Kansas Class 6A Hutchinson Sites

<p>This will be my first go-around at covering Kansas postseason and it should be a good one. Kansas utilizes a host site location, however, the 4 "substates" are hosted by the higher-ranked teams in each quadrant. The top overall seed for this site is Topeka Washburn Rural at 36-0. They are followed by 37-1 Wichita Northwest, whose sole loss came to Rural. The third seed and host is Hutchinson, sporting a 29-5 record. And the fourth seed will be Lawrence Freestate and their 22-9 Record. </p> <p><strong>Washburn Rural Substate</strong></p> <p>Rural will sit and wait for the winner of the play-in match between Topeka High and Wichita South. We will go with Topeka since they have five more wins than South’s one on the season. The two Topeka teams will face off and Rural will play for the substate title. The Blues don’t update their stats but we do know a few players from the club circuit. Their leader is Kentucky commit [player_tooltip player_id="120008" first="Brooklyn" last="DeLeye"]. Taylor Russel and [player_tooltip player_id="119699" first="Zoe" last="Canfield"] are also names we highlighted often last spring. </p> <p>Garden City and Wichita Southeast will go to war in the other matchup. Garden City had a strong 2020 season and that experience should be enough to take down Southeast in this 8 vs. 9 match. Garden City is forced to make the haul to Topeka, so we’ll see what effect if any this has on their performance. Freshman Piper Harris has had a strong debut season for Garden City with 278 kills and playing in every set. Senior setter Mya Delacruz has 637 assists this fall. While it’s a freshman leading the charge for Garden City, Senior Penelope Johnson is the counterpart for Wichita Southeast. She has just under 200 kills to lead the offense. Senior Maricelle Gallegos has been the defensive spark plug, with 252 digs. We like Garden City in this matchup. </p> <p>In the finals look for Washburn Rural to sweep for the substate title and berth to the state tournament. </p> <p><strong>Wichita Northwest Substate</strong></p> <p>We highlighted at the top, one blemish on the record for Northwest and it came to Washburn Rural. They are chomping at the opportunity to face them again next week. Unfortunately, we aren’t having success with the stats link to know who are the statistical categories. Coming into the season we knew the Stucky sisters, Senior Caiya and Sophomore Camdyn would play a role. Add in the junior setter [player_tooltip player_id="120034" first="Brailee" last="Bogle"], we knew the team had some weapons. They will await the winner of the play-in between Dodge City and Wichita West. Since West is winless, we expect Dodge City to get their fourth win of the season but their run ends with Wichita Northwest.</p> <p>The 7 versus 10 match features Liberal (18-15) taking on Manhattan (11-20). Liberal had an 8 game winning streak this month that includes a win over Garden City. Look for Senior Bree Horyna to score points for Liberal. Manhattan has 20 losses but their schedule was no slouch facing the likes of Lansing, Olathe Northwest, Blue Valley, St. James, and Washburn Rural to name a handful. Will those tough losses be what allows them to get a first-round win? Senior Claire Shamburg and Sophomore Tatum Tindell will try to power the team to a win. Manhattan’s schedule makes this an intriguing match. You know what? Let’s do it, Manhattan with the upset. </p> <p>Manhattan’s joy will quickly turn to sadness as Wichita Northwest will win in three to advance to state. </p> <p><strong>Hutchinson Substate</strong></p> <p>The host Hutch will be the top seed in their quadrant and will play Wichita Heights out the gate. With a 29-5 record, the team has found success with 14 wins to open the season. Two of their five defeats came to Maize South. Juniors [player_tooltip player_id="122207" first="Maliyah" last="Johnson"] and Mya Thompson lead the offensive assault combining for over 500 kills. Freshman Grace Posch has been a solid addition this year with 256 digs. Senior [player_tooltip player_id="123110" first="Kaitlin" last="Yoder"] has 241 of her own to go with over 700 assists from the setter position. Heights are 6-25 on the season. They don’t update their stats for us to provide any insight on their top players. Hutchinson will take care of business in this opening game. </p> <p>Wichita East and Wichita North will travel to Hutch for the 6 vs. 11 showdown. East at 19-15 has many quality opponents on their schedule and should win this contest. The two teams have seen each other twice this year with East getting both wins. </p> <p>Hutchinson will win this substate over Wichita East. </p> <p><strong>Lawrence Free State Substate</strong></p> <p>The fourth seed and final host will be Lawrence Free State. At 22-9, they have the resume and players to advance to state. This is another team in which we don’t get to caught up on their loss number due to the teams they play throughout the season. [player_tooltip player_id="120009" first="Aubrey" last="Duncan"], [player_tooltip player_id="120010" first="Sawyer" last="Thomsen"], and Myla Norer-Estes have been a solid trio offensively. Add in sophomore Fiona VanDyke, they have enough arms to make a late-season push. Junior [player_tooltip player_id="120033" first="Rylee" last="Unruh"] has done a good job spreading the ball around from the setter position. Haysville-Campus will be the opening opponent for Free-State coming in with a 7-23 record. It’s been a tough October and that will continue with a Free State victory.</p> <p>5th seed Derby will take on the 12 seed Junction City. If this was March Madness you may be included to pick the 12 seed. I suggest you don’t do that here. Derby will win this one going away behind the arms of [player_tooltip player_id="105640" first="Tatum" last="Boettjer"] and Callie Snowbarger. Sophomore Addison Foster has been all over the court, evidenced by her close to 400 digs. Setter Sydney Henning is closing in on 700 assists for the year. </p> <p>This 4 versus 5 match-up will be a good one. As we lifted up Free State’s schedule of opponents earlier, we can do the same for Derby. Their 11 losses include Hutchinson, Maize South, Wichita Northwest, and Washburn Rural. This is one we could flip a coin on. We will give the slight advantage to the home team in Free State but won’t be surprised if Derby won. See what we did there? </p>