Rusty Hodge photos

Check the 'Photo Galleries' tab for more pictures of Friday's Rusty Hodge Invitational. To order a 5x7, 8x10 or larger photo, please email stephen.bubalo@yahoo.com for prices.

Hall bounces back, Nightingale dominates for area girls teams

Gabby Hall – the Blue Springs girls’ track and field standout freshman – is going to have those youthful moments this season, like during Friday’s Rusty Hodge Invitational when she was visibly disappointed after taking second in the 100-meter dash early in the meet.

To help her bounce back, Hall got some words of encouragement from her mother and head coach Jennifer Reeder before competing in the 200 and 400.

“I told her, ‘you lost to Jazmin McCoy (of North Kansas City), who is a stud. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. You are a stud in the 200 and 400, so go out and prove it,” Reeder said.

Blue Springs freshman Gabby Hall, left, and teammate
Rey'Ven Lawrence compete in the 100-meter dash during
Friday's Rusty Hodge Invitational at Blue Springs South.

And she did just that, responding like a veteran with two firsts and two meet records to help lead the Wildcats to the meet title with 133 points.

She ran a 58.5 in the 400 and 25.41 in the 200. 

“I believed I could do better,” Hall said. “I was nervous at the start of the meet but once the gun went off it went away.”

Hall said her best event is probably the 400, but she considers the 200 her favorite.

Now the challenge for Reeder with such a talented and young runner in three events on her hands is to keep her focused throughout the season.

“We want her to stay focused on the small things like warms ups and cool downs,” she said. “Those things add up to help get you to the next level.”

One area runner who has already reached that next level is Blue Springs South distance runner Samantha Nightingale, and she showed Friday night why she is the best at what she does in the state of Missouri.

The senior won both the mile and two-mile, running 11-flat in the two-mile, a time she was ecstatic about this early in the season.

“I didn’t know I had a chance to run that time until I saw the screen,” Nightingale said. “I’m so happy. My goal, since I had been running all day, was just to do what I could and if I had anything left to just go with it.

“I gave my all the last 300 meters.”

Nightingale said her time was about 30 or 40 seconds faster than what she ran at this time last year.

“All that is her winter preparation and maturity as a runner,” South head coach and Nightingale’s cross country coach Ryan Unruh said. “She’ll only get better. I hope this keeps her hungry.”

Both coaches were pleased with their overall team performance in what is considered one of the more competitive regular season meets of the season.

Blue Springs’ Megan Wright set a meet record by clearing 11 feet in the pole vault, while teammate Cali Bissel finished in third.

“She’s so consistent and it’s great that she’s already clearing 11 feet,” Reeder said of Wright. “Megan and Cali are like sisters. It helps to have a gifted partner in practice.”

The Wildcats were also strong in the relays, taking second in all four. Shannon Danaher took fourth in the 800, Julia Dury and Julia Montgomery were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 3,200. Tyonna Snow has been a nice addition in the long jump, as she took second. Taryn Miller and Tyra Bickham were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the discus, while Bickham also took fourth in the shot put. 

For the Jaguars, Unruh was pleased with a pair of relays, as the 3,200-meter event took third and slashed 10 seconds off of last week’s time, while the 400-meter relay took fourth. The 1,600-meter relay also came in fourth.

Unruh was happy to see soccer player Grace Klausen score in the mile by taking eighth. Cheyenne Watkins took sixth in the pole vault. Brooke Stetzler and Savannah Hoyle took seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 300 hurdles. Hoyle also took eighth in the 100 hurdles. 

“We had girls come out and really compete. They were dialed in,” he said. “This is a high-powered meet and to show up and look good is a good thing.”

Harvel, Hall lead area boys track and field teams

There won’t be many times during the regular season that Blue Springs South’s Ben Harvel will be challenged in the 300-meter hurdles.

But Friday wasn’t one of those days.

Facing off against last year’s Class 3 state champion, Dapo Akinmoladun of Grandview, Harvel – who was the Class 4 runner-up a year ago – was at his best. The senior broke the meet record, finishing in 38.4 seconds in winning gold. 

“I really like running against Dapo,” Harvel said. “It makes me bump it up a notch. It’s great to run against guys that push you. I think my conditioning allowed me to challenge for the win.”

Blue Springs South's Ben Harvel, right, and
Grandview's Dapo Akinmoladun run
between hurdles during the 300-meter event
during Friday's Rusty Hodge Invitational at
Blue Springs South. 

Akinmoladun took a page out of Harvel’s book to start the race by going out fast.

“He came out hard this time,” Harvel said. “I had to play catch up.”

