Weekly Winter Sports Update: Week 7

The Lancers had superior depth at the meet but also had many athletes place near the top of their events. Senior Grant Minick placed 2nd in the 50 free and 3rd in the 100 free. Zack Holbrook placed 2nd in both the 200 and 500 freestyle. Troy Demoss placed 2nd in the 200 IM and 4th in the 100 back.

This is the Lancer’s 6th state championship in 8 years.

Girls Basketball: 
The girls are preparing for sub state and really focusing on winning their last couple of games to try and place 3rd for sub state. Tonight is the game against sound that will determine their seed.
“We are really focusing on winning our last games because we would really like to get 3rd in sub state. The 3 seed would be an ideal situation because that would give us a better road to state,” senior Caroline Nick said.

Wrestling:
The East wrestling team has one tournament left- State. After winning Regionals and once again slightly edging Lawrence in their house, the team has high expectations and a lot of momentum – as of February 14th SM East is ranked 9th as a team.

“We definitely have momentum. I think it’s a confidence thing because a lot of the guys we are bringing to state didn’t think they would make it to state… and now that they are there they can do great things and upset people they didn’t think they would,” said Senior Ben Randolph, “we are bringing a stronger, more confident team, and I believe we are bringing a better team [than Lawrence].”

The hard work the team has put in this year will pay off, and the tournament will test the Lancers. There will be East wrestlers that pull off upsets as well as those that don’t quite live up to their rankings.  The 6A State tournament will cap off many great wrestling careers at East. The end of the season is here. Good luck Wrestlers!

Ranked SM East individuals (as of 2-23-12):
160 – Blake Hill, 5th
170 – Blaine Hill, 2nd
195 – Alex Beahm, 6th

“Regionals were yesterday but we didn’t have a good meet,” Mike Thibodeau said.  “None of the boys qualified and I didn’t see placings for the girls but I don’t think we sent any girls to state either.”

Boys Basketball:
The Lancers pre-season goal was to win the league, but after that goal became obsolete, they then strove to host a home Sub-State game. This week was what the team focused on, needing to win both games to achieve the goal. On Tue. the fought off the Firebirds of Lawrence Free State in overtime, thanks to two big three’s by senior guard Andy Heitt. Immediately after the games conclusion, Coach Hair told the team in the locker room to get over this game quickly, because they have to take down SM South on Friday. A win would put East at a coin-flip with Blue Valley West for home court advantage for their match-up next Thursday. The East vs. SM South game will be broadcasted live on The Harbinger Online tonight, and you can also catch it on Metro Sports.

Injuries: Junior Zach Schnieder’s knee has been bothering him recently, but nothing serious has been reported.
Senior Andy Heitt has come down with cold-like symptoms that side-lined him for a portion of practice Wed, but he should be good to go for Friday’s match-up.