by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Five Sporting Things in Sumner County…

Ali Zeka v. McPherson

1 – Wellington girls place fourth

The Wellington girls basketball team finished fourth in the Mid-America Classic Tournament in McPherson after losing to Wichita Southeast 52-38 Saturday afternoon. 

The Crusaders went 1-2 in the tournament and now 7-5 overall. Nevertheless, Wellington head coach Eric Adams was happy.

“Anytime you go into a tournament like this, there is this fear you are going to go 0-fer,” Adams said. “I consider this the toughest girls tournament in the state. We were the smallest school there and every 5A and 6A school had a winning record.”

Adams said this will be Wellington’s last appearance in the tournament. The program is looking elsewhere next season for a mid-season tournament. While the boys have been stationary in the Chaparral Tournament, the girls have been more nomadic – having played in tournaments in Mulvane, Haven and McPherson. Next year will be its fourth tournament in a decade. 

“McPherson is a great tournament, perhaps, too great,” Adams said. “The postseason depends more on records and it does us no good playing these 6A and 5A schools and potentially sacrificing our seeding. The (Ark Valley Chisholm Trail) League is tough enough.”

Some postscript notes from last weekend’s tournament, Ali Zeka was named to the all-tournament team.

And those who scored for Wellington against W. Southeast were: Rylee Rusk 11, Shiney Hughes 8, Ali Zeka 8, Ashlyn Gerten 8, Airalyn Frame 2 and Mikiland French 1.

2— Busy week for Wellington boys

Wellington boys will be playing three games this week: tonight at Conway Springs, Friday for homecoming night vs. El Dorado. And then the Crusaders will be traveling to Wichita Trinity for a Saturday afternoon game.

There is an opportunity for Wellington to get on a run. The Crusaders are currently 5-6 but will or has played Conway Springs that is 2-7, El Dorado at 2-10, and Wichita Trinity at 5-2 – but young and plays in Class 3A.

The Crusaders will be without Tanner Meyer tonight, but he should be in the lineup on Friday.

Wellington will need to get as many wins as possible before the second half of the AV-CTL DIV schedule begins. Collegiate is 10-2 and Mulvane is 11-1. Rose Hill is 6-5, Andale is fast-improving at 4-8, and Clearwater finally has a full squad at 4-8. Remember, Clearwater was a preseason top 10 team, coming off an outstanding football season before COVID and injuries decimated the team for the first half of the season.

Kaitlin Hain (right) lost her first match on Saturday but remain in the top 10. (File photo).

3— Wrestling starts post-season

Guess what? It’s post-season wrestling time. It all begins Feb. 5 with the girls’ division II district tournaments in Rose Hill. This is all courtesy of the coronavirus and limiting the size of the tournaments to eight teams per tournament and 112 participants.

Normally, there are two tournaments: regional and state with each of the 14 weight divisions getting as many as 16 wrestlers. But with social distancing at a premium, the KSHSAA multiplied the tournaments times two to keep it at eight-person brackets.

So there will be a district, regional, sub-state, and state tournament every weekend. In order for the wrestlers to advance, they must finish in the top four in every tournament. Think of it as a pie. Nothing has actually changed except you are cutting the pie up in twice as many pieces. The first round of sub-state will be exactly like the first round of state in traditional years.

Wellington girls open district at Rose Hill. Wellington head coach Mitch McComb anticipates all nine will probably get through to the second round with only two weight division brackets having more than five wrestlers. The Crusaders will have the largest number of girls wrestlers in the district with nine. Anna Cullens continues to be ranked No. 1 at 109 for division II in the latest Kansas Wrestler Coaches Association poll. Kaitlyn Hain is ranked No. 3 at 132 pounds.

On the boys’ side, Wellington has a tough row to hoe. McComb said he finished with his worst dual record since becoming head coach nine years ago and getting through four tournaments in south-central Kansas will be vicious.

“I have been giving up at least four weight classes every dual,” he said. “In a best-case scenario we could have 12 wrestlers on the mat for our team, but I’ve never had that.”

He anticipates he will have 10 boys for the district tournament in Rose Hill this Saturday. Hagen Wright, at heavyweight, is ranked No. 5 in Class 4A. He should advance to the regional next week.

“The other nine starting wrestlers will have some work to do,” he said.

4 — Ugh, Covid… 

If there is a high school team out there in Sumner County that hasn’t been affected one way or the other because of COVID, we don’t know of any.

Currently, the Oxford teams are out until Feb. 9 because of COVID quarantine. The South Haven teams did not play West Elk on Friday. Caldwell teams are back after a two-week layoff. Here are the SCBL standings as of Feb. 1.

5 — This week’s sports schedule…

Of course, it is subject to change at a moment’s notice…

Wellington High School 

Wellington Middle School

Outer Sumner County

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