Sports
Lady Panthers falter early in loss
Jimmy Potts Tribune Reporter PARSONS — Despite a hot start, the Neosho County Community College Lady Panthers fizzled early during a 67-45 blowout to the Labette Lady Cardinals. The Lady Panthers led for a few brief moments Saturday after a free throw from sophomore Katie Gorman and a shot from sophomore Alexis Halfenstein put them ahead 3-1. However, poor passing, shooting and rebounding quickly swung the momentum in the Lady Cardinals’ favo...
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Labette rallies to beat Panthers 80-74
Jimmy Potts Tribune Reporter PARSONS — The Neosho County Community College Panthers limped back to Chanute for their final home game after a disappointing 80-74 loss to Labette Saturday. Saturday seemed like deja vu for the Panthers, who again found themselves in another tight game against the Labette Community College Cardinals after walking away from their last contest with a 74-71 double-overtime loss. The Panthers led for much of the game...
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Eight qualify for State, as Chanute wins wrestling Regional
Brian McDowell Sports Editor PITTSBURG — For the second year in a row, eight members of the Blue Comet wrestling team will be headed to the State tournament in Salina. Freshman Nick Ornelas, sophomores Alex Son, Adam and Chase Cole, and Ethin Van Anne, and seniors Jared Fiscus, Cody Howell and William Divine will represent Chanute at the season-closing event, which starts Friday at Salina’s Bicentennial Center. This was determined at last week...
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Panthers baseball opens season 3-1
Brian McDowell Sports Editor On the opening weekend that NCCC baseball coach Steve Murry picked up his 800th career win, the Panthers baseball team went 3-1. The season for Murry and the Panthers started on Saturday with two consecutive run-rule-triggering 11-1 victories over Brown-Mackie. Chance Sinclair pitched a five-inning complete game, only giving up three hits in the first game. First baseman Jake O’Brien scored first for Neosho Count...
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Isenhower returning to NCCC March 2, to demonstrate new bat
Former NCCC Panther Jeremy Isenhower will be making a local appearance on Saturday, March 2. The Panthers baseball team will be hosting Fort Scott at Hudson Field for doubleheaders that weekend. Between the two scheduled games on Saturday, Isenhower will be on hand to do a softball exhibition. After his time on the Panthers, Isenhower played in the minor leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies organization, and then joined the USA men’s softb...
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Chanute city employee headed to Hall of Fame for esteemed wrestling career
Brian McDowell Sports Editor The recent announcement that wrestling might be dropped as an Olympic sport by the 2020 games does not sit too well with Chanute resident Bogdan Ciufulescu. “I don’t think that will be possible,” Ciufulescu said. Ciufulescu has some expertise in this area. He actually wrestled in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, representing his home country of Romania. “My Facebook page is full of everybody talking about it,” Ciuful...
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Coombs fumes over NCCC men’s loss at Iola
Brian McDowell Sports Editor IOLA — Jeremy Coombs called this year’s NCCC men’s basketball team “the worst team I’ve ever coached.” “It’s probably the worst team I’ve ever been around, as far as the lack of heart and effort,” Coombs said. These sentiments were expressed after Wednesday night’s 64-57 Panthers loss to their rivals from Allen County. The match-up was a tale of two comebacks. The first occurred in the first half, when Neosho Coun...
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An English Major: Australian’s six three-pointers help Lady Panthers beat rivals
Brian McDowell Sports Editor IOLA — Strong second half play and six three-pointers from Australian freshman Dena English helped the Neosho County Panthers gain a 64-57 victory over their rivals from Allen County on Wednesday night. “Our three-point shot, we got that going, and shot the ball very well,” NCCC Coach Kelly Newton said. “We executed, got some shots that we wanted and some looks that we wanted, and Dena stepped up and had a heck of...
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CHS making progress in search for new football coach
Brian McDowell Sports Editor The search for a Chanute High School football is currently in full swing. It was prompted by the resignation a couple of weeks ago of Don Simmons, who was at the helm of the Blue Comets squad for nine years. Simmons was statistically the most successful coach in the school’s history, steering the team deeper into the playoffs than a Chanute squad has ever gone before. Simmons is also the only Comets coach to ever ...
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Chanute USBC Women’s Bowling tournament results
56 women participated in the 8th annual Chanute USBC women’s city bowling tournament, hosted by both Bowl-Mor and C&H Lanes. This included 14 teams, 28 doubles, 56 singles and 48 all-events. Here are the results from this tournament. All Events Handicap: 1. Sheila Bockover 1914 2. Becky Pugh 1893 3. Debbie Mueller 1881 4. Pam Ehmke 1837 5. Crystal Smith 1823 6. Charlene Schoenhofer 1802 7. Tricia Wade 178 8. Timmi Kennedy 1783 9. Joan Newman ...
