With a Washburn win over Central Missouri on Saturday evening in Topeka, Fort Hays State earned its first-ever regular season championship in the MIAA, sharing the title with Central Missouri. Both teams finished the conference slate at 13-5 overall. It’s the second regular season championship for Fort Hays State under head coach Mark Johnson after winning the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season in 2005-06.

As members of the MIAA, Fort Hays State now has a MIAA Tournament title (2010-11) and Regular Season title to its credit. Fort Hays State’s best regular season finish prior to this year was second place twice in back-to-back seasons (2009-10 and 2010-11). It’s the 22nd conference championship in history for Fort Hays State (regular season and tournaments combined).

Fort Hays State will be the No. 1 seed at the MIAA Tournament in Kansas City as it defeated Central Missouri head-to-head earlier this year in Hays. The Tigers will face either No. 8 seed Emporia State or No. 9 seed Missouri Southern on Thursday at 12 pm.

– FHSU Sports Information –

Fort Hays State women’s basketball will be the No. 6 seed in the MIAA Championship Tournament, March 5-10. With the new 12-team tournament format this year, FHSU will host a first round game on Tuesday at Gross Memorial Coliseum against No. 11 seed Lincoln. FHSU just defeated Lincoln in Hays on Friday in the regular season finale. Game time is set for 7 pm on Tuesday.

Fort Hays State ended the regular season in a tie for fifth place with Truman, each finishing 12-6 in the MIAA. Truman receives the No. 5 seed and FHSU the No. 6 due to FHSU losing to Truman earlier this year in Kirksville, Mo. in double overtime by two points. That was the only match-up between the teams this year.

If the Lady Tigers win on Tuesday in the opening round at home, they will advance to Kansas City to face No. 3 seed Northeastern State. Also lurking on Fort Hays State’s side of the bracket as potential semifinal opponents are No. 2 seed Central Missouri, No. 7 seed Pittsburg State, and No. 10 seed Missouri Western.

Now at 20-6 overall, Fort Hays State needs to make a run in the MIAA Tournament to make a push for the NCAA Tournament, after dropping out of the regional rankings this past Wednesday. However, Pittsburg State, which replaced the Tigers in the rankings at No. 10, lost twice this past week and Truman, which also lost twice this past week, is No. 5 in the rankings.

– FHSU Sports Information –

Fort Hays State split with Central Oklahoma in an MIAA doubleheader in Edmond, Okla. on Sunday. Fort Hays State took game one 7-5, but fell in game two 8-5. FHSU is now 6-5 overall and 3-4 in the MIAA. The teams play the final game of the three-game series on Monday at 1 pm. Full stats from the games are unavailable at this time.

Game 1: Fort Hays State 7, Central Oklahoma 5
Fort Hays State took advantage of control issues from UCO starter Jamie McClure in the first inning as Nathan Miller drew a bases loaded walk, the third of the inning for the Tigers, and Kelton Rule added a sacrifice fly RBI to give FHSU the early 2-0 lead.

FHSU extended its lead to 4-0 in the second inning as Horace Johnson knocked in a run and the Tigers got the other via a Broncho error.

The Bronchos cut the Tiger lead in half with single runs in the second and third innings, but FHSU pushed its advantage to 5-2 in the fourth on a RBI single by Jay Sanders. But, the Bronchos scored a single run off FHSU starter Jesse Hart for the third straight inning to make it 5-3 after four innings.

In the sixth, the Bronchos scored once more to put the pressure on, but Kyle Leroy entered out of the bullpen to shut the door on the Broncho rally. He stranded a runner at third by getting a strikeout and groundout to end the inning, preserving the win for Hart.

The Tiger offense gave Leroy insurance in the seventh as Chris Santoscoy tripled home Sam Thornton and Clayton Garland, who had back-to-back singles in front of him.

Leroy allowed just one run in the seventh, working around a bit of trouble after allowing a leadoff triple. He got his third strikeout to end the game, giving him his second save of the season. Hart moved to 2-0 on the season with the win, going 5.0 innings with five hits and four walks allowed, while striking out seven.

