The Clarion's Winter Sports Preview 2012

Haven’s Hailey Davis Maize’s Keiryn Swenson Haven’s Ashley Rogers Maize’s Paige Lungwitz

Winter SportS previeW • 2


PHOTOS BY FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Emily Rowland looks to pass the ball against Wellington last year.Rowland will be one of the key Lady Indians this year.

Indian girls looking toget healthy, compete

ANDALE- Rehab and creating depthare two of the biggest things that willlead to a successful season for the AndaleGirls Basketball team, who will be look-ing to get contributions from severalgirls who are returning from injuriesfrom last season according to HeadCoach Mark Kerschen. “Our early goals will be to find starters

and depth so that if we have injuries wecan still compete,” he said. “When wedecide how our health status is, then wecan determine team goals.” Returning to lead the Indians this year

will be seniors Rachel Eck, Josie Eck andEmily Rowland with sophomore BrittanyMeyer rounding out the team’s scoringpunch. Rachel Eck averaged eight points a

contest last year with Meyer’s contribut-ing six a game. Both girls will need to keep finding

their shot to help the Indians to a suc-cessful season this year. Last year, the Lady Indians had an 18-

4 record and lost to Haven in the semi-finals of regional play to end their sea-son. This is Kerschen’s 21st year as head

coach of the Indians.

BY JOEY YOUNG

THE CLARION [email protected]

Brittany Meyer looks to make a move againstWellington last year.


FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Tyler Mies of Andale, left, takes down Maize South's Isaiah Kamps during theschools' dual meet last week.

ANDALE- Goals change from trying toachieve a state championship to trying todefend one for the Andale High SchoolWrestling team, who will graduated a lotof seniors last year but still have loftygoals for he season. “We are pretty young,” Head Coach Brad

Lies said. “We have several wrestlers withlittle or no varsity wrestling experience.This season we want to continue toimprove and try to defend our state title.”

The Indian wrestling team is vying for athird state title in program history andwill need to lean on seniors KyleArmstrong, Levi Eck, Derrick Gates andHunter Furnish to make things happen.Other top returning wrestlers this yearare juniors Tyler Mies, Dylan Eck andIsaac Taylor. If Andale is able to stay healthy and

continue to improve, Coach Lies said hebelieves they will be right back in thethick of things this year again. That means defending their league title,

regional title and state title from last year.This is Lies’ fifth year coaching the Indianwrestling team.

BY JOEY YOUNG


Andale to defend statetitle with new wrestlers

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FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Austin Mormando of Maize South, left, pressures Andale's Hunter Knoblauch in their last regulargame of the season.

ANDALE- A balanced approach on offense and constant defen-sive effort is what the Indians Boys Basketball team will be builton this year. Andale started five seniors last year, so they will be looking for

each player to step up and fill vacant spots left from last year. Andale Head Coach Jeff Buchanan said he feels the team has

some good varsity experience from the kids who came off thebench last year and that will aid them in getting off to a goodstart this year. “We look to build on that foundation throughout this season

and accomplish each of the goals that have been set,” he said. Returning to lead the Indians this year will be seniors Ben

Seiler, Daniel Carney and Gerad Deaver with sophomoresHunter Knoblauch and Jason Hermreck rounding out the start-ing lineup. Knoblauch finished last season on the Ark Valley Chisholm

Trail League Divison IV second team, was an honorable mentionAll-State player and made the All-Tournament team duringHalstead’s Annual Adolf Rupp Tournament. He averaged nearlyeight points a game with 2.3 assists and had 29 steals on theseason, all while shooting 45 percent from the floor and 70 per-cent from the line. Andale finished last season with a 19-4 record and lost to

Pratt in the sub-state finals, and for the Indians to continuetheir success from last year, Buchanan said it will be a toughroad. “I think we have a tough schedule, and every game will be a

battle. Our players will have to be ready to play each and everynight, because there are not any easy games this year,” he said. To get past those obstacles he said they will have to lean on

this year’s seniors, who all know this is their final season of highschool basketball. “Our goal is to continue to improve each and every day as we

go through the season. These young men work extremely hardand have a strong desire to be successful in all aspects of thegame, which showed in the time and effort that went into theirworkouts this summer,” he said. This is Buchanan’s seventh year coaching at Andale High

School.