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Another victory for Humboldt boys
The Humboldt Cubs boys basketball team racked up another victory on Tuesday night, to preserve its perfect 19-0 record. The Cubs beat Burlington 70-64, in a game that was tied headed into the fourth quarter. However, Humboldt managed to stave off the threat to get another win, with only one game left in the regular season. Tanner McNutt scored 24 points in the game, while Noah Thornbrugh scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Hunter Murr...
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Huge fourth quarter rallies St. Paul girls to win
OSWEGO – After three quarters, the St. Paul girls led Oswego by two points Tuesday, 24-22, but fired away for a 26-point fourth period in a 50-32 victory. Kacy Phillips scored 7 of her 11 in the fourth quarter with a pair of threes and Josie Albertini six of her 12 points in the final stanza. Camri Burke and Ashton Wood scored five apiece, all down the stretch. Also in double figures was Jordyn Tuck with 10 and Nikki Sears added seven tallies...
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Early and late play hurts Chanute girls in two-point loss to Pittsburg
Brian McDowell Sports Editor PITTSBURG — According to Dustin Fox, the Chanute girls basketball team played well enough between the first three minutes and the last three minutes of the Comets’ road match-up with Pittsburg on Tuesday night to get a win. Unfortunately, the way that Chanute both began and ended the game ultimately shot their chances for a victory in the foot. “We just didn’t stay as poised as we need to stay,” Fox said. “We made...
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23-point Richards’ performance fuels comeback, forces overtime in Comets’ loss
Brian McDowell Sports Editor PITTSBURG — In a game rife with rough play and controversial calls from on-court officials, the Chanute boys basketball team rode both a fourth quarter offensive surge and a 23–point performance by Jordan Richards to force its Tuesday night meeting with Pittsburg into overtime. “Jordan had a nice game for us,” Chanute Coach Max Ruark said. “He played well, hit a lot of shots, and that was something we needed.” ...
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Murry set to guide Panthers through ‘turnover-type’ season
Last year’s NCCC Panthers baseball squad (49-16) experienced great success, which culminated in a trip to the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. After the season, most of the impact players on that squad either transferred to Division One colleges or entered the Major League Baseball draft. “With success comes a lot of schools that, I don’t want to say steal our kids, but they steal our kids,” Murry said, “or the draft takes our kid...
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CCA’s Clover sets scoring record with 46
The CCA boys took on Independence Bible in what turned out to be a record-setting night. Point gaurd Alex Clover hit seven 3-pointers on his way to setting a new school record of 46 points and leading the way to a 91-64 victory. CCA came out on fire from the floor and on defense being led in the first period by senior Sterling Stepp who put in 10 points along with a number of rebounds and set a new personal best of 26 points and 12 rebounds. ...
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Ottawa native Goedert to make big offensive impact for Panthers
NCCC freshman Connor Goedert has already signed to transfer to the highly-touted baseball program at Wichita State next year. However, this year, Goedert will play third base and will be a key piese of the offensive puzzle for the Panthers baseball team. “I’ve obviously never played college baseball before, so I don’t have much to compare it to,” Goedert said, “but it looks like we’re pretty sharp and have a lot of energy, and a lot of hard w...
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Seven NCCC wrestlers qualify in District Championships
PRATT — The NCCC wrestling team competed in the NJCAA West/Central District Championships in Pratt on Saturday with the opportunity to qualify individuals at the 10 weight classes contested. When the day was through, the Panthers qualified seven wrestlers. “We did pretty good,” Coach Wayne Petterson said. “Going in we thought we could get anywhere from five to eight qualified depending on how we performed and reacted. Knowing that, we also k...
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Sinclair set to return to Panthers’ rotation
Brian McDowell Sports Editor Chance Sinclair was a key starting pitcher on last year’s World Series qualifying Panthers baseball squad. He was involved in a car accident late in the season that injured his knee. He hasn’t had many chances to pitch to live hitters since then. “It’s tough, because throwing in the bullpen is really easy for me,” Sinclair said, “but when you get a batter up there, you get a lot of adrenaline running, and it makes...
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Chanute wrestling wins SEK with dual victory over Fort Scott
Brian McDowell Sports Editor The “Best Wrestling team in the SEK” title can now be stamped on the Chanute Blue Comets. Hosting its last dual event of the season, the Comet squad bested the Fort Scott Tigers 38-24 to claim the SEK title. “That was one of our team goals,” Chanute Coach Andy Albright said. “Number one was to be coachable and number two was to win League, and we did that. And so far this year, for the most part, the boys have bee...
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