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No. 8

Three Cardinal wrestlers compete at state tournament

This wasn't what the wrestlers and their coach, Bill DeWitt, had in mind. This was the year Eudora would bring home hardware.

Fate, however, had other plans.

"They are disappointed, and so am I," DeWitt said of his three wrestlers who went Friday to Salina to try to capture a medal in the Kansas 4A Wrestling Tournament. "It would be a disservice to them if I wasn't. I don't have a lot of answers. We didn't wrestle well."

Most disappointing was that this was the final go-round for all three of the wrestlers competing. Chase Rust qualified last week but sprained an ankle the week of the tournament and was unable to compete. The other three wrestlers - seniors Travis Clarke, Jake Love and Evan Meyers - had all qualified for state in previous years and hoped to be competitive and in the hunt for a place-finish.

No. 9

Baseball run comes to an end against Ward

The Cardinals decided to make things interesting trailing 4-0 with two outs in what turned out to be their last game of the season.

Eudora struggled against Bishop Ward's top pitcher all night, but in the bottom of the seventh its offense came alive and staged a dramatic comeback. However, just as the game actually seemed in reach, the Cardinals were dropped back to reality and fell 4-3 to the Cyclones in the first round of the regional tournament.

The nearly colossal comeback left several of Eudora's players at a loss.

"I can't put that into words," senior Matthew Abel said. "We're down 4-0, we could have just as easily quit and gave up there, but that's just the kind of team we are. We're not going to give up, at all."

"I don't even know what to say about that. Our seniors, I mean it all started with taking a pitch and getting on base," Kyle Swanson said. "That's what all coaches want, and you want to play with those guys, they are going to go to war."

Bishop Ward, the five-time defending state champion in 4A, threw its best pitcher at Eudora, a move, according to Eudora coach Shaun Edmondson, which meant it wasn't going to take the Cardinals lightly. Still, the Cyclone hurler didn't intimidate Eudora's hitters.

"I don't know if it was more him being effective or us being defective," Swanson said. "He threw straight fastballs, and he was their ace, but I didn't see anything that funky. He just hit his spots, I guess."

No. 10

Boys team met ’08 challenges

It's not easy to replace the bulk of a team, no matter what sport. But that was the task at hand for Eudora men's basketball coach Kyle Deterding at the beginning of the 2007-08 season.

Despite losing several key contributors from last season, Deterding was pleased with his team's ability to work together and finish the year strong.

"It was a good year," Deterding said. "We had to replace about our top eight from last year, and we had quite a few kids step up this year."

The Cardinals finished 10-11 and lost in the first round of sub-state. Still, Deterding and his staff were forced to play a lot of younger players and were surprised by how well they ended up playing.

"We had quite a few inexperienced and young players who were really pleasant surprises for us," Deterding said. "We always have a team goal to be the best team that we can be by the end of the year and the kids did a great job striving for that goal."

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