Dragons soccer season ends: sports roundup

By Bailey Pennycuff / Co-Sports Editor

The Hutchinson Community College women’s soccer team faced long-time rival Butler for the first round of the Region 6 Tournament on Saturday.

The Grizzlies punched first – it was a hard hit for the Blue Dragons. The Grizzlies scored two goals within the first 13 minutes. 

In an attempt for a comeback, freshman forward Charvelle Henry scored early in the second half for the Blue Dragons. However, Butler struck again to advance the score to 3-1. 

Freshman forward Esther Karhayu scored for the Blue Dragons later in the game, but it was not enough to move onto the regional semifinals. The final score was 3-2. 

Karhayu came close to tying the game with about five minutes remaining in the second half. Butler’s goalkeeper made an outstanding save on Karhayu’s shot, and freshman forward Samantha Vaughn got the rebound. For Hutch’s last shot of the game, Vaughn’s open-net shot just missed.

Hutchinson’s record for the 2019 season was 12-4. 

Volleyball – The volleyball team achieved their third consecutive win on Saturday, against Independence.

The Blue Dragons beat the Pirates in three sets, 25-15, 25-16, 25-10, and out-hit them .416-.014.

Not only that, but this win was also coach Patrick Hall’s 200th at Hutch. This puts his overall HutchCC coaching record at 200-104.

This improved Hutch to 13-17 overall and 9-6 in the Jayhawk West.

Freshman middle hitter Jaydin Schake had a career-high match and led the Blue Dragons in kills and attack percentage. She had 15 kills and a whopping .750 attack percentage, which ties her for the 10th highest in Hutch single-match history. Out of her 20 total attacks, she had no errors.

Schake was one of four Blue Dragons to hit at least .333 on Saturday.

Freshman Katelyn Elstun hit .444 on eight kills. Freshman Camila Espejo and freshman Jenna Thorne hit .333 with five kills.

The Blue Dragons closed out their 2019 regular season Monday at Barton. 

The match was a five-set heartbreaker, as Hutch lost 19-25, 25-20, 25-21, 187-25, 15-13.

Regardless of the turn out on Monday, the win against Independence entitles the Blue Dragons to a home match for the opening round of the 2019 Region 6 tournament on Nov. 7. 

Men’s Cross Country – Sophomores Sylvestre Kibarar and Andrew Kibet displayed top-five Region 6 performances to lead the men’s cross country team on Saturday.

Kibarar finished fourth and Kibet finished fifth.

Hutchinson had three Top 10 finishes (freshman Teagan Flanagan was 10th) and finished second overall.

Cloud County – also in the Jayhawk West – had four runners place in the Top 10. In an attempt to describe the intensity of the Jayhawk West conference, nine of the top ten runners in the region came from the Jayhawk West.

Kibarar ran a time of 24:56.17 to place fourth in both the region and conference.

Kibet, the 2018 Region 6 champion, was fifth on Saturday with a time of 25:00.88

For the second straight season, both Kibarar and Kibet earn All-Region VI and All-Jayhawk West honors.

Flanagan had another big performance for the Blue Dragons on Saturday, placing 10th in the region and ninth in the conference with an 8,000-meter time of 26:08.06. Flanagan also earned all-region and all-league honors.

The Blue Dragons will now compete in the NJCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country National Championship on Nov. 11 in Albuquerque.

Women’s Cross Country – Sophomores Sheila Too and Gabby Collins both placed in the top 10 at the Region 6 Cross Country Championship on Saturday to lead No. 15-ranked Hutchinson Community College.

The women finished fourth in the regional results, and, the same as the men, were the Jayhawk West runner-up.

Too and Collins earned All-Region and All-Jayhawk West honors.

Too finished seventh in the region and third in the conference with a time of 19:57.20.

This was the second consecutive year Collins earned all-region and all-league honors. She finished 10th in the region and fifth in the conference with a time of 20:28.17.

Football – Ranked at No. 3, Hutchinson Community College viciously defeated RPA on Oct. 23.

Nine different Hutch players scored touchdowns throughout the game, resulting in an 89-0 win for the final regular-season home game of the 2019 season.

This was the first time in team history the Blue Dragons scored 80 or more points in back-to-back games – the Blue Dragons scored 85 points in the game against Dodge City the previous week

In the three games HutchCC has played against RPA, the Blue Dragons have outscored the Wildcats 262-0.

The lock-down Blue Dragon defense held RPA to 43 yards on 56 carries – an opponent season-low. The Wildcats ran for a negative-1 yard for the night.

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