BY JOEY YOUNG


Andale building on off-season foundation

WINTER SpoRTS pREvIEW • 6


MAIZE – Maize will look to combine its base ofjunior wrestlers and strong freshman class thisseason to improve on last year’s overall record of6-12. That’s one of the challenges facing Coach Mike

Schauer, who led the Eagles from 1989 to 1998

and from 2009 to the present. “Overcoming our youth, developing leaders in

our older wrestlers, developing some young upperweights,” along with “maturation of the freshmanclass – fitting a lot of wrestlers into a few weightclasses” will be the team’s focus, Schauer said. The Eagles will be led by juniors Jacob Wilgers

(126) and Kyle Baldwin, Jr. (138). Making up thepromising freshman contingent are Landon Wood(106), Cole Moses (113), Brett Moon (120) andShane Brock (132).

BY FRED SOLIS


Eagles looking for improvement

FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Jacob Wilgers makes a move in a match last year.

MAIZE – Chris Davis, Maize High’snew boys basketball coach, is looking for-ward to the challenge of coaching asquad of young, but talented, players forthe 2012-2013 season.“We will be a young team. However

they are very coachable,” Davis said. “Wewill be good; it just is going to take usawhile.” With contests against Derby and

Hutchinson, as well as a couple of CityLeague matchups, the Eagles will betested early and often as they try toimprove on last year’s 6-16 record. Maizealso reached the sub-state finals last sea-son.Top returning athletes include senior

Tavon Marrow and juniors ConnorElleeson, Calib Wilcox and Aaron Shaw.They’ll be joined by a talented bevy ofsophomores, including Connor Lungwitz,Austin Englert and Jarred Lubbe. With a patient hand, Davis hopes “to

improve every day” and “to be the bestteam we can be.”

BY FRED SOLIS


Maize has new directionwith new coach, squad

FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Ryan Hall puts up a shot for Maize against Newton. The Eagles defeated theRailers 42-41.


Senior Paige Lungwitz hopesto get back to the Class 6A girl’sstate basketball tournamentthis year. If she and the Eagles,do, it will be her fourth trip inas many years – her entire highschool career. On their way to state last

year, where they finished third,the Eagles won the Ark ValleyChisholm Trail League-DivisionI title and compiled a 22-3record. “A lot of teams will be tough.

I’m looking forward to playingagainst Olathe Northwestagain,” said Lungwitz, who wasAll League First Team and MVPlast year.“Sweet revenge from state,”

Junior Keiryn Swenson added,referring to the team thatdefeated Maize at state lastyear. The two teams will renew

their rivalry at Olathe on Jan.18, 2013. The Eagles beat Olathe Northwest last year at

Maize in their regular seasonmatchup.“We did lose a lot of people

last year; our starting lineupwill be different,” Swenson said. It will be taller, for one thing. Lungwitz, the team’s only

senior, stands 5’10” and had14.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and3.1 assists per game last sea-son. Swenson, a 6’1” returningstarter averaged 12.8 points pergame with 4.7 rebounds andone assist last year as a sopho-more. She was also selected forAll League First Team last sea-son.The Eagles also will put 5’11”

sophomore Daley Handy, 6’ jun-ior Brayden Byrd and 5’10’sophomore Saige Baalman onthe floor, giving Maize a talldefensive presence and mis-match opportunities on offense. “I’m extremely happy with

what we have coming back,”Coach Jerrod Handy said. “Theplayers I have are great girls.They have a good work ethic.We’re solid all the way down.There are five girls that havethe potential to play college bas-ketball.”With their height, Byrd and

Baalman will be able to goinside and outside, CoachHandy said. Daley Handy scored5.0 points per game last seasonwith 4.3 rebounds and 2.0

assists while Byrd added 3.0points per game and 2.0rebounds. Lungwitz and DaleyHandy will share point guardduties.

