HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Salthawks are at home tonight to take on Derby.
Rusty Hilst has a preview:
Buhler will look to get back on the winning side of things after its loss to McPherson. The Crusaders face Circle in Towanda this evening.
Head coach Steve Warner:
Also tonight, Trinity Catholic is at home against Wichita Independent. Despite being 0-5, Celtics head coach Jordan Bell says Independent still offers some challenges:
Other games tonight:
Central Christian at Fairfield
Haven at Cheney
South Haven at Pretty Prairie
Nickerson at Larned – 6 p.m.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Work continues on the current phase of the North Main Street project in Hutchinson. Due to construction progressing south on Main Street into the 13th Avenue and Main Street area, the east side of the intersection of 13th Avenue and Main is now closed until further notice.
Starting Monday, traffic signals will be turned off and a stop sign will be placed at 13th Avenue on the west side of Main Street. Main Street traffic will not stop while intersection and traffic signal construction proceeds.
The intersection will be under construction for about four weeks.
NICKERSON, Kan. — The Nickerson school district will hold a series of meetings to gather public input on future building improvements.
The meetings come after architects and a steering committee spent the past several months gathering information about needs in the district. The meetings will provide information about the needs of the district and the possible avenues that may be taken to fund such improvements, including a possible bond issue.
The first meeting will be held tonight at 8:30 in the Nickerson High School Auditorium.
The other meetings will be:
Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. at Hutchinson Elementary School
Oct. 15 at 7:45 p.m. at Reno Valley Middle School
Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at Mennonite Friendship Communities in South Hutchinson
Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. at Crazy Horse Golf Club
Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. at Nickerson Elementary School
FRANCONIA, Ariz. — Flash flooding is making for major delays for Amtrak in Arizona. The eastbound Southwest Chief was stranded in Franconia, Arizona, for most of the night and into Thursday morning because of a track washout.
As of Thursday afternoon, the train was more than 12- hours behind, but trains are moving again through the area. At last check, the train is scheduled to arrive in Hutchinson around 12 p.m., more than 10-hours late. With train traffic backed up because of flooding, the train could lose more time.
Passengers boarding in Hutchinson tomorrow, or those waiting for passengers to arrive, should keep advised of the delay on amtrak.com.
GREAT BEND, Kan. — Freshman Ashley Venegas had a pair of goals and the Hutchinson Community College women’s soccer team nearly pulled off another miraculous late comeback against the Barton Cougars on Wednesday at the Cougar Soccer Complex.
Photo courtesy of HutchCC Sports Information.
But unlike the Sept. 8 meeting at the Salthawk Sports Complex where Hutch rallied for two goals down to get a 3-3 draw, the Blue Dragons couldn’t come all the way back from a second-half two-goal deficit and dropped a 4-2 Jayhawk West decision, putting the Cougars in the driver’s seat in the Jayhawk West.
The Blue Dragons fall to 8-2-1 overall and 6-2-1 in the conference (19 points). The Cougars won their seventh match in a row and improve to 9-2-1 overall and 8-0-1 (25 points) in the Jayhawk West. Hutch finishes 0-1-1 against Barton this season.
Hutchinson had a hard time containing the Barton one-two punch of Rayssa Neres and Laura Maria.
Neres posted the first opponent hat trick against the Blue Dragons since 2012 with a seven-point game (3 goals, 1 assists). Maria added a game-clinching goal with a minute to play and two assists.
Venegas had her second-straight multi-goal game and third of the season with a pair of goals on four shots on Wednesday. Sydney Blackwell and Addi White were credited with the assists on Venegas’ goals.
Barton struck fast with a pair of goals from Neres in the first 15 minutes of the game. Both goals were scored going against a strong south wind of 25 mph.
The Blue Dragons struggled to get any offense in the first 30 minutes, but finally started to open up some scoring opportunities. With the Dragons’ pressing, Blackwell was able to slide a pass to Venegas at the top of the penalty box. Venegas juked around a pair of defenders and got a 1-on-1 opportunity against Barton goalkeeper Reyna Gonzalez and finished with a blast into the upper left corner to cut the Dragon deficit to 2-1 with 10:33 to play in the first half.
