Sports

The Lady Blazers Varsity basketball team sitting at 4-4 kicked off there first round matchup against host school, El Dorado at the annual El Dorado invitational tournament in El Dorado, KS this past Thursday. Gardner came in as the 3 seed and really put it to the Lady Wildcats from El Dorado on their home court. Jumping out to 18-1 first quarter lead sparked by a suffocating defense. In the interest of preserving the starters, the bench played almost the entire second half, holding serve and taking a 22-5 lead into the half. The starters came back to extend the lead 39-12 at the end of the third and finishing off the game with a final of 46-16. Landri Schaffer led the Lady Balzers with 23 points, 7 steals, and 3 assists on 9/19 shooting and 4/7 behind the arc. Addisen Ratley chipped in 9 and Aaliyah Moss with 8.

GEHS vs. SM South This past Jan. 10 the Lady Blazers put their 4-2 record on the line against the second ranked team in the state and undefeated Shawnee Mission South. It was the first home game for the Lady Blazers in almost a month as they tipped off in front of an eager crowd. The Lady Blazers jumped out to a 12-2 in Q1 after a Landri Schaffer 3 pointer. Unfortunately, it was followed by a 18-6 run by South to take a 2018 lead into half. The lead never got bigger than 6 though as the Lady Blazers scratched and clawed to stay in it. The Lady Blazers were sparked by 9 points and 2/3 shooting from deep by junior forward Payton Hofer which was a team high. The Lady Blazers took the lead twice in the Q4 but just couldn’t hang on as South won a nail biter, 38-35, dropping the Lady Blazers overall record to 4-3.

Every Tuesday, the JV/C-team squads travel somewhere for duals against other area schools. This has been a great effort and investment into the future of the involved programs so they can continue to build. It has been awesome for us to continually get ALL of our kids matches as it is not very common for JV wrestlers to get 20-30 matches in a season. On Tuesday we traveled to Olathe West with 23 wrestlers, 13 of which were part of our dual lineup against Olathe South and Olathe West. It was exciting as always but the Olathe West dual came down to the wire. A major decision by Jaden Augustine cut our deficit to 17 with 18 points available. Quick pins by Rubin Pino-Martinez, and Sam Huff meant that if Caleb Hollins won by pin we would win the dual by 1 point. Down 7-2 late in the match, Caleb mustered the strength and desire to put his opponent on his back and get the dual- winning fall! Coaches cheering, Caleb exhausted but smiling, and a bunch of teammates getting hyped mat side is an amazing image and further demonstrates why this sport is so great for anyone.

Hello, once again all Blazer fans! We had another busy week last week (they’re all busy weeks) so I wanted to take a moment and celebrate all of our hard-working kids on the GEHS wrestling team. On Tuesday Jan.

The Blazers just wrapped up our second week of competition for the ‘22-’23 wrestling season. The Blazer wrestling team competed at all levels this week with some great opportunities to get better.

GEHS Lady Blazers vs. Blue Valley Dec. 1 Varsity 42-58 Loss (0-1) The Girls Varsity Basketball team took on a Blue Valley Tigers team that has since been dubbed the #1 Ranked team in the city, last Thursday night. The Tigers, which feature D1 recruit committed to Oklahoma St, Jadyn Wooten. The game was a highly anticipated one as the Lady Blazers hope to rectify last year’s injury ridden season that left them with a record of 4-17. The game was tied at the end of Q1 15-15, sparked by 6 of her team leading 17 points by freshman Landri Schaffer. The Lady Blazers trailed by 6 at halftime, 31-25. Blue Valley continued to pull away in the 3Q, as the lead ballooned to 16. The Lady Blazers hung tough and jumped out to a 7-0 run to start the Q4, cutting the lead down 9, but that was as close as they would come, eventually falling 58-42. The student section was loud and proud throughout that game and while there are no moral victories, this was a good start to what looks to be a promising season for Coach Leiker’s squad

Mark Holthaus & Kerry Stoneking Varsity at Mill Valley W 47-36 (2-1) This past Friday, the Lady Blazers took on the Mill Valley Jaguars in their first road game of the young season. The Lady Blazers like to start fast and start fast, they did.