“We’ll run hard and attack thebasket,” Coach Handy said.“We’ll be able to use our heightto our advantage and attack thebasket really well. On defense,

we’re going to try to slow teamsdown. We’ll probably play morezone.” Handy, now in his fourth year

at Maize with a record of 55-16,was last year’s League Coach ofthe Year. In addition to Olathe

Northwest, the Eagles will playa solid Washburn Rural teamwhen Maize travels to theWashburn Rural TournamentJan. 25 and 26. “We have a tough schedule,”

Handy said. “It makes a differ-ence towards the end of the sea-son when you have a goodschedule. I think we can be justas successful or more than lastyear. We want to win the statechampionship. I think we’llpresent some problems for someteams. “If we play well, we’ll be right

there at the top,” he added. Having players like Lungwitz

and Swenson certainly doesn’thurt the Eagles chances, either. With an 85.1 percent free

throw shooting average and 34.2percent three-point shootingcapabilities, Lungwitz is athreat on every level of thegame. Swenson’s 58.8 percentfield goal shooting, 70.1 percentfree throw shooting, and hermobility and quickness downlow spell double trouble foropponents. “Paige is such a solid player,”

Handy said. “She’s a leader onthe floor. She’s relentless; shenever gives up. She can makeanything happen that needs tohappen. Players like Paige arehard to come by.“Keiryn is athletic,” Handy

continued. “She’s fast on thefloor and has good hands. She’sgood around the basket. Thoseare qualities you don’t find invery many girls.“Anytime you have leaders

that are your hardest workers –they’re first in the gym and thelast to leave – it rubs off oneverybody,” Handy said. With fathers as coaches, hard

work and dedication come natu-rally to Lungwitz and Swenson.“The biggest part of my game

is (that) my dad has pushed memy whole life to get me where Iam,” Lungwitz said. “He doesn’t let me cut things

short,” Swenson said. “He makesme do all of it to get better.”

GETTING BACK TO STATELungwitz, Swenson looking for another shot at Olathe Northwest

BY FRED SOLIS


FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Senior Paige Lungwitz led the Eagles to a third-place finish in Class 6A basketball last year.She also was All League First Team as well as League MVP.

“I think we can be just as successful or more than last year. We want to win the state championship. I think we’ll present some problems forsome teams. ”

Maize Girls Basketball Head Coach Jerrod Handy


HAVEN- “The next step” is a big theme for theWildcat Girls Basketball team, who will be look-ing to take that next step forward to the statetournament and compete for a 3A State Title. The Wildcats will be slightly smaller than they

have been in the past, but speed and athleticismshould help them overcome any size mismatchesthey encounter throughout the year. Haven is chalk full of talent this season,

including two of the best players in the area, sen-iors Hailey Davis, who averaged 15 points andfive rebounds a game, and Ashley Rogers, whoaveraged 11 points and seven boards last year. “We return our two leading scorers and a lot of

depth,” Haven Head Coach Dwight Roper said.“Rogers and Davis compliment each other andare good team leaders on and off the floor.” Senior Ella Matteson also returns from last

year’s team that will get two new players thattransferred to Haven. Samantha Stallbaumer, a point guard, and

Makayla Stucky, a forward, will both add somepunch for the Wildcats in their quest to win astate championship this year. Rounding outHaven’s depth will be seniors Megan Achilles andMadison Caffrey and juniors Holly Davis, CoraEzell and Sydney Stephan. Haven will look to overcome their lack of size

with an up-tempo style of play that will feature alot of pressure and the team’s outstanding depth. “Our defense is going to be huge this year,”

Davis said. “We are going to get out and fastbreak and try and score a lot of points.” Davis described the team’s play this year as

“all-out” and said she can guarantee they will beaggressive.Rogers agreed and said she thinks Haven has

a really good shot to make some noise this year. “I am really excited about the possibilities of

this team this year,” she said. “We will have tostay mentally tough and work to overcome thegood teams we play this year.” Both Davis and Rogers pointed to the team’s

great chemistry as a reason why they will havesuccess this season. “Roper always tells us camaraderie is the best

thing we can have as a team,” Davis said. “Weare like a big family, really.” That means watching movies and hanging out

off the court, but a team trip to the University ofOklahoma to watch the girls basketball team andlearn a little something is what both girls point-ed to that really gets everyone together. Roper, who is a big OU fan, plans the trip

every year, and the team spends about three daysin Norman, and Rogers said it always bringsgood team bonding. Haven finished last year with a 16-7 record

with a season-ending loss to Pratt in regionalchampionship after a narrow win against Andale,45-44, in the second round. This year, Hillsboro and Hesston will be the

team’s toughest foes in league play, but state isthe only thing on the Wildcats’ minds. “We all want to make it state,” Davis said. Roper is in his 17th season at Haven.

Haven poised for deep run powered by team depthBY JOEY YOUNG


TAKING THE NEXT STEP

FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Haven's Hailey Davis and Halstead's Alyssa Talbott try to corral a loose ball during a game last year.


