Southwest Wins State Softball Title, East Captures Boys State Tennis Crown
HASTINGS–(Oct. 15)–In an all Lincoln Class A final, Lincoln Southwest won their fourth Class A state softball championship Friday afternoon with a 16-7 victory over Lincoln East at the Smith Softball Complex.
Southwest caps the season with a 40-6 record and their first state title since 2018. East, who entered the state tournament with 70 home runs as a team, finished a tremendous rally from the elimination bracket to earn the runner-up spot with a 35-10 record. The Spartans had 14 home runs at State to finish with 84 on the season. Morgan Adams hit her 23rd round-tripper of the season Friday to set a single-season record in Class A.
The Silver Hawks were down early 4-0 to the Spartans and found themselves down 5-1 in the bottom of the first when East’s Amelia Kehn belted a grand slam, but Southwest utilized the bats and brought in six runs in the top of the second inning, including an RBI double from Taylor Fritz and an RBI triple from Taylor Coleman.
Five more runs came in during the fourth inning for Southwest and back-to-back home runs in the seventh from Madison Divis and Fritz sealed the victory for the Silver Hawks.
Sophomore pitcher Alexis Bradley helped Southwest in the circle by striking out six, allowing two hits and an earned run, after entering the game in the first inning.
East had rallied back from an opening round loss on Wednesday to last year’s state champ Papillion-LaVista and ended up beating Gretna late Friday morning 10-1 to earn a spot in Friday afternoon’s championship game. It marked the first time the Spartans had played in the Class A softball championship since their 2006 runner-up season.
EAST BOYS CAPTURE STATE TENNIS TEAM TITLE
Lincoln East’s boys tennis team won the Class A state championship Friday afternoon at the Koch Tennis Center in Omaha, after Caden Haar and Kaiden Bradley won the No. 2 doubles and Kyle Givens and Gabe Whiston won No. 1 doubles.
Runner-up finishes for the Spartans included Yakub Islamov in the No. 2 singles and Kirby Le in No. 1 singles. It’s the first team title in tennis for East since 2007.
Givens and Whiston defeated Creighton Prep’s Shawn and Nathan Ramachandran 6-4, 6-3. Haar and Bradley defeated Elkhorn South’s Gabriel Jordan and Tanuskh Sharma 6-1, 2-6 and 6-2.
Here are the results.
TEAM SCORING: Lincoln East 54, Creighton Prep 42, Elkhorn South 35, Omaha Westside 34, Lincoln Southeast 24¾, Bellevue West 23¼, Kearney 21½, Papillion-La Vista South 20¼, Millard North 19, Lincoln Southwest 18⅝, Millard West 18⅛, Papillion-La Vista 14½, Norfolk 14¼, Lincoln North Star 11, Lincoln Pius X 8, Omaha Central 6, Bellevue East 4, Gretna 4, Lincoln High 4, Lincoln Northeast 4.
NO. 1 SINGLES: Semifinals–Zachary Kuo, Creighton Prep, def. Jeremiah Witkop, Bellevue West, 6-0, 6-0; Kirby Le, Lincoln East, def. Andrew Nelson, Elkhorn South, 6-0, 4-6, 7-5.. First place–Kuo, Creighton Prep, Def. Le, Lincoln East, 6-3, 6-0. Third place–Witkop, Bellevue West, def. Nelson, Elkhorn South, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Fifth place–Saulsbury, Kearney def. Rutledge, Lincoln Southwest 9-8 (7-4). Seventh place–Lewis, Papillion-La Vista South, def. Shefsky, 8-2.
NO. 2 SINGLES: Semifinals–Yakub Islamov, Lincoln East, def. Camden Hjermstad, Lincoln Southeast 3-6, 6-2, 6-1; Brandon Savino, Omaha Westside, def. Daniel Brocaille, Papillion-La Vista South, 6-3, 6-2. First place–Savino, Omaha Westside, def. Islamov, Lincoln East, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Third place–Hjermstad, Lincoln Southeast, def. Brocaille, Papillion-La Vista South, 6-3, 6-0. Fifth place–Sabirianov, Millard North, def. Krohn, Norfolk, 8-6. Seventh place–Schulte, Millard West, def. Morales, Creighton Prep, 8-5.
NO. 1 DOUBLES: Semifinals–Kyle Givens-Gabriel Whiston, Lincoln East, def. Maxwell Jordan-Hayden Whitlock, Elkhorn South, 6-4, 6-4; Shawn Ramachandran-Nathan Ramachandran, Creighton Prep, def. Clark Rue-Alexander Roeser, Omaha Westside, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5. First place–Givens-Whiston, Lincoln East, def. S. Ramachandran-N. Ramachandran, 6-4,6-3. Third place–Jordan-Whitlock, Elkhorn South, def. Rue-Roeser, Omaha Westside, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2. Fifth place–Wesslund-McCoy, Lincoln North Star, def. Gharst-Muinov, Millard North, 9-8(7-3). Seventh place–Miller-Weyeneth, Lincoln Southeast, def. Kuper-Ye, Millard West, 8-5.
NO. 2 DOUBLES: Semifinals–Kaiden Bradley-Caden Haar, Lincoln East, def. Tyler Blair-Ruyter Jamison, Lincoln Southeast, 6-1, 6-0; Gabriel Jordan-Tanuskh Sharma, Elkhorn South, def. Quinten Shaffer-Hung Vu, Kearney, 6-1, 6-0. First place–Bradley-Haar, Lincoln East, def. Jordan-Sharma, Elkhorn South, 6-1, 2-6, 6-2. Third place–Blair-Jamison, Lincoln Southeast, def. Shaffer-Vu, Kearney, 6-2, 6-2. Fifth place–Imig-Vetter, Papillion-La Vista, def. Hosick-Lemon, Bellevue West, 8-5. Seventh place–Sorrell-Johnson, Lincoln Southwest, def. Pate-Gordman, Omaha Westside, 8-2.
