Sports Ink., June 2015 by The Hays Daily News

A magazine focusing on all things sports in northwest Kansas

INK. June 2015

Rwithunning purpose Talented on the track, small school Natoma keeps its Tiger name in the mix. The Hays Daily News

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What’s up?

A look inside this issue

Who’s that? Notable

performances from northwest Kansas.

5 B

atter up

Victoria’s Brady Dinkel sits down for this month’s Q&A

Ready to run

Natoma might be small, but it still has produced some top-tier athletes

Making a name

Though FHSU’s Brady Tien broke an old record, the previous

record-holder

In fine form Austin Colbert, Sports Ink. Victoria freshman Cooper Pfanenstiel competes in the long jump at the Goldsmith Relays on May 1 in WaKeeney.

is still on campus.

Sports Ink. contributors: Nick McQueen nmcqueen@dailynews.net Austin Colbert acolbert@dailynews.net Jolie Green jgreen@dailynews.net On the cover: Natoma’s Jacob Chambray, left, and Bryce Ginther, run during practice in early May at the Natoma High School track. photo by Jolie Green. Volume 5, Issue 4 Sports Ink. is published and distributed by The Hays Daily News. Copyright © 2015 Harris Enterprises. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Sports Ink. is a registered trademark of The Hays Daily News, 507 Main, Hays, KS 67601 (785) 628-1081.

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Notable performances in northwest Kansas Kolt Newell

Newell, a senior at Plainville High School, was the area’s top high-jumper as of May 12, clearing 6 feet, 9 inches. That mark was the highest in Class 2A through May 12, and the third-highest in the state, regardless of classification. The only marks better were 7-0 and 6-10 by 4A and 6A jumpers. Newell cleared 6-4 to win the Goldsmith Relays in WaKeeney on May 1. He also cleared 6-7 to win the Ness City Invitational.

Demi Murray

Murray, a standout thrower from Oberlin-Decatur Community High School, had the state’s second-best mark in the javelin through May 12. The senior’s mark of 151 feet, 10.5 inches at the St. Francis Invitational, was the 13th all-time best throw in the state, according to Kansas historian Carol Swenson. The mark leads 2A this season. Murray also had the third-best throw in the discus among the area’s throwers. She threw 110-6 in the Quinter Invitational on April 7.

Andrea Browne

A junior at Colby High School, Browne recorded the best times in the area through May 12 in the 1,600-meter and the 3,200-meter runs. Her time of 5 minutes, 28.23 seconds was good for first place by three seconds in Colby’s own invitational May 8. Her area-best time of 11:56.50 took top honors in the 3,200 at the Goldsmith Relays on May 1 in WaKeeney. Browne, from time to time, also runs a leg of the Eagle’s 1,600-meter relay team, which stood second among area teams with a time of 4:13.78, as of May 12.

Brandon Bollig

In a 15-0, 3-inning win against Minneola on May 8, the senior pitcher for the Ellis High School baseball team was nearly untouchable in three innings. He gave up two hits, but struck out eight with no walks on just 33 pitches. A week earlier in a 6-2 win against Ulysses, Bollig pitched a complete game. He threw 109 pitches, giving up nine hits with six strikeouts to just one walk. After a split with Minneola on May 8, Ellis was 10-6, looking to make a return trip to the Class 2A state baseball tournament in Great Bend.

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AND BRADY DINKEL

Brady Dinkel is a junior at Victoria High School. A multi-sport athlete, Brady was the starting quarterback for the Knights’ Eight-Man Division II state championship football team in the fall. His father, Kurt, was also a state champion QB for the Knights and coached Brady to a pair of K-18 state championships in baseball. During the winter, Brady plays basketball for Victoria and during the spring is part of the Russell-Victoria cooperative in baseball, which took third at state his sophomore season.