HAVEN- Teams won’t look at the Wildcat Boy’sBasketball team this year and fear their height, but thathas been a common problem for Head Coach LonnieParamore, who has a good core of upperclassmen whoseskills should help Haven be competitive in every gamethey play this year.

“The young men have worked hard in the off-season andare anticipating having a successful year,” he said.

Returning for the Wildcats are seniors Luke Johnson,Jed Beachy and Cody Crabtree, who will all start forHaven. Johnson averaged 12 points and 7 rebounds a gamelast year with Beachy pitching in 9 points and 3 reboundsa game.

Seniors Trae Regier and Nate Lacoy will also be lookedto for leadership and strong play for the Wildcats to be suc-cessful.

The season isn’t getting started the way Paramore wouldprobably like with one of his best players, sophomore TimHendrixson, sidelined for the beginning of the season witha wrist injury that was sustained during the football sea-son.

Hendrixson averaged nearly 7 points as a freshman lastyear and will be looked to, when he returns, to provide alift as one of the team’s best shooters.

Haven, which finished 8-13, last season will also have toovercome a different landscape than in the past as theWildcats have moved to the 3A ranks and will face toughcompetition from Conway Springs, Hillsboro, Garden Plainand Cheney if they are to compete for a state title thisyear.

This is Paramore’s fifth year as boy’s head coach inHaven, but his 21st year as a head coach in Kansas.

BY JOEY YOUNG


Haven building oncore of vet players

FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Haven's Trae Regier, left, gets his hand on a ball and heads upcourt in a game last year againstHalstead.


PHOTOS BY FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Left: Luke Johnson, center, is sandwichedbetween two Halstead defenders as he triesto grab a rebound for Haven.

Right: Sydney Stephan, left, goes up for alayup in the second half of the Wildcats'game against Halstead last season.

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MAIZE SOUTH – The LadyMavericks are jumping up fromDivision IV to Division II of the ArkValley Chisholm Trail League this sea-son, which presents a new challengefor the four-year-old basketball pro-gram that went 13-9 last year andmade it to the second round of sub-state before falling to Hesston.

“We have two good pieces of the puz-zle with McKenna (Poynter) andMariah (Suchan),” Coach MikeDomnick said. “Our success will bedetermined on what other kids step up.

“Outside of McKenna and Mariah,there are only a couple of kids that

played varsity last year. The ones thatdid played sparingly. The younger kidshave some talent; they will need tolearn how to play at the speed andphysicality of varsity ball,” he said.

Poynter averaged 9 points per game,4 assists, 3 steals, and was “one of ourbest defenders,” Domnick said. Suchanaveraged 14 points per game, 10rebounds, and was “statistically ourbest defender last year.”

In addition to Poynter, a senior, andSuchan, a junior, the Mavericks willlook to juniors Karli Kubik, GraceAitkens, Maddie Nestor, and TaylorMannis, and sophomores AustynNestor, Laine Evans and Alexa Brockelto extend last season’s successful cam-paign.

Mannis and Aitken’s outside shoot-ing will be complemented by the scor-

ing and passing of Gibbs and Evans.Maddie Nestor and Kubik will bolsterthe Mavericks defensive play alongwith Brockel and Austyn Nestor, whowill give them help on the boards.

Maize South will face ranked teamsduring the 2012-2013 season, includingSalina Central, Andover and AndoverCentral, and at the Pratt invitationaltournament.

The Mavericks will be tested early asthey travel to Andover for the seasonopener on Friday, Nov. 30. Their homeopener will be Friday, Dec. 7, at 6 p.m.against Goddard

“We won 13 games last year,”Domnick said. “I would like for ourteam’s record to reflect this improve-ment.” The team also hopes to competefor the league title and surpass lastyear’s achievements in postseason play.

BY FRED SOLIS


Mavericks looking to finish roster puzzle

FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Mariah Suchan, right, averaged 14 points per game and 10 rebounds for the Mavericks last season.

The Maize boy’s swimmingteam is poised to make anothersplash this year with a pool ofstate qualifiers, winners andrecord-setters returning from the2011-2012 season.

While the Maize High squadwon the Ark Valley ChisholmTrail League for the third year ina row and placed fourth at stateen route to setting set state recordof 1:35.16 in the 200-yard medleyrelay team, Maize South swim-mers captured the league title forthe first time and placed seventhat state.

