photo by: Conner Becker/Journal-World

Lawrence High senior Zaxton King looks for an open lane during a game at Shawnee Mission South on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024, in Overland Park, Kansas.

Missouri State guard and Lawrence High School graduate Zaxton King has already carved out an essential role for the Bears as a true freshman. King has started all 18 games this season, averaging almost 10 points per game.

Lately, King has played some of his best basketball. Against the University of Illinois Chicago on Jan. 7, King led his team with 17 points while shooting 6-for-10 from the field and 4-for-6 on 3-pointers. King followed that performance up with a career-high 23 points against Southern Illinois, a game where the Bears forced overtime after being in a 13-point deficit in part thanks to King’s late-game scoring. King went 8-for-16 from the field and 4-for-9 on 3-pointers. He also tied a collegiate career high in rebounds with five.

Those two performances earned King recognition as the Missouri Valley Freshman of the Week on Jan. 13. King led all Missouri Valley Conference freshmen in scoring during the week and was eighth in Division I men’s basketball with a 20.0 points per game average.

The Bears started the year well but have struggled in conference play and now have a 0-7 record in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Bears started 7-5 but have lost their last six games.

King and the Bears will compete in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on March 6 in St. Louis.

LHS grad, former K-State cornerback signs contract with the Arizona Cardinals

Ekow Boye-Doe, a 2018 Lawrence graduate, signed a reserve/future contract with the Arizona Cardinals on Jan. 13.

Boye-Doe was born in Accra, Ghana, before his family immigrated to Kansas in 2003. He graduated as a first-team all-state player and three-star cornerback from Lawrence High School in 2018 and signed with Kansas State. After redshirting in 2018, Boye-Doe’s role with the Wildcats grew from a special teamer in 2019 to a starter in his final three years in Manhattan. In his final year with K-State, 2022, Boye-Doe was an all-conference honorable mention when he had 13 passes defended and a forced fumble.

Boye-Doe was a practice squad member for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2023 and was on the active roster during the team’s Super Bowl LVIII win over the San Francisco 49ers. Before signing a futures contract with the Cardinals, Boye-Doe was briefly with the New York Giants on their practice squad.

Free agents are given a reserve/future contract during the NFL offseason. It denotes that the player does not count toward the team’s active 53-man roster, but it shows interest from the team in bringing a player through offseason workouts and possibly into fall camp.

The Cardinals will start their offseason program in late April.

Free State swimmers take first in home quad, Lawrence places third

The Free State swim team won in its home quad against Manhattan, Lawrence, and Turner, which doubled as senior night for the Firebirds.

The Firebirds won the 200-yard medley relay with a 1 minute, 43.69-second time. Senior Sina Khosh, senior Ari Mattes, sophomore Sebastian Iversen and sophomore Anderson Bateman were the swimmers who won. A second Free State team placed fourth at 1:52.89 with junior Ewan Campbell, senior Asher Zelvy, junior Joseph Flachsbarth and senior Lucas Fearn.

In other relays, the Firebirds took second in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:43.93 with Bateman, junior Owen Carnagey, Fearn and senior Jack Kempf as the team. The final relay, the 400-yard freestyle, featured the Firebirds placing first and third. The top team of Bateman, Fearn, Kempf and Carnagey finished in 3:32.68, while the second team of sophomore Ethan Smith, sophomore Eli Kempf, Flachsbarth and Iversen finished in 3:52.36.

The diving consisted solely of Firebirds, with freshman Gavin McIntosh leading the group with 210.55 points. Sophomore Constantine Shipley scored the second-most with 205.75 points and freshman Oliver Coles finished third with 153.10 points.

For individual races, Mattes was the lone Firebird to win a race. He swam the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:03.10 to win, over four seconds faster than the runner-up. Carnagey placed second in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:57.61, Mattes was the runner-up in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:05.25 and Jack Kempf took second in the 50-yard freestyle at 24.51 seconds. Campbell finished one second behind Manhattan’s Willow Graves in the 100-yard backstroke to win second.

Lawrence placed third as a team behind Free State and Manhattan.

The Lions team of senior Ike Adams, junior Hugo Cowardin, junior Alex Oral and senior Ryan Lane placed third in the 200-yard medley relay at 1:49.53. A team with sophomore Lawson Donly, Adams, Oral and Lane finished third in the 200-yard freestyle relay at 1:34.93. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the team of Cowardin, junior Aiden Bierschbach, junior Armando Romero-Perez and Donly took fourth at 3:55.11.

Lawrence had two individual race wins in the quad, both coming from Lane. He won the 50-yard freestyle in 22.83 seconds and the 100-yard freestyle in 49.79 seconds.

Oral finished second in the 100-yard butterfly at 58.61 seconds and the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:07.74. Cowardin was the runner-up in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing in 5:32.52.