Hutchinson goalkeeper Taylor Camp had to make two critical saves in the final five minutes of the first half to keep the game at a one-goal margin. Camp, who allowed a season-high four goals, had a season-high nine saves.
Barton scored just 42 seconds into the second half when Neres completed the hat trick for a 3-1 lead. But the Blue Dragons refused to fold.
Working against the wind, White chased down a ball in the right corner and drew the defense to her before crossing a pass to Venegas. She finished with a grounder to the lower right corner of the goal to trim the Barton lead to 3-2 with 11:10 to play in the game.
Barton put the Blue Dragons away with 1 minute to play. After a Hutch foul to the right of the goal, Neres delivered a free kick to Camp’s right and Maria headed the ball into the goal for a 4-2 Cougar lead.
Gonzalez, who made five saves, had two saves in the final 30 seconds to turn away one last Blue Dragon charge.
The Blue Dragons were outshot 18-8 and 13-7 in shots on goals.
The loss was Hutchinson’s first in seven games to the Cougars on Barton’s home field. Now 6-2-1 in Great Bend, the Dragons hadn’t lost on the Cougars’ home field since 2005.
The Blue Dragons will travel to Garden City for a 7 p.m. game on Friday at Buster Stadium.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson Community College had another strong defensive night and earned a season-high fourth-straight victory and fifth win in the last six matches with a Jayhawk West sweep of the Pratt Beavers on Wednesday at the Sports Arena.
In front of a crowd of better than 600, the Blue Dragons defeated Pratt 25-13, 25-19, 25-22 to improve to a season-high three games over .500 at 12-9. The Dragons are 7-2 in the Jayhawk West in sweeping the season series from the Beavers. Pratt, which had won 7 of 10, falls to 10-15 overall and 3-7 in the Jayhawk West.
The Blue Dragons held Pratt to .055 hitting. The Beavers hit a negative .040 in the first set and .000 in the second set. The Dragons out-blocked Pratt 9-2 and had 52 total digs. Hutchinson also sided out at a 67-percent clip.
The Dragons were led offensively by sophomore Elena Takova, who had 12 kills with .320 hitting on 25 attacks. Takova added four block assists.
Freshman Eden Hiebert had seven kills and nine digs. Sophomore Lexi Hogan had seven kills.
Sophomore setter Cassidy Crites posted her eighth double-double of the season with 23 assists and 11 digs. She also had five kills on 13 swings.
Freshman Delilah Vigil had a team-high five total blocks, including one solo block. She added a pair of kills.
Sophomore libero Raychel Reed had a match-high 15 digs. With 896 career digs, Reed is four digs away from becoming the seventh Blue Dragon to reach 900 career digs. She is currently eighth. Molly Bergkamp (2007-08) is seventh with 898 digs.
The Blue Dragons hit .243 for the match with 39 kills on 103 attacks. Hutch had five service aces.
Elise Baranco had eight kills on .318 hitting to lead Pratt
Set 1: The Blue Dragons out-hit Pratt .212-(-).040 in the first set and sided out at a 78-percent clip. Tied at 7-7, a Hiebert kill started a 6-0 run. Hogan had three kills and Hiebert added another to build a 13-7 lead. Pratt was able to close to within 16-12 after an Olivia Hessman kill, but a Crites/Vigil double block sparked a set-clinching 9-1 run for the Dragons. Hiebert had three kills in that run and closed out the set with a kill.
Set 2: Pratt led 7-5 after a Baranco kill, but the Dragons quickly turned that around with a pair of Beaver attack errors, two Takova kills and a Hiebert kill for a 10-7 Hutch lead. Trailing by no more than three points over the next 17 rallies, Pratt closed to within 18-17 after a Baranco kill. A Crites’ kill stopped that run. Then leading 21-19, the Blue Dragons scored the final four points of the set, getting back-to-back Vigil/Takova double blocks to finish the set off. Hutch out-hit Pratt .267-.000 in the second set.
