December 2023

Wrestling starts season off on right foot

Year number two of the Mike Davison era is underway at McPherson High School, as the Bullpup boys and girls have each started 2-0 in duals against Wellington and Mulvane while the girls also completed the annual Doug Kretzer Classic on Saturday, December 2.A total of five wrestlers made state in Davison’s first year as head coach after taking over for longtime McPherson wresting coach Doug Kretzer, with three wrestlers coming from the girls’ side and the remaining two from the boys’ side.However, despite just two of the five state qualifiers returning to the Bullpups for the 2023-2024 season, the McPherson boys and girls are off to 2-0 starts as the boys defeated Wellington 63-15 and Mulvane 57-24 and the girls defeated Wellington 42-36 and Mulvane 54-30 during a double-dual on Thursday, November 30 at the Roundhouse to open the season.Against Wellington, the Bullpup boys lost just three matches as John Robben, Noah Garcia, Keaton Crane, Kaseson Curtis, Kaden Gantt, Ethan Wagner, Hayden Farley, Jase Fitzmorris, Landon Thompson, Catch DeLaney and Jayce Gunn all picked up match wins.Mulvane would pick up one more match win than Wellington against McPherson with all four match victories coming by fall, but Robben, Crane, Curtis, Gantt, Wagner, Farley, Fitzmorris, Thompson, DeLaney and Gunn all picked up wins once more to stay undefeated on the young season.The Bullpup girls would not be able to dispatch Wellington quite as easily, as the Crusaders pushed McPherson to the final match before the Bullpups came away with the 42-36 dual win.

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Bullpups sweep Demons to open season

DODGE CITY, Kansas – The long-awaited start of basketball season for the McPherson Bullpups arrived in a bruising manner, as both the McPherson boys and girls thumped 6A’s Dodge City on the road Friday night to start the 2023-2024 season off 1-0.McPherson Girls: 52-24 win over Dodge CityComing off a season where the Lady Pups finished 22-3 and as runners-up in the class 4A girls basketball tournament, class 4A No.2 ranked McPherson had to replace three starters (Chloe Clevenger, Jordan Sears and Alexis Dukes) that all graduated and moved on to play college basketball.To help replace the production from the three previous starters, the Lady Pups brought back starting seniors Karter Alvord and Jayla McLeod, as well as bench players Madison Moors and Reanna Eilrich to try and make a run at another state title.McPherson’s aspirations of a second straight visit to the state championship game got off on the right foot Friday, December 1 as the Lady Pups forced the young Dodge City backcourt into an abundance of turnovers while being able to crack the Demons’ zone defense to come away with a 52-24 win.“We were able to really speed up Dodge City as they have a very inexperienced backcourt right now, so that led to a lot of turnovers,” McPherson head girls basketball coach Chris Strathman said about his team’s first game of the season.

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Bullpup swimmers take eighth to begin season

MAIZE, Kansas – A youthful McPherson High School boys swimming team hit the pool for the first time this winter as the Bullpups traveled to Maize for the first invite of the season, but stiff competition placed McPherson in eighth place out of 12 teams on Saturday, December 2.McPherson, who co-ops with Smoky Valley during the regular season, sent three swimmers to state a season ago.

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Secretary Schwab announces kick-off for the first statewide election in 2024

Today, Secretary of State Scott Schwab announced the kickoff for the first statewide election in 2024, the Presidential Preference Primary (PPP).Last week marked the first important deadline of the March 19, 2024, Presidential Preference Primary when the Republican and Democratic parties notified the Secretary of State’s Election Division that they would be participating in the preference primary.

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