High school sports notebook

Free State’s girls cross country team has seen its fair share of quality competition the last two weekends.

It began Sept. 1, when the Firebirds finished second to top-ranked Manhattan and continued Saturday in Omaha, Neb., where they finished third behind that state’s top program, Omaha Marian. “The experience we brought back from last year with Kyra (Kilwien), Jeanie (Weems) and Morgan Flanigan has turned out to be a great chemistry unit, and they are not intimidated right now by anybody that they race against,” coach Steve Heffernan said.

Four Firebirds finished in the Top 10 in Omaha.

Dance Revolution

Heffernan said on the long Nebraska road trip the boys and girls teams entertained themselves by having dance-offs. “They wanted (the coaches) to judge it – we never actually got in on that, thank God,” Heffernan quipped.

The dance-off went down at the Free State hotel Friday morning.

To Play or Not to Play

Lawrence High soccer sweeper and football placekicker Rex Hargis faced a dilemma Thursday night. He had to decide between playing in the Lions’ soccer game against Free State or the football game against Olathe Northwest.

He chose soccer, prompting the football team to go for two-point conversions after every touchdown rather than attempting extra points.

The Lions were 2-for-4 on the night on two-point attempts.

LHS was The LHS soccer team fell, 2-0, while the football team rolled, 28-0.

Sweet Slogan

Free State High’s soccer team has adopted a nifty slogan that tells you just how serious this team is about turning in a memorable season.

The slogan, “99 percent concentration equals 100 percent failure,” is a favorite of coach Jason Pendleton’s and speaks to the intensity and focus his Firebirds bring to the table each day. The Firebirds have won four of their first five games.

Family Fun

Free State High senior tight end/linebacker Mike Santee said he enjoyed chatting up a sports celebrity last summer at a family reunion held in Oregon.

Mike Santee said he had met his great-uncle, Kansas University distance running legend Wes Santee before, but “it was a long time ago. I always see him in the newspaper and hear about him in books. It was nice to actually have a conversation with him.”

Tough Break

LHS tennis player Elizabeth Simons dropped a singles match to Olathe South’s Kelsey Pritchett, 8-7, even though the match shouldn’t have ended until the margin was two games or decided by a tiebreaker. However, because the two walked off the court, the match was considered over.

Two-way Player

Free State’s Cameron Schmidt made his presence felt in a 57-14 victory at Shawnee Mission South last week.

Free State’s football team was already up 50-7, but the junior defensive back impressed by swatting away a Dustin King deep ball down the left sideline on a Raiders fourth down with 5:46 remaining. On the very next play Schmidt was under center in place of starter Craig Rosenstengle and ran 58 yards for a touchdown.

Game of the Week

The Free State cross country team continues to face tough competition at 9 a.m. Saturday when it travels to Baldwin for the Baldwin Invitational.