The 2022 calendar year at Sachse High School saw some new heights, as the school welcomed a state champion into its fold.
From new winners, Division I collegiate athletes and playoff appearances, it was a successful season at Sachse with the Mustangs accomplishing great things and setting the tone for the new year.
Here is the 2022 Sachse High School athletics year in review.
Track and Field: Anyanwu wins state championship
Favor Anyanwu won the state championship for the Sachse Lady Mustangs track team on Saturday.
Competing in at the state 6A girls shot put, Anyanwu, still, only a sophomore at Sachse and a top volleyball player, started strongly to earn the gold medal with a new personal record (45-1.50). Her first two throws, over 44 feet, were good enough to give her first place for the day before her final throw topped the 45-foot mark. In the end, she finished over 10 inches ahead of the next-best thrower on the day, dominating the meet.
Anyanwu finished sixth overall at the regional meet in 2021 as a freshman, missing out on a chance to compete at state. Her head coach Allison Holmes was proud of the work she put in during the season and worked hard in the offseason to accomplish the state championship.
Kennedy Swann also competed for the Lady Mustangs at state, placing seventh in the 100-meter dash (11.83). The senior finished 12th at the regional meet in the 200 the year before electing to run in the 100 and 200-meter dash in 2022. She qualified for state in the 100 for the first time, earning one of the top marks.
Softball: McClarity paces Lady Mustangs to playoffs
With the season ending, the Sachse Lady Mustangs earned plenty of all-district hardware.
After finishing second overall in the district standings, Sachse’s (12-2, 22-12) Madison McClarity was named the District 9-6A Most Valuable Player. It was her second straight season winning the district MVP award, as she led the team with a .584 batting average to go along with 12 home runs and 51 RBIs.
The Texas Tech signee also took on a bigger load of pitching this season, ending the year with 15 appearances and a team-best 2.61 ERA. McClarity helped lead her team to the area round of the state playoffs, where they eventually lost to Harker Heights in two games.
Along with McClarity, Sachse had three first-team all-district players and three second-team all-district players this season. For the second season in a row, Kayla Olthouse and Navaeh Watkins were named first-team all-district.
Olthouse hit .533 this season with a team-leading 14 doubles. As the No. 1 pitcher for the Lady Mustangs, the senior also added eight home runs, 57 RBIs and 11 wins in 19 appearances.
Watkins, still only a sophomore for the Lady Mustangs, earned her second straight first-team nod while tying McClarity as well with a .584 batting average. The center fielder showed more power this season, hitting seven home runs to go along with 32 stolen bases.
Emma Patton was also named first-team all-district for the Lady Mustangs, hitting .438 this season with 12 extra-base hits.
Malani Hill, Madison Trusty and Isabella Penk were all named second-team all-district for Sacshe this season as underclassmen. The trio combined for 57 RBIs on the season, while all hit well over .300 for the year. Hill led the team with 27 walks this season.
Kamila Ochoa, Zoe Worley and Mackenzie Colwell all made the honorable mentions list for Sachse. McClarity, Olthouse and Patton were the only seniors on the team this season.
Football: Sachse scrambles to playoff berth, loses to Rockwall
It was a huge hill to climb, but the Sachse football team battled back from a tough start to earn the final playoff spot in 9-6A.
The Mustangs started the season 0-3 and were losers of five of their first six games before turning things around. A 3-1 stretch to end the season was the difference, as Sachse defeated Garland and North Garland to finish 4-4 in district play. A big reason for Sachse’s turnaround was the development of young players on the roster, including quarterback Brenden George who had 16 touchdowns last season.
Senior running back Pope Akanna led the team with nine touchdowns last fall, while sophomore wide receiver Kaliq Lockett was a first-team all-district receiver. After losing 50-24 to Rockwall in the bi-district round of the state playoffs, the Mustangs will return several key players for next season.
“We appreciate all of our senior kids and leadership,” head coach Mark Behrens said. “As freshmen they were B-teamers and they worked themselves into starting roles and played a lot, and that tells you a lot about that class. I’m proud of the guys from where we started. We made great strides and the base of the team is coming back with a lot of positives. Every year is a positive and I feel pretty good going into the spring.”
Cross Country: Boys and girls finish third, qualify for regionals
The Sachse boys and girls cross country teams finished third in the District 9–6A championships to qualify for the regional meet. Once there, the boys finished 23rd while the girls finished 16th among some of the top teams in the area.
Ethan Massey led the way for the Mustangs, finishing 139th in the meet. The sophomore also finished 13th in the district meet, behind senior teammate Haris Dunic. Logan Fivash, Roman Rabel, Jacob Wyatt, Jack Rose and Israel Mejai also ran for the boys team. Fivash and Dunic were the only seniors on the varsity roster.
The Lady Mustangs had three runners finish in the top 100 at the regional meet, with Ella Eischen finishing 67th, followed by teammate Ana Ortega in 69th. Madeleine Herrera also finished 86th for the team. Anna Eischen and Abigail Hjelm were the only seniors on the varsity team this season.
Girls Basketball: Lady Mustangs win another district championship
The Lady Mustangs clinched another in a long line of district championships last season, going 14-0 and sealing an unbeaten season in 9-6A.
After winning their first-round playoff game, Sachse lost 46-45 against Cedar Hill in the area round. The Lady Mustangs led 13-3 in the first quarter and held a four-point halftime lead but struggled in the third quarter.
Offensively, Crislyn Rose dictated things for Sachse most of the season, winning the 9-6A district MVP. She led all scorers with 28 points, continuing her hot form of late. Rose has averaged 27 points per game for the Lady Mustangs in her last three games, along with some timely assists and aggressive defense at the top of Sachse’s full-court press. For head coach Donna McCullough, it was a testament to her leadership on the court that has increased her overall production at the most important time.
