The Saint Xavier High School volleyball team lost to Derby and Heritage Christian Thursday evening.

They fell to Derby 25-16 and 25-14, and to Heritage Christian in three games. Heritage Christian won the opener 25-18, the Lady Rams took the second game 25-20, and Heritage Christian won the third 25-12.

In middle school volleyball Saint X lost to Topeka Lutheran in a best three out of five match.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas State cross country team will look for a fast start to the 2016 season as the team makes its way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to compete in the Augustana Twilight at Yankton Trail Park on Friday evening.

K-State will travel 19 student-athletes to the team’s first competition in the Mount Rushmore State since the 2009 season, with the race slated to begin at 8 p.m. CT.

“I am looking forward to this race,” head coach Ryun Godfrey said about the team’s 2016 season opener. “We have only had two weeks of practice and three quality workouts. It has been a decent start. The race will be more of a true tell of where we are fitness-wise.”

The men are coming off a strong 2015 season, highlighted by a sixth place at the Big 12 Championship, the team’s best finish at the conference meet since 1998. The Wildcats will also return its entire roster from last season, including junior Colton Donahue, who recorded a 16^th-place finish at the Big 12 Championship.

Godfrey has high hopes for many of the male runners, including sophomoreJoe Gorthy, heading into the opening race of 2016.

“I think Joe will be racing close to Colton because he has been doing it in practice,” Godfrey said. “It would be nice to see him doing that in a race.Lukas Koch and Kurt Loevenstein have been at the tail end during practice, so I am hoping they will race better than what they have been showing in practice.”

The Wildcats also added six new freshmen to the cross country squad for 2016. Godfrey is looking for big things from one freshman in particular, Olathe, Kansas, native Nicholas Skinner.

“Nicholas has been looking good in practice as a true freshman,” Godrey said. “It is hard to put a lot of expectation on a freshman right off the bat, but I think he will do well.”

On the women’s side, the Wildcats will look to senior Morgan Wedekind and junior Kayla Doll to lead a team of predominantly underclassmen, including seven freshmen. Wedekind stole the show in 2015, finishing 10^th at the Big 12 Championship race and 23^rd at the Midwest Regional Championship, earning her Midwest All-Region team honors. Sophomore Emma Wren will also be in the mix this season and Godfrey is expecting big things from her on Fridaynight.

“I think Emma can run up close with Kayla,” Godfrey said. “I think those two should be close to each other and hopefully they can help each other out. Morgan is in pretty good shape but she is dealing with some allergies right now, so I am not sure how she will race.”

Even with a strong top three on the women’s team, Godfrey is unsure who will step up this season and fill the next three spots on the team.

“We have three solid girls at the top, but we do not have a fourth, fifth and sixth runner on the women’s side,” Godfrey added. “It is wide open. I do not know how we will fill in that gap yet. Hopefully some of the freshman can step in there and fill those spots.”

More information on the race, including meet information, can be found here. Live results for the race are also available by clicking here.

For the latest on K-State cross country, follow @kstatesports and @KStateTFXC on Twitter or Kansas State Track & Field/Cross Country on Facebook.

MANHATTAN, Kan. — A Big Monday home game and the earliest conference opener in school history highlight the Big 12 Conference portion of the Kansas State men’s basketball schedule released today (September 1).

 

ESPN’s Big Monday will make a return visit to Bramlage Coliseum on Monday, February 6 when it will once again broadcast the Dillion’s Sunflower Showdown with Kansas at 8 p.m. It will mark the fifth time in the last seven seasons that Big Monday has broadcast the rivalry from Manhattan and the eighth time overall since 1993.

 

Overall, it will be the Wildcats’ 21^st appearance on Big Monday, including the 11^thmatchup with the Jayhawks.

 

K-State will open league play at the earliest point in school history, as the Wildcats host Texas on Friday, December 30 at a time to be determined. It will be the earliest start date for a conference opener, surpassing the 1944-45, 1945-46, 1998-99 and 2015-16 seasons which all opened league play on January 2. It will be the first time in Big 12 history that league matchups will be played in December.

 

In all, the Wildcats will play 14 of their 18 league games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago, including seven in Bramlage Coliseum. In addition, four of the nine home league contests will also fall on Saturday, including matchups with NCAA Tournament participants Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and West Virginia.

 

K-State is 62-23 (.729) at home in Big 12 play since the 2006-07 season.

 

“This league has been the best in the country for the past three years and I anticipate that will be the case again in 2017,” said fifth-year head coach Bruce Weber. “Not sure there is a such thing as a perfect schedule because you have to play everyone twice, but this year’s slate of games has good balance with only two back-to-back road trips. Obviously, it it’s great to have two of our first three games at home especially against three of the best teams in the league.”

 

All 18 conference contests will be broadcast on one of ESPN’s family of networks, including four on either ESPN or ESPN2. In addition to its Big Mondaymatchup with Kansas on ESPN, the Wildcats will play their road opener at Kansas at 8 p.m., on Tuesday, January 3 on ESPN2 while a home game with Iowa State at 6 p.m., on Wednesday, February 15 will also be broadcast on ESPN2. A road contest at West Virginia on Saturday, February 11 will be on either ESPN or ESPN2.

 

“We are excited to be back on Big Monday for such a big rivalry game,” said Weber. “It’s such an important stage for our program to not only show off our university but the tremendous passion we have for college basketball.”

 

The team will also play seven times on ESPNU, which includes the opener with Texas, while there will be six appearances on ESPNews. The Wildcats’ road contest with the Longhorns on Saturday, February 18 will appear on the Longhorn Network at a time to be announced later.

