Sports
Twelve bowling strikes in a Rowe
Brian McDowell Sports Editor Ever since his early teens, Chanute resident Kyle Rowe has been bowling, pursuing the perfect score of 300. “It is something that I always wanted to do,” Rowe said. “I just wasn’t sure I’d ever get there.” Last week, while bowling in the Tuesday night City league at C & H Lanes, Rowe pulled off perfection by rolling 12 consecutive strikes. Rowe, an assistant manager at Sherwin Williams, bowls once a week these day...
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Coach Simmons announces resignation
Brian McDowell Sports Editor After nine years at the helm of the Blue Comets football program, Don Simmons will be leaving Chanute High School at the end of the school year to accept a head coaching position at Shawnee Mission North High School. Simmons has statistically been the most successful head football coach in Chanute’s history, with a 65-32 record while here, and a career coaching record of 194-95. He has coached 24 winning seasons i...
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Comets’ comeback effort falls short in Labette
Brian McDowell Sports Editor ALTAMONT — The Chanute boys basketball team trailed by 14 points in the second quarter of its Tuesday night road match-up, but the Comets were able to push momentum enough on their side in the second half to give themselves a legitimate chance to win the game late. This comeback effort put the Chanute squad up by one point with less than 30 seconds to go in the game, when several defensive Comets made some key bl...
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Chanute girls get out- played in Labette rematch
Brian McDowell Sports Editor ALTAMONT — “We just didn’t play very hard.” That was Dustin Fox’s simple explanation for how his Chanute girls basketball team lost 68-53 Tuesday night to a Labette County squad that they beat early in the season. “When you don’t play hard against a good team, that’s going to bite you,” Fox said. Fox doesn’t know why some Chanute players seemed so listless at times in this crucial contest. “We’ve got to get better...
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Four Comet wrestlers finish in second at Chanute-hosted SEK tourney
Brian McDowell Sports Editors Four Chanute wrestlers made it to the championship rounds of the tournament that the Comets hosted on Saturday, and all four finished in second place at the SEK Invitational. “Unfortunately, we definitely got some humble pie, after a good performance on Thursday,” Chanute Wrestling Coach Andy Albright said. The Comets beat both Pittsburg and Coffeyville at a dual event last Thursday. “We had a good performance...
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Comets pull off one-point escape win over Pittsburg
Brian McDowell Sports Editor The Chanute boys basketball team once again demonstrated its ability to pull off a Friday night escape act. The Comets survived a tense fourth quarter against Pittsburg and used well-timed offense and a stifling defense to come away with a hard-earned SEK 47-46 victory. Chanute was trailing by two points with 41 seconds left in the game when a foul-drawing lay-up by senior Brock Gilmore allowed the Comets to regai...
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Comets fly over Pittsburg and Coffeyville in wrestling duals
Brian McDowell Sports Editor COFFEYVILLE — In preparation for the SEK Invitational tournament that it is hosting today, the Chanute wrestling team toppled two of the SEK’s top teams in duals on Thursday night at Field Kindley High School in Coffeyville. The Comets scored dual victories over both Pittsburg (39-28) and Coffeyville (60-18). It was the first time that Chanute has beaten Pittsburg in a dual since 2010. It has been a neck-and-neck ...
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Chanute girls shine in 22-point rout of Pittsburg
Brian McDowell Sports Editor After winning the Tonganoxie Tournament last week, the Chanute girls basketball team stayed on a roll Friday night with a 59-37 rout of the Pittsburg Purple Dragons. “We beat a really good team tonight,” Chanute Coach Dustin Fox said. “They were a little short-handed and they’ll be better when they get some of those other girls back. But they’re still a really good team. I was proud of the way our girls came out a...
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Panthers baseball 11th in pre-season NJCAA poll
The NCCC baseball team has been picked number 11 in a nationwide pre-season poll released by the NJCAA on Thursday. The Panthers had a 49-16 record last year, and advanced to the JuCo World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. “This is done by a vote of the coaches and evidently they forgot how much talent we lost after last year,” the team’s coach Steve Murry said on his Facebook page when linking to this poll. The Panthers are scheduled to play...
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Poor shooting, defensive breakdowns hurt Lady Panthers against Cowley
Brian McDowell Sports Editor It may seem simplistic to say that a basketball team isn’t successful because they aren’t able to consistently put the ball in the basket. However, that is the conclusion that NCCC Coach Kelley Newton has reached about the school’s women’s basketball team after the Lady Panthers’ 68-43 loss to Cowley on Wednesday night. “The ball just doesn’t go in,” Newton said. “We’ve got to put the ball in the hole. It’s not ro...
