Bulldog Sports Recap

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Fall sports are drawing closer to an end, but the Bulldogs have been moving deep into post-season play. Here is your KPGZ Bulldog Sports Recap:

Boys Swimming

The Bulldog boys swim team traveled to Belton High School on Friday and Saturday, October 28 and 29, to compete against Winnetonka High School, Raytown South High School, and Smithville High School in the 2022 Blue Varsity Conference Championships. The boys swam lights out to defend their title of Conference Champions with a score of 481 points. With a fairly young team this year, each swimmer knew that no day could go by without putting in work if they wanted to earn their 8th conference championship in a row. As well as leaving this meet as conference champions, all 12 of the athletes left the meet with at least one top 8 finish.

Whole Team Stats:

  • Points earned: 481

  • Number of medals earned: 32

  • First Team All-Conference awards: 9

  • 2nd Team All-Conference awards: 5

  • All Conference Honorable Mention awards: 2

Softball

On Friday, October 28, the Bulldogs faced Helias Catholic for the state championship game. The Bulldogs struck first in the first inning. Jadyn Barnes got on base with a bunt and then advanced to second on a throwing error. Brooke Paalhar then walked. Both runners advanced bases on a wild pitch. Elysia Hand then hit a sacrifice fly to score Jadyn. Mackenzie Herndon came to the plate and hit a double to right field on the first pitch. That scored Brooke. Bri Reynolds came in to run for Mackenzie. Helias was able to get the remaining outs.

Helias struck back in the bottom of the first and scored 1 run. Alyssa Quick hit a home run the next inning, putting the Bulldogs up 3-1. The Bulldogs scored 3 more runs in the top of the fourth inning. Alyssa Quick was hit by a pitch to put her on base. Kennedi Casey came in to run for her.

Macy Morrow reached base on an error. Jadyn Barnes then hit a single to load the bases. Brooke Paalhar hit another bases clearing double. Helias came back in the bottom of the 4th inning and scored 1 making the score 6-2

In the top of the 5th inning, Jocelyn Lincoln singled, Macy Morrow walked and Jadyn Barnes hit a sac bunt to move the runners over. Brooke Paalhar walked and the bases were loaded with 2 outs. Elysia Hand came to the plate and hit a grand slam home-run giving the Bulldogs a 10-2 lead.

Helias never gave up. They scored 2 runs in the 5th and scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th. Going into the top of the 7th inning, Bulldogs were leading 10-8.

Macy Morrow and Jadyn Barnes both got on base with singles. Elysia Hand came in clutch again and hit a 3 run home-run. Mackenzie Herndon then came to the plate and hit a home run of her own. Bulldogs lead 14-8 going into the bottom of the 7th. The Bulldogs allowed one more run but that was it and the Bulldogs secured their place as State Champions.

Highlights:

  • Jadyn Barnes went 3 for 4

  • Elysia Hand went 2 for 3 with 8 RBIs (this sets a state record for most RBIs in a state game)

  • Brooke Paalhar went 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs

  • Mackenzie Herndon went 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs

  • Jocelyn Lincoln went 1 for 4

  • Macy Morrow went 1 for 4

  • Alyssa Quick went 1 for 3 with 1 RBI. Alyssa pitched 4 innings with 6 hits and 1 strike out.

  • Kate Landewee pitched 3 innings with 6 hits and 1 strike out.

Cross Country

On Saturday, October 29, Kearney hosted the class 4 and 5, District 4 Cross Country meet. It was a great day to be a Kearney Bulldog. Both teams qualified for the State meet. The girls placed 1st and the boys 4th. The girls had six All District runners:

Abby Elam 5th, Heidi Adams 6th, Abigail McQuillen 7th, Liela Murphy 8th, Olivia Brock 9th and Gracie Bomar 14th. 

The team's number one runner Alex Kinstler did not finish because of an ankle injury. The girls won the meet by 22 points.

The boys beat Warrensburg by 6 points to earn the last qualifying spot. The boys had four All District runners: Kyler Chappell 12th, Bradly Barton 24th, Rylee Johnson 29th and Carter Smith 30th.

The rest of the team placements were: Jackson Elsea 35th, Max Morehouse 36th and Cameron Daniel 50th.

Boys Soccer

On Saturday, October 29, the Boys Soccer team played in the Districts first round game vs. Smithville.

The Bulldogs were down 2-0 early in the first half, but survived the half with no further damage. At the beginning of the second half the Bulldogs were able to find the back of the net with a goal by Tucker Jones on a Liam Ridle assist, cutting the lead in half. With 16:05 to go, Angelo Donze scored on an assist from Jace Vaughn. The score remained tied until Tucker Jones got another assist from Liam Ridle with 43 seconds left in overtime to advance the Bulldogs to the district semifinals. Kearney will face East (KC), the number one seed in the district, on Tuesday at 5 pm at Pembroke Hill.

Volleyball

The Volleyball team (#3 seed) faced off against the #2 seed Pembroke Hill Raiders Monday night and pulled off the upset. They started off strong, jumping out to a 8-1 lead in the first set. The Bulldogs closed the first set 25-16. The second set Kearney lost 23-25, but came back to win the third set 25-18. The bulldogs were down in the 4th set, but dug their way out of a 7 point deficit. However they fell short losing 24-26. The fifth set the bulldogs won 15-11. 

Everyone on the team contributed to success. The team had 18 Ace serves on the night (Alli Poage and Mallory Jury had 4 each, Ella Wolters and Moira Olberding had 3 each). Merrick Gacke led the bulldogs in blocks with 5, Kylie Walker tallied 22 digs, Mallory Jury had 19 and Kate Martens had 13. Alli Poage had one of her best night of hitting, leading the bulldogs with 21 kills, followed by Madison Browning with 12 and Ella Wolters with 11.

KPGZ Sports - Brian Watts contributed to this story