Semoball Awards spring finalists are announced, feature many new faces

If spring is all about fresh and new, then the announcement Saturday of the Semoball Awards spring sport finalists fit the bill.

Of 45 area student-athletes chosen as finalists and announced on-air during the SEMO ESPN Radio spring selection show, only 12 were finalists a year ago, as a bevy of new faces were recognized in the sports of baseball, softball, boys tennis, golf, girls soccer, and both girls and boys track and field.

All finalists will attend the Semoball Awards on July 9 at the Bedell Performance Hall on Southeast Missouri State's River Campus, where winners from each category will be unveiled.

Participating in the year's final announcements live on air was girls track and field finalist MaKayla Waldner, of Dexter. Waldner followed up a 2015 nomination in the same category by winning a Class 3 state title in the 300-meter hurdles, while also grabbing third-place finishes at state in the 100 hurdles and long jump.

Daily Statesman file photo Dexter's MaKayla Waldner is back among the Semoball Awards spring sport finalists after winning a Class 3 state title in track. She joined the selection show in the radio studio Saturday morning to talk about her track experience and her scholarship to play soccer at Mississippi State.

She qualified for state in four events, was a district champion in three and a sectional gold-medal winner in two.

"I sit in my block shaking and thinking, 'OK, if I want to get back to state, I have to make it through districts and sectionals,'" Waldner said. "So I sit there and relax and take a deep breath and know, 'I've been training for this as long as I can remember.'"

Waldner is also a standout soccer player, though she did not participate with Dexter High School, which does not field a team. Instead, the striker was a standout with club team St. Louis Scott Gallagher in the Elite Club National League -- the top female developmental soccer league in the country -- and earned a scholarship to play for Mississippi State next year.

"Soccer, whenever I play soccer, I get a different feeling than I do with track," Waldner said. "When I was younger I always thought I'll go to college and run track. When I got older, I played with SMSC out of Cape Girardeau and realized soccer was what I loved and I just wanted to do that for the rest of my life as long as I could."

She committed to traveling almost three hours each way just to go to practice, plus the travel around the country to play games. It involved a lot of school work on buses and extra hours in school to make up for the days missed, but it paid off when the Bulldogs began recruiting her as a sophomore.

For Waldner it's been a banner year. She earned a college scholarship, wrapped up her career with a state title in track and now has a chance put an exclamation point on things at the Semoball Awards.

"Just sitting [at the Awards last year] listening to everyone talk about, 'Oh, this is so cool to be here, even if I don't win I'm just glad I was invited.' I feel like that's an honor to just go," Waldner said. "It's awesome to think Cape Girardeau can provide that for us. ... It's really neat that athletes can get recognized and I'm just really glad I got asked to be there.

"I feel proud. Not only am I representing myself, I'm representing Dexter as a whole. It's nice to be able to say I'm from a small school and my graduating class is only 130 [students], but they can say that they had a state champ in their class. I feel like I made them proud and did the best I can."

Waldner may be a familiar face among the finalists, but most are not.

A group of 10 baseball nominees features just one who was on the list a year ago -- Poplar Bluff's Kameron Misner. Misner earned a nod again thatnks to an impressive season in which he hit .413, posted an OBP of .542, scored 36 times, posted nine doubles, each triples and six home runs and had a 2.48 ERA on the mound

The new faces include Bell City's Cole Nichols -- who hit .501 and had 33 RBIs as a leadoff hitter while going 6-0 on the hill with an 0.71 ERA for the repeat Class 1 champs -- Caruthersville's Peyton Faulkner (.564 avg., 24 stolen bases), Clearwater's Bryce Alcorn (.459 avg., 1.61 ERA, 110 strikeouts), Greenville's Trynton Tompkins (.453 avg., eight home runs, 8-0 pitching record), Jackson's Jarrett Newell (.452 on-base percentage, five doubles, 1.42 ERA), Notre Dame's Garrett Siebert (1.016 on base + slugging percentage, eight doubles, 25 RBIs), Scott City's Braden Cox (.410 avg., 14 doubles, 2.38 ERA), Senath-Hornersville's Kyle Moore (15 SBs, 0.89 ERA) and Sikeston's Blake Wolferding (.351 avg., eight doubles).

