Spring Sports Update: Week 2

Girls’ Soccer

The Girls soccer team defeated the Lawrence Lions 10-0 in their first game of the season on March 29. Senior Addison Steiner began her season off right with three goals in the game. Junior Victoria Sabates also had a hat trick. Senior goalkeepers Sarah Spradling and Andrea Rutledge each kept the shutout for the Lancers for a half. At the half, the game was already in hand for the team at 6-0. 

“It was great the way we started, scoring a minute into the game,”coach Jamie Kelly said. “You can’t be too disappointed with that.” 

In addition to the two hat tricks by Steiner and Sabates, juniors Quincy Hendricks, Kelly Pidcoe and Jessica Young also added a goal each. Senior Anna Sheridan also scored her first her goal of the season.

“The only bad thing about the game, [the defense] was never was never tested,” Kelly said. “But with [Steiner] and [Sabates] it was great to see them, anytime your forwards are scoring goals that’s a good thing.

Girls’ Swimming

After a 140 point victory over Shawnee Mission Northwest on March 29, many of the varsity team members made their state cuts.

Senior Meg Stanley made her state cut in the 200 Free and 500 Free, senior Sarah Freshnock in the 200 IM, senior Tiernan Shank in the 50 Free and 100 Free, junior Emily Minick in the 200 Free, freshman Sarah Allegri in the 50 Free and 100 Free, freshman Katie Vahle in the 100 Fly and 500 Free, freshman Bonnie Longan in the 100 Fly and 100 Back, and freshman Mary Booton in the 100 Breast.

The Olathe Invitational, hosted at California Trail Jr. High, will take place this friday against many of the major schools in the area. Since coach Rob Cole can only take the top three swimmers in each event only about half the varsity team will be participating.

Boys’ Tennis

The boys’ tennis team will finally kick off their season on Tuesday by playing Shawnee Mission South. This year’s tennis team possesses eight seniors including Jake Glazer who will take over the number one spot on the team after Jackson O’Gorman-Bean graduated last spring.

The Lancers will be headed to South with no lack of confidence after sweeping them last season. “We should probably beat South pretty handily tomorrow,” said Colin Jones who is the number nine player on the team.

“I think we have a really strong team and we all feel fresh and ready after the break.”

East will end the week’s matches by playing Maranatha on Tuesday at the East Courts.

Baseball 

The baseball team started off the season by narrowly beating Gardner-Edgerton 11-10 on Mar. 30. The lead went back and forth between the two teams throughout the entire game, which junior Trey Austin blames on errors made in the field. Collectively the team had 16 hits out of 31 at-bats.

Junior Colin Burns got the team off to a good start with three innings of pitching and three hits. Down two in the final inning, sophomore Charley White led off with a single and scored on a past ball. Then senior Kalvin Murphy got on base, stole to 2nd, and junior Mitchell Tyler hit him home on a ball to left field to take the lead and win the game.

“It wasn’t any one player,” Austin said. “Everyone contributed offensively.”

Looking ahead, the Lancers will play Olathe North on Wednesday, Shawnee Mission West on Thursday, and Blue Valley Southwest on Friday.

Softball

This Thursday, softball has their first game against Lawrence High. Due to the recent snowstorms, varsity has had the majority of their practices inside. Now that the weather has begun to clear up, the team has been practicing more game-like situations and defensive plays rather than fundamentals to prepare for their upcoming games. 

“Our first game is this Thursday and we aren’t very well-prepared because we’ve had mostly indoor practices because of all the snow,” junior Anna Cook said. “But we do have some strong leadership from the returning varsity players and upperclassmen and I think we gel well as a team.”

Track

The Lancer Track and Field team finally kicked off their 2013 this past Saturday at the Shawnee Mission South Relays. The boys’ team overall took third and the girls’ placed fourth.

The team got to showcase their talents and get a feel of where they stand in the state as a team. The meet highlighted two state level performances from Lancer seniors Emma Vickers and Troy Wilkins in the 400 meter run, who both took first in their event. Wilkins also place first in the 200 meter run.

 The Lancers also had great results in relays. The boys’ 4×800 meter relay team placed first which consisted of seniors Juan Ramos, Mitch Kaskie, Joe Bahr and Carter Olander. Both the girls’ and boys’ 4×400 meter relays also took first. The boys’ team consisted of seniors Sam Stewart, Ramos, Olander and Troy Wilkins. The girls’ team was juniors Grace Quinlan, Phoebe Aguiar, Annie Kuklenski and Vickers.

Other notable individual performances came from senior Devin Burton in the 110 meter high hurdles. Burton placed first, and also would’ve placed first in the 300 meter hurdles until he stumbled over the last hurdle. Senior Chloe Stradinger also had a good showing in the hurdles, placing third in the 100 meter hurdles.

In the field senior Tommy McGillicuddy placed second in the long jump and triple jump. Senior Grace Pickell won the girls’ high jump at a height of 5’4”.

Overall the team was content with the results considering the lack of outdoor practices. The SME Quad, which was scheduled to be last week, will be this Tuesday due to the snow.

Boys’ Golf

The golf team ran into trouble like the other spring sports having to face the snow of late, but now since it is all gone and they can get onto the course they are ready to go. On Monday the sub-varsity squad played in their first tournament at Medowbrook Country Club coming in 4th place.

The first Varsity tournament will take place on Wednesday at the National Golf Club of Kansas City located in Parkville, Missouri.

“We are really excited to play in the tournament not only because it is the first of the season, but because the best teams from the Kansas and Missouri side are going to be there and it will be a good test to see how good we actually are at this point in the season,” said senior Connor Knabe.

Knabe and Chase Hanna, who are both future division 1 golfers, will lead the team into Wednesday looking to take first place. With rival and defending state champion Blue Valley North also in attendance the Lancers will have to be on the top of their game.

“This year will be really exciting for us and I think we can build on our league championship from last year as well as our third place finish at state,” said Knabe. ”We have a really talented team and hopefully we can have a lot of success and bring home another state title.”

Lacrosse

The boys’ lacrosse team played their first game yesterday, April 1, against Lee’s Summit North winning 11-5. The Lancers were disappointed because the started out slow and expected to win by a higher margin but despite the rusty start Coach Kliewer saw some good things coming from the teams. Kliewer was especially pleased with the man up for converting almost all of their opportunities. Tommy Larson showed signs of a dominant season to come with his 4 goal performance. The lacrosse team plays Olathe South today, April 2, at Heritage Park and April 4 they take on Saint Thomas Aquinas at Saint Thomas Aquinas.

“We started out slow (against Lee’s Summit North) but near the end of the game we showed our true potential and I’m looking forward to taking on Olathe South” – Sam Pottinger

Girls’ Lacrosse 

The girls lacrosse team had their first games over the weekend on Saturday, March 30 at Shawnee Mission West. The games (one JV, one varsity) were against St. Teresa’s Academy and both team lost. STA is one of the best teams in the league so a loss was no surprise. The focus on Saturday was more of seeing where people played best and what elements of the game needed work. It also gave first time players a chance to try out different positions.

The team will be playing today, Tuesday, April 2 at Lee’s Summit West against Lee’s Summit West. They are hoping to move forward from their loss on Saturday and step up their defense.