Last Friday night was memorable. The conditions, the playoffs, defending 6A state champs, home game. It was all setting up for a storybook football game that I am positive will be talked about for years to come in the community. Blue Valley Northwest came into town with a 6-3 record feeling good about their chances of repeating as 6A champs. Little did they know, the Blazers had something to say about that.
This past Saturday, Nov. 5, the Blazer cheerleaders traveled to Oak Park High School in Kansas City, Missouri to compete with the hopes of earning a bid to high school cheer nationals in Florida in February. These girls have worked hard since June for this opportunity; all while continuing to cheer for the Gardner Edgerton High School sports teams, making school spirit banners, performing in assemblies and participating in community events to help paint the school in a positive light. They’ve overcome adversity in the form of multiple injuries and illnesses yet everything came together in a beautiful way yesterday.
This week capped off the end of a great season for Trailblazer Cross Country. The Blazer boys team participated in the KSHSAA 6A State Championship at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence. The race started extremely fast and saw a decades old 5k course record shattered with the winning time in boys 6A (Senior Wyatt Haughton of Shawnee Mission East) at 14:59.65.
Despite falling behind early, and their offense having the ball for only a minute- and-a-half in the 1st quarter, the Gardner Edgerton High School football team found their offensive and defensive momentum and rumbled to a 42-21 victory over Shawnee Mission East in the first round of the Kansas 6A Football State Championship Playoff Friday night at Gardner Edgerton District Activities Center.
The Gardner Edgerton Scholars’ Bowl team competed in their first tournament, Tuesday, Oct. 25 in Bonner Springs. They started out in pool play with two pools of nine teams. Three team members are brand new to Scholars’ Bowl this year.
Despite penalty and turnover woes that slowed their offensive attack in the 1st half, the Gardner Edgerton High School football team rebounded nicely in the 2nd half, flashing a multi-pronged onslaught that dominated host Olathe East and sent the Hawks to a 41-14 defeat at College Boulevard Activities Center on Friday night. The win was the second in a row for the Trailblazers and improved their overall record to 5-2 with one regular-season game to go. After the game, Blazer head coach Jesse Owen credited his offensive and defensive lines with taking control of the game after a lackluster 1st half.
On Saturday, most of the Blazer XC Squad wrapped up their season with some exciting performances on a beautiful Fall morning at KU’s Rimrock Farm XC Course. On the girls team side-10 Blazer’s dropped Rimrock Course PRs and two Blazers, Frosh Olivia Walion (21:33) and Natalie Roberts (24:56) dropped season PRs on one of the most challenging courses in Midwest.