That conditioning Harvel talked about proved to be the edge he needed, as he works toward the state title he fell short of a season ago.

“Right now it’s just important to compete, to have that will to win,” Harvel said of his early-season focus.

Harvel was also strong in the long jump, setting a personal best of 22 feet, 4 1/2 inch to take second, as South placed sixth with 51 points. Besting him in the event was Blue Springs’ Deiondre Hall (22-11 3/4), who also won the triple jump with a new personal best (45-8 1/2) and took second in the high jump (6-6), leading the Wildcats to second place. 

“He’s very, very competitive,” Wildcats head coach Joe Cusack said of Hall. “He wants to win, win, win in those three events.”

The past two years the Blue Springs track and field team has relied heavily on a veteran. In 2010 it was Jordan Dodd and last year it was Jayce Thomas. This year, Hall is stepping up his game after a strong junior season.

“He’s stepping into those senior shoes,” Cusack said. “He’ll get on his teammates when he has to. He’s a better leader than he has been in the past. The team feeds off of his competitive fire and performance.”

Cusack was also pleased with his distance runners, as three runners did well in the mile and two-mile, led by Simon Belete taking second in the mile at 4:29.31. James Barnett was right behind him in third place. Freshman Stephen Mugeche was fifth in the two-mile.

Jacob Belke ran a nice split in the 3,200-meter relay, which placed second, and also earned points in the 800 by taking fourth. The 1,600 relay closed out the meet by taking second.

Erron Holley was the leader in the sprints, taking second in the 200 and third in the 100.

“We like where he is right now,” Cusack said.

Chris Clark recovered from nearly falling in the 300 hurdles to tie for third to round out the Wildcats' top three finishes. 

The Jaguars also had a good day in the sprints, especially from their 400-meter relay team of Trey Irvin, Dylan Hernandez, Harvel and Steven Sullivan, as they took first and broke the 43-second mark at 42.71.

Hernandez was also strong in the triple jump, taking third, Josh Watson took fifth in the discus and the 1,600-meter relay took fourth.

As expected, the 16-team meet posed plenty of challenges for both squads in the early part of the season.

“We know this is a high-powered meet,” Cusack said. “But this isn’t where we are going to end up. We just wanted a nice showing tonight.”

Rusty Hodge interviews

Today I talked with Blue Springs South head track and field coaches Ryan Unruh and Troy Harding, as they look ahead to hosting the Rusty Hodge Invitational Friday night. Hear their thoughts on the former South coach and what they hope to see from their teams by clicking on the 'Interviews' tab.

Daily Scores

Click on the Blue Springs and Blue Springs South tabs to see results from Wednesday's action, as both the Blue Springs South and Blue Springs golf teams were in action. Also squaring off was the Blue Springs South tennis team at Truman.

Daily Scores

Click on the Blue Springs and Blue Springs South tabs to see other action from Tuesday, including Blue Springs South baseball, girls soccer and Blue Springs tennis.

Late first half goal propels Panthers past Wildcats

All it took was one mistake for the Blue Springs girls soccer team to feel like its first half performance went from a mild success to a disappointment.

Trailing 1-0 at home to Ray-Pec Tuesday night, the Wildcats let the Panthers push home a goal in the final 5 minutes of the first half, take a 2-0 lead into the break and use that momentum for an eventual 8-0 win.

Blue Springs senior Bailey Hensley, left, battles for
possession with Ray-Pec's Katy Mueller during Tuesday's
home game. The Wildcats lost 8-0. 

“It all went wrong with four minutes left before halftime. It was 1-0 and we were fine,” Wildcats head coach Doug McLagan said. “But we gave up a sloppy goal.

“The name of the game for us is to stay in it as long as we can. We were just on plan and if we could have continued to do that in the second half we could have chased in the last 15 minutes, but that took the wind out of us.”

While 2-0 isn’t an insurmountable lead, Wildcats senior Bailey Hensley admitted it made the task at hand more difficult.

“It’s not like basketball where 10 points is still close,” Hensley said of the score being 2-0 compared to just 1-0. “We thought this was a team we could stay with. In the end we had a lack of experience.”

The Wildcats have already had trouble scoring this season with just three goals in five games. Throw in the fact that the teams best offensive player – Hensley – played a good portion of the game as a defender to help tighten things up didn’t help the attack.

McLagan moved Hensley up to the forward position to start the second half but a pair of quick goals by the Panthers forced her to move back to the defensive side of the ball.

“In the second half we were hoping to see if we could open it up,” McLagan said. “But if she’s (Hensley) up front and she doesn’t see the ball that’s a waste of a player.”

