Sports

Panther pitcher Kaileigh Gray-Milligan (shown above, left) winds up and gets ready to deliver a pitch in Tuesday's 4A-DII regional championship game against Rock Creek. Gray-Milligan held her own in what turned into a pitcher's dual, but RV still came up just short in a 3-1 loss.

RV softball comes up just short in intense regional championship battle

Like a Blue Moon or Halley’s Comet, there was a rare occurrence in Tuesday’s regional championship game between the Royal Valley and Rock Creek softball teams. The Panthers, who have scored 244 runs this season (11 per game) and won 18 straight games going into the final in St. George, were held...

Jackson Heights sprinter Peter Rupnicki (shown above, at left) leans forward at the finish line to try and edge his competition in a preliminary heat of the the 100m dash at the NEKL track meet. Rupnicki went on to place in the finals of the event, as well as in the 200m dash, to help the JH boys finish third as a team.

Numbers work in Cobras' favor at NEKL track meet

From the start of the season, Jackson Heights track coach Lyle Alley has boasted about the size of his team and what it would be like to be able fill out an event sheet throughout the course of the season. With the numbers on the Cobras’ side, the teams turned in some top-notch performances at...

County teams getting ready to start regional competition

With the Jackson County spring sports teams in the midst of league week, that means postseason competition is right around the corner. Officially, regional competition will start with the golf and baseball tournaments next Monday, followed by softball on Tuesday and regional track meets closing...

Royal Valley's Tim Martin Jr. (shown above, middle) gets some recognition from coach Raub Kirkwood (left) after drawing a walk in game action earlier this season. Martin Jr. was helping fill in for the injured Derek Linn last week and had a solid showing in the sweep of the Cyclones.

Panthers show resolve in key road sweep of Riverside

Timing is everything and while Royal Valley’s baseball team may have been inconvenienced by the weather last week, it ended up working out perfectly for the Panthers. In Wathena, Riverside and Royal Valley resumed their league doubleheader precisely a week after starting it on Monday. Before the...

Jackson Heights' Aidan Allen (shown above, left) runs her leg of the 4x800m relay in a meet earlier this season. Allen and a number of Cobra athletes helped the team have a strong performance in Onaga last Friday and gain some momentum heading into the championship stretch.

Cobra track athletes have successful outing in final regular season meet

In its final meet of the regular season, the Jackson Heights track team went out with a bang as both the boys and girls finished runner-up in the team standings at the Onaga Invitational on Friday. The Cobras saw plenty of individual highlights as well, with nine athletes turning in gold medal...

Jackson Heights' Ericka White (shown above) leaps over the bar while competing in the high jump at a track meet earlier this season. White and several other young Cobras have had a lot of success this spring, which coach Lyle Alley has taken as a positive sign for the team both in regards to the near and distant future.

Panthers, Cobras compete in dual track meet at Seneca

As the championship stretch of meets approach, track teams are looking for athletes to keep progressing and keep pushing themselves to be at their best when they enter those competitions. Both the Royal Valley and Jackson Heights track teams were pushed in a meet hosted by Nemaha Central on...

Wildcat pitcher Derek Haverkamp (shown above, left) warms up in front of coach Joe Purcell (far right) and the rest of the Holton infield in game action earlier this season. Haverkamp had a big weekend for HHS, tallying six hits and four RBI in tournament play and pitching a complete game in one outing to help Holton go 2-1 and finish as runner-up in the Butch Foster Memorial Classic.

Holton baseball has strong tournament run in KC

It may not have ended the way the Wildcats wanted, but even a loss in the championship game couldn’t take away the great deal of success the team had in the Butch Foster Memorial Classic baseball tournament in Kansas City over the weekend. Even in the final game, Holton was cruising along against...

Hickman to attend Bengals rookie camp as free agent

While Jackson County area football fans may not have heard too many locally familiar names during the broadcast of the NFL draft over the weekend, one area player nonetheless earned the chance to continue his career at the professional level. Holton alum Forrestal Hickman was contacted by the...

Wildcat golfer Kaden Brandt (shown above) sinks a long putt from the fringe during tournament action in Seneca.

HHS golfers pushed at tough meet in Seneca

For notable signs of just how different this Holton golf team is from years past, one need not look further than Thursday’s performance at the Nemaha Valley Invitational. Something happened that has only happened rarely in the past several seasons, as the Wildcats left a tournament without a team...

Panther Sarah Beam (shown above, batting) turns on a pitch and sends it for a ride in the second game of a doubleheader with Hiawatha, helping RV pick up a 15-0 run-rule victory over the Red Hawks and its 12th win in a row.

Red-hot Royal Valley softball team keeps on rolling against Hiawatha

Looking at the product on the softball field last Thursday night, the mismatch between the Royal Valley and Hiawatha teams was clear. The Panthers were playing the role of Steve Austin, the titular “Six Million Dollar Man”, and were simply better, stronger and faster than the Red Hawks in a pair...