Local Sports

Waldron's Hudnall, Larrison crowned Shelby County Cross Country Meet champions

A pair of Waldron runners captured the Shelby County Cross Country Meet individual titles Thursday at Blue River Memorial Park in Shelbyville.

Sophie Hudnall won the girls race that only featured four runners representing three schools. Hudnall crossed the finish line in 24 minutes, 27 seconds.

Morristown’s Grace McLaughlin was runner-up at 24:59. Southwestern’s Malori Pike (26:39) and Maxine Higdon (26:54) followed them across the finish line.

There was no girls team champion crowned.

Waldron had the top two finishers in the boys race to help hold off Southwestern for the team title.

Will Larrison (18:16) and Jared Crosby (18:35) led Waldron with 1-2 finishes and Nathaniel Evans was sixth (19:49) to push the Mohawks to a 26-29 victory over Southwestern, the only other school to field a complete team.

Southwestern’s Jackson Bentz (18:40), Dane Kissell (19:11) and Dakota Claiborne (19:19) followed Crosby across the finish line. Chris Claiborne was seventh (20:17) and Ryan Wildman finished 15th (24:08).

Also competing for Waldron were Kyle Lacy (11th, 22:04) and Ethan Richardson (13th, 22:43).

Triton Central was represented by Liam Thompson (9th, 20:43), Hank Hadler (12th, 22:09) and Nick Straber (14th, 23:31).

Morristown had two entrants – Max Compton (8th, 20:37) and Drake Hibst (10th, 20:54).

In other prep events Thursday:

Boys Soccer

Morristown 3, Greensburg 0

At Morristown, the host Yellow Jackets closed out their regular-season schedule with a shutout victory over the Pirates (5-10-1).

Morristown is 9-6-2 entering the postseason.

Southwestern 3, Bethesda Christian 2

At Bethesda Christian, Class A, No. 17 Southwestern (11-2-2) scored in the game’s first 10 seconds and added goals in the final minute of each half to defeat the Patriots (8-6-1).

Girls Soccer

Greenwood 3, Shelbyville 1

At Shelbyville, Ava Wilson scored her 14th goal of the season for the Golden Bears late in the first half but they could not overcome three first-half goals by the Woodmen (10-3-2).

Kendyl Farmer scored twice and Emily Metzger added a goal to stake Greenwood to a 3-0 lead.

Shelbyville fell to 11-3 this season.

Volleyball

Mt. Vernon def. Shelbyville, 25-10, 25-18, 25-13

At Garrett Gymnasium in Shelbyville, Sophia Damer led Mt. Vernon (10-15, 2-4 Hoosier Heritage Conference) with eight kills.

Shelbyville senior Shelby Lasure finished with five kills, five service aces and eight digs.

Riley Lee had a team-high 12 digs for Shelbyville (5-19, 0-6 HHC). Karlie Lawson had nine assists.

North Decatur def. Waldron, 25-14, 25-17, 25-12

At North Decatur, Samantha Luttell led the Chargers (21-4) with five kills, four service aces, 10 digs and 28 assists.

Madelyn Bohman finished with a team-high 10 kills and 14 digs.

Waldron dropped to 12-9.

Brown County def. Southwestern, 25-17, 25-11, 25-20

At Southwestern, the host Spartans dropped to 8-16 this season.

With the win, Brown County improved to 7-15.

Brown County won the junior varsity match, 25-17, 25-8.

 

 

New Palestine def. Triton Central, 23-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-21

At Triton Central, the host Tigers (16-7) won the first game before the Dragons settled in to take the next three.

Brooklyn Bailey led Triton Central with 11 kills. Hallie Schweitzer finished with 20 digs.

Junior setter Kate Isley (photo) collected 24 assists to surpass 1,000 career assists.

New Palestine improved to 18-3.

Top-ranked New Palestine shuts out Shelbyville at McKeand Stadium

Shelbyville senior Jackson Parker showed an interest in being a backup quarterback in his final season. Little did he know his number would be called against one of the most powerful teams in the state.

Parker debuted under center for Shelbyville Friday at McKeand Stadium against Class 4A, No. 1 New Palestine and acquitted himself well. Starting quarterback Eli Chappelow has been dealing with a nagging kind of injury, according to head coach Brian Glesing, and was given a week off to heal.

Glesing expects the junior to be back in charge of the offense next week when Shelbyville travels to Mt. Vernon.

Parker had three days to master the offense from a quarterback’s perspective. He is normally a starting wide receiver.

“I thought it was crazy at first but it ended up being alright,” said Parker after Shelbyville’s 56-0 loss to the Dragons.

 

 

Parker (photo) went through quarterback drills Monday and learned he would start Tuesday. The last time he played quarterback was in sixth grade.

Shelbyville had the first possession Friday night and Parker went right to work. A pitch to Axel Conover lost one yard on first down. An Alex Macharia end-around run gained nothing. Cael Lux was able to ground out six yards on third down but that left Parker to punt.

“That first drive I was scared,” admitted Parker.

Glesing liked calling on a senior to lead in what was already a difficult situation.

“He’s a senior leader. Our younger quarterbacks are not ready yet,” said Glesing. “And we can save those (junior varsity) guys for tomorrow’s game.”

Although he did not complete a pass on four attempts, Parker was clean running the offense until a fumbled snap late in the fourth quarter.

“He had mentioned it in the offseason about wanting to be the backup quarterback,” said Glesing. “So he kind of took over and it’s kind of nice to know we’ve got that the rest of the year.”

Shelbyville (1-6, 1-4 Hoosier Heritage Conference) was overmatched from the start by the top-ranked Dragons (7-0, 5-0 HHC), who are ranked No. 2 overall in the state in the Sagarin ratings, who ran 13 plays in the first quarter and scored four touchdowns.

Quarterback Daniel Tippit IV completed all 10 of his pass attempts in the first half for 187 yards and four touchdowns. The senior finished the game 12-for-15 for 222 yards.

Grayson Thomas rushed for 138 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Dragons to a 49-0 lead at halftime.

Shelbyville finished with 93 yards rushing. Keagan Turner led the way with 33 yards – all in the fourth quarter.

Conover carried the ball 10 times for 29 yards. Lux had five carries for 24 yards. And Luke Jackson collected 20 yards on seven carries.


Shelbyville takes down Triton Central for tennis sectional championship

Shelbyville got control early in the championship match of the IHSAA tennis sectional Friday then had to fend off a scrappy Triton Central squad for a 4-1 victory and a berth in the Center Grove Regional.

The Golden Bears (14-10) will take on Perry Meridian Tuesday in the semifinal round of the regional tournament. The other regional semifinal will feature Franklin Central and No. 7 Center Grove.

The regional championship match is scheduled for Wednesday.

Shelbyville’s Aidan Asher and Logan Prickett started quickly at No. 1 singles and No. 3 singles, respectively, and rolled to straight-set victories.

Asher (15-9) topped Tucker Hutchinson (16-5), 6-2, 7-6 