FHSU Athletics

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Fifteen student-athletes representing the Fort Hays State cross country program were listed on the MIAA Academic Honor Roll, released Tuesday by the league office. Three Tigers picked up additional honors, including Carson Pierce earning the Academic Excellence Award, Seppe van ‘t Westende picking up Scholar-Athlete honors and Abigail Stewart achieving both Scholar-Athlete and Academic Excellence status.

By carrying a perfect 4.00 GPA and finishing with All-MIAA honors at the MIAA Championships, Stewart is one of just four student-athletes in the league to earn both distinguished awards.

To be recognized on the Academic Honor Roll, one must have a grade point average used by the institution for purposes of NCAA academic certification of 3.00 at the certifying member institution. The individual must also have at least two terms of attendance at the certifying member institution, excluding summer terms. Transfers and true freshman are recognized at the conclusion of the school year, after they meet the two terms of attendance requirement.

To qualify as a Scholar-Athlete an individual must have a grade point average used by the institution for purposes of NCAA academic certification of 3.50 at the certifying member institution. They must also have at least two terms of attendance at the certifying member institution, excluding summer terms. If competing in a championship sport of the MIAA, the student-athlete must earn All-MIAA honors.

An MIAA Academic Excellence Award recipient must have a grade point average used by the institution for purposes of NCAA academic certification of 4.00 or better at the certifying member institution. The honoree also must have at least two terms of attendance at the certifying member institution, excluding summer terms.

Stewart earned All-MIAA honors after placing 19th at the MIAA Championships, completing the 6k race in 22:44.9. In the men’s 8k race at the league meet, van ‘t Westende finished 12th in a personal-best 25:10 to earn a spot on the all-conference podium. The Dutch senior was one of four male student-athletes to earn Scholar-Athlete status.

The complete list of Fort Hays State cross country MIAA Academic Honor Roll recipients is below.

DENVER (AP) — Fourth-year quarterback Brandon Allen sparked Denver’s stagnant offense, throwing for two touchdowns in his first career NFL start and leading the Broncos past the stumbling Cleveland Browns 24-19 Sunday.

“We’re not ready to put him in Canton yet, but overall very pleased with his play,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said.

In his first start in 1,402 days, Allen threw a 21-yard pass to Courtland Sutton and a 75-yarder to rookie tight end Noah Fant , and Phillip Lindsay ran nine times for 92 yards and a touchdown.

The Broncos (3-6) didn’t truncate the playbook with Joe Flacco (neck) on injured reserve, and Allen threw for 193 yards on 12-of-20 passing.

Allen actually added a wrinkle to an offense that Flacco, before going on IR with a neck injury, criticized as too conservative last week. Allen added roll-outs and bootlegs to the mix, running twice for 16 yards. Denver hasn’t seen much mobility in the pocket from its quarterbacks since Tim Tebow’s tenure.

Denver’s defense stifled Baker Mayfield & Co. all afternoon, forcing the Browns (2-6) to settle for four short field goals and twice stuffing them on fourth down. The first stop came at the Denver 5-yard line and again at the Broncos 28 to get the ball back with 3:19 remaining and the Browns out of timeouts.

Lindsay gained 16 yards on a direct snap to gain the first down and allow the Broncos to go into victory formation.

Allen’s first NFL action came in his fourth season in the league.

“It’s tough and there’s a lot of guys that will tell you, this league is tough,” Allen said. “You get cut, traded, waived, whatever, it’s all about perseverance and getting that opportunity to see what you can do. And a lot of guys don’t even get that opportunity, so I feel blessed.”

Nick Chubb was held to 65 yards on 20 carries, and Mayfield finished with 273 yards passing.

Browns receivers Jarvis Landry (six catches for 51 yards) and Odell Beckham Jr. (five catches for 87 yards) were forced to change their colorful cleats at halftime to conform to the league’s dress code.

Allen not only gave Denver a jolt, but he stood the pocket to absorb a big hit on the long touchdown to Fant. Left tackle Garett Bolles, who drew two more flags, whiffed on Olivier Vernon and the defensive end crushed Allen just as he got the pass off.

Vernon looked up only to see Fant slipping three tackles before crossing midfield and sprinting down Denver’s delirious sideline.

The Broncos, the first team since the Browns in 2010 to play a game without a single quarterback on their active roster who had taken a snap in a regular season game, turned to Allen for his first start since he led Arkansas over Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2, 2016.

Denver took a 17-12 halftime lead by holding Cleveland to four field goals

“It’s tough to win in the NFL when you only score three,” Beckham said.

Or zero.

Twice in the second half, the Broncos held on fourth down.