“She wants to be the best at everything she does,” McCullough said. “She has that drive within her and knows when we need her to step up and be great.”
It was a bounce-back season for the Lady Mustangs to get back to the top after a difficult 2021 season ended with a third-place finish in the district standings. Making the playoffs once again, coach McCullough knew her team was ready for the next level.
“They got such a real taste of the playoffs last season and learned how to win big games,” McCullough said. “We were very excited for this group to get back here because last year we were kind of an unknown and this year we feel like we can be really good.”
Sachse graduated three seniors from the 2022 roster. Starter Criselle Mendoza, along with Kennedy Swann and Traniece Hall graduate.
Boys Basketball – Mustangs miss postseason after tough stretch
Facing a daunting challenge to end the season, Sachse missed out on the playoffs after losing six games in their final seven days to finish the year.
A lot of that had to do with health issues and weather cancellations, forcing the Mustangs to scramble to try and make the playoffs, but it wasn’t enough. Sachse finished seventh in District 9-6A, a season after winning a playoff game. Head coach Zach McCullough lamented that finish and said the team thought about it all summer.
“We spent the spring talking a lot about how disappointed we were last season,” Mikesell said. “If we’re going to do something we’ve never done before then we must do things differently than we’ve ever done it before. The approach this offseason has been toward that goal and proving that last season was a fluke we can fix.”
The Mustangs were led by RJ Chatman, who was a first-team all-district guard in his third season at the varsity level. He led the team in scoring and assists last season, taking on a bigger burden with the loss of key pieces to the varsity team.
Volleyball: Taylor, Anyanwu lead standout season
For the second season in a row, the Sachse Lady Mustangs volleyball team met Rockwall in the regional quarterfinals.
This time, fortune didn’t favor the Lady Mustangs, who fell in a 3-2 (23-25, 25-17, 16-25, 25-23, 15-11) thriller to the Lady Yellowjackets.
It was a tightly contested match from the very first set, with the teams trading points early on. Rockwall was ultimately able to capitalize on several Sachse miscues during the match, as the Lady Mustangs had 27 hitting errors compared to just 16 for the Lady Jackets.
Still, Sachse battled until the very end, bouncing back to win the second and fourth sets after going down one point twice. On the brink of elimination in set four, Sachse rallied to defeat Rockwall 25-23 on the back of Macy Taylor, who led the team with 22 kills and 21 digs in the match, averaging about four each per set.
Taylor, a recent Providence volleyball signee, will be greatly missed heading to the next level as one of the several senior players. Taylor was named the District 9-6A MVP for her standout performance this season.
Favor Anyanwu also had 14 kills and six blocks for the Lady Mustangs, the junior finished the season as offensive player of the year and committed to the University of Southern California with still a year of eligibility.
Other all-district award recipients included Scarlette Young, who led the district in assists and was named the 9-6A setter of the year. Chi Tran and Kaelynn Sims were named to the all-district first team, Hallie Hanks made the second team and Bailey Malone, Whitney Cunningham and Mackenzie Colwell were honorable mentions.
Sachse graduated nine seniors from the varsity team that went 16-0 in district playing. Taylor, Tran, Hanks, Malone, Cunningham, Colwell, Kennedy Progue, Alexis Wiley and Tanniah Jones were all senior participants.
Baseball: Tough finish ends Sachse’s postseason hopes
With April ending and the summer months fast approaching, it could only mean one thing: the end of the Texas high school baseball regular season. Sachse wrapped up their regular slate of games this past week with two district contests that would prove critical in the final district standings.
Starting pitcher Logan May rendered the Naaman Forest offense scoreless through the first five innings before the Rangers broke through and tied the game in the sixth.
In the top of the seventh, Jailen Watkins came into pitch and gave up two unearned runs. Sachse would have to score two in the bottom half to keep their hopes alive but lost 4-2. The result was the second loss in a row for the Mustangs to end the year, edging them out of the postseason on the final game of the regular season.
While missing out on the postseason, Sachse finished the year with a record of 17-12 and 8-6 against the District 9-6A competition. Sachse ended the season losing three of their last four district games to miss out on back-to-back postseason berths.
Boys Soccer: Mustangs lose playoff opener after big turnaround
Sachse’s road to the playoffs was a rollercoaster ride. The non-district play did not fare well in the Mustangs’ favor, and it took a Jan. 21 game against Arlington Martin for them to get their first win. Before that, the team was 0-4-3.
But once district competition kicked in, something changed. After losing their district opener to Wylie in a close game, Sachse went on to win five out of their next six. After district, the team had turned their record around. They entered district with a 1-5-3 record but finished the regular season with an overall record of 11-9-3 and 10-4 in district and earned a playoff berth.
Girls Soccer: Mata leads Lady Mustangs into playoffs
After a bi-district round victory over Rockwall-Heath, the Sachse Lady Mustangs came up just short against Belton in the area round on March 29.
Sachse held a 2-1 lead at halftime and was in a prime position to advance. Belton was able to mount a second-half comeback. They tied the game at two at the 51-minute mark and took a 3-2 lead shortly thereafter.
The Lady Mustangs conclude the season with a 19-4-2 record and finished second in District 9-6A behind undefeated Wylie. The team was led by 9-6A co-offensive player of the year Brianna Mata, while the team also had four first-team all-district players.
Mata and all-district forward Paige Baumgartner graduated as senior leaders, while Bailey Malone, Izzy Savattere and McKenna Moran lead the team into the new seasons after a playoff victory.
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