Fall Sports Update: Week 7

Cross Country

The Lancer runners came to Chicago as a new team after a disappointing finish at Rimrock the week before. Senior Joe Bahr and junior Annie Kuklenski both placed first in their races. Bahr ran a 17:18 and was followed by sophomores Will Moore and George Miller who both placed in the top ten.

“The course is one of my favorite places to run,” Bahr said. “It doesn’t have a lot of hills and the conditions were great.”

Kuklenski ran a 20:53 and junior Hannah Arnspiger finished sixth with a 21:18.

“I had a great time in Chicago,” Kuklenski said. “It was exciting to win the girls’ race but it was even more exciting to have our girls’ team race win overall.”

With the season winding down, the Lancers have the Haskell Indian Nations Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 6. The team will then compete in league, regionals and then state.

“It’s important that we keep with our training regime,” Bahr said. “We need to finish the season strong.”

Volleyball

Tuesday evening, Varsity celebrated their seven seniors — Elizabeth Arnold, Katherine Higdon, Anne Recker and Ashley Allegri. Both Allegri and Arnold are returning lettermen. They faced De Soto on their senior night and managed to snag a win, sweeping De Soto three sets (playing best of five) to none.

“It was a tough match but we played really well as a team and won in straight sets,” Senior Elizabeth Arnold said. “It was a really memorable last game for all the seniors.”

On Thursday night, the team traveled to Lawrence to face Lawrence High in a duel. The girls faced a tough loss, two sets to none.

“[The loss] was very disappointing because we were right with them in the beginning,” Senior Ashley Allegri said.

Girls’ Tennis

On Oct. 6, the girl’s tennis team competed in the 6A regionals. They won as a team and all six varsity girls qualified for State. The girls were the only team other than Blue Valley North to qualify all six girls to State.

Senior Elizabeth and sophomore Stephanie Wilcox won the doubles competition with Junior Meredith Shackelford and freshman Aiden Epstein finishing second. In the singles competition, sophomore Elizabeth Barnickel placed first.

“We need to prepare well for State,” Elizabeth Wilcox said. “We need to make sure we stay focused and play up to our potential.”

The State competition is Oct. 12 and 13 at Harmon Park.

Boys’ Soccer

Jake Crandall | The Harbinger Online

With a goal Thursday against Olathe Northwest, senior Tyler Rathbun officially tied head coach and alumni Jamie Kelly’s school record of 17 goals in one season. With one more goal this season, Rathbun will have the record to himself.

The Lancers have four games remaining in the regular season. If they win out, they will be favorites to win the Sunflower League. This week they take on SM Northwest on Tuesday, and SM West on Thursday. Both games will be at 7 p.m. at the SM Soccer Complex.

Gymnastics

The gymnastics team had some down time with no competitions this week. The team is using this opportunity to polish off old skills and add a few new ones to their routines to bump their team score.

“We have some girls who have a little bit of a mental issue [with their new skills],” coach Chuck Lundblad said. “and we have some girls who are having quite a bit of success.”

The gymnasts are looking forward to showing off their improved routines at their meet on Oct. 10, held at East. That Tuesday is also senior night for the team, they will be recognizing seniors Emily Kaplan and Sarah Baumann.

Football

Nobody thought the road game against the Firebirds would be easy, but a 28-0 shutout is not what the Lancers were expecting when they took the field on Friday against Lawrence Free-State. The Lancer’s woes started early when junior Luke Taylor was injured on the kickoff followed by senior David Sosna being injured on a play that would remove him from the rest of the game.

Senior Jordan Darling struggled to find receivers downfield the entire game, only connecting with Rellihan a handful of times and finishing with only nine completed passes out of 28 attempted. On a brighter note, Darling had a couple very aggressive runs and overall a very physical game. However a couple of times it was the result of a collapsing Lancer line.

The Firebird’s defense was also able to pick off a couple of Darling’s passes and convert them into points. On offense, Freestate quarterback Kyle McFarland lit up the field all night, while their wide receivers gave the Lancer linebackers a workout. East’s defensive line was unable to apply much pressure to McFarland, however was mildly successful in shutting down the running attack. The Freestate victory ended the Lancer’s winning streak and removed them from the position of the only undefeated team in the League.

Girls’ Golf

The girls’ golf team had a busy week. They competed in the second and final legs of league on Sept. 1 and 3. They came in second at Lawrence Country Club on Monday and won the Olathe East Invitational.

The team shot 334 on Monday and lost to Olathe Northwest by one stroke. Senior Anne Willman won the event with a 73, one stroke better than Olathe Northwest’s Audrey Judd.

On Wednesday, the team came back to beat Olathe Northwest to win the Sunflower League title. They shot a team score of 335, beating Olathe Northwest by 11 strokes. Willman won the tournament with a 73 and came in second in league. Junior Jessica Young came in eighth in league followed by junior Annie Foster in ninth.

Tonight, the Lancers won regionals at Overland Park golf course. The Lancers shot 317 overall, beating second place Blue Valley North by 26 strokes. For the Lancers senior Anne Willman came in first shooting 70, followed by junior Jessica Young who shot 77.