Last week was a week of triumphs in basketball, swimming and power lifting for Kearney Bulldogs. Here’s your KPGZ Bulldog sports recap:

Boys Basketball

The Varsity Boys Basketball team played Excelsior Springs on Tuesday, February 7. The Bulldogs had a slow start to the game and Excelsior started red hot from the field. The Bulldogs found themselves down 19-2 in the 1st quarter.

To start the 2nd quarter Harvey Sayon threw down a thunderous dunk that sparked the Bulldogs to go on a 21-7. The 2nd quarter ended with Manny Linthacum hitting a 3/4 court shot with 0.7 seconds left and the Bulldogs went into halftime down by only 2 points.

Kearney maintained the momentum in the 2nd half as they outscored the Tigers 32-13. The Bulldogs propelled a 34-point swing after the slow start and won the game 58-41.

Davin Hanna led the Bulldogs in scoring with 14 points. Senior Braxton Page finished with 12 points going a perfect 5 out of 5 from the field. Harvey Sayon finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Cameron Webster finished with 8 points and 7 rebounds.

Girls Basketball

The Varsity Girls basketball team traveled to Oak Park on Thursday, February 9, and came away with a 50-34 win.

Jadyn Barnes was 8 out of 10 from the free throw line and led the Bulldogs with 13 points and 5 assists. Brooke Paalhar hit 2 threes, finishing in double figures scoring 10 points. Gracie Bomar had her best game of the year pulling down 8 rebounds. The win brings the Varsity's record to 10-12.

Girls Swim and Dive

Last weekend the Girls Swim and Dive team traveled to Gladstone to compete in the regular season championship meet. The girls fought hard and battled all weekend long.

Thursday night diver, Anna Williams, brought home the gold and set a new school record. Friday night the girls struggled. However, Saturday afternoon the girls came ready to race and handled adversity tremendously. The team rallied to drop their times and came home in second place. It was a bittersweet finish as the Bulldogs lost to Winnetonka by one point 468 – 467.

Here are individual highlights from the meet:

200 Freestyle:

Claire Woehrman - 2nd place

Ruby Dunn - 3rd place and a lifetime best

Elizabeth Demers - 5th place

Grace Thurston - 8th place

200 IM:

Malia Fairchild - 2nd place and a lifetime best

Amelia Byers - 3rd place

Jaycie Davis - 5th place and a lifetime best

Kelsey Eise - 7th place and a lifetime best

50 Freestyle:

Jillian Bonderer - 4th place and a lifetime best

Kylie Wilcher - 10th place and a lifetime best

Dive:

Anna Williams - 1st place Conference CHAMP. Anna had a stellar performance and set a new school record with a score of 332.35.

100 Butterfly:

Amelia Byers - 4th place and a lifetime best

Olivia Burgard - 9th and a lifetime best

100 Freestyle:

Claire Woehrman - 1st place Conference Champ

Kylie Wilcher - 7th place and a lifetime best

500 Freestyle:

Ava Gable - 2nd place and a lifetime best

Ruby Dunn - 3rd place and a lifetime best

Jaycie Davis - 4th place and a lifetime best! Jaycie dropped over 50 seconds on the weekend.

Elizabeth Demers - 5th place and a season best

200 Freestyle Relay:

Kylie Wilcher, Malia Fairchild, Elizabeth Demers, Amelia Byers - 3rd place finish

100 Back:

Malia Fairchild - 2nd place and a lifetime best

Aryanna DiGirolamo - 4th place and a lifetime best

Olivia Burgard - 8th place and a lifetime best

100 Breaststroke:

Jillian Bonderer - 1st place Conference CHAMP! Also swam a lifetime best

Ava Gable - 2nd place and a lifetime best

Kelsey Eise - 5th place

Grace Thurston - 7th place and a lifetime best

400 Freestyle Relay:

Ruby Dunn, Ava Gable, Jillian Bonderer, and Claire Woehrman - 1st place Conference Champs. They swam a season best and improved their state consideration time by 12 seconds.

Power Lifting

Kearney took a small group to Basehor Linwood last weekend to compete in Power Lifting. Despite the small number of lifters, Kearney represented themselves very well in a very difficult field of over 800 lifters.

The boys finished 3rd overall in a field of 32 teams.

Zach Grace lifted more weight than any lifter at the meet with a total of 1235lbs between bench, squat, and clean.

JP Filger tied for first in his division and benched a ridiculous amount of 255lbs at 155 body weight.

Anna Williams finished first in the Jr Women's weight division. She won by 50 total pounds over her next opponent.

Owen Olson finished second in his weight division amassing over 800lbs.

Other notable performances:

Leah Mayfield and Addi Andrew both had top 8 finishes in the women's division.

Jackson Cook with a 3 lift total of 1000lbs.

Trace Dunlap with a squat of 525.

Cohen Jacobs with a hang clean of 300.

Tyrus Smith finished 4th overall in the 220 division.

Freshman Jesse Satterfield finished 4th overall at 198.