Wrestlers excel at BVNW Husky Invitational
With three wrestlers in championship bouts last Saturday, Blue Valley Northwest finished second in its own BVNW Husky Invitational.
Manhattan finished first in the team standings.
BV Northwest’s Max Tierney and Blake Johnson won individual titles in the 170- and 220-pound weight classes, respectively. Tierney won a 5-4 decision against Raytown South’s Ottis Peeler. Johnson topped Olathe East’s Kevin Easterwood in a 3-2 victory. Sam Elliott of BV Northwest added a runner-up finish in the 132-pound weight class.
Olathe South’s Jace Koelzer (106 pounds) and Nick Jouret (160), Blue Valley’s Tanner Madl (152) and Shawnee Mission West’s Jose Montoya (195) also won weight-class titles.
Olathe East bowling update
The Olathe East High School boys bowling team lost five of its six state participants from last season, but that has not slowed down the Hawks this winter.
Olathe East scored 2,500 points in its first two meets and has three bowlers averaging scores of 200 or higher.
“They were ready to do this, but I had a log jam at the top,” Hawks coach Chuck Thibodeau said. “I have two very good sophomores who were terrific as freshmen last year and they have grown a little bit, and then there’s two seniors who were ready to take the lead. It seems like the right time to get there.”
The two Olathe East seniors are Brody Reichle and Henry Cannon. Reichle is the lone returner from last season’s state team. The sophomores are Jared Sanders and Tanner Williams. Sanders owns a team-high 215 average and a high-game of 718.
As for the Olathe North girls bowling team, Abbi Coble is the leader with a 178 average. Katie Kritzler is a close second with 177.
Akalu earns elite award
Shawnee Mission North’s Belesti Akalu last week was named the Gatorade Kansas Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year.
He is the Indians’ first boys runner winner of the award.
Akalu won the Kansas Class 6A cross country state championship in 15 minutes, 43.4 seconds, which earned him The Star’s All-Metro boys cross country runner of the year award.
In the classroom, Akalu has a 3.34 weighted grade-point average. He will attend Iowa Central Community College.
This story was originally published January 28, 2016 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Wrestlers excel at BVNW Husky Invitational."