Game 2: Central Oklahoma 8, Fort Hays State 5
Central Oklahoma took a 2-0 advantage after one inning, but the Tigers scored four times in the second to take the lead. Sam Thornton drove home two with a single, Chris Santoscoy added another RBI single, and Ryan Busboom drew a bases loaded walk.

The Bronchos made the FHSU lead short lived as they tacked on two more in the bottom of the second to tie the game. The Bronchos added single runs in the fourth and sixth to move out to a 6-4 lead.

Clayton Garland trimmed the lead to 6-5 in the eighth with a RBI single, but Jake Tuck closed the door on the Tigers in relief for the Bronchos, striking out Kelton Rule to end a potential late rally.

UCO added a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth for insurance and Tuck worked a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up the save for UCO. It preserved the win for Edgar Lopez, who went 7.0 innings with eight strikeouts.

Alex Ellison took the loss in relief for the Tigers, going 5.0 innings. He allowed three runs and struck out two, moving to 1-2 on the season. Starter Robert VanCour lasted just 1.2 innings for the Tigers, allowing four runs. Logan Downing got the final out of the second inning out of the pen and Michael Edlefson relieved Ellison in the eighth and was charged with two runs.

– FHSU Sports Information –

Fort Hays State had two conference champions at the 2013 MIAA Indoor Championships in Warrensburg, Mo. Max Alonso won the shot put and the distance medley relay team was also victorious, helping the Tigers to a seventh-place finish.

Alonso won with a season best throw of  58-feet, 9.5-inches which moved him up to fourth on the national performance list. Alonso also finished fifth in the weight throw.

The distance medley relay team of Patrich Bravo, CJ Wilson, Nathan Purdue and Alex Hendee set a new MIAA record with a time of 10:17.94.

Hendee also finished second in the 1-mile and second in the 3000 meters.

Tanner Kriss and Travis Budke were the only Tiger wrestlers to punch their tickets to the NCAA Championships in two weeks in Birmingham, Ala., each with a third-place finish at the NCAA Super Regional 4 Tournament in Chadron, Neb. Fort Hays State had eight wrestlers still alive entering Saturday, but Kriss and Budke were the only Tigers to finish in the top four to advance.

Kriss won two matches on Saturday to claim third place, doing so in convincing fashion. The No. 5 ranked wrestler at 197 pounds defeated Chris Leak of Chadron State by a 16-4 major decision, then defeated Justin Rockhill of New Mexico Highlands with a pin in 1:07 in the consolation final.

Budke, a former TMP-Marian standout, defeated Zak Slotten of Colorado Mesa 3-2 in overtime and then defeated Ray Hall of CSU-Pueblo 3-2 in regulation to finish third at 174 pounds. Budke is one of three seniors on the Tiger wrestling team this year.

At 133 pounds, Rory Wilkinson was blanked in the consolation semifinals by Martin Ramirez of Adams State and then blanked again in the fifth-place match against Isaiah Hurtado of San Francisco State.

At 141 pounds, C.J. Napier lost to Brock Coutu of Nebraska-Kearney 7-3, then lost in the fifth-place match to Corbin Bennetts of Western State 3-1 in overtime. It was the second time in the tournament that Bennetts defeated Napier.

At 149 pounds, Noah Killip lost 5-1 to James Martinez of Colorado Mesa. He then defeated Austin Cordova of Colorado Mines for fifth, but was unable to challenge Martinez for the fourth spot at nationals since he lost to Martinez earlier in the tournament.

At 157 pounds, Derek Koehn lost to Chase White of Nebraska-Kearney by pin, then defeated Bruce Zurek of Chadron State to finish fifth. Koehn, like Killip, was unable to challenge fourth-place finisher John Crowley of Colorado Mines for his spot at nationals since he lost to him earlier in the tournament.

At 165 pounds, Sam Thoman lost to Trevor Grant of CSU-Pueblo by pin, but bounced back to defeat Brock Lamb of Simon Fraser for fifth. Thoman also could not challenge for a spot at nationals after losing to Grant, who took fourth place.

At 184 pounds, Zack Grimes lost to Jordan Debus 14-7 and then lost in the fifth-place match to Igor Gomzin 14-3.

– FHSU Sports Information –