Sports

COLUMBIA — Delayed a year by injury, but not derailed, sophomore Samantha “Sam” Sharp of Brookfield High School began carving her own chapter of state-level distance-running excellence into BHS history last Saturday when she joined older sister Alexandra in being a top-5 finisher in the Missouri State High School Activities Association Class 2 Championships in cross-country running. Prevented by a lingering midseason injury that worsened during the district state-qualifying race from joining “Alex” in her last of four medal-earning state showings last fall, “Sam” navigated her sophomore season without recurrence of the injury and, despite much less off-season training than she otherwise would have done as the leg injury didn’t fully heal until early last summer, capped it with a fifthplace time of 20:04 in last weekend’s state race at the Gans Creek Cross-Country Running Course, southeast of Columbia.

GALLATIN — Brookfield High School’s football Bulldogs went into last Friday’s Class 1 District 6 playoffs semifinal game as significant underdogs to the undefeated, top-seeded Gallatin Bulldogs. With little to lose, second-year head coach Cory Luke started the game with a roll of the dice that came up seven, leading to an early six points and a lead many would have figured they’d never hold in the game.

KANSAS CITY — Patrick Mahomes was probably having flashbacks Sunday night to his days at Texas Tech, when he would scramble around like a kid playing sandlot football while routinely throwing the ball 60-plus times in a game. The Chiefs needed all of it — every run, every throw, every yard — to rally past the Tennessee Titans.

Tigers again miss win, this time on technical penalty call COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Amid a contest in which the defenses for Kentucky and Missouri flexed their muscles most of the afternoon, it was a botched punt snap that proved the difference for the Wildcats in escaping with a 21-17 victory over the Tigers on Saturday.

COLUMBIA — By almost every account, Dennis Gates won the news conference when he was introduced as the new coach at Missouri, conveying a clear and ambitious vision for a struggling program with unbridled enthusiasm. He's also been winning on the recruiting trail, quickly improving the Tigers' talent level not only this season but beyond.

COLUMBIA — Saturday concluded Missouri’s high school cross-country running season with the staging of the state-championship races for girls and boys in the 3-smallest school classifications. The 2022 championship races at Columbia’s Gans Creek Course that day were to involve two Brookfield participants in the Class 2 girls’ race during the morning and a boy (Ethan Barnett) and girl (Spenser Coram) from Meadville and two girls from Mendon: Northwestern (Jaden Mauzey, Taylor Fry) in the afternoon 5-kilometers races across natural terrain.

A multitude of Missouri hunting seasons are now open or soon will be, so Missouri hunters will have to choose in which season to participate when they go out the door to go hunting. The North Zone duck hunting season opened last Saturday to run for 60 days and the first of several firearms deer seasons – the early youth-only season – was last weekend with more seasons to follow.