 

After opening league play at home to Texas and on the road at Kansas, K-State will alternate between home and away the rest of January, never playing back-to-back road or home games. The team will host an NCAA Tournament participant on a Saturday three times in the month, starting with Final Four participant Oklahoma at noon on January 7 on ESPNews. The Wildcats will also welcome Baylor at 3:30 p.m., on January 14 and West Virginia at 3 p.m. on January 21, both on ESPNU. Each of their road tilts in January will come mid-week, including at Texas Tech on Tuesday, January 10, at Oklahoma State on Wednesday, January 18 and at Iowa State on Tuesday, January 24.

 

Following the SEC-Big 12 Challenge at Tennessee on Saturday, January 28, the Wildcats will open the month of February at home against TCU on Wednesday, February 1 before a road game at Baylor on Saturday, February 4. Once again, the team will alternate between home and road contests until playing consecutive away matchups at Oklahoma on Saturday, February 25 and at TCU onWednesday, March 1. In all, K-State will host five contests in the second half of league play, highlighted by the Big Monday game with Kansas on February 6 andWednesday games with Iowa State on February 15 and Oklahoma State onFebruary 22. The road schedule includes four consecutive Saturday contests against NCAA Tournament foes in Baylor (February 4), West Virginia (February 11), Texas (February 18) and Oklahoma (February 25).

 

The regular season rounds out with two road games in its last three contests against Oklahoma and TCU before a Senior Night affair with Texas Tech slated for Saturday March 4. The Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship will be heldWednesday through Saturday, March 8-11, at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

 

Armed with a veteran roster, the Wildcats look to build on a 10-day trip to Italy and Switzerland in August with the return of nine lettermen and six players returning with starting experience, highlighted by All-Big 12 Third Team selection Wesley Iwundu and All-Newcomer honorees Barry Brown and Dean Wade. Overall, the squad returns five of their top six scorers from last season, along with nearly 70 percent of their rebounding, assist, steal and minute totals.

 

Iwundu (11.9 ppg., 4.5 rpg.) is the team’s top returner in scoring, assists and steals, while rising senior D.J. Johnson (9.3 ppg., 5.2 rpg.) is the leader among three returning players (along with Iwundu and Wade) who averaged better than 4 rebounds per contest a season ago.

 

The squad will also be boosted by the return of a healthy Kamau Stokes, who started 20 of the first 21 games in 20-15-16 before a knee injury sidelined him for the rest of the year, as well as the continued development of redshirt freshmenIsaiah Maurice and Dante Williams, who measure at 6-foot-10 and 7-foot, respectively.

 

Season tickets for the 2016-17 season are now available and can be purchased in a variety of ways, including toll free at (800) 221.CATS (2287), online atwww.kstatesports.com/tickets and in-person at the Athletics Ticket Office located in Bramlage Coliseum.

 

Tom Gilbert, Associate Director / Athletics Communications

 

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Only the most ardent fans of the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers will likely care much about what transpires in their preseason game at Arrowhead Stadium Thursday night.

Then again, the guys on the field will care very much about what happens.

The Chiefs and Packers are expected to play few, if any, starters in their fourth preseason game, turning the proceedings over to their backups instead.

And in some cases, not even the backups will see game action – the Chiefs are resting quarterbacks Alex Smith and Nick Foles, and Aaron Rodgers and ailing Packers backup Brett Hundley will enjoy the night in a ball cap.

Some coaches have said they will play their starters for a series or quarter Thursday night, if only to knock off the last vestiges of rust.

But the Chiefs and Packers are content with the statuses of their veteran cores, so much so that many of players on both teams have skipped the preseason entirely.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Brian McCann delivered a sacrifice fly in the 13th inning and Dellin Betances shut down the Kansas City Royals in the bottom half to give the New York Yankees a 5-4 victory Wednesday night.

Royals reliever Chris Young (3-9) gave up a single to Didi Gregorius and a double to Starlin Castro to lead off the decisive frame. Matt Strahm came in against McCann for a lefty-lefty matchup, and the New York designated hitter lofted a fly ball to left to score the go-ahead run.

Ben Heller (1-0) pitched a perfect 12th to earn his first major league win, while Betances wrapped up a winning series for the Yankees by working around a leadoff walk for his seventh save.

Castro hit a two-run homer for the Yankees. Kendrys Morales hit one for Kansas City.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Royals placed right-hander Chien-Ming Wang on the disabled list with biceps tendinitis and made a series of roster moves to shore up their taxed bullpen before Wednesday night’s game against the Yankees.

Kansas City recalled left-hander Scott Alexander and right-hander Brooks Pounders from Triple-A Omaha and optioned infielder Christian Colon to the same club.

Colon is likely to return when rosters are allowed to expand Thursday.

The Royals used five relievers in their rain-delayed, extra-inning loss to New York on Tuesday night. Wang tossed two scoreless innings in the game.

Alexander is joining the Royals for the second time this season and tossed a scoreless inning against the Yankees in his big league debut. Pounders is joining the club for the third time this season.

East Carolina is out of the Big 12’s expansion derby.

School officials said Wednesday they have been told by the league that it’s no longer considering the Pirates for membership. School spokesman Tom McClellan says Commissioner Bob Bowlsby notified Chancellor Cecil Staton of the league’s decision Tuesday by phone.

Athletic director Jeff Compher says it’s “obviously not the decision we were hoping for,” but expressed satisfaction that “we were able to tell our story to not only the Big 12, but the entire nation.”

East Carolina is beginning its third season in the American Athletic Conference after winning two Conference USA championships in football in the 2000s.