Todd Davis stuffed Mayfield on a fourth-and-inches sneak at the Denver 5-yard line in the third quarter, after which Allen directed a seven-play, 95-yard drive, which Lindsay capped with a 30-yard touchdown run.

The Broncos stiffened again when Chris Harris Jr. broke up a pass to Beckham on third-and-6 from the 18, but officials flagged safety Justin Simmons for pass interference, giving Cleveland a new set of downs. Mayfield threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Landry on the next snap to pull the Browns within 24-19.

After forcing a punt, the Browns got the ball back at their 12 and quickly reached the Denver 28, where they used their final timeout on fourth-and-4 with 3:23 left in the game.

Mayfield fired a pass to Landry that Kareem Jackson and Davontae Harris both broke up, giving Denver the ball back.

INJURIES

Browns tight end Ricky Seals-Jones left in the second quarter with a knee injury and didn’t return.

UP NEXT

Browns: Host Buffalo on Sunday.

Broncos: Have a bye before visiting Minnesota on Nov. 17.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Harrison Butker watched his 44-yard field goal split the uprights, the clocks inside Arrowhead Stadium reading zero, and the Chiefs kicker turned and sprinted the other way in celebration.

The first person to join him? Patrick Mahomes.

The reigning league MVP, who missed his second straight game while recovering from a dislocated kneecap, looked just fine as he joined Butker and the rest of his Kansas City teammates in a midfield mob after their heart-stopping 26-23 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

“I was sprinting down, maybe just from my soccer background growing up — that’s what you do when you score,” said Butker, who thought the winner may have been tipped. “When I was going I saw Patrick, and I wanted to embrace him and I’m like, ‘Nah, he can’t get hurt.'”

Matt Moore started in Mahomes’ place and threw for 275 yards and a touchdown, and he made the crucial plays when they mattered. He hit favorite target Tyreek Hill to convert a key third down and set up Butker’s career best-tying 54-yard field goal to knot the game, then found Hill again a couple minutes later to make the winner a little more manageable.

“I thought, Matt, that was a gutsy performance by him,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid, whose team snapped a three-game skid at Arrowhead Stadium. “He took a couple of licks there and he got back up and finished. But just him calming the storm I thought was good.”

Hill finished with six catches for 140 yards for the Chiefs (6-3), including a spectacular TD grab, while Damien Williams ran for 125 yards — most of it on a 91-yard touchdown run.

Kirk Cousins threw for 220 yards and three touchdowns for the Vikings (6-3), though he struggled to deal with the Chiefs’ blitzes late in the game. Dalvin Cook was held to 71 yards rushing while top wide receiver Stefon Diggs had a single catch for four yards.

The Chiefs largely controlled the first half, building a 10-7 lead with the ball in the closing minutes. But they proceeded to go three-and-out, the Vikings marched downfield for a tying field goal, then got the ball back when Mecole Hardman fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half .

Suddenly, it was the Vikings who had taken control.

They needed just five plays to punch it into the end zone, despite a holding penalty setting them back. Amir Abdullah finished it with a 17-yard catch in which nobody was within 10 yards of him.

Hardman hurt the Chiefs again by failing to call a fair catch on a punt downed at their 3. But that flub was rendered irrelevant when Williams took a handoff, found a gaping hole on the left side of the line and made the only safety in front of him miss on a 91-yard touchdown run .

“We misfitted a little bit,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “We had a pressure coming off the outside, we got a little wide and then we missed tackles.”

Minnesota answered in the seesaw affair.

Leaning heavily on Cook, the league’s leading rusher, the Vikings marched 75 yards without facing third down until the final play. That’s when Cousins hit Kyle Rudolph from 3 yards out for the score, taking advantage of a Kansas City defense with just 10 players on the field.

After trading punts, the Chiefs put together another drive. Moore hit Hill to convert a key third down, and Butker matched his career long with a 54-yard field goal with 2:30 to go.

It was a monumental kick — and he had another coming a couple minutes later.

“This was a great win, a great team win,” Hill said. “We all did our thing, and this team needed this victory because the vibe in the locker room the last few weeks has been down. This is great, especially against a great team like this that has got a great quarterback, great coach, great team, period. So, this was a great win for us.”

MR. JONES

Chiefs DT Chris Jones, back after missing three games to a groin injury, wreaked havoc at the line of scrimmage. He was instrumental in holding Cook in check, harassed Cousins all game and forced an incompletion that led to the Vikings’ final punt of regulation.

