Mike Gillman, a former track, wrestling and football coach who recently served as an administrator at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School, will soon take over as Lawrence High School's athletic director, the school district announced Monday. Gillman, who has worked in the district for 16 years, will take over as assistant principal and AD at LHS on July 1. He replaces former AD Nick Wood, who resigned ...
Free State’s wrestling club went undefeated against more than 10 other teams this past weekend at a two-day event in Great Bend. The Firebirds, who also went undefeated in the 2020-21 regular season, competed in 11 duals on Friday and Saturday. Their opponents came from all over the state: Silver Lake, Minneapolis, Goddard Eisenhower, Valley Center, McPherson, Campus, Wichita North, Labette County, Rock ...
Pro Football Focus released its 2021 season preview magazine on Monday, and expectations are unsurprisingly low for the Kansas football program in Year 1 of the Lance Leipold era. According to the magazine, the Jayhawks have a preseason Elo ranking of 117th out of 130 teams in all of college football. They have a 0% chance of winning the Big 12 title and are projected at 3.9 wins based on PFF’s initial ...
Player of the year: Lauren Russell, Baldwin Russell is a skilled on-ball defender, and she was a big reason that Baldwin’s defense exceeded expectations this season. Opposing coaches often commented on how much she impacted the match as the senior center back. Russell will not be playing soccer at the collegiate level; instead, she chose to enlist in the Air Force. Coach of the year: Darren Erpelding, ...
Athlete of the year: Aubrey Duncan, Free State In her first season competing in track, Duncan was the only female athlete in the Lawrence area to earn an individual state title. She ended her sophomore season by winning the 6A girls javelin competition with a school-record throw of 142-10, and she was consistently a top performer at meets before that. Coach of the year: Joe Pickett, Eudora Pickett’s ...
Athlete of the year: Ben Shryock, Free State Shryock was the only male athlete in the Lawrence area to earn an individual state crown this season — the Class 6A 3,200-meter run, which he won with a school-record time of 9:15.01. He was also on Free State’s 4x800-meter relay team, which won a state title in 7:54.11, and he added another state medal with a seventh-place finish in the 1,600-meter run. Coach ...