Blue Springs freshman Shilah Rainey and Ray-Pec's Katy
Mueller chase down the ball during Tuesday's game. 

Once the ball started rolling for Ray-Pec it was hard for the Wildcats to stop it, as the Panthers ended up scoring four goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half to put the game away.

“We’ve played some good teams and that didn’t happen,” McLagan said of the second half outburst by the Panthers. “We’ve been a strong defensive team. When you get behind you have to find three or four goals. That’s tough mentally.”

The loss dropped the Wildcats to 0-4-1, as they have had a flurry of games against some tough competition including Liberty, Kearney and Lee’s Summit West.

Add in a number of freshmen and sophomores on the field at once and it’s been a bit of a perfect storm in the early part of the season.

Blue Springs junior Beka Lowrey fights off
a Ray-Pec defender during Tuesday's game.

“We are back to the fundamentals,” McLagan said. “We’re learning defense and staying in games. I would love to attack with three forwards but we don’t have that right now.

“We’ve improved already, from game one to right now. The young girls are getting game experience.”

 The slew of younger players has put more of an onus on the veteran Hensley.

“I have a chance to make these girls better,” she said.

And she feels the younger players are the kind that want to get better and will get better as the season moves forward.

“Especially for the freshmen this is a learning experience,” Hensley said. “As bad as it sounds, it was good to get beat 8-0. We will come back harder and stronger. This year this freshmen group isn’t scared to challenge the older girls. They’re making us better. Our time will come.” 

Daily Scores

Click on the Blue Springs and Blue Springs South tabs to see other action from Monday, including Blue Springs South baseball, Blue Springs tennis and both golf teams.

South tennis can't slow down Rockhurst

The final score may not have suggested it but there were some positives, and more importantly, plenty of lessons to learn and things to take away from a 9-0 loss to Rockhurst for the Blue Springs South boys tennis team Monday afternoon.

Blue Springs South's Chris Hammond hits
a forehand during Monday's match
against Rockhurst.

“The scores weren’t real fantastic but there were definitely a lot of positives,” South No. 1 Chris Hammond said. “We’re not in midseason form but we’re striking the ball well.”

Even if the Jaguars had been in midseason form, taking on the Hawklets was going to be a tall task, especially in the first match of the season.

As expected, head coach Sheri Rehmer saw plenty of ups and downs.

“We know they’re a high-caliber team,” Rehmer said of Rockhurst. “I wanted to see some good points. I wanted to see how well we’d manage the game and at times we did well, and at times we looked a little intimidated.”

This match may end up being one of the few times this season the Jaguars will struggle to win games.

With that being the case, South’s mental toughness was tested throughout the match.

“You have to try and think about what you can control, not what you can’t control,” Hammond said. “Tennis is about hitting great shots under pressure. The mental side makes the difference. They’re just mentally tougher in matches than we are.

“We all will improve and we’ll be in these situations again.”

Rehmer pointed to sophomore Paul Province’s match – South’s No. 2 who she said has “made a big jump this year” – in which he was leading 4-1 in the first set before he began to struggle, eventually losing in two sets.

                                                                                                       

Blue Springs South's Paul Province hits a forehand during
Monday's match against Rockhurst.

“Especially when they get down, they have to have faith in their strokes,” Rehmer said. “Paul lost a few games and lost a little confidence. It snowballed and he got unsure.”

But as Rehmer and Hammond both pointed out, not everything was negative.

Along with Province starting well in singles, Hammond and John Duffy led a solid showing in doubles. Any positive shots, games or sets were something to build off of.

Blue Springs South's John Duffy waits for the ball during
his doubles match with partner Chris Hammond against
Rockhurst Monday. 

“We got a few games here and there in doubles. The kids didn’t back down,” Rehmer said. “You want to remember the point you had. Duffy had two aces against the No. 6 kid in the state. You can draw from those instances.”

South hopes to do just that as they chase conference and district titles again this season.

And with everyone back with an extra year of experience, Hammond is hopeful for good things.

“With a lot of the guys we’re hitting at a higher level than we were at this point last year,” he said. “Our mentality is that we know we can do it. We’re more mature than we were last year.

“We’re looking to defense those titles. That’s a big goal for everybody."

Blue Springs track and field teams start season strong

Both the boys and girls track and field teams at Blue Springs got an early start to their seasons Monday at the University of Central Missouri Indoor Meet.

See how they faired by clicking on the Blue Springs tab.

Lady Jags soccer falls in opener

The Blue Springs South girls soccer team put together a spirited effort in its season-opener Friday before eventually dropping a 3-2 decision to Raytown.

Click on the Blue Springs South tab for the full story.