ORLANDO, Fla. – Prestonsburg student, eight-year-old Blakelynn Crider, competed this past weekend in dance competitions in Orlando, bringing home a national award and other honors.

The Prestonsburg Elementary third-grader represented Dance Etc. in the Stage 8 Dance Nationals in the jazz solo division. When all was said and done, she emerged the national champion.

But that wasn’t the only accomplishment; this one also came with a major honor. Crider was named Mini-Rising Talent Performer of the Year.

Mountain Top Sports wants to congratulate Crider and all the rest who competed and represented the region with such success!

The post Crider wins national dance competition, named ‘rising talent’ appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

DAYTONA, Fla. – The University of Pikeville dance team has claimed its first national championship.
 
The Bears won the NAIA Jazz Division of the NCA and NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship on Friday.
 
And now, the rest of the story: The Bears won the title competing with only two dancers.
 
Alexis and Aliya Osborne are twin sisters from Prestonsburg, and took down the rest of the field to win the national championship.
 
“I’m really proud of them,” said Coach Hanna Case. “This wasn’t initially the plan, but we decided to just come on down and see how it went. We’re really glad we did.”
 
This was especially significant for Case, an alumnus of UPIKE who was a talented dancer in her own right. After graduating, she was an assistant coach for three seasons before moving to head coach in 2018.
 
“I’ve wanted this for a long time,” she said.
 
Case was on the first squad to compete in this competition, finishing fourth. They’ve been close – earning a runner-up finish a year ago – but had never made it to the top.
 
All of that ended on Friday afternoon.
 
Only three teams advanced to today’s finals, and the Osbornes held a slim one-point lead when the day began.
 
“We talked about it, and how we didn’t want to hold our lead – we wanted to expand it,” said Case.
 
That’s how it played out, too.
 
The Bears won with a score of 85.3143, winning the title by outdistancing a familiar foe – the University of the Cumberlands – who finished second with a score of 82.4857.
 
St. Thomas (Fla.) was third at 80.1143.
 
Case was joined by her longtime assistant, Brooklyn Newsome. Like Case, Newsome is a UPIKE alum and former dancer who was captain of the squad and was a 19-year veteran of the University of Pikeville Studio of Dance.

The post UPIKE dance team wins first national title appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

Larry French, one of the all-time winningest Kentucky high school football coaches, passed away April 8 at the age of 74.

French was a household name and became so during a coaching career that lasted 48 years. Only Philip Haywood and Dudley Hinton have better records than French, who stacked up a record of 381-182, placing him third on the all-time wins list.

And he did this while coaching across the board for several schools, including, Middlesboro, Southwestern, and Boyle County, where he won two state championships in 2009 and 2010.

French finished his career at Middlesboro, retiring in December of 20025. He was named District Coach of the Year three times and Class 2A State Coach of the Year in 2021.

Funeral services had not been arranged as of press time.

The post Legendary Kentucky football coach Larry French passes away appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

PAINTSVILLE, Ky. – Johnson Central officials made the announcement Tuesday afternoon that the new head coach of its volleyball program would be the seasoned Andrew Lafferty.

Lafferty said his goal was to establish a “gold standard” for the program.

“Stepping into the role of Head Coach for the Johnson Central volleyball program, my focus is locked squarely on the future,” Lafferty said. “Our mission is to establish a gold standard—one defined by a relentless culture of grit and positivity.”

There are also what he refers to as “pillars” attached to his overall vision for the future.

“We are building this program on the pillars of family, discipline, character, and accountability,” Lafferty continued. “By fostering these values, we will naturally elevate the level of volleyball played on our court. The era of simply competing is over; it is time for the Golden Eagles to consistently contend for championships and become a premier pipeline for collegiate-level talent every single season.” 

The new head coach said now is the time to prove how good his players are and what they can expect for rewards with hard work.

“Our goal is clear,” Lafferty said. “It’s time to hang new banners in our gym and add hardware to the trophy case. Nothing with wings can fly as high as an Eagle—now it’s time to prove it.”

The post Johnson Central names Lafferty new head volleyball coach appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. – Pike County Central High School officials announced Wednesday afternoon that Charles F. Whitt has been named head coach of its archery team.

Whitt has considerable experience in archery, having served as an assistant archery coach for four years at Pike Central and, most recently, as the head coach of Mullins Archery for the past year. 

“He brings a wealth of knowledge, discipline, and passion to our program,” school officials stated. “

Along with a strong track record as a sports figure in the region, Whitt’s additional professional background includes 15 years of honorable service in the United States Army, followed by 13 years in law enforcement.

“We’re excited to have Coach Whitt leading our team,” Pike Central officials continued. “He’s looking forward to growing the program and helping every archer continue to improve and reach their full potential.

The post Whitt sighted in for Pike Central archery coach appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

MCDOWELL, Ky. – Some may remember Kobe Bryant’s retirement game in 2016. The late legend scored a smooth 81 points to finish a career already flush with accomplishments.

