Happy Friday, Shawnee Mission!
*Note: Outside of big breaking news, the Post will be taking Monday off to rest and observe Memorial Day. We plan to be back Tuesday with fresh headlines from your Johnson County communities.
☀️Today’s forecast: Mostly sunny. High: 81. Low: 53.
🚨 One thing to know today
It was a championship sweep on the links for the Shawnee Mission East boys’ golf squad earlier this week.
In the Kansas Class 6A state tournament in Newton, Kan., on Tuesday, the Lancers won the team title — the program’s 19th overall — while senior Thomas Gogel also took home the individual crown with a playoff victory over Blue Valley’s Chance Rinkol.
SM East’s squad squeaked out the team title over Olathe West with the help of a tiebreaker, according to KSHSAA Covered.
By the end of the two-day tournament, both teams had totaled 575 points, so it came down to the higher score tallied by the fifth golfer on each squad, which turned out to be SM East.
“At the end of the day, our team is built on pure competition within the team and the best players play,” coach Evan Scobie told the Post.
He noted that three seniors led the squad and two freshmen and a sophomore also “shined at state.”
“I think you had enough younger players pushing the older players to get better throughout the season, and we ended up with a pretty good mix at the end,” Scobie said.
Gogel’s individual win this week was a nail biter, too.
He went to a sudden-death playoff and won on the first playoff hole by making par, while his competitor Rinkol bogeyed the hole, KSHSAA Covered reported.
According to KSHSAA records, Gogel is SM East’s eighth individual golf champion all time and first since 2015.
— Juliana Garcia contributed to this report
🗓 Weekend things to do
- Pools across Johnson County open this holiday weekend. Check out city-by-city guide.
- Friday Night Sound Bites featuring the Ronni Ward Band, Lenexa Public Market, 7 p.m. [More details]
- Naka-Kon Anime Convention, Overland Park Convention Center, Fri.-Sun. [Get tickets]
- Celebration at the Station, Kansas City’s Union Station, Sunday [More info]
🚀 Post’s top Thursday stories
- ‘Everyone’s scared’ — Transgender Kansans brace for sweeping new law to take effect
- Texas Roadhouse opens in Overland Park
- Old Westwood View school building sold — What will go there next?
- Shawnee Mission gives first look at new Tomahawk Elementary plans
- Another Broken Egg’s ‘upscale brunch’ arrives in Prairie Village
📰 Other local news
- With an average home price of just less than $2 million, Mission Hills is the most expensive neighborhood in the state of Kansas, according financial website Savings Spot. [Kansas City Star]
- WalletHub rated Overland Park one of the top 60 cities in the U.S. in which to find summer jobs. [WIBW]
- The 10th Judicial District Nominating Commission in Johnson County is seeking nominations to fill a magistrate judge vacancy created by the impending retirement of Judge Robert Scott. [Commission]
📸 A thousand words
That’s a wrap on a 30-year career in the classroom for longtime Shawnee Mission South government and economics teacher Tony Budetti, who retired this week. Congrats to him and all the other local educators who no longer have to live by the bell schedule. Photo via Twitter.