The teams with the best records had the top players and coaches, according to the KMAC, as Centerburg's Mckinnon Mead and Cardington-Lincoln's Beth Hardwick topped the selections realease by he conference, and their coaches also brought home hardware.
An undefeated boys basketball conference season was rewarded with honors as Player of the Year and Coach of the Year by KMAC selectors. The Player of the Year was Centerburg’s Mead and the Coach of the Year was his Trojan coach, John Marhefka, who guided Centerburg to a 12-0 KMAC record and a 17-3 regular-season mark. Mead was KMAC's No. 2 scorer at 17.3 points per game, led in assists at 3.8 per game and was second in steals at 2.5 per game.
First-team selections saw six schools each land one player: Centerberg, Mckinnon Mead; from Danville, Walker Weckesser; from East Knox, Shane Knepp; from Fredericktown, Kaid Carpenter; from Mount Gilead, Elijah Chafin; and from Northmor, Grant Bentley.
Second-team selections included Cardington-Lincoln’s Nate Hickman, Danville’s Darren Mickley, Fredericktown’s Teegan Ruhl, Mount Gilead’s Paul Butterman and Northmor’s Graesin Cass and Max Lower.
Honorable mention recognition went to AJ Brehm of Cardington-Lincoln; Levi Houck of Centerberg; Wyatt Weckesser of Danville; Dillon Moreland of East Knox; Brady Lester of Fredericktown; Carter Kennon of Mount Gilead; and Logan Mariotti of Northmor.
All-Academic honors went to Hickman, Mead, Mickley, Sam Whitney of East Knox, Colson Chapman of Mount Gilead and Griffin Workman of Northmor.
Seventh grade league champion was Centerberg; eighth-grade champion was East Knox, and ninth-grade league leader was Centerberg.
On the girls side, a 68-game KMAC unbeaten streak, an 11-1 league mark to secure a seventh straight KMAC title and 17-4 regular season record earned recognition for Cardington-Lincoln’s on-court leader Hardwick as KMAC Player of the Year, while the guidance provided by the coach, Jamie Edwards, garnered him Coach of the Year honors. Hardwick was the No. 3 KMAC scorer at 13.8 points per game and averaged 5.7 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game.
First-team selections were Hardwick, Centerberg’s Chloe Goulter, Danville’s Brooklynn Hess, East Knox’s Alexandria Magers and Fredericktown’s Gabby Daniels.
Second-team recognition went to a trio of Lady Pirates: Dana Bertke, Kambry Edwards and Karsyn Edwards, along with Ella Proper of Danville, Laura Keith of East Knox, Audrey Bouton of Fredericktown and Reagan Swihart of Northmor.
Honorable mention acknowledgment went to Mikyala Linkous of Cardington-Lincoln, Kayla Larimore of Centerberg, Alenah Boeshart of Danville, Anjel Montgomery of East Knox, Call Carpenter of Fredericktown, Madilyn Elson of Mount Gilead and Paige Caudill of Northmor.
All-Academic honors were bestowed upon Karsyn Edwards, Camie Newbold of Danville, Keith, Bouton and Lexi Wegner of Northmor.
At other KMAC levels, winning the seventh-grade title was Cardington-Lincoln; eighth-grade title went to Cardington-Lincoln and ninth-grade champion was Centerberg.
