There was no shortage of outstanding sports stories that grabbed the local headlines in 2007.
State championships and amazing comebacks; record-setting performances and first-time victories.
The Gazette sports staff mulled through the best of the best stories that occurred in the area this past year and came up with the top 10 stories that had people talking.
The countdown starts with Nos. 10-6 today and will wrap up with Nos. 5-1 — including the top local sports story of the year — on Saturday.
Today, a pair of high school track and field stars jump start the countdown, followed by three of the biggest stories the Emporia State athletic department produced this year.
10. Layne Moore wins two State track titles
Heading into the 2007 State track and field meet, Layne Moore’s legacy at Emporia High was secure.
The two-time State champion and Missouri signee was going to leave EHS as the school’s top female middle distance runner ever, no questions asked, regardless of how she performed at Wichita State’s Cessna Stadium.
She would have left as the school-record holder in the 400-, 800- and 1,600-meter races even if she hadn’t run on the final day at State.
So repeating as the 400- and 800-meter champion in 2007 served as a sort of exclamation point on her career.
Still, it felt pretty good.
“It’s very nice to repeat winning both titles again,” Moore said afterward. “That was the goal all year. I am very happy to end my high school career like that. That felt good.”
Moore was simply dominant in both races. She nearly broke the State meet record in the 400, running a school-record time of 55.97 seconds, the 12th-fastest time in Kansas high school history and just .07 seconds off the meet record.
In the 800, Moore pulled away late to blow past the field, winning in 2 minutes, 19.41 seconds.
“Just phenomenal. What can you say?” EHS track and field coach Randy Wells said. “She’s just a great athlete who loves to compete and wants to win.”
9. Jacquelyne Leffler takes shot, discus titles for 3rd year in a row
It wasn’t enough for Jacquelyne Leffler to win her third straight State shot put title. It wasn’t enough to completely blow away her competition.
The only thing that would satisfy Leffler was a State title and a State meet record. Anything less would have been a disappointment for the Northern Heights junior.
So just to make sure she got both, Leffler broke the State meet shot put record not once, not twice, not even three times.
In six throws, Leffler broke the State meet record on five, with her longest being 45 feet, 6 3/4 inches, the 10th best toss in Kansas high school history. It was her third straight Class 3A shot put title.
“I was pretty excited about it,” Leffler said at the time. “It feels really good to get that record.”
She followed that performance by winning her third straight discus title, winning with a long throw of 148-11, nearly 17 feet more than her closest competitor.
Leffler returns as a senior this year, making her the easy favorite to repeat as the champion in both events.
8. Garin Higgins goes 3-8 in 1st season as Emporia State’s football coach
Garin Higgins said he knew rebuilding the Emporia State football team wasn’t going to be an easy process.
Still he couldn’t have predicted both the extreme highs — and then lows — his first season would bring at ESU.
The Hornets won their first three games under Higgins, starting out 3-0 with the biggest win coming in a 17-7 upset road victory over Central Oklahoma.
For the second year in a row, though, ESU crumbled down the stretch.
Hampered by injuries and a struggling offense, the Hornets lost their last eight games of the season. It was the second consecutive year that ESU lost its final seven games of the year.
Everything came unraveled in ESU’s final contest, when the Hornets fell 62-0 to Pittsburg State. It was ESU’s worst loss since 1967.
“We’re not going to dwell on this. We’re going to move on,” Higgins said after the final game. “We’re going to move forward. We’re going to keep taking our steps forward.
“I think looking at this tells us how far away we are and what we need to do to get there.”
7. ESU women lose to Texas A&M-Commerce in 1st round of NCAA Tournament
Pay no attention to Emporia State’s No. 5 seed or Texas A&M-Commerce’s No. 4 seed.
Judging by the reaction afterward, the upstart Lions’ 81-77 victory over the perennial power Lady Hornets in the first round of the NCAA Tournament was considered an upset by both teams.
The Lady Hornets — a team led by six seniors — were left with heads hung on the bench as the final seconds ticked away on their season.
It was just the second time in ESU’s storied women’s basketball history that a Lady Hornet team had lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Meanwhile, Commerce coach Denny Downing wore an ear-to-ear smile when entering the press room, flanked by a pair of players — Britney Jordan and Kanani Marshal — who combined to score 48 points on ESU.
Michelle Stueve tried her best to save the Lady Hornets. She scored 33 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, and senior Carolyn Dorsey had 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting.
ESU was haunted by 20 turnovers, though, and the inability to stop Commerce’s guards. The Lions’ 81 points was the most given up by the Lady Hornets all season.
“You can’t get into NCAA Tournament play and be timid or play not to lose,” ESU coach Brandon Schneider said after the game. “I felt that was our biggest downfall tonight.”
6. ESU men’s basketball starts season 16-0
The Emporia State men’s basketball players got the memo that they had been picked ninth out of 10 teams in the MIAA preseason coaches poll.
They spent the next 2 1/2 months proving all the doubters wrong.
The Hornets started the season 16-0 — their best start in school history — and moving all the way up to No. 7 in the national polls, their highest ranking ever.
The team-first Hornets were led by a pair of newcomers who would later become first-team All-MIAA selections.
Sharpshooter Donta Watson finished as the MIAA’s leading scorer at 19.1 points per game, while point guard DeAndre Townsend was fourth with a 17.2 point-per-game average.
Emporia High graduate Wes Book also had a strong year, averaging 13.6 points, while forward Ed Desir was named to the league’s All-Defensive Team.
ESU’s perfect run ended at home against Northwest Missouri State. Though the Hornets jumped out to a 16-0 lead in the first 2:45, the No. 19 Bearcats roared back for an 89-72 victory.
The Hornets ended the season with a 21-8 record, making their second appearance in the NCAA Tournament, where they lost in the first round to Southeastern Oklahoma State, 79-66.
“We played to the best of our abilities when nobody gave us a chance,” Watson said. “For me, it’s been the best season of basketball I’ve ever had.”