Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties sports notebook

Leavenworth senior Jacob Sims capped his return to the pool with a pair of state medals Saturday at the Kansas boys swimming and diving championships in Topeka.

A former youth swimmer, Sims didn’t join the high school team until this season, but he accomplished plenty in his short stay. In preliminaries Friday, he broke both of his school records in the 50-yard freestyle (21.99 seconds) and 100 freestyle (48.57).

And while he didn’t match those times in the championship on Saturday, he managed a sixth-place state finish in the 50 freestyle and a fifth-place finish in the 100 freestyle.

His efforts in those events netted all 27 of Leavenworth’s team points, putting the Pioneers in a tie for 19th

Lansing wins regionalA year ago, Lansing placed 10 wrestlers in the Class 5A state tournament. Lions coach Ron Averill was pleased with the high number of state-qualifiers, but thought his wrestlers could do better.

This season, they did.

Lansing rolled to a 5A regional championship with 217.5 points last weekend at Bishop Miege. Every member of the team secured a spot at state in their respective weight classes.

“We started our season with the goal of qualifying all 14,” Averill said. “It was satisfying to achieve that goal, but even more gratifying to witness the support of the team throughout each individual match.”

Leading the Lansing surge was Grant Hinckley, who earned the regional’s wrestler of the year honors.

Spencer Blew (130 pounds); Dillon Scanlon (135); Cullen Demarest (152), Tyler Baughman (160) and Nathan Wessel (189) were the other Lansing wrestlers who won regional titles.

Turner secondTurner, which finished second at the regional with a team score of 157 points, had two individual champions in Jason Langford (140 pounds) and Luciano Gutierrez (215).

Bonner Springs and Washington also had two champions apiece. Caleb Seaton (112) and Tanner McCleary (285) won for Bonner Springs, while 119-pounder James Wauer and 145-pounder Byron Roath won for Washington.

Other local champions include Mike Torrez of Basehor-Linwood (103 pounds) and Derrick Weller of Piper (125), who each won at the Class 4A regional at Spring Hill.

•Leavenworth took third at the Class 6A regional at Shawnee Mission South and had two wrestlers take home regional titles: Josh Bush (215) and Josh Wilson (285).

submitted by RYAN YOUNG - 2009-02-24 17:20:02

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