Boys’ Lacrosse- The boys’ lacrosse team won their first game versus Blue Valley 20-4. Then they won their second game against Blue Valley North 14-7, who are the second best team in the state. The team will leave for St. Louis for a weekend tournament against Saint Louis University High School and Desmet High School, which are two of the best teams in the midwest.
“Our chances are pretty high this year to beat them.” Sophomore Cameron Ream said. “We know from the past that they are both good teams and I think the games will be close but we will come out victorious in both.”
Rugby- The Rugby team has played three games so far. A victory over Saint Thomas Aquinas 27-15, tie against Winnetonka 22-22, and a loss to nationally ranked Saint James 29-15. The games throughout the season have been played at College Boulevard Activity Center and Shawnee Mission North. While it’s still early in the season, senior forward Tom Murphy believes the main focus is for everyone on the roster to find their niche.
“I think the biggest thing now is to try to find a specialized role for everyone during the season” Murphy said. The team has games every Saturday throughout the school year.
Girls’ Swimming- The girls completed in their first meet of the season on Friday at Shawnee Mission South, the meet contained all of the schools within the district.
Boys’ Tennis- The boys just finished off a tournament in Topeka last weekend and had a good showing. There’s been a large group of senior boys competing this year compared to last year.
Senior Nathan Frank, who is entering his 2nd year on the team wants to make sure that his final year ends on a high note.
“My goal is just trying to have fun, try to get better, and win some matches” said Frank.
As far as positions go, the top three for singles are senior Jack Santilli, sophomore Billy Louiselle, and junior Matt Sheutz. Santilli finished off a tournament outside of school, so he’s not eligible to practice right now. Head coach Sue Chipman will have determined doubles teams at the start of this week.
Baseball- Pitchers Joey Wentz and Zeb Vermillon highlighted East’s first victory of the season, 2-0 over Blue Valley. The duo threw a combined no-hitter and started both of their seasons off strong. Last Friday, East also knocked off Shawnee Mission Northwest 5-3. The game last Saturday was rained out, but a reschedule date hasn’t been announced. After recording their first two wins of the season, starting third baseman Spencer Mustoe reflects on the past performances.
“We played well but there is always room for improvement” Mustoe said. “We need to get the bats going as a team more and we should be in good shape”.
Varsity’s next game is this Thursday against Olathe North at Olathe District Activity Center.
Boys’ Golf- Tryouts began before spring break and seven players were exempt from tryouts, including seniors Worth Blackman and Andy Spencer. Practices are held from Monday through Thursday and are all at various locations: Indian Hills, Milburn, Kansas City, and Mission Hills Country Clubs. There’s 17 players on the team this year and the roster is broken up into three sections — Varsity A, Varsity B, and Junior Varsity.
Blackman and Spencer are the key returning seniors, who were on the state team last season. The first tournament for the season is at Lake Quivira on April 4th. In total, each team in East’s league, which is 11 schools, hosts a tournament throughout the season. Despite both being four-year Varsity golfers, Blackman and Spencer continue to seek out improvement.
“I want to bring down my average from my first three years, it’s gradually gone down” Blackman said. Overall, Blackman’s lowest average is 76, and Spencer’s is 71.5.
Track and Field- There was a meet this past weekend at East called the quad, some underclassmen are showing real potential. For example Destiny Rae is on the verge of breaking Kaycee Mayfields’ 100m time. This year there’s a girls’ 4×800 relay and the next meet is relays at south on Saturday. Regular practice schedule is Mon-Thurs, with meets on Fridays and practice again on Saturday.
Girls’ Lacrosse- JV and Varsity’s first game of the season is Wednesday the 30th. The JV game is at 4:30 pm and the Varsity game is at 6 pm, both at Sion High School. They are playing against Sion, which was one of the final playoff teams last year. Practices have been occurring Mon.–Thurs. for the past few weeks.