by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington High School volleyball team garnered a split in Clearwater Tuesday afternoon, the Wellington girls tennis team placed second in the Conway Springs Invitational, and an update from Thursday’s Wellington Middle School football game…

WHS Volleyball:

The WHS girls split at Clearwater, taking down Augusta once again 25-22 and 25-23 in the first match. The Crusaders then lost to Clearwater 25-15, 25-19. 

“The girls played really well and it was nice to see them keep their composure and finish a pressure match,” said Cherity Elder, Wellington head girls volleyball coach. “I really like to see the amount of swings we’re getting on the ball.  We are really working on turning those into kills.”

The girls had over 20 hitting attempts during the Augusta match.  Siarah Walker, Micah Rogers, and Kaity Ledbetter all had two kills in the first set.

“It’s nice I have options so we can split up the other teams blockers,” Elder said.

Against Clearwater, Elder said the girls played good volleyball but the passing killed the Crusaders.

“Against teams like Clearwater it comes down to who makes the fewest amounts of errors,” Elder said. “We get the chance to see Clearwater again at the Chaparral tournament so hopefully we can get some better results.”

Elders said Wellington is getting close to 30 attempts at the ball but are just are finishing the hits.

“Once we start doing that we will be finishing teams off without a doubt,” Elder said.

Wellington is 6-6 on the season.

“I’m very proud of the girls, and I can’t wait to see what we can do the rest of season,” she said.

WHS and Conway Springs Tennis:

The Wellington High School varsity squad traveled to the Conway Springs quad Tuesday afternoon and came back with a second place finish.

The results are as follows:

Conway Springs 28

Wellington       14

Goddard Eisenhower  13

South Barber  5

Individual statistics were:

No. 1 singles Maggie Fink, 2-1, 2nd place.

No. 1 doubles Jaden Dejarnett & Cajen Shore, 2-1, 2nd Place.

No. 2 singles Dietra Sober, 3rd Place.

For Conway Springs the results are as follows:

#1 Singles Heather Koester 3-0 1st place, #2 Singles Cece Robinson 2-1, 2nd, #1 doubles Brittany Pauly and JulieAnn Winter, 1st, 3-0
#2 Doubles: Kiana Finstad/Kalie Jones, 3-0, 1st Place.

WMS Football:

The Wellington Middle School football teams have played two games. The seventh grade is now 2-0 with a 20-6 victory over Mulvane and 36-0 victory over Clearwater.

The eighth grade is 1-1 after beating Mulvane 16-8 and losing to Clearwater 20-14 in overtime.

Here is a synopsis of the season so far by Brandon Wilmoth, WMS head football coach:

Seventh grade:

“The seventh grade team has the season clicking in the right direction.  We have some players that know how to get the ball and get it up field.  

As always it takes awhile to get everyone going in the same direction but this group of players is picking up the system quicker than years past.  We as coaches only have 13 practices to get everything in before we play our first game so it is challenging when some players have never played football. We spend a lot of day four (first day with pads) just helping kids learn how to put in their pads correctly

The 7th grade coaches have been doing an outstanding job.  I’m very happy with the outcome so far and I think this team has what it takes to bring home a league title.”

Eighth grade:

“The key word for this year so far is “Rocky”.  The Mulvane game was a rough one.  We put the ball on the ground way too many times and did not come out to play early.  But lucky enough for us we made some half time adjustments and where able to come back and get the win.  It’s always tough to get that first win and the boys buckled down and play hard to get it.

  Clearwater, unfortunately, we came up a little short in overtime.  We came out strong an got an early lead but as the game went on we got tired, had some key injuries and we let them back in the game.  I will take that lose on my shoulders and only my shoulders.  We had some player’s play their hearts out. We just could not get over the hump in overtime.  It’s one of those games as a coach you second guess yourself the whole ride home and the whole next week until your next game.   

  We have lost a couple of players now for the year and we will have to wait and see how some other players can step up a fill these roles.  Us as coaches are going to do a little tweaking to playbook and hopefully be able to get some more wins through out the season. 

On a high note we have over 70 players combined in the middle school program so the numbers are coming back.”

The Knights will play host to Winfield on this Thursday. The seventh grade plays at 5 p.m. and the eighth grade follows at 6:30 p.m.