INJURIES

Vikings: WR Adam Thielen left late in the first quarter after aggravating a hamstring injury that first occurred against Detroit and kept him out last week against Washington. “You know, it’s not ideal,” Cousins said, “but you look at their sideline and they’re missing people. You understand at this point in the season you have to respond when you face adversity and we’re probably healthier than many teams. You have to still find a way to get the job done.”

Chiefs: Along with Mahomes, the Chiefs were missing starting LT Eric Fisher (groin), RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (ankle), CB Kendall Fuller (thumb) and DEs Frank Clark (neck) and Alex Okafor (ankle).

UP NEXT

Minnesota visits the Cowboys next Sunday night.

Kansas City visits the Titans next Sunday.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Chris Kleiman views himself as a caretaker for Kansas State football, sustaining and building on the traditions that predecessor Bill Snyder established over more than two decades.

Turns out that applies to the Wildcats’ dominance of Kansas.

Skylar Thompson ran for 127 yards and three touchdowns, Harry Trotter added 92 yards rushing and another score, and No. 22 Kansas State romped to a 38-10 win in the Sunflower Showdown on Saturday to continue a streak of dominance that Snyder established and relished.

Thompson also had 129 yards passing for the Wildcats (6-2, 3-2), who showed no letdown from their upset of then-No. 5 Oklahoma in bludgeoning the Jayhawks (3-6, 1-5) for the 23rd time in 27 games.

“It was our best football game of the year,” Klieman said.

Carter Stanley was 13 of 23 for 115 yards and two interceptions for Kansas before leaving with an injury late in the game. Star running back Pooka Williams managed just 61 yards rushing.

The Wildcats held new coach Les Miles’ team to 241 yards of offense, a 2-for-10 mark on third down and stopped it on both fourth down tries. Kansas State also had four sacks, dominated the time of possession and had 342 yards rushing in what turned into a lopsided affair.

“As a football team we’re continuing to improve and get better,” said Klieman, who was hired to replace the retired Snyder late last year. “But defensively, I thought we played really well.”

On the other side?

“A lot of things went wrong tonight,” Kansas wide receiver Andrew Parchment said.

Both teams rolled into Memorial Stadium off big wins, though. Along with the Wildcats’ win over the Sooners, the Jayhawks beat Texas Tech on a game-ending field goal — the two wins separated by a stretch of Interstate 70 each prompting field-stormings and Big 12 reprimands.

So there was a little more excitement than usual for the Sunflower Showdown. Kansas announced a sellout for the first time since 2009, and fans were still waiting in long lines at security outside the stadium long after the game had kicked off.

Many of them missed the only time it was tied.

Kansas State promptly marched 88 yards for an opening touchdown, pounding it downfield with its run game despite having its top two running backs slowed by injuries. And when the Jayhawks managed a field goal, the Wildcats answered with a 78-yard touchdown march for a 14-3 lead.

Stanley, who had been so solid the past two weeks, threw both of his interceptions in the first half. The second came with less than 2 minutes left and set up Kansas State for a field goal.

“Miscommunication and lack of effort,” Williams said.

Meanwhile, the only gripe the Wildcats at the break were the penalties: They were flagged seven times for 78 yards, or exactly four yards more than Kansas had in total offense.

The Wildcats ended any chance of a comeback with a 75-yard touchdown drive to open the second half. It was capped by Thompson scrambling to his right, then winning a race with Kansas safety Mike Lee to the end zone for his sixth touchdown rushing in the past two weeks.

Thompson added a seventh early in the fourth quarter, when Klieman began to grind away his first win in the 108-year history of the series.

“They’re a good football team, and I told Les that before the game, they’re doing some really good things, especially offensively,” Klieman said. “It’s a healthy rivalry because both teams have gotten better, and both teams I think — they’re going to win some games still in this league.”

BROTHERLY LOVE

Kansas State fullback Jax Dineen sent his brother, Kansas linebacker Jay Dineen, hobbling to the sideline with a knee injury after a dastardly block late in the third quarter.

WOODLAND’S MOMENT

U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, a Topeka native who played golf at KU, was honored early in the game. It was the one moment that Kansas State and Kansas fans both cheered.

THE TAKEAWAY

Kansas State proved a massive gulf still exists between the Wildcats and their biggest rival. Not only did they dominate, they did it without much help from top running backs James Gilbert and Jordon Brown, both of whom were nicked up in last week’s game against the Sooners.

Kansas had been averaging 548 yards per game since Miles fired offensive coordinator Vic Koenning and promoted Brent Dearmon. But the Jayhawks never got on track against the Wildcats.

UP NEXT

Kansas State heads to Texas next Saturday.

Kansas has the week off before visiting Oklahoma State.