawyer was second team. Senior Lauren Mathews earned honorable mention. In the team’s most recent statistical release, Broadie paced with 116 kills, 58 more than any other player. She ranked among the state’s best in hitting efficiency at .458.

Sawyer and Mathews stood 1-2 in aces at 22 and 21. Mathews leads with 35 blocks. Junior Kaitlyn Greenman paces with 157 digs, and Sawyer has a Knight-best 120 assists.

Last year, Trinity finished 23-17 with Broadie, Sawyer and Mathews as the team’s three leading hitters. Mathews and senior outside/defensive specialist Chloe Shaw are the team captains, and setter Holly Drury and defensive specialist Emma Brummer are also seniors.

UPDATE: Tuesday night Trinity downed Belle Plaine in three sets to improve to 14-1. Additional results were not yet available when this story was posted.

Conor Nicholl

Achilles wins home invite

McPherson senior Cody Achilles won the McPherson Cross Country Invitational last Thursday in a time of 18:22. Achilles is a dual-sport athlete who also plays soccer and had to miss a soccer game for the cross country meet. In the process he helped his team to a second place finish.

“The deciding factor was cross country being my primary sport and that this is our home meet,” Achilles told the McPherson Sentinel's Peter Holland Jr. “We only get one home meet a year. So, I really wanted to run here, being it the last home meet for the seniors.”

Check out Holland's article on Achilles:

Peter Holland & Gallagher Martin

Beloit's Paul gets 200th win

Beloit volleyball coach Brandy Paul recorded her 200th win as the Lady Trojan head coach Tuesday night winning two matches at Southeast of Saline by scores of 25-18, 25-19 and 25-8, 25-20.

Paul's class 3A second ranked Trojans are now 20-1 on the season and are looking to go one step further this season after earning a third place finish at last year's 3A State Tournament.

Senior Shea Larson leads the way for the Lady Trojans with 218 kills heading into Tuesday's action. Her .462 hitting percentage ranks her 21st nationally among MaxPreps volleyball stat leaders. Senior Trista Boeve led the team with 42 blocks heading into Tuesday night's action while senior Jamie Drumm is the leader with 161 digs on the season heading into Tuesday night.

John Baetz

Coach Biehler earns win No. 100 at Conway Springs

Last Friday, head football coach Matt Biehler earned career win No. 100 at Conway Springs with a 43-8 road win versus Hutchinson Trinity. CS finished last year No. 2 in Class 2A and opened third in the classification this season.

In the season opener, the Cardinals defeated Wichita Trinity, 49-6, and then have played three straight road games. Conway lost 49-19 to Cheney, but has bounced back with a 31-10 victory at Kingman before the Hutchinson Trinity win.

Conway led 36-0 at halftime last week. Quarterback Collin Koester, a returning starter after a big 2018 season, scored on runs of 54, 31, 41 and 76 yards and threw a 13-yard touchdown pass. Conway Springs, which will drop to Class 1A next season, has long run the Single Wing to great success. Biehler is 100-17 in his 11th year as head coach.

Conway Springs stands seventh in Kansas annals in playoff wins (54) and tied for seventh in state titles (seven), according to Prep Power Index. CS has won titles in ’98, ’01-04, ’08 and ’11. The Cardinals have also finished as runner-up in ’69 and ’10. Koester and running back Peyton Winter have followed in a long run of successful backs for Conway Springs.

Last year, Koester rushed for 1,251 yards and Winter tallied 825. In ’17, quarterback Trenton Jones rushed for 2,165 yards and 34 scores.

Biehler also coached Tanner Wood, the 2012 Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year after he rushed for 2,709 yards. He set a Kansas single game record with 659 rushing yards against Chaparral. Wood eventually played defensive end in 52 games at Kansas State.

In ’11, Conway Springs rushed for 511 yards in the state title game versus Silver Lake. It marked the most in 3A state finale history and fifth-highest for all classes in championship contests, according to “Under the Lights,” the book released this summer on the 50-year history of the KSHSAA state football playoffs.

Biehler was Conway Springs’ defensive coordinator on the ’08 state title team and took over after Leland George stepped down to focus on administrative duties. George has had a big impact on Matt Fowler, the highly successful coach at Spearville and Oswego with the single wing. Fowler won a state title with Spearville and stands 71-36 in his career.

Biehler served under coach Mark Bliss, who started the Conway Springs’ dynasty. Bliss, known nationwide for the single wing, coached CS from ’97-03, went 81-4 and won four state titles. Bliss has coached in many states, including California, Florida, Missouri, Illinois and briefly at 6A Derby. Conway Springs won 62 straight from ’01-04, the third-longest winning streak in state history.

St. John's Beloit/Tipton's Eilert wins at Rim Rock

St. John's junior Caleb Eilert took first place in the Boys Blue Varsity Race at the Rim Rock Farm High School Cross Country Classic in Lawrence on Saturday.

