Sports

ODESSA – The 2025 portion of the Tigers’ varsity boys basketball season has helped them take steps toward becoming the team they want to be in 2026, according to Excelsior Springs coach Ian Burch.

NICK OF TIME Haylee Ray beat the clock in winning the 140-pound girls title at The Battle at the Katy Trail. Ray, an Excelsior Springs sophomore, pinned North Calloway’s Elka Endres in 5 minutes, 49 seconds in the championship match of the tournament, held Dec.

Excelsior Springs’ final home varsity girls basketball game of 2025 – a 63-39 loss to Maryville – “was not one of our better nights,” according to coach JD Biermann. “I thought, early, we had some opportunities that we squandered,” Biermann said minutes after the Dec.

A POSSIBLE REPEAT Coach Cody Beck and his Excelsior Springs varsity boys wrestling team are eyeing a repeat title at the Lee’s Summit Holiday Tournament. Excelsior Springs won the 2024 team title with 255 points – 6.5 points ahead of runner-up Lee’s Summit West.

Lillah Shue had her back was against the wall – or rather, near the mat – in her final wrestling match of the Excelsior Springs High School Girls Tournament.

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HIGGINSVILLE – Excelsior Springs got locked into another pressure cooker with Richmond in varsity girls basketball Monday night. Trailing by double digits at halftime, Excelsior Springs made a second-half surge to cut Richmond’s lead to two in the fourth quarter.

each went the distance in securing second-place finishes for Excelsior Springs at the Tussle for the Tiara Dec. 6 at North Kansas City High School.

How far prep girls wrestling has come within the past 20 years! Or even within the past five years! I remember when I interviewed my first high school girls wrestler.