What has this baseball season been like coming off last year’s success? “We started out good. We won our first couple of games and then we had some rough losses to Hays High, which I think we bounced back from pretty well. We just won our league last Friday. I think we should do pretty good the rest of the season. We got a lot of potential, I guess you could say. A lot of talent. So that always helps.” Has there been more pressure this season because of last year’s run at state? “Not really. I know people don’t always think Russell is the best at sports and we are kind of the underdog. I don’t really think there is much pressure. We just go out and do what we can.” “I think there were a lot of people that didn’t follow us throughout the year that were surprised at how well we did. But all the players and all the coaches pretty much knew what we were capable of and we went out and showed it.” How has the Russell-Victoria baseball dynamic been as a player? “The first year we didn’t really know each other. This is our third year and everyone is pretty good friends. We do a lot together and that helps a lot with understanding each other. They welcomed us well. I didn’t feel like there was any favoritism going on. Whoever the better player was would play.” What did it mean for you to win a state championship in football? “It’s something I always dreamed about doing. My dad won a state title when he played. He was a quarterback. We put a lot of work in in the weight room during the offseason, doing a lot of drills and stuff. Coach really pushes us as hard as he can to get the best out of us.” What did your father say to you after winning the state title game?

with

VICTORIA JUNIOR

Interview, photo by Austin Colbert

“I don’t even know if we said anything, but it was a pretty emotional moment.” Are your expectations high for your senior season? “For football, we are going to have a target on our back. Everyone is going to want to beat us. Everyone is going to expect us to win, I think. I guess we’ll just go out there and do what we can.” Did you enjoy playing for your dad as a K-18 baseball player? “Yes, other than the times he was yelling at me for doing something wrong or striking out or something. But yes, we have a lot of fun together.” “He pushes me pretty hard to be the best I can. I don’t want to say that I don’t like it, because it helps me.” You say your grandpa got you into hunting. What is it about the sport you like? “I guess a lot of times you go out and you don’t kill anything. It’s just the moment that you do, that sometimes you get the opportunity to shoot an arrow or shoot a gun that is really special.” Have you thought about your plans for after high school? “I’d like to play sports at the next level. It doesn’t really matter what sport it is. But I haven’t put much thought into it yet.” What are your plans for this summer? “I’ll probably play some Legion baseball with Russell. There is a camp in Denver I am going to go to for football. Then our school always puts on a football camp and basketball camp.” Do you feel it’s more difficult to get college recruiters after you coming from a small school like Victoria? “No. As long as you are good enough people will recognize it. You just got to get out there and get your name out and go to camps like the one I’m going to and people will see it hopefully.”

A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT Dream

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Hosting a hunting show

Tom Brady

Hunting in Alberta, Canada

Big Bang Theory

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June 2015

Page 5

R unnin with purpo Story by Nick McQueen Photos by Jolie Green

n the fall of 2013, members of the Natoma High School boys’ cross country team recalled showing up to a meet at Ellsworth High School. Then a junior, the Tigers’ Bryce Ginther remembered everyone wondering: ‘”Where’s Natoma?” It wasn’t that people were not

Page 6

map-savvy or unaware of the communities that surround them. But given the fact Natoma hadn’t fielded a cross country team in nearly a decade, it might have been a legit question. It didn’t take long for them to find the answer. With its first team in nine years, Natoma burst onto the cross counJune 2015

try scene in 2013 with a third-place showing at the Class 1A state run at Wamego Country Club. Led by an all-state performance for then-junior Jacob Chambray, Natoma was just nine points shy of PAGE 8 claiming a state championship. SPORTS SPORTS INK. INK.

ose

“You have to train as hard as you can to get up to the level you need to be to make it to state. have the selection.

We don’t

We’re a little school, but we’re trying.” Bryce Ginther, Natoma senior

Natoma seniors Bryce Ginther, left, and Jacob Chambray.

Natoma High School track and field head coach Kurt Grafel blows a whistle signaling the next group during warmups at practice May 4 in Natoma.

“I think we just all agreed we would try and get a team together, and we did,” Chambray said. “I think we ended up surprising a lot of people as well as ourselves by getting third.” The next year, however, was no surprise. Last fall, Natoma put together a fantastic cross country season en route to the school’s first state championship of any kind in three decades — the previous being a boys’ basketball title in 1A in 1975. Natoma placed two — Chambray (fifth) and junior Joey Raat (10th) — on the all-state team, and scored 44 points, 11 better than the previous state champion Scandia-Pike Valley. “The main goal was just to do our best,” Chambray said. “From Day 1, after that very first meet, all of us finished maybe in the top six or seven in every meet. That was kind of the day we all decided we had something special, and we could do anything.” The team members also were juggling cross country and the school’s eight-man football team. The Tigers, a member of Eight-Man Division II, started the year with 10 players. However, injuries eventually took their toll, and Natoma had to forfeit the rest of its football season. That meant the runners could focus on their eventual state championship. If all went according to plan in last week’s Class 1A track and field regional, the two distance runners at the center of things — Chambray and Ginther — hope to end their prep careers with runs this weekend at the Kansas

