Kansas
JayhawkSlant – Dawson Merritt plans return visit to Kansas, talks about recruiting
When Dawson Merritt was growing up, he never thought his best sport would be football. The standout linebacker from Blue Valley was focused on playing basketball through his youth and going into high school.
âI was a basketball guy growing up, so I never even really thought I was going to be playing football,â Merritt said. âMy first year of football was my freshman year of high school.â
Merrittâs game developed after his first season as a freshman and the next year he found himself starting on varsity. When he started his football career he looked to his father for some extra coaching. And that is not a bad place to get advice.
Dave Merritt is the cornerbacks coach for the Kansas City Chiefs and a coaching veteran of over 20 years in the NFL.
âMy dad kind of thought I was just kind of playing around with it because my freshman year, I wasn’t very good,â he said. âMy sophomore year, I was a starter on varsity. That’s when I’d say I got a lot better, but I still wasn’t very good. And then this year, I obviously made a huge jump.â
Merritt said his father makes it out to a practice when time allows and started to help a lot more his junior season.
âThis year was the first year he kind of really started to help me out,â Merritt said. âAnd just even the little things he would say, like how to take on a block, what to do when the tackle does this, what to do when a receiver does this.
âIt’s just all the little things that he knows has helped me and help my teammates out. He’s come to a decent amount of our practices as well and just kind of likes to help out.â
The four-star linebacker saw his recruiting skyrocket last fall. He received over 15 offers from Power Five schools and the recruiting has yet to slow down. His latest offers have come from schools including Alabama, Florida State, Michigan and others.
Merritt has taken unofficial visits to Kansas and plans to return to Lawrence on Tuesday for the basketball game against Kansas State. Members of the KU coaching staff made stops at Blue Valley in the early evaluation period.
Head coach Lance Leipold visited the school and linebackers Chris Simpson has been involved in the recruiting.
âIt’s been really fun getting to know him,â Merritt said of Simpson. âThe part that I love about our relationship is the fact that we don’t always talk about football. We talk about anything. I mean, we have a pretty good relationship. We talk a couple of times a week.â
Merritt plans to narrow his list of schools to 10 soon. Two of his official visits are set to Oklahoma and Nebraska with more to come. This spring he said he will visit Ole Miss, Alabama, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
âThere are things I am looking for in a school,â Merritt said. âOne is stability in a head coach. I want to play for a coach who I know in my heart that he’ll be there for three or four years. I want to play for a position coach who’s going to develop me on and off the field as a human being as well.
He continued: âAnother thing I’d say is I want to play for a winning program. I want to play for a team who is definitely going to be in the Top 25 and winning games. I want a chance at a national championship. I want to be able to go to a school where I enjoy the city, where even if I wasn’t playing football, I would love to live there.â
Kansas
Woman seriously injured Tuesday in western Kansas crash
OAKLKEY, Kan. (WIBW) – A woman suffered serious injuries in a single-vehicle crash Tuesday afternoon in Thomas County in western Kansas, officials said.
The collision was reported at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday on K-25 highway just south of County Road D. The location was about 15 miles northwest of Oakley.
According to the Kansas Highway Patrol’s online crash log, a 2008 Chrysler Town & Country minivan was northbound on K-25 when it left the roadway to the right — or east — side and overcorrected back onto the roadway.
The vehicle then began sliding sideways into the east ditch, where it rolled once.
The minivan then came to rest upright facing southeast in a field.
The driver and lone occupant of the vehicle, Terri Threlkeld, 50, of Page City, was transported to Logan County Hospital in Oakley with serious injuries. The patrol said Threlkeld wasn’t wearing her seat belt.
Copyright 2026 WIBW. All rights reserved.
Kansas
Where to watch Iowa State vs. Kansas today: College basketball free stream
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The Kansas Jayhawks hosts No. 2 Iowa State Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. The Cyclones are 16-0 this season, but the Jayhawks won’t be an easy out at home, led by star freshman Darryn Peterson.
Iowa State vs. Kansas will air on ESPN, and streams live on DIRECTV (free trial).
