Stories from Friday, May 7, 2021

The no. 4 seed Liberal High School softball team, with its co-op contributors from Bronaugh, crushed no. 5 Northeast Vernon County 21-1 in the first round of Class 1 District 6 play Wednesday in Jasper. Later in the day, though, the Lady Bulldogs'/Lady Wildcats' season ended with a 4-1 defeat at the hands of top-seeded Hume — which beat Jasper 11-4 in the championship on Thursday...

Drew Beachler won gold in the long jump, and the Lady Tigers finished runner-up as a team, to highlight Nevada High School’s day at the Big 8 Conference track and field meet Wednesday in Monett. Nevada left with medals in eight events total, led by sophomore long-jumper Beachler, whose leap of 6.53 meters (or 21 feet, 5 inches) earned him a first-place medal and first-team all-conference honors...

Before Thursday’s dual against Stockton, it had been at least 20 years since the Nevada High School boys golf team hosted a match at the Nevada Country Club. If the results from the team’s nine-hole round were any indication, the Tigers might be hoping it becomes a new annual tradition to play there...

Following back-to-back road losses to out-of-conference foes El Dorado Springs and Fort Scott, a home tilt against Big 8 West rival McDonald County with a chance to clinch the conference crown seemed like just what the Nevada High School baseball team needed to get back to its winning ways...

They may not have beaten the same two Springfield Catholic players who defeated them earlier this season, but Nevada High School no. 1 doubles partners Andrew La Near and Evan Rea were still able to avenge one of their only losses of the year Wednesday at the Big 8 Conference tennis tournament in Springfield — and brought home first-place medals for it, too...