State High School State Track and Field Championships at Wichita’s Cessna Stadium. “Jacob and Bryce, of course, have a real good shot in the distance,” said Kurt Grafel, in his fifth season at the helm of the Tigers’ track and field program. Grafel’s Tigers have enjoyed a string of state qualifiers in recent seasons at the state meet, despite facing a decline in numbers like so many other small schools in the area. In 2011, the Tigers had no qualifiers for the state finale. But each year since, Natoma has taken someone to Wichita. Last season, the Tigers took two relays and one individual on the boys’ side and three girls to the finale. “We’ve had good kids going every year,” Grafel said. And with Ginther, Raat and Chambray competing well this season, those kind of numbers weren’t out of the question again for the Tigers. While not dominating in any fashion, the Tigers have been consistent. “Mostly been trying to stick with Jacob in the 2-mile, and just kind of run with him,” Ginther said of his teammate. That idea has led to numerous secondand third-place finishes for the senior this season — behind Chambray, of course. But he also had hoped to add the 1,600 — albeit it would be a difficult task — to the list for the Tigers. Raat, while having the capability to run in the distance events and who eventually was going to run in the 3,200 relay, found most of his success this season

Tiger junior Joey Raat practices the high jump in Natoma.

in the jumps. More specifically, Raat was solid in the triple jump, where he reached 42 feet, 4 inches as a season-best heading into last week’s regional. Add to that list the possible qualification of Dean Masters, whose older brother, Tyler, was a standout 400 runner and state champion for the Tigers. Masters, while injured early in the season with a hamstring pull, was a possible state-qualifier in the same event this season, as well as a member of the Tigers’ 3,200-meter relay team. So even with just 47 students in the school this year, the possibility was there for the Tigers to send roughly 15 percent of their student population to the state

track meet in Wichita. “It’s not like a 6A school where you have a bunch of kids that try out, stuff like that to run,” Ginther said. “You have these people, and you have to try and make them the best you possibly can. You have to train as hard as you can to get up to the level you need to be to make it to state. We don’t have the selection.” Even some schools within the same classification have more than twice as many students. Still, teams like Natoma stay right there in the mix. “We’re a little school, but we’re trying,” Ginther said.

Continued on Page 10

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“There are less to choose from, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try as hard,” Chambray said. And the Tigers seemingly would have it no other way. A tight-knit group, everyone knows everyone else’s story. “You walk down the hallway, you know every single person’s name, you know where they’re going to school, and what they’re going to do after school,“ Ginther said. “At the lunch table, we only fill up like four or five tables.” The small group leads to a highly-involved community as well. “Our community is just very supportive,” said Kourtney Grafel, the coach’s daughter and three-time state medalist in the high jump. “Since we’re so small, the majority of our school usually attends our track meets. It really helps having your community behind you.” While some of the team members

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Natoma High School juniors Joey Raat, left, and Dean Masters run during practice.

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AUSTIN COLBERT, Sports Ink. Fort Hays State senior pole vaulter Brady Tien, right, poses next to Kim Stewart on April 30 near the jumping pits outside Lewis Field Stadium. On April 22 in Emporia, Tien broke Stewart’s 34-year-old school record in the pole vault by reaching a height of 17 feet, which ranked fourth in the country this season heading into nationals.

Face to face with history B

rady Tien didn’t know anything about the man whose record he was trying to break. His only desire was to surpass him as Fort Hays State University’s all-time leader in the pole vault before he graduated. “It was kind of crazy to hear about it. I think I saw on the board they have in (Gross Memorial Coliseum) that he was from Smith Center,” Tien said. “But I never gave it a whole lot of thought. It was kind of ironic that he was from there and that’s where my Sports Ink

“It

was kind of cool to be able

to have my name for the record and see how long it will stand because the other one

34 years.” Brady Tien, FHSU

stood for

vaulter

mom grew up and everything.” Tien, a senior pole vaulter on the FHSU track and field team, grew up in Prairie View June 2015

and graduated from Logan High School in 2011. His mother, Patty, is a native of Smith Center, the same town Kim Stewart used to call home. For 34 years, Stewart’s vault of 16 feet, 10 inches stood as FHSU’s all-time best mark in the event. Set in 1981, the height of 16-10 is now second best after Tien broke that mark with a height of 17-0 on April 22 in Emporia.

