City Athlete of the Week: Topeka High's Ky Thomas
KY THOMAS, TOPEKA HIGH | SENIOR RUNNING BACK
HIS PERFORMANCE: Thomas, 6-foot, 205 pounds, eclipsed the 5,000-yard rushing mark for his career, picking up 294 yards on 25 attempts and scoring four touchdowns as Topeka High rallied for a 32-27 Centennial League victory over Manhattan. Thomas, who also caught four passes for 110 yards, scored on runs of 5,3,74 and 4 yards as the Trojans, ranked third in Class 6A and sixth in the Best of Kansas Preps Super 10, improved to 2-0. Thomas, who has committed to Minnesota, has rushed for 455 yards on the season and needs 732 yards to become the city's all-time career rushing leader. He has rushed for 5,159 yards in his career (all games), including 4,867 yards in the regular season.
COACH’S COMMENT: “I remember when he was a freshman and we were playing Shawnee Heights and there was about a minute and a half left,'' Topeka High coach Walt Alexander said. "I said, 'Ky, let's go win a football game,' and he went out and broke it that next play. That's never left my brain, so the other night I said, 'Ky, let's go win a football game.' I don't know what it is, but he's got it in him.''
TIME 2 TALK
1 QUESTION: How did it feel to be able to beat Manhattan for the first time in your career?
ANSWER: It felt good and it felt even better because of the way that we beat them, how we all came together being down, 14-0. It was just a team effort. Everybody put their part in and once we all started contributing we just couldn't be stopped after that. We were on a roll.
2 QUESTION: It was a big win, but now don't you just have to build off that and try to continue to get better every single week?
ANSWER: We had too many penalties I feel like in the game, some from myself as well, so it's just picking up on the little things, executing in situations where we should have and not missing assignments. But it's definitely a good game to build off of. We did great.
TOP 5: OTHER CITY CANDIDATES
TITAN CINA, SEAMAN SOCCER: Cina, a junior, scored a goal and was credited with an assist as Seaman improved to 3-1 with a 2-0 shutout non-league victory over Shawnee Heights on Friday.
DAVION GARDENHIRE, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS RUNNING BACK: A senior, Gardenhire rushed for 118 yards on 13 carries and scored three first-half touchdowns as Shawnee Heights picked up its first win, 40-0 over KC-Turner.
DA'VONSHAI HARDEN, TOPEKA HIGH QUARTERBACK: Harden, a senior, completed 13 of 20 pass attempts for 280 yards as Topeka High battled back from a 14-0 deficit to take a 32-27 Centennial League victory over Manhattan.
TANNER NEWKIRK, HAYDEN CROSS COUNTRY: A sophomore returning state placer, Newkirk placed second among 127 runners in the Wamego Invitational 4A race, clocking a 5-kilometer time of 16 minutes 43.5 seconds.
KYLIE PHILLIPS, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS CROSS COUNTRY: Phillips, a senior, placed second among 49 runners in the Topeka West Joe Schrag Invitational, posting a 5-kilometer time of 20:05.6.