Sports

RICHMOND – Varsity softball coach Staci Maddux’s Spartans received recognition from the Missouri High School Fastpitch Softball Coaches’ Association for knocking their grades out of the park last fall.

HARDIN – Kirk Thacker received a surprise over the winter. Thacker was named the KMZU Football Dream Team’s Coach of the Year for 8-man football.

RICHMOND – The final play of the Spartans’ 67-65 nail-biting win Monday over visiting Knob Noster was an if-you-blinked-you-missed-it moment. With 1.8 seconds left and the Missouri River Valley Conference East Division varsity boys basketball meeting knotted at 65, Knob Noster got the ball on its baseline following a Richmond turnover.

HARDIN – Alexis Yockel could sense the pressure when she went to the free throw line for the last time Monday. Yockel and her Hardin-Central teammates led Southwest of Livingston County 40-39 when she was fouled with 3 seconds left in the Class 1 District 13 varsity girls basketball meeting at Hardin-Central.