Continued on Page 14

Page 11

Picture this Focused

on sports

action from around the area this spring.

TOP: Norton freshman Kara Frack, right, leads Colby junior Kalea Robert in the 100-meter dash prelims at the Goldsmith Relays May 1, in WaKeeney. MIDDLE: FHSU outfielder Madison Putman gets a sacrifice bunt in Game 2 against UNK on April 25 at Tiger Stadium. BOTTOM: TMP left fielder Caitlyn Fisher throws the ball back to the infield during a doubleheader against Ellis on April 17.

Page 10 Page 10

Photos by Austin Colbert, Nick McQueen, Chad Simon June 2015 June 2015

SPORTS INK. SPORTS INK.

ABOVE: TMP’s Bailey Hageman, right, and Hays High’s Payton Markley chase down a loose ball April 30. LEFT: Goodland’s Aaron Avelar leads the field in the 110-meter hurdles prelims at the Goldsmith Relays on May 1.

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Sports Ink

ABOVE: Russell/Victoria’s Brandon Ridgley pitches in Game 2 against TMP on April 28. LEFT: Goodland’s Jacob Stasser competes in the pole vault at the Goldsmith Relays. FAR LEFT: Hays High’s Cole Schumacher delivers a pitch in the first game of a doubleheader against Russell/ Victoria on April 17.

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Page 11

From Page 11 “I’ve tried it probably three or four times in the indoor season and another one or two times before that in the outdoor season. So I tried it several times before I finally got it,” Tien said of the school-record height. “That was the main thing I was wanting to get before I graduated. It was kind of cool to be able to have my name for the record and see how long it will stand because the other one stood for 34 years.” Tien’s new school record of 17-0 was tied for the fourth best pole vault in NCAA Division II this season heading into the outdoor championships, which took place May 21 to 23 in Allendale, Mich. University of Central Missouri’s Cole Phillips was the DII leader with a height of 17-7.25, which he set at the MIAA conference championships in early May. Prior to reaching the 17-0 mark, Tien’s best was 16-8.75, set during last year’s outdoor season. He matched that mark at outdoor nationals last spring as well, taking 10th in the nation. Tien finally broke the record in April, hitting 17-0 on his second attempt. “I was pretty excited to get it. That was kind of my big goal for this year, since I was really close last year, being a little over an inch away,” Tien said. “Everything felt pretty good. I usually either get the height for it and then come down on it. I guess the whole thing felt pretty well and then it was pretty crazy. Whenever I was falling down I knew I finally got it.” Tien qualified for the outdoor national championships in the pole vault after his first meet of the spring season. From there his goal was simply to break the school record, something he was afraid he wouldn’t do with time running out on his college career. “I think my freshman and sophomore year I was just happy to get little improvements, but my junior year and senior year I was kind of hoping to get higher,” Tien said. “But I think the main thing is the pressure got off me when I got it because I had tried it so many different times and didn’t get it. So I think it’s nice to have that pressure off from finally getting it.” Tien, who was a two-time pole vaulting state champion at Logan, got to meet Stewart — currently the executive director and associate professor for the Institute of Applied Technology at Fort Hays — for the first time on April 30 in front of the pits at Lewis Field Stadium. It was a brief meeting, the two talking about their mutual relationship with longtime FHSU pole vault coach Page 14

FILE PHOTO, Sports Ink. Fort Hays State University’s Brady Tien bends the bar while competing in men’s pole vaulting last season at the Alex Francis Classic at Lewis Field Stadium.

Randy Stanley and background coming from northern Kansas. “My mom grew up in Smith Center. That was kind of cool. My family from there knew of Kim and that he had the record,” Tien said. “That was pretty cool. That was the first time I had ever met him, so it was nice to talk to him. He gave me a letter congratulating me about it. It was nice to be able to finally meet him.” With Tien’s college career having concludJune 2015

ed at nationals, he has no plans to get back on a pole any time soon. His immediate agenda has him returning to Prairie View to work on a farm, something he has done each summer while attending FHSU. Down the line, the criminal justice major hopes to work in corrections and maybe coach track near his hometown. “It’s kind of been a long career. I’m sure it won’t take too much time after not doing it to start to miss it,” Tien said. “I didn’t really SPORTS INK.

expect to do that well (in my career). I was kind of hoping to get somewhere in the 16s probably, but I didn’t think I’d get the record or anything like that. Or at least I never gave it much thought whenever I first got here.” Austin Colbert, Sports Ink.

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