Kansas police investigating substance found in water cooler at college baseball game
Updated 9:30 a.m. Tuesday:
The Lindsborg Police Department is investigating a foreign substance found in the water cooler of a Kansas college baseball team during a rivalry game.
“We are looking into it and both schools are cooperating with us,” police chief Michael Davis said Tuesday morning. “It’s going to be a little bit of a lengthy process to look into everything.”
Davis didn’t know how long the investigation would take, adding they had “quite a few people” to speak with. Kansas Wesleyan filed a police report Monday, Davis said.
Original 8:10 p.m. Monday:
A pair of NAIA schools in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference are investigating an allegation that a water cooler was deliberately contaminated during a baseball rivalry game.
The Kansas Wesleyan baseball team accused rival Bethany College of putting paint thinner in its water coolers for a Sunday doubleheader played in Lindsborg. A picture posted by the KWU Barstool account with the allegations of the water cooler tampering was widely circulated on Monday.
Bethany athletic director Laura Moreno confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press and declined to comment further, while Kansas Wesleyan athletic director Steve Wilson also confirmed his own school’s investigation to The Eagle on Monday.
“We are currently conducting a thorough, in-depth review of this situation, with the priority of putting the health and safety of our student-athletes first,” Wilson texted The Eagle.
Wilson told the AP that the KWU baseball team discovered a foreign substance had been mixed into the team’s water during the doubleheader against Bethany on Sunday. It is common practice in the KCAC for the home team to provide water for the visiting team.
Neither side could confirm if a police report was filed about the incident. An email to the Lindsborg Police Department was not returned on Monday.
“I’ve talked to both schools and we’re just trying to figure out what actually happened,” KCAC commissioner Scott Crawford told The Eagle. “We are most concerned about the health and welfare of the student-athletes, the coaches and anyone who might have potentially drank some of that water.”
Bethany College won the first game of the doubleheader, 8-7, before Kansas Wesleyan set a school record for runs scored in a game in a 33-2 victory.
This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 8:12 PM.