Set 3: Remyngton Green sparked the Beavers in the third set with five kills as Pratt built a 12-7 lead in the final set. The Dragons fought back with a 7-2 run and tied the set at 14 with one of Pratt’s six attack errors in the third set. Tied at 16-all, Chloe Partridge registered a kill and Pratt had an attack error to build a two-point lead. A Hogan kill and Reed ace serve gave Hutch a 22-19 lead, but Pratt battled back to tie it at 22. The Dragons finished off Pratt with a Takova kill, a Crites/Partridge double block and an Eboni Sapien ace serve that painted the sideline on match point.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Amtrak line serving Kansas will stay intact for the near future. The announcement came during a hearing on Positive Train Control, which Amtrak stated it would not run on, and includes several portions of the Chief’s route.
Amtrak’s SW Chief makes a stop in Newton July 27.
During questioning by Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, Amtrak said it would run the full route instead of busing passengers between Dodge City and Albuquerque. Moran also stressed the need for Amtrak to provide the $3 million in matching funds for the recent Tiger Grant obtained by the state of New Mexico to continue another phase of track improvements:
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed a transportation appropriations bill with an amendment that includes $50 million in funds for track maintenance and safety improvements on the Chief’s route and compels Amtrak to stick to its commitment of providing matching funds.
Senators Moran and Tom Udall of New Mexico introduced the bipartisan amendment to keep the train running the entire route.
Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado have acquired three Tiger grants totaling more than $43 million to make the needed improvements to the line owned by BNSF but operated by Amtrak only. Amtrak provided $4 million in each of the first two grants.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson USD 308 is holding the first set of parent-teachers conferences for the school year starting Wednesday night.
Elementary conferences are by appointment with teachers. Those conferences will be on Wednesday evening and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday.
Hutchinson Middle School conferences will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday on both HMS campuses while HHS conferences will be from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Salthawk Activity Center on Thursday. No appointment is necessary.
There are no parent-teacher conferences on Friday, Oct. 5.
While classes will be on regular schedules Wednesday, there will be no class for students on Thursday and Friday.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The city of Hutchinson has been, or is, host to several NJCAA postseason events. The gem of that of course is the National Basketball Tournament.
Visit Hutch announced today that the 2018 NJCAA DI Men’s Basketball Championship has won a SportsTravel Award for the Best Single-Sport Event in the Collegiate division. The award was presented at the SportsTravel Awards Ceremony at the national TEAMS Conference, put on by Northstar Travel Group.
Other events nominated in the Single Sport Event category were the Big Ten Football Championship in Indianapolis; NAIA Women’s Soccer National Championship in Orange Beach, Alabama; the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California; and the Tucson Invitational Games in Tucson, Arizona.
The dates for the 2019 NJCAA DI Basketball Championship are March 18-23 at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
VALENTINE, Neb. — The No. 10-ranked Hutchinson Community College men’s golf team shot a 302 on Tuesday and moved up one rung on the team ladder during the final round of South Dakota State University’s “The Jackrabbit” at the Prairie Club.
The Blue Dragons finished 11th in the 13-team 54-hole tournament, finishing ahead of NCAA Division I programs Nebraska-Omaha and University of North Dakota. Hutchinson had rounds of 303, 307 and 302 over three days of tough and different scoring conditions.
The Blue Dragons had one golfer under par on Tuesday. Freshman Charlie Crockett posted his sixth under-par round with a 1-under 71. Charlie Herbert shot a 1-over 73 and Peyton Austin and Nathan McCulloch had 79s as scores the Blue Dragons had to count. J.T. Engelbart had an 83.
Crockett finished as the low Blue Dragon at 8-over 224. Crockett had rounds of 77 and 76 in the opening round.
Herbert was 41st at 12-over 228. Austin tied for 44th at 230. McCulloch tied for 47th at 231 and Engelbart was 70th with a 248.
Blue Dragon individual player Lake Leroux shot a final-round 79 on Tuesday and closed out tied for 47th at 231.
The University of Kansas won the team title with a 54-hole total of 845 (282-282-281). Central Florida was second at 856 and Missouri-Kansas City was third at 874.
Kansas’ Harry Hiller was the individual champion at 11-under 205, defeating UCF’s Kyler Tate by five strokes.
The Blue Dragons have two more fall tournaments remaining. Hutchinson plays next at the District Preview at Wildhorse Golf Club in Gothenburg, Nebraska, next Monday and Tuesday.