What: Men’s college basketball regular season
Who: No. 2 Iowa Cyclones vs. Kansas Jayhawks
When: Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026
Where: Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, Kansas
Time: 9 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Live stream: DIRECTV (free trial), fuboTV (free trial)
Here’s a recent college basketball story via the Associated Press:
WACO, Texas (AP) — Emanuel Sharp scored 17 points to lead five players in double figures for No. 7 Houston, which overcame two extended shooting slumps before halftime in a 77-55 win at Baylor on Saturday. The Cougars set a school record with their 16th consecutive road win.
Joseph Tugler had 12 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double in a row for defending Big 12 champion and national runner-up Houston (15-1, 3-0 Big 12). Isiah Harwell also had 12 points, while true freshmen Chris Cenac had 11 and Kingston Flemings 10.
The Cougars haven’t lost a true road game since at No. 8 Kansas on Feb. 3, 2024. That road winning streak is the longest active run in the country, with all of them Big 12 games for a league record.
Cameron Carr had 18 points for Baylor (10-5, 0-3), and Tounde Yessoufou had 10.
Houston missed 10 shots in a row over a 5 1/2-minute span early, then had another 0-for-10 span in the final 6 1/2 minutes of the first half. But the Cougars took control of the game with a 23-3 run in the six minutes between those droughts.
Sharp and Harwell both had two 3-pointers in that big spurt. The Cougars trailed 14-6 before Sharp ignited that run, and a 3 by Harwell put them ahead to stay. The lead was 29-17 after Tugler’s dunk off a Baylor turnover with 6:34 left. That was their last field goal of the half, when they still led 33-26 before a 13-3 run to start the second half.
The Cougars shot 39.2% overall (29 of 74) from the field, with only five turnovers and 23 offensive rebounds. They scored 31 points off 16 turnovers by Baylor, which got 33 fewer shots.
Up next
Houston: Home Tuesday against West Virginia.
Baylor: At Oklahoma State on Tuesday.
Can I bet on the game?
Yes, you can bet on the game from your phone in New York State, and we’ve compiled some of the best introductory offers to help navigate your first bets from BetMGM, FanDuel, DraftKings, Bet365 and more.
Kansas
Kansas Bird Flu Tops Nation
Kansas is suffering from the worst outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the country, with nearly 414,000 birds affected, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
HPAI, an umbrella term for avian influenza that includes highly contagious strains such as H5 and H7, is considered a low public health risk, although it can pass to humans through birds and dairy products from infected cattle, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“H5 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows with sporadic human cases in U.S. dairy and poultry workers,” according to CDC.
As of Friday, there are four affected commercial flocks and six affected backyard flocks reported in Kansas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Avian influenza kills almost 100% of the birds it infects.
The bulk of the infected birds, about 380,000, in Kansas were reported to be in a commercial operation in Pottawatomie County, USDA reports said.
In a map highlighting outbreaks across the nation, Kansas is the only state showing the most severe reports during the past 30 days. It is followed by Indiana, with about 87,000 birds affected, including two commercial flocks and five backyard flocks.
Kansas has not had a reported instance of avian bird flu in a human, according to CDC records. Since 2024, there have been 74 reported bird flu cases in humans and two deaths.
This year’s outbreak is similar to those during the last few years, said a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Agriculture.
“December and January have been the months when we have seen the highest number of positive cases since this outbreak began in 2022,” said Heather Lansdowne. “The winter of 2023-2024 was more active than this year, both in total cases and in number of birds affected. We are hoping this year follows the trajectory of those years and we begin to see a decline in cases moving forward.”
This year’s outbreak has spread primarily from migrating wild waterfowl, she said. The agency has encouraged poultry farmers and others to protect their birds from contact with migratory birds and their habitats.
“We have been promoting these actions to poultry owners from the start of the outbreak, both in public information and directly through veterinarians, extension agents, 4-H and FFA programs, to poultry owners we have through our systems, etc.,” Lansdowne said.
When the state discovers birds positive for avian flu, they work directly with the business owner to develop a response plan that includes a quarantine and long-term recovery plan, she said.
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Story via Kansas Reflector
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