Eilert won the gold with a time of 16:28.30 in the 5K, which was less than a second better than the second place finisher, Cormick Logue of Girard High School.

Four Blujay runners competed in all. Joining Eilert were Braden Dameron, Jacob Gengler and Eric Patter, who were among 52 schools and 311 runners represented in the Boys Blue Varsity race.

Complete results from KS Mile Split as this link.

Dusty Deines, NCKSSports.com

Skyline football continues improvement

Pratt-Skyline football has now won at least one more game than the year prior in each of Andrew Nation's first three seasons as the head coach of the Thunderbirds. Skyline was 1-8 prior to Nation's arrival, went 2-7 in his first season, improved to 3-6 last fall and already this season the Thunderbirds are 4-0 and have assured the team's best record since at least an 8-2 finish in 2014.

Sophomore running back Jesus Casas is an emerging star for the Thunderbirds. He rushed for 244 yards and four touchdowns on only 16 carries in Friday's 60-14 win over Moundridge. Senior fullback and middle linebacker Eli Temanson is a punishing blocker and tackler whose highlight reel includes big hits and hard nosed runs.

Check Temanson's highlights here:

The Thunderbirds will likely get their stiffest test of the season this week against a 3-1 Little River team which welcomed highly successful coach Kevin Ayers to the sidelines this offseason. The Redskins started with a tough loss to top-ranked Canton-Galva but have since scored at least 48 points in three straight wins and allowed just one touchdown.

ICYMI: Last Thursday provided exciting football action

St. James upsets Bishop Miege

You read that right, the St. James Academy Thunder knocked off the Bishop Miege Stags in a 28-27 Thursday night thriller that was moved from Friday amid concerns about forecasted severe weather. Miege led 12-0 at the end of the first quarter but the Thunder rallied to take a 14-12 lead at the half. The Stags would take a 27-14 lead in the third quarter following a Daniel Jackson touchdown reception and a 25-yard TyQuez Agnew-Whitten fumble return for a touchdown.

The Thunder’s Michael Tujague added a touchdown run near the end of the third quarter which would set the stage for a defensive battle in the fourth. The St. James offensive line paved the way for Cade Lautt’s second touchdown run of the night in the middle of the fourth quarter and the successful extra-point kick would prove to be the final points of the game.

Lautt, the Thunder’s top defender and a University of North Carolina wrestling commit, was also a beast in the offensive backfield in the win and senior quarterback Jack Moellers, playing in just his second full game since a summer knee injury provided the Thunder a dual-threat all game long.

The Thunder defense corralled the Stags standout running back Brison Cobbins, but Miege quarterback Tim Dorsey used star receivers Phillipe Wesley and Daniel Jackson to keep the offense going through the air.
The Thunder improved to 2-2 while Miege fell to 3-1.

Junction City scores in the final second to knock off Topeka

In one of the most exciting finishes of the season, Junction City scored with 2:51 in the fourth quarter to tie the game with Topeka High at 41 apiece and scored the winning points with 4/10ths of a second remaining, according to The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Rick Peterson. Junction City, one of the season’s surprise teams, improved to 4-0 with the 48-41 win while Topeka High slips to 3-1.

Junction City continues to get great play from junior quarterback Andrew Khoury, junior running back Russell Wilkey and senior wide receivers Ethan Alcorn and Qua'Vez Humphreys. Topeka High got another big game from Kansas Pregame coverboys Ky Thomas and Da'Vonshai Harden as the two teams racked up more than 1,000 yards of total offense, Peterson reported.

This sets up a pivotal Centennial League match-up in the Blue Jays rivalry game with Manhattan in two weeks. Topeka High beat Manhattan 32-27 in week two.

Blue Valley West takes down Blue Valley North in two overtimes

The Blue Valley West rebuilding tour continues as the Jaguars improved to 3-1 with a 25-18 double overtime victory over two-time 6A state finalist Blue Valley North. Meanwhile, it’s just another season with a 1-3 start for North, but Mustang fans need not be alarmed as each of those seasons ended with at least seven wins including trips to the last two 6A title games.

West running back Riley Cummings continues to make a name for himself after suffering through injuries the last two seasons. The senior rushed for 141 yards and all three of the Jaguars’ touchdowns on 30 carries. Cummings scored two of those touchdowns and got all five of West’s carries during the two overtimes to deliver the big win. West also got great play out of their defense as six different players recorded a sack.

Check out the final score of the ball game from Cummings:

Coaches and parents, are you aware of an interesting statistic, a cool tradition, or a heartwarming act of kindness by your team? Email us details for future releases of the Subway Sports Spotlight, and head to Subway for pre- or post-game meals, catering or Footlong Faves starting at $4.99. Order online at Subway.com.