It may be odd to imagine, but a high school player from right here in Eastern Kentucky matched that, dropping exactly 81 points in a single game. That phenom was McDowell Daredevil great Geri Grigsby, who did it during her junior year for the Floyd County school.

And it’s only one of a host of jaw-dropping stats Grigsby racked up in mid- to late-70s.

In the 1976-77 season, her Miss Basketball season, her talent spilled outside the region when she scored 1,885 points, good enough for the national record. Across that season, Grigsby averaged, wait for it, 49.8 points a game. Total for her high school career? Still the highest mark for boy’s or girl’s at a whopping 4,385 points over only three years.

I know. Video game numbers, right?

It’s not surprising that among her honors are having been named first-team All-State in 1975, 1976, and 1977. She was named Kentucky’s Sportswoman of the Year the following year in 1978.

Grigsby rests easily in the National Federation of State High School Association’s Hall of Fame, the Dawahares KHSAA Hall of Fame, and the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame.

The post Geri Grigsby: Kentucky basketball’s first female superstar appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

There may a few less statistics that come to mind when considering achievements on the mound – strikeouts being the first to come to mind for most. Then you have wins, of course. Surely, too, there are walks and batters hit by pitch, the less dignified of pitching records. For now, we’re going to focus on the positives.

But aside from wins and strikeouts, there are the rare moments for pitchers, the games worthy of tracking down the gameday ball to put on the mantle for all the years to come – the no-hitter and the prize of all prizes, the perfect game, such a rare feat that even at the highest level of play there have been only been 24 pitched. That many, right? Not many when you consider that since records have been kept this is 24 of a grand total of approximately 238,500 games.

Keep in mind as we begin taking a look at these pitching statistics that KHSAA records are only current up to May 18, 2023. There may be some players already on the lists and who will be following this season. If you know of any players who are in this position, let us know in the comments!

Wins

Danville’s Paul Morse has won more games than any other high school pitcher in the state with 55 wins from 1988 to 1992, including 13 during the 1989 season.

From 2011 to 2014, Max Hall, who played for Letcher County, notched 31 wins for ninth-place all-time. Hall also shows up in the lowest ERA in a season with an astounding 0.83 in 2012 and career shutouts at 10. Harrison County’s Logan Dailey hold the top spot for the lowest ERA in a season when in 2008 over 34 innings pitched, he walked away with an perfect 0.00.

Another ace from the region, Pike Central’s Josh Elswick, is on the books for consecutive wins with 16. The most all-time is 24 straight when Madison Central’s Jeff Cruse cruised through batters in a three-year period between 1980 and 1983.

Strikeouts

For most people – die-hard fans and casual enthusiasts alike – strikeouts is the first stat that comes to mind. And why not? It’s probably the easiest to understand: a hurler takes the mound and tosses his best pitches, the hitter takes their swings without a hit then heads back to the dugout.

With a minimum of 340 Ks to qualify for the all-time list, pitcher Paul Morse shows up again for the most ever. Morse wiffed 651 batters during his high school career.

Most in one season belongs to Mike Blakeman, from Green County. In one of the longest-standing records on the books, Blakeman struck out 192 batters in 1968.

Twenty strikeouts in a single game has become one of the numbers pitchers and fans alike begin to root for when the total starts moving closer to that in the later innings. There are 14 pitchers who have hit that mark since Don Gullett racked up his 20 Ks against Portsmouth Clay in 1969. Also among those 14 is Johnson Central’s Matt Fyffe who did it in 2007.

But who was the most consistent over the course of one season with the strikeouts per game average? That record belongs to Alex Hamilton of Breathitt County with an average of 17.2 punches a game in 2013.

No-hitters

As it goes with statistics, there are plenty of categories, but, after wins and strikeouts, it’s the historic no-hitter that is one of the most revered.

In high school baseball, a no-hitter is a rare and celebrated achievement where a pitcher or pitching staff prevents the opposing team from recording a single hit throughout the entire game. While baserunners can still reach via walks, errors, or being hit by a pitch, the feat remains a pinnacle. Achieving this requires a near-perfect combination of velocity, location, and mental composure, supported by a defense that must remain flawless in the field to keep the hit column at zero.

Brennen Milby, of Green County, holds the top spot for most career no-hitters with seven, while Jimmy Osting secured first-place all-time in one season with four. In a nearly unbelievable stat for the most consecutive no-hitters, Rockcastle County’s George Durham, completed three straight no-nos in 1997.

Perfect games – To get an ever better idea heading into this last category to get an idea of how rare this actually is, have a look here.

A perfect game is when a pitcher, or pitchers, retires all 27 opposing batters consecutively in a full game, allowing no hits, walks, or errors.

Numerous high school pitchers have pitched one perfect game during their high school career. But, closer to home for that number, includes Pikeville’s Reese Ward against South Floyd in 2012 and fellow Panther Kolby Brinker facing Phelps two years earlier in 2010.

The most recent perfect game in this region was achieved by Paintsville Luke Stratton in a 10-0 win over Shelby Valley last month.

The most perfect games thrown was by both Jon Kirby, of Estill County, and Kiekhefer, with two.

