Emilee Clay
After a great season, the West Side Girls Dance team returned from nationals, hosted in Orlando, Florida, after placing sixth in both Spirit Showdown and Large Varsity Pom and placing seventeenth in Large Varsity Jazz.
Senior and dance team captain, Lauren Bennett, said she was proud of her team and all their accomplishments this season, and she was thankful for this season and to be able to compete at nationals once again this year.
Bennet said she was proud of what all the team accomplished this year. “I’m pretty proud of how it turned out, we met our goals of top ten which is what we wanted,” Bennet said, and went on to tell of all the fun memories and stories made with her team.
Bennett felt her senior season was one of the best and went on to say, “I felt pretty fulfilled with everything we did and our team was really close this year which helped make it like a fun year.”
The girls swim and dive team had 11 swimmers, Ella Fries, Lily Frazier, Marissa Garton, Grace Harmon, Ana Lewis, Hannah Jones, Addie Knapik, Ella Thompson, Laney Weatherby, and Kara Miller all qualify for state this 2021-2022 season. They made their way to St. Louis, competed and placed 15th overall at state.
Senior Ella Fries said at the beginning of this past season the girl’s swim team was introduced to a new head coach, which at first took some adjusting, but as a team they succeeded in their goals and had a great season.
Fries described her experience as “one of my best seasons overall, I’ve gotten best times in pretty much all of my events and it was a really fun season. We had a lot of good races, a lot of good practices but the overall team, the overall bonding it was just really fun.”
The LSW wrestling team said they also had a great season, competing in numerous tournaments and sending two students, sophomore Zach Pruit and freshman Callin (last name) to compete at state to go 1-2 in overall matches.
Brock Donnelly, senior captain of the wrestling team said he was disappointed coming just short of state, but said his overall senior season was full of “a lot of great memories, won a lot of tough matches this year, and medaled in some really big tournaments, like Kyle Thrasher and the Lee’s Summit holiday tournament.” He said he would cherish the memory of placing fifth out of 32 competitors at Kyle Thrasher, along with teammate Ruban Miller.
The girls basketball team made it all the way to the district championship before losing to the Truman High School Patriots. The boys basketball team made a shocking underdog win against rival school Lee’s Summit in the first district game of the 2021-2022 season. The boy’s basketball team held a five-game winning streak before going on to State Quarterfinals where they lost to Nixa.
Junior David Mayo said he and his team have grown a lot since the beginning of the season and he is proud of the team and all the obstacles they have overcome.
Mayo said something he has learned from this season is “toughness isn’t about how big you are, or how strong you are, or how good you can fight but it’s about your mental strength and how you can keep your head in certain situations.” Mayo said he will use that mentality in the next challenges the team will face in upcoming post season games.