Scott City's Braden Cox helped the Rams to a return to the Class 3 baseball final four. On Saturday morning he was announced as one of the spring sport finalists for the Third Annual Semoball Awards, set for July 9 at the Bedell Performance Center on Southeast Missouri State's River Campus.Glenn Landberg

Nichols, Alcorn, Tompkins, Newell, Siebert and Cox all helped their teams to district titles and beyond; Cox and the Rams made a return to the Class 3 final four.

The softball finalists are just as green when it comes to the Semoball Awards, but still impressive. Reigning Semoball Softball Player of the Year Taylor Tiffany of Portageville is back, as is Van Buren's Summer Shockley. Everyone else is a first-timer.

Tiffany broke her own single season state strikeout record and became the only pitcher in Missouri history to top 400 strikeouts. She went 25-4 with an 0.42 ERA, while also batting .421.

Shockley hit .485 with 85 RBIs across the fall and spring seasons, while posting a 1.26 ERA with 365 Ks. Her OBP was .742.

The newbies are Chaffee's Sydney Walker (.414 avg., 12 doubles), Jackson's Sophie Wunderlich (.435 avg., 1.40 ERA), Kennett's Hannah Criswell (.513 avg., 39 RBIs, 14 doubles), Malden's Lana Reed (.538 avg., 35 RBIs, 10 home runs), Notre Dame's Morgan Duschell (.495, 36 runs scored, 15 SBs) and Madison Landeros (.476 avg., 12 doubles, 13 stolen bases), Poplar Bluff's Shelby Sievers (.543 avg., 34 RBIs, 29 doubles, 1.93 ERA) and Scott City's Kaileigh Dirden (.623 avg., 16 HRs, 1.40 ERA).

Dirden's 16 home runs in the spring set a state record.

Walker, Reed, Tiffany and Duschell and Landeros all helped their teams to state appearances in the fall.

The five finalists for girls soccer start with two returning finalists -- Jackson's Cassidi Tomsu and Saxony Lutheran's Grace Mirly. Tomsu, a Southeast Missouri State signee, scored 21 goals for the Indians, while Mirly, the reigning Class 1 Player of the Year, helped the Crusaders to a second straight Class 1 state title while scoring 26 goals and adding 24 assists.

Mirly's teammate, Maddie Brune made the cut by captaining her side to a championship while scoring 18 goals and pitching in 17 assists after missing her junior season due to injury.

Poplar Bluff's Shelbey Johnson made her own comeback from injury to help the Mules to a district title and set school records with 24 goals and 10 assists.

Notre Dame's Megan Heisserer burst on to the scene by leading the area with 33 goals to go with 10 assists as just a freshman.

Boys tennis marks the return of 2015 Semoball Boys Tennis Player of the Year Ethan Flowers, of Dexter. Flowers made the grade by going 17-5 in singles play, 14-2 in doubles play and qualifying for the state tournament.

Joining Flowers is teammate Zach Potts, along with the Poplar Bluff trio of Humza Siddiqui, Isaac Laseter and Peyton Bradley.

All besides Flowers are first-time nominees.

Advance's Brian Whitson and Cape Girardeau Central's Kobe Franklin headline the golf category after making the cut for a second year in a row.

After an impressive resume of medalist finishes throughout the regular season, Whitson won a small-school conference title and then finished as Class 1 runner-up. Franklin finished tied for seventh in the Class 3 tournament.

Notre Dame's Jack Litzelfelner made a strong case for the top honor, returning from suspension to win the large-school conference tournament and then finish tied for first at a rain-shortened Class 3 state event.

CHRIS POBST ~ Sikeston Standard-Democrat Portageville's Taylor Tiffany is one of just a handful of returning spring sport finalists for the Semoball Awards, but she made a case for a repeat as Softball Player of the Year with another record-setting season.