The post BY THE BOOK 2 of 2: A look at Kentucky high school all-time pitching records appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

ASHLAND, Ky. – The Rice/Stanley Boyd County Classic track meet was held in Ashland this past weekend and when the field was clear, Pikeville High School saw eight track and field participants walk away with personal best records.

Despite the chilly temperatures, the following student-athletes finished with highlights of these final results:

Junior Cadence Compton Runner Up – 1600m (5:51.65).

Junior Cadence Compton, 3rd Place – 3200m (13:21.81).

Freshman Charlize Compton, 3rd Place – 800m (2:42.52).

Freshman Patton Trimble, Top 5 finish and Two PR’s – 1600m 4th place (5:00.10), 3200m 4th place (11:06.09).

Sophomore Will Compton, Top 10 finish and Two PR’s – 110m Hurdles 6th place (18.75); 300m Hurdles 9th place (51.38).

The Lady Blackcats team secured 7th place overall with 50 points; the PHS boys team finished in 8th place with 24.5 points.

The post Pikeville High School’s track team sees eight personal records set in season’s first meet appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

Now that the high school baseball season is fully underway across the commonwealth, it might be helpful to give players some numbers to keep in mind as they pull on their cleats and hit the diamond.

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association has statistics in total only as current as of March of 2023, so some of these individual records and placements may have changed, but let’s have a look at the two primary aspects of America’s favorite pasttime.

Batting Average

Let’s start with career batting average.

Some say hitting a fastball is the most difficult thing to do in all of sports. This is why a career average of .300 or above factually means you’ve done your job only 30-percent of time (which would get most of us fired) it’s still incredibly impressive.

But to exceed well over half the time as all-time leader, Wolfe County’s Dylan Creech, did from 2009 to 2013 is nearly unbelievable. Creech ended his high school career batting .584 in 421 appearances at the plate.

Closer to home, Phelps’ Michael Ray Charles finished with an even .500 average; Charles hit the ball half the time in the 310 instances he was in the batter’s box. He rests in ninth-place on the all-time list.

Hits

Most baseball fans can either remember or have seen footage of Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb’s longstanding record of MLB career hits. Rose collected 4,256 hits, but, keep in mind, he had 24 years to accomplish that.

The following had far fewer years, such as the all-time leader J.B. Schmidt, who played from 1994 to 2000. In that time, Schmidt racked up 275 hits for Harrison County. In the region, Letcher County standout Tanner Sexton had 209 hits and Paintsville Tiger star Mike Minix Jr. finished with 201 over his high school career.

And in a single season?

That would be Taylor County’s Brooks Ewing with 83.

RBIs

Call them ribbies, ribeyes, or ribs, in the end Runs Batted In is a stat that sometimes takes a back seat to both hits and, certainly, home runs. But they’re just as important.

It may come as no surprise that Wolfe County’s, and also the leader in hits, Dylan Creech is top of the mountain with 256, a whopping 87 of those coming in the 2010 season alone, which is also good for the all-time record.

Home runs

And now we reach the record most see as the king of all batting records – home runs.

From the solo home run to the grand slam, KHSAA record books covers it all. But the high school player to hit more dingers than any other player is Paul Morse of Danville. Morse knocked 65 while in high school with 23 of those coming in his senior year.

Grayson County’s Jordan White holds the top spot for the most home runs hit in a single game when on May 19, 2008, he sent four into the stands.

And the more uncommon grand slam – paralyzing the opposing team by four runs in a single swing – the player who did this more than any other to date is Russellville’s Matthew Croslin with four total in 2000. This is also, by the way, the career record for gram slams in a single season.

Jason Whitis, of Pulaski Southwestern, hit the jackpot three times in one game.

And here’s a few other all-time batting records of interest:

• Davis Corbin was hit by a pitch 61 times over his high school career, with nearly half of those in one season alone – 30 in 2018.
• In 1984, William Campbell, of Middlesboro, finished with 10 RBIs in a single game again Pineville.
• 22 Heath’s Chad Wright slammed 22 triples from 2004 to 2008.

Coming up for our second installment for all-time high school numbers series we’ll take a look at pitching records. So keep an eye out.

The post BY THE BOOK 1 of 2: A look at Kentucky high school all-time batting records appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

CHARLESTON, W.Va – The Chapmanville Tigers have taken home the Class AAA boys’ basketball state championship after defeating the North Marion Huskies 71-67.

The Tigers, the number one seed going into the tournament, left Charleston with the title on Saturday after a third-quarter surge that set the pace for the remainder of the game.

Chapmanville knocked out Winfield in the semifinals by a staggering score of 72-47 the day prior to earn their spot in the championship game. In the final, two players combined for 43 points alone – Jay Brock and Keaton Terry.

Terry tossed in 23 points along with 19 rebounds while Brock finished with 20 points.

North Marion’s led the Huskies in scoring with 20 points and, for another double-double on the night, Conner Balwanz finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

For most of the game, the teams swapped the lead numerous times before the final buzzer.

The post Chapmanville wins West Virginia Class AAA boys’ basketball state championship appeared first on Mountain Top Media.