Free State senior named to all-state academic team

Free State High’s Haley Harrington was named to the 2008 All-State Academic cross country team, but was acidentally left off the list when it originally appeared.

Harrington, who competes in cross country and track and field, carries a 3.82 grade-point average and plans to attend Kansas University this fall. Her major is undecided, but she plans to minor in Spanish.

The Free State co-captain helped the Firebirds girls place third at last fall’s Class 6A state meet.

De Soto hires football coach

De Soto High announced Tuesday that Tom Byers will be the school’s new varsity football coach.

Byers is a former Kansas State University football player.

He graduated from K-State in 1994 and was a four-year letter-winner with the Wildcats. He earned All-Big Eight Academic honors and also was a member of the 1993 Copper Bowl championship team.

After college, Byers spent eight years as a varsity assistant at Blue Valley Northwest High and also served as the school’s varsity track coach for three years before joining Brad Scott’s staff at DHS, where he was the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator for the past three seasons.

Chieftains crack top 10

Competing in just nine of the 14 weight classes on Saturday at the Baldwin Invitational, the Tonganoxie High wrestling team had two of its seniors finish second and took ninth in the team standings.

Chieftains senior leaders Matt Brock (140 pounds) and Steve Davis (189) both went 3-1 at Baldwin and took second place. Brock lost, 5-4 in double overtime, in the championship match to Abilene’s Kelly Kane. Davis was defeated, 6-5, by Lansing’s Nathan Wessel in his title bout.

Davis won’t have to wait long for another shot at Wessel. Tonganoxie has duals with Lansing and Bonner Springs at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at BSHS.

A few other THS wrestlers had a successful Saturday at Baldwin. Freshman Adam Thomas (103) went 3-2 and finished fourth, 171-pound junior Jeremie Maus went 2-2 for fifth place, and 119-pound freshman Caleb Himpel was sixth with a 2-3 record.

De Soto wraps up busy week

The De Soto Wildcats competed against Kansas City Piper and Olathe Christian last week in a pair of mid-week wrestling duals. De Soto defeated Olathe Christian and lost to Piper by just four points.

The Wildcats took just seven wrestlers to Atchison on Saturday, and DHS placed ninth overall. Freshman Hayden Chandler took third place at 285 pounds, and senior Mark England took fourth at 171 pounds. Next up for De Soto is a home meet against Eudora and Anderson County on Thursday.

Cards take 5th at Concordia

The Eudora Cardinals competed in the Concordia Dual Tournament on Friday and Saturday and finished fifth overall. Junior Dylan Litherland earned a varsity spot for the two-day tournament and scored critical points in Eudora’s final dual victory.

Next up for EHS is a triangular with Anderson County and De Soto on Thursday at De Soto.