Sports in Brief: What’s going on with East sports on the school, local and national levels

EAST

Shawnee Mission School District announced that a new girls wrestling program will be added at all high schools for the 2019-20 winter season.

The girls will wrestle separately from the boys in meets and have their own regional and state tournaments. Girls wrestling has also been implemented at middle schools around the district . Girls have always technically been allowed to wrestle for East, but this is the first year girls will have their own league. 

No girls have attended any information meetings given by the program, but the season does not start until Nov. 18. East’s head wrestling coach, Chip Ufford, is optimistic for the future of the program,as five girls are wrestling at Indian Hills Middle School this year.

Eighth grader Abby Rose, who is going into her second year of wrestling for Indian Hills, sees the program as a new and needed opportunity for girls.  

“[Girls wrestling] is important because girls should be allowed to do sports that are rough,” Rose said. “Guys shouldn’t just be the ones to do rough sports. Girls need to show guys that we are tough.”

Ufford is encouraging girls to try the sport, and become the first to compete for East. 

LOCAL

Girls tennis will compete at the state competition on Oct. 18 and 19 at Kossover Tennis Center in Topeka. 

The team is planning on sending freshmen Greta Stechschulte and Bryson Langford, sophomores Bridget Epstein and Eva Kading and juniors Allison Wilcox and Quinci Cartmell to state this year. 

According to Kading, the team sees promise for a first place finish at state this year after placing first at the Sunflower League competition. At the competition, Langford and Stechschulte placed first in doubles, while Cartmell and Epstein were doubles runner-up. In singles,Wilcox placed first and Kading placed eighth. 

While the team won the state title in 2014, they have lost to Blue Valley North (BVN) for the past four years. However, after beating BVN in a duel and placing well as a team at tournaments, the team’s record has improved this season compared to last.

Kading thinks their record is a good sign for the team’s chance at winning state this year.  

“I think we for sure have a chance [to win state],” Kading said. “Blue Valley North normally wins state but we just beat them for the first time in a while. So I think that we have a really good chance.”

NATIONAL

Varsity cross-country competed in the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival at the University of Arkansas on Oct. 5.

 The girls team placed 16th out of 81 teams and the boys placed 27th out of 103 teams, wearing their matching yellow and red chile pepper shorts the entire 3.1 miles. East was the first team from Kansas to attend the event, which now hosts more than 120 high school teams from around the country. Each year the top nine boys and top nine girls attend the meet. 

The trip gave the runners a chance to grow closer and run outside of their normal routes up and down Mission Rd. They bonded through scouting the course the morning before the meet, eating team dinners and taking ice baths.

Junior and varsity runner Grace Strongman believes that the meet was also an opportunity for the team to show that they can compete against teams from all across the country. 

“Both teams came into the season as underdogs but have been improving steadily,” Strongman said. “The boys proved that with their victory at Rim Rock and the girls showed it with our strong showing in Arkansas.”