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Panthers lose at last second to Cowley
Brian McDowell Sports Editor The score was tied at 65 with four seconds left in regulation, and the NCCC men’s basketball team had one last inbound pass to try to win its Wednesday night home match-up with the Cowley Tigers. “We didn’t get in the one-on-one situation, because they had fouls to give on us, so they could foul us all they wanted,” NCCC Coach Jeremy Coombs said. Coombs planned on having the ball passed from the sideline to the b...
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CHS softball players sign letters of intent
Three players for the Chanute Blue Comets softball team signed letters of intent on Thursday to play the sport for area colleges. Shelby Trout will be playing for the Independence Pirates next year, while Ashton Cooper and Jordan Hartman have both signed with the NCCC Panthers. Parents, teammates and current and former coaches looked on as the girls signed their letters of intent in the high school’s cafeteria. Playing for Neosho County is a b...
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Fiscus and Cole tourney wins boost Chanute wrestling to 5th in Beloit
Brian McDowell Sports Editor BELOIT — Chanute senior Jared Fiscus and sophomore Chase Cole both picked up big wins at a wrestling tournament in Beloit last weekend. Fiscus won at 145 with a victory over Beloit’s Tanner Niemcyzk while Cole won at 132, defeating Oberlin’s Dayton Dreher. Their performances boosted the Comets to fifth place in the tournament, with 124 points in all. Plainville won the Beloit Tournament with 176.5 points. Chanute...
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Thayer recognizing 30th anniversary of basketball team’s State victory
Brian McDowell Sports Editor The 1982 season was the first time in history that the boys basketball team from Thayer High School made it to the State tournament in Hays, but the team was eliminated from the tournament in one game. So, when Thayer made it to State in the next year, its players were determined that things would be different. “We had been there and seen it,” the team’s point guard, Bruce Thornton said, “so the nervousness went a...
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Undefeated Humboldt boys beat Yates Center
The undefeated Humboldt boys basketball team continued to roll through their competition on Tuesday evening with a 70-50 victory over Yates Center. The Cubs dominated the beginning of the contest, outscoring their opponents 20-7 in the game’s first quarter. Tanner McNutt scored 21 points in the game, while Noah Thornbrugh contributed 17 and Nathan Whitcomb scored 10. Humboldt next hosts Erie on Friday night. Humboldt 20 17 22 11 - 70 Y...
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Don’t underestimate the Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens have been sold short and underestimated throughout this year’s NFL post-season. The team has responded by dismantling two heavy favorites that feature surefire Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco has suddenly started playing like Joe Namath or Joe Theismann or Joe Montana . (Why are there so many other great quarterbacks named “Joe”?) ¬†And, by outmaneuvering Tom Brady last week, Baltimore’s defens...
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Erie girls beat Fredonia in quadruple overtime
The Erie girls basketball team traveled to Fredonia on Tuesday evening to compete in the first night of Tri-Valley League play. The Red Devil girls won in four overtimes 75-70 over the Yellowjackets. It was a hard fought night for Erie, as Bret McGuire fouled out at the end of the 4th quarter, and Chelsea Oliphant fouled out in the 2nd OT. EHS was down in each of the overtime periods but remained poised and fought back. Chrisana Maurer. a fre...
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St. Paul girls top Chetopa
Benefiting from a 24-point performance by Ashton Wood, the St. Paul girls basketball team scored a 66-35 road victory over Chetopa on Tuesday night. St. Paul 18 15 21 12- 66 Chetopa 11 12 8 11- 35 St. Paul: Burke 1, 0-0, 3 Carlson 1, 0-0, 2 Wood 9, 3-4, 24 Albertini 5, 3-5, 14 Tuck 3, 5-6, 13 Sears 2, 2-2, 6 Three-Pointers: Wood (3), Albertini, Tuck (2) Chetopa: Underwood 13, 1-1,7 Johnson 3, 2-2, 8 Kepner 1, 0-2, 2 Jackson 3, 7-11, 13 Ca...
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Second half scoring be-”devils” Panthers in loss to KC
Brian McDowell Sports Editor KANSAS CITY — The NCCC men’s basketball squad was leading by seven points at halftime of its Monday night road match-up against the Kansas City Kansas Blue Devils, but giving up 49 second half points doomed the Panthers. “That’s too much,” NCCC Coach Jeremy Coombs said about KCK’s second half scoring streak. “That’s way too much. We can guard better than that. We’ve guarded better teams better than that, and we ju...
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NCCC’s women’s comeback attempt falls short in KC
Brian McDowell Sports Editor KANSAS CIT — Coach Kelley Newton’s NCCC women’s basketball team was trailing by 14 points headed into the final streatch of its Monday night road match-up with the Kansas City Kansas Blue Devils. The Lady Panthers were able to fight their way back into the game, but their comeback efforts fell just short in the end, as Neosho County lost 46-44. “If I took something positive from losing like this, when my team onl...
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