Boys swimming, bowling highlight busy weekend for Buffs teams

BUFFS ROUNDUP: Monday, January 13, 2020

Boys swimming, boys and girls bowling, girls and boys wrestling and girls and boys basketball all competed Friday and Saturday in a busy weekend for the Buffaloes winter athletic teams.

BOYS SWIMMING

The Garden City Buffaloes boys swimming team captured their fourth team title of the season on Saturday at the 7-team Wichita West Invitational.

The Buffs scored 534 points to easily outdistance runner-up Wichita-Kapaun Mt. Carmel, which finished with 357 points.

Garden posted firsts in two individual events and one relay, while also placing second in four other events.

Connor Cupp clocked a 56.46-second effort in the 100-yard butterfly to capture the top spot while Jeremiah Bunce swam a 53.92 mark in winning the 100-yard freestyle. The 200-yard free relay team of Devin Chappel, Bunce, Cupp and Kobe Otero placed first with a time of 1:37.95.

Seconds went to Otero in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.39) and Cupp in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.33) while the 200-yard medley relay team of Otero, Bunce, Cupp and Nate Morren had a time of 1:50.15. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Chappel, Esai Morales, Joel Contrarez and Brody Hoff took the runner-up spot with a time of 3:52.05.

The Buffs are on the road Tuesday, Jan. 14, for the Hutchinson Invitational.

BOWLING

The Garden City Buffaloes boys and girls bowling teams opened their 2020 seasons in impressive fashion on Saturday, Jan. 11, at the Wichita-Bishop Carroll Bakers Tournament.

In the Baker Format, the team is comprised of five bowlers, each of whom bowl two of the 10 frames, but not in consecutive order. Bowlers bowl the 1st and 6th frames, 2nd and 7th, 3rd and 8th, 4th and 9th, and 5th and 10th frames.

The Buffaloes’ boys captured first place in the 26-team competition, finishing with a total pin count (including bonus pins) of 2,666 to win by 44 pins over Wichita-Kapaun Mt. Carmel. The Lady Buffs, meanwhile, also had a strong opening tourney, finishing second among 24 teams with a pin count of 2,226 while champion and host Bishop Carroll was 83 pins in front with 2,309.

“The boys had a slow start in their first game, but then were more aggressive and more consistent the rest of the way,” said GCHS bowling coach Kip Nichols.

Each match of the Pool Play was two games with the winner receiving 30 bonus points. In case of a split in the two games, each team received 15 points. Garden defeated Wichita East, Goddard, Maize South, split with Great Bend and then defeated Kapaun Mt. Carmel, which had been leading the tournament. The Buffs had eight games of 211 or higher with the top score being 237.

On the girls side, the Lady Buffs defeated Wichita East, Goddard, Maize South, Kapaun Mt. Carmel and split with Great Bend. They posted five scores of 184 and higher, with the top game being 211.

“I was pretty happy with the second-place finish,” Nichols said of the girls. “We have some work to do on improving picking up the spares, as we didn’t shoot those that well. But we got strikes when we needed them, and that’s key in the Baker format.”

The teams will open their Western Athletic Conference dual-match schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 14, when they host Liberal. The varsity will compete at Garden Bowl and the junior varsity will bowl at Hard Rock Lanes. First ball is rolled at 3 p.m.

BASKETBALL

The GCHS girls and boys basketball teams opened their 2020 Western Athletic Conference schedule on Friday, Jan. 10, with home games against Great Bend at The Garden.

LADY BUFFS

The Lady Buffs got off to a strong start, and finished the same way en route to a 52-31 victory over the Lady Panthers of Great Bend.

Keyhana Turner led the way with 13 points and Symone Simmons followed with 12.

Junior Keyhana Turner glides up for a basket during the Jan. 10 home game against Great Bend. (Photo by Tylee Biera)

The triumph enabled coach Matt Pfeifer’s team to improve to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in the WAC.

Great Bend  9  2  9  11  —  31

Garden City  16  13  9  14  — 52

Garden City (5-2/1-0) — Beasley 2, Calzonetti 7, Becerril 8, Gallegos 8, Simmons 12, Turner 13. 3-point goals: Calzonetti 1, Becerril 2, Gallegos 1, Turner 1.

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BUFFS

For the first two quarters of the Western Athletic Conference opener on Friday night at The Garden, the Buffaloes were neck-and-neck with the Great Bend Panthers, trialing just 25-23.

But the final half saw the Buffs outscored 34-23 and finish on the short side of a 59-46 WAC battle for the defending league champions.

The Buffs trailed 15-11 after the opening quarter and also trailed 42-34 after three periods. Luke Tolbert and Tae Rosales netted 10 points each to pace the Buffs.

Luke Tolbert goes up for a shot during the Jan. 10 boys basketball game against Great Bend. (Photo by Tylee Biera)

The loss dropped the Buffs to 4-3 overall and 0-1 in the WAC. The team is at Liberal on Tuesday, Jan. 14 for their first WAC road test.

Great Bend  15  10  17  17  — 59

Garden City  11  12  11  12  — 46

Garden City (4-3/0-1) — Rosales 10, Williams 7, Reyes 2, Tolbert 10, Wiese 8, Tanner 2, Guevara 5, Nuzum 2. 3-point goals: Rosales 2, Tolbert 3.

WRESTLING

The Garden City Buffaloes wrestling team isn’t quite like the walking-wounded, but the Buffs have been missing some key performers in the last two weeks due to illness and injury.

That was the case once again on Saturday, Jan. 11, when the Buffs competed at the Dodge City Invitational and came away with a fourth-place team finish with 156 points.

Host Dodge City, which had just edged a depleted Buffs roster on Jan. 9, in a WAC dual match, shared the top team spot with 231.5 points along with Great Bend. Valley Center was third with 157.5 points.

The combined girls and boys squad saw the Lady Buffs garner two firsts, and five second-place finishes while the  boys had a pair of firsts and one second.

Defending state 6A champions Silas Pineda (21-6) won the 120-pound division by going 5-0, with three by decision and two by falls. Jacob Holt, a two-time state champion, also went 5-0 to take the top spot at 138 pounds and improve  his season record to 16-1.

Diago Hernandez won four of his five matches to place second at 132 pounds as he just completed his first week of competition.

On the Lady Buffs side of the mat, Esmerelda Corado won the 116-pound division by going 5-0 and improve her season mark to 16-5. All of her wins were by falls. Destiny Avila (4-0, 8-1 for the season) captured the 123-pound division over teammate Sara Chapa, who went 2-2 in the tourney.

Chloe Sullivan (109), Anjelina Serrano (130), Kallista Rhoades (170) and Camila Estevez-Perez (235) all placed second while Anahi Cervantez (101) was third.

The Buffs varsity squad will head out-of-state on Friday and Saturday at the Sand Springs, Okla. Classic, an event just outside of Tulsa. The junior varsity wrestlers will be at the Hays Prairie Classic.