14th Annual Mid America Classic Huge Success

MID AMERICA CLASSIC

2009

The 14^th annual Mid America Classic was a modern version of David versus Goliath as Class 1A St. John, playing in its last Classic, slayed teams from the 3 largest classes of schools in Kansas to win its’ first tournament title.

The tournaments opening round played out just as the tournament was seeded.  St. John easily dispensed with Class 5A Salina Central 48-23 to send a statement to other tournament teams that they were a team to be reckoned with.  The second game of the day saw Goddard easily defeat Andale, two schools just miles apart, 52-32.  The upper half of the bracket played the evening games.  Buhler, coming in as the top seed and an 8-1 record, struggled to defeat Blue Valley West 53-43.  Then, in a game that the highest seed won but was still a shock, Hays came into the Roundhouse and defeated host McPherson 42-38.  That was the first time in the 14 year history of the tournament that the host Bullpups have not only lost in the first round, but not played in the finals.

Day 2, once again, saw the higher seeded team in the tournament win all 4 games.  The consolation bracket opened with Andale defeating the Mustangs of Salina Central, 44-37.  McPherson easily defeated Blue Valley West 41-22.  The winner’s brackets games, unlike the 2008 tournament that had barnburners, were both blow-outs.  St. John handed the 6^th ranked 6A team in the state, Goddard a 58-30 thrashing.  The final game of the evening saw the highly ranked Buhler Crusaders, show their stuff with a 60-31 mauling of Hays.

The final day of competition provided some very good games as well as some one-sided affairs.  Blue Valley West ended their stay in McPherson with a 29-26 win over Salina Central.  McPherson defeated Andale 61-57 in an entertaining game that saw the Bullpups continue their string of never losing twice in one tournament.  The 3^rd place game was dominated by the Lions of Goddard as thy punished the Hays Indians 70-52.

The championship game brought some of the greatest anticipation and excitement since the early days of the tournament as the two highly ranked teams from St. John and Buhler were matched up.  Both teams brought huge crowds to the roundhouse.  After a close game early, the Tigers from St. John took an 8 point lead after one quarter and were up 11 at halftime.  The third quarter saw the Crusaders, playing without one of their top players, Tanya Friesen, who broke her wrist in the first round of the tournament, fight back to within 7.  However, the Tigers, with the one-two punch of Alisha Fanshier (12 points) and Beth Cornwell (33 points, 12 rebounds and 10 blocks), fought off the rally and won the title with a convincing 56-44 win.

The all-tournament team:

Alisha Fanshier, St. John

Beth Cornwell, St. John

Stephanie Franz, Buhler

Lindsey Keller, Goddard

Casyn Buchman, McPherson

The contest winners:

FREE THROW CONTEST:

1^ST, Lindsey Keller, Goddard

2^nd, Kelsie Sorenson, McPherson

3^rd, Ann Bogner, Andale

3-POINT CONTEST:

1^ST, Alyssa Roberts, St. John

2^nd, Rachel Boan, Blue Valley West

3^rd, Caitlyn Becker, Blue Valley West

The John Watkins Sportsmanship Award was won by St. John