BUFFS ROUNDUP: Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019
GIRLS TENNIS
A pair of runner-up finishes, a third-place and a fourth propelled the Garden City Lady Buffs tennis team to the Class 6A regional team title on Saturday, Oct. 12, at the GCHS Tennis Complex.
All six Lady Buffs thus earned a trip to the Class 6A state tournament, which will be played Friday/Saturday, Oct. 18-19 at the Kossover Tennis Center in Topeka.
Sophomore Sage Riggs placed second in the singles division, recording a 3-1 mark during the day’s action, knocking off the No. 2 seed earlier in the day before running into the top seed, Gracie Foster, Hutchinson, in the finals, dropping a 6-2, 6-1 decision.
Senior Carson Linenberger took third in the singles division, also posting a 3-1 record in the competition. She, too, lost to Foster in the semifinals before coming back to win her third-place match. Season records for the two heading to state are 24-5 for Riggs and 23-7 for Linenberger.
In the doubles competition, junior Hannah Kipp and senior Carole Galia reached the finals before facing off against Hutchinson’s Tia Hines and Elizabeth Jackson. The match went to a third-set decider, with the Salthawk duo coming out on top 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. Kipp and Galia have a 20-9 season record.
Also qualifying was the second GCHS doubles team – junior Ashleigh Chappel and freshman Brooke Ptacek. In their third-place battle, they came up short against Dodge City’s Jordyn Trombly and Becca Unruh, 4-6, 6-7 (2-7). They have a 21-8 season record heading to state.
VOLLEYBALL
Garden City’s No. 5-ranked Class 6A volleyball team continued its highly successful season on Saturday, Oct. 12, at the McPherson Invitational, sweeping to the tourney’s title by virtue of winning five matches, four of which came against state-ranked teams.
The Lady Buffs, who improved their season record to 26-3, first defeated Class 4A-ranked Nickerson, 25-18, 25-22; Hutchinson, 25-18, 25-22; and Class 5A-ranked Goddard, 25-12, 25-12, those three coming in Pool Play. That advanced the Buffs to the bracket round, where they dominated Class 2A power Garden Plain, 25-13, 25-15.
That put the Buffs into the championship match against Class 5A perennial power Bishop Carroll, ranked No. 9, with the Buffs dropping the first set, 20-25, before rallying to win the final two sets, 25-20 and 26-24 in a real tight battle.
Over the 5 matches, the Lady Buffs had 21 service aces, with serve percentages ranging from a low of 87.3 to a high of 95.8. Senior Reagan Karlin had 49 kills while the team compiled a total of 123, with Julie Calzonetti getting 13 in the title match against Bishop Carroll. Remi Vargas had 112 assists while Kelbi Richter led in digs with 60.
The Lady Buffs will host the Western Athletic Conference championship on Saturday, Oct. 19, with the first matches set to begin at 10 a.m. in The Garden. The Buffs have won the last eight WAC crowns.
CROSS COUNTRY
Senior Ethan Fisher’s seventh-place individual finish enabled the Buffaloes’ boys cross country team to end up in second in the team race, scoring 70 points to tie Emporia, but ending up second due to the tiebreaker of the first non-scoring runner.
Fisher clocked a 17:26.02 over the 5-kilometer layout at El Dorado State Lake. Devin Chappel and Brody Hoff were 12th and 13th, respectively, with times of 17:53.84 and 17:57.65 while Santiago Nunez was 18th in a time of 18:04.45. Austin Hess (32nd, 18:33.60) and Evan Gurrola (34th, 18:34.65) rounded out the Buffs’ placings.
On the girls side, freshman Jocelyn Sosa continued to be the Lady Buffs’ top runner, as she finished second with a time of 20:06.96, while Elizabeth Wilhite of Emporia finished just ahead of her with a time of 20:04.05.
That effort helped the Lady Buffs to a fourth-place team finish with 98 points, just three points behind Wichita East’s 95. Emporia and Kapaun Mt. Carmel took the top 2 team spots with 34 and 65 points.
Destiny Avila took 28th place with a time of 23:34.26, Anna Lobmeyer was 33rd in 23:56.83; Kalia Aubauer 34th with a mark of 24:10.11; Andrea Hernandez 38th in 24:22.18 and Ana Casados in 43rd place with a time of 24:28.41.
The Buffs will travel to Hays/Victoria on Thursday, Oct. 17, for the Western Athletic Conference championship to be run at Sand Plum Creek.
BOYS SOCCER
The Garden City High School boys soccer team was to play its opening game of the Wichita North Cup on Monday, Oct. 14, at 3:30 p.m. against Wichita East.
The Buffaloes, 6-5-1 overall, will then place Wichita Trinity Academy on Thursday, Oct. 17, at 3:30 p.m. in the second of the Pool Play. There are 6 teams competing, and after the two rounds of Pool Play, teams will be placed into brackets for first-second, third-fourth, fifth-sixth matches that will be contested on Saturday, Oct. 19.
Garden City High School 