Rounding out the five-man field is Dexter's Ethan Stevens (seventh Class 3) and Poplar Bluff's Nathan Woolard (tied for 15th Class 4).

More than any other category, boys track and field looks a lot like the 2015 group, with three student-athletes back in the mix.

Last year's winner, Kelly's Maurice Davis, added another Class 2 state title in the 100-meter dash to his resume, and finished second in the 200 and seventh in the triple jump.

Also back are Poplar Bluff's Denzel Britton, with three top-seven finishes at the Class 4 state meet, and Sikeston's Earnest Fobbs, who finished third in the Class 4 triple jump.

Malden's Nick Thompson is a strong contender after bringing home a pair of Class 2 titles in the discus and shot put.

Levi Krauss of St. Vincent makes it two Semoball Awards nods after earning top-three results at state in both the 1600 and 3200. Krauss is also a boys cross country finalist.

Waldner is the lone girls track and field nominee who returns to the list, joined by Class 2 100-meter champion Danitra Jones of Charleston, Katie Schumer of Jackson, Krisman Easkin of Poplar Bluff and Antravia Green of Sikeston.

Schumer finished fifth at Class 5 state in the pole vault, Eakin had a pair of conference titles before notching an all-state finish in the 200 at state along with a pair of fourth-place relay runs and Green was third in both the 100 and 200 at the Class 4 championships.

In addition to the sport categories, the year's special award finalists were also announced for Coach of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and the Sportsmanship Award.

The Coach of the Year finalists feature Malden football's Joel Wyatt, Gideon's Keenan Buchanan, Kennett's Jim Vaughn, Sikeston girls basketball's Matt Schnonhoff and Bell City baseball's Justin Simpher.

Wyatt led the Green Wave to a 14-1 record, with their only loss coming in the Class 2 state championship -- the program's first ever berth in the final.

Buchanan took the Bulldog's boys basketball program to its first ever appearance in the final four, finishing third in Class 1 despite a sideline health scare midway through the season. He also took Gideon baseball to a district title, all while acting as the school's principal and athletic director.

Vaughan was also a jack of all trades for Kennett, where he not only transitioned into the role of AD, but also coached both the boys -- a role from which he stepped down in February -- and girls basketball teams. He led the boys to a Bloomfield Christmas Tournament title and nearly knocked off Cape Girardeau Central during the district tournament. The girls went 14-10.

Schnohoff stepped down in the spring, but only after he led the Bulldogs to a program record for wins in a season and their first ever out-right regular-season SEMO Conference championship.

Simpher, who also acts as Bell City's AD and an assistant with the basketball team, brought his Cubs back to state for a repeat Class 1 title.

The Comeback Player of the Year finalists are Jackson's Bryce Dickerson, Neelyville's Chelsea Petty, Saxony Lutheran's Raegan Wieser, Jackson's Carson McCord and Poplar Bluff's Shelbey Johnson.

The Sportsmanship Award finalists are Saxony's Maddie Brune, Bloomfield's Tyler Battles, Leopold's Garrett Thele, Charleston's Lee Thomas Moody and Puxico's Nathan Dare.

Finalists from a pool of 57 high schools are selected by a panel of semoball.com sports editors and writers along with broadcasters from SEMO ESPN Radio. Selections are based on statistics, in-season observations and nominations.

Tickets for the Semoball Awards are on sale now and can be purchased at semoball.com/awards.

Awards finalists will receive an invitation in the mail to reserve a free ticket, and parents of finalists will also receive an invitation and information on how to purchase additional tickets.

The event's keynote speaker will be former NFL player and ESPN radio and television personality Mark Schlereth.

The Third Annual Semoball Awards are presented thanks to presenting sponsor SoutheastHEALTH, official bank sponsor First Midwest Bank, title sponsors Athlon Sports and the St. Louis Cardinals and radio partner SEMO ESPN Radio, along with rustmedia and the area's five newspapers.

Parties interested in sponsoring individual sports can contact Lucas Presson at 573-388-3649 or email at lpresson@rustmedia.com.