McPHERSON, Kan. – McPherson High School sports had a strong week between Monday, March 31 and Monday, April 7, highlighted by the Girls Soccer McPherson Invitational, the Boys Tennis invitationals, the varsity Softball team staying unbeaten, and Boys Golf finishing third in their opening meet.
GIRLS SOCCER
The annual McPherson Invitational Tournament was held at MHS March 31, April 1, and April 4. The Bullpups faced Wichita Collegiate in the first round of the invite, defeating the Spartans 8-0. The team had a 7-0 lead at halftime, led by Ellie Bower having a first-half hat trick with three goals.
The second round of the tournament had McPherson facing 6A Topeka High School, but the Bullpups defeated the Lady Trojans 4-2. All four goals came in the first half, with Grace Prescott scoring two goals. Bower had one goal and two assists. Ellie Herrera made 11 saves in the net, helping send McPherson to the invitational championship.
The Bullpups would end up falling in the invitational championship against Maize South Friday 5-0. Maize South’s high-powered offense and defense was too much to handle, as McPherson had only two shots-on-goal compared to Maize South’s 25.
The Bullpups are currently 3-2-0 on the season and are currently in third place in the 4-1A West Regional standings behind unbeaten Augusta and Wichita-Trinity Academy. The team is back in action Tuesday, April 8 against Mulvane on the road.
SOFTBALL
The varsity Softball team started off the week playing four games in two days, starting with a road doubleheader against Winfield.
The Bullpups won game one in five innings 12-1, thanks to Addison Chapman striking out nine batters in three innings and hitting two triples. Haely Hagemann had three hits in the game to lead the team. Pera Bauer, Ava Romero, and Addie Herrera had multiple hits in the game as well. Game two of the doubleheader also ended in five innings with a 12-0 Bullpup victory. Herrera threw five perfect innings with 10 strikeouts. The offense had 14 hits, led by Rylie Whitfield’s three hits. Chapman, Bauer, Hagemann, and Cora Pavlovich also had multiple hits in the game.
McPherson was back in action Tuesday, April 1 for a triangular, defeating Manhattan in game one 17-2 in four innings, thanks to 15 hits and nine strikeouts by Chapman. Six of the 15 hits were extra-base hits with two doubles, two triples, and two home runs. Game two took a full seven innings, but McPherson won 11-5 over Great Bend to close off the day. McPherson only had five hits but drew seven walks, were hit by two pitches, and capitalized on three errors.
The Bullpups had another home doubleheader Friday, April 4 against Chanute, winning 15-0 in game one and 13-2 in game two. McPherson had 23 combined hits and allowed only five hits by Chanute for the doubleheader victory. The Bullpups followed it up with a doubleheader at Andale Monday, April 7.
Game one against Andale went on without a hitch with a 10-1 victory. Game two was a different story, as they came back from a one-run deficit in the 7th inning, scoring two runs to take the lead and eventually defeat Andale 6-5. Piper Alvord walked with one out in the 7th inning then was brought home by a double from Herrera. She would end up scoring on an RBI single by Chapman. Herrera slammed the door in the seventh to give McPherson the win.
McPherson Softball is now 12-0 on the season. They will face Circle for a doubleheader Friday, April 11 at home.
BOYS TENNIS
The Boys Tennis team started their season in the Conway Springs Varsity Invitational Thursday, April 3, finishing in 2nd place.
The event started with 90-minute rain delay, but were able to play on rather than postpone. In the singles tournaments, both Jonas Emery and Kepple Butcher finished in 2nd place with 2-1 records. In #1 doubles, Jack Boese & Grayson Koenig finished 2nd with a 2-1 record. Hayden Siemens & Aaron Winter tied for first, but dropped to third place due to tiebreakers.
The JV team will be in action Tuesday, April 8 for their home tournament.
GIRLS SWIMMING
The Girls Swimming team competed in two meets last week, starting Tuesday, April 1 at Andover Central.
The team finished in 6th place out of 13 schools, finishing with a new state qualification time and two new state consideration times. Bree Pickerell finished in 5th in the 200 Freestyle, qualifying for a state qualification time of 2:12.49. Addisyn Weens finished in 4th in the 100 Freestyle with a state consideration time of 1:00.14. The 400 Freestyle Relay team finished 6th with a State Consideration time of 4:22.98.
The team followed up and bounced back Friday, April 4 against Wichita Heights. The team finished 5th in the event out of 18 schools, finishing in the top five of multiple events. Adyson Wiens got a State Qualification time in the 100 Butterfly, finishing 5th with 1:06.39. Pickerell finished in 4th place in the 500 Freestyle, swimming a 5:45.67 time.
The swimming team will compete Friday, April 11 at Salina South.
BOYS GOLF
This roundup will wrap up with the Boys Golf team competing in their first invitational Monday, April 7 at El Dorado.
McPherson finished in 3rd as a team, finishing behind Pittsburg and Circle. Eight schools participated with 50 athletes in total. All five Bullpup golfers finished in the top 30 on the leaderboard, led by Cooper who finished in 6th with 84. Kamerson Buckbee shot 88, putting him in 11th. Teigan Younger shot 95 to finishing in 19th with Paxton Ingels right behind shooting 97 to finish 21st. Hudson Krehbiel shot 99 to finish in 25th and Gavin Heider finished in 30th with 104.
The golf team will host their next invitational Thursday, April 10 at Turkey Creek Golf Course in McPherson.