Under Coach Hussein Yassinesince 2009, Maize has establisheditself as one of the top-tier swim-ming teams in the area.

Top returning swimmers forMaize High include senior GrantLatimer, a state qualifier, and sen-ior Lucas Popp, who won the 100-and 50-meter freestyle at stateand was part of the record-setting

relay team. Sophomore Christopher

Clemons, among the top eight fin-ishers in the state in the 200-meter individual medley andmember of the relay team, andjunior Kyle Allison will provide astrong balance to the team.

Maize South is headed by JacobEvraets, a state qualifier as a

freshmen, Johnathan Lavalle, whofinished sixth at state in the indi-vidual medley and second in the100-meter backstroke, andGreyson Heckman.

Locally, Yassine is looking for-ward to the meet against WichitaHeights, which will provide “greatcompetition” and “allow us to com-pete against local competition.”

BY FRED SOLIS


Swimming teams set to tear up the competition once again in AVCTL


Young Mavs teampoised to make run

Wrestlers have tough,experienced group

MAIZE SOUTH – The going will getdoubly tough for the young Mavericks thisseason as they moved up two divisions,from IV to II, in the Ark Valley ChisholmTrail League, and to Class 5A from 4Abasketball. “Maize South boys basketball essential-

ly starts over by moving up two divisionsin the AVCTL and into Class 5A,” Fourth-year Coach Kip Schultz said. “This move-ment will likely be a very tough transitionearly for our young kids.” Maize South is coming off a 5-16 season

and returns 70 percent of its scoring,Schultz said, adding that the team will besophomore- and junior-heavy. “We have good chemistry building

amongst the kids who played in leagueover the summer. We believe that chem-istry will be the difference between usbeing average, good, or even great,” hesaid. Leading the Mavericks this year are

juniors Brett Barney and Austin Bally. Barney averaged 12 points per game

with two assists, one steal and two blocks.Bally averaged two points per game, oneassist, one steal and one block. The team hopes to reach .500 this sea-

son, Schultz said.

BY FRED SOLIS


FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Brett Barney, left, returns for MaizeSouth High this year. Last season heaveraged 12 points per game withtwo assists, one steal and twoblocks.

MAIZE SOUTH – While the MaizeSouth High grapplers will have to wres-tle with a tougher schedule as it movesup to Class 5A and two notches in theArk Valley Chisholm Trail League – toDiv. II from Div. IV – they also will enjoyan experienced squad for the first timein the school’s four-year history. “The team is led by eight juniors and

four seniors but also has several talent-ed underclassmen that will contribute,”Coach Matt Kerr said. “It will be thefirst season that we have experiencedwrestlers leading the team.” Maize South also will try to build on

last year’s success, which saw them com-pile an 8-3 record and send threewrestlers to state. They were led by sen-ior Jaysten McClure (132), who finishedsixth and has qualified for state sincehis freshman year. He was joined atstate by sophomores Bryce Garcia (106)and Kevin Kissane (138). Senior JesseBashor (120) also was named to AllLeague First Team. As the Mavericks face perennial 5A

powerhouses Ark City, Andover Central,Valley Central and Goddard, they’ll alsolook to Nevada Harlan (220) and TreyDome (126) to provide senior leadership,

along with junior Jared Hydock (145).In addition to building off last year’s

strong season, Kerr hopes to qualifyeight to 10 wrestlers for the state tour-nament and “finish in the top half of theleague and maybe surprise a few of thetop teams.”

BY FRED SOLIS


FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Nevada Harlan, right, returns forMaize South High wrestling for hissenior season.

Closed Mondaysand Tuesdays


Strike a pose

FRED SOLIS/THE CLARION Maize’s Paige Lungwitz, left, and Keiryn Swenson, middle left, pose with Haven’s Ashley Rogers, middle right, and Hailey Davis, right, during a photo shootfor the Winter Sports Preview cover. Both groups of girls were far more happy posing with smiles on their faces rather than serious looks like the photo thatappears on the cover. All of the girls hope to lead their teams to state in their respective classes, and both teams have a really good chance at it if you lookat the returning talent and skill level of each team. All four girls pointed to the need for their teams to play great defense to reach their goals this year. Thephotos were taken in the Mount Hope City Park inside the fence of the basketball court.

The Clarion's Winter Sports Preview 2012

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