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Commentary by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Was this the greatest overall sports season in Wellington High School history? 

It is hard to argue when Wellington won three state championships during the 1982-83 season, that you would have to give that season the nod.

But from an overall totality concerning every sport played from the fall to the spring season, 2021-22 most certainly is in the conversation. It most certainly is as good as any season in this century. 

Yes, we had some bad teams. Our team-oriented boys’ teams continue to struggle. And some groups were so utterly forgettable that for the life of me I can’t remember what they accomplished. 

But we had a lot of firsts:

Wellington girls win the track regional in El Dorado. (Courtesy photo by Connor Walker)

•The girls won their first regional track championship in history.

•The boys cross country team qualified for state as a team for the first time since 1989. 

•The girls wrestling team grabbed another league title and came close to winning a state trophy. 

•Our boys golf team finished second at state marking a third-straight team state placing. 

•The girls tennis team also won a state runner-up championship last fall, marking the first time it ever did so. 

•Our girls basketball team went undefeated and finished with an improbable fourth-place finish. 

Hagen Wright wins the Class 4A state championship. The first WHS wrestler to do so since the late 2000s.

•Our boys tennis team tied for third but lost the tie-breaker.

•Individually, Wellington’s Hagen Wright won the state championship in the Class 4A 285-pound weight class.

•Anna Cullens won two more state championships in the 100 and 300 hurdles. She now has four to her name.

•And there were others who placed very highly at state.

Granted, this didn’t account for the multitude of middle school league championships – too numerous to mention. 

But here’s the thing. It could have been even better. As much success as the WHS sports programs had this year, they also were riddled with controversy.

There is an old saying, “If ‘if’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas.” 

Ok. That’s true. But I’m going to throw out a few ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ anyway because that is ultimately part of the news story. 

I can think of five incidents where had things broken one way, WHS students could have enjoyed more hardware and success. 

Ali Zeka gets third in long jump Friday leading to Wellington’s possible team state placing on Saturday.

1- Girls track – There is no doubt heading into Saturday of the two-day state track meet in Wichita, Wellington stood a really good chance of winning a third-place trophy. There was no way they could have overtaken Andale or come close to Eudora in the team standings, but third place was very attainable. In the end they finished 10 points behind Clearwater for seventh.

Wellington sensation Anna Cullens is incredible, having won two state championships in the 100 and 300 hurdles. But she was nursing a sore ankle after a fall in the 100 hurdles. She would limp in for a fifth-place finish in the 100-meter run about three hours later. Her sights were on a third state championship since she came into the track meet as the top seed.

Then there was a bad baton exchange in the 4×100 meter relay finals that dropped the team – consisting of Cullens, Ali Zeka, Kami Reichenberger, and Ashlyn Gerten – from third to eighth place, costing the team six valuable team points. You give Wellington those 12 extra points and the Crusaders would have snagged a trophy.

2- Boys golf – There is a really good chance Wellington could have overtaken Bishop Miege on the second day of the two-day competition at the Class 4A State tournament in Newton. After the first day, Wellington was just four strokes behind Miege. and that was with Wellington ace Deitrek Gill having a sub-par Monday.

But the rain came and Sand Creek Station Golf Course was deemed too wet to play. The tournament was called and the Day 1 scores were finalized. Had there been a day two, maybe the sun would have shined brightly on Wellington. Then again, maybe not. We will never know.

Jax Cornejo finished fourth at the state tennis tournament.

3- Boys tennis – This team was the victim of two bad tie-breakers. In the regional championship at Sellers Park, the Crusaders tied Winfield but lost the tiebreaker because the Vikings had more finalists in the semifinals. Ultimately, Wellington would out-point the Vikings in the Class 4A state tennis tournament in Winfield. But Wellington failed to bring home any hardware because it tied Topeka Hayden. The tie-breaking rules there gave it to Hayden because it had had more players who placed scoring points than Wellington. 

Had Wellington won one more match in either tournament, they would have won the regional or placed third at state. 

Anna Cullens had her hands full against Mulvane freshman Leiannah Landreth in the early going of the season.

4- Girls wrestling – This one involved Cullens… again, who was the top-ranked wrestler at 101 pounds. But she didn’t make weight at the Division II State Wrestling Tournament weigh-in. 

Wellington head coach Mitch McComb said she was 10 pounds over two days before the tournament because of the natural weight fluctuation of a woman’s cycle. She spent 24 hours running and starving herself but came .8 of a pound short of making the 103-pound weight class, thus getting disqualified. 

It was likely Cullens would have gone on to win a state championship and give Wellington enough points to garner a trophy.

High school girls wrestling is a new sport in Kansas. So we should forgive those in charge because of a learning curve. 

But this is an issue that needs to be addressed by the KSHSAA. Girls are playing by weight rules made for boys. It isn’t fair. And this might be the one time where the men in charge should defer to women in making a new rule.

Wellington team after winning the sub-state championship. (Click to enlarge)

5- Girls basketball – I have to admit, this season came unexpectedly. Wellington has had three other girls’ teams that had similar success. But this one came out of the blue. They opened as the No. 8 team in Class 4A in the preseason Kansas Basketball Coaches Association poll – which I thought at the time was extremely optimistic – and then spent the season exceeding those preseason expectations. They went undefeated during the regular season, winning its second league title, and finishing fourth at state. 

But I just wonder what would have happened had Wellington not squared off with Bishop Miege, this Kansas City private-school behemoth in the semifinals, that basically took the Crusaders (and everyone else) for a tail kicking. 

I’m not saying Wellington would have won the state championship without Miege. In fact, I think there was a one in seven chance of them winning it all. That was how evenly matched the other seven public schools were in this tournament. It would have made for a really fun tournament, though. But it was a moot point because Bishop Miege was so much better. 

Thankfully, the KSHSAA is currently considering a state modifier that would give private schools a 1.5 per student count and would kick Miege back into 5A. It has not passed yet because there are a lot of hurdles to jump through. 

———

Luke Smith

So overall it was quite a good year for Wellington. I know I forgot someone or something.  For that, I apologize. 

But in this age of negativity, it is time to salute our WHS athletes for accomplishing a lot.

And let’s give a shout-out to Wellington activities director Luke Smith, who was there to witness it all. He is the best A.D. in the state of Kansas and Wellington is losing him to Maize South.