LINDSBORG, Kan. — Lindsborg police announced Thursday that two boys are suspected of being involved in the contamination of a water cooler used by the Kansas Wesleyan baseball team during a doubleheader at Bethany College last weekend.
Both schools contacted police to file a report about a foreign substance found in Wesleyan’s water. The home team, Bethany in this case, customarily provides water to the visiting team. Police did not say how it connected the juveniles to the tainted water.
“This incident generated wide-reaching media interest after initial comments on social media claimed that a college baseball program deliberately contaminated an opponent’s water cooler,” a police statement said. “The Lindsborg Police Department has taken this incident seriously and has conducted over 60 interviews so far, collected multiple pieces of evidence, photographed the scene, and followed various leads.
“Though the investigation is active and ongoing, it has been determined that no one associated with either college was responsible for tampering with the water cooler.”
The substance mixed into the water was paint used to put lines on the field, police said.
Police haven’t said if anyone drank the contaminated water or if anyone became ill and declined further comment.
Lindsborg is a town of 3,000 people in central Kansas. The campuses of Kansas Wesleyan and Bethany are separated by 18 miles and the schools are longtime athletic rivals.
The teams split the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader Sunday, with Kansas Wesleyan setting a school record for runs in winning the second game 33-2.
The alleged water cooler tampering was first disclosed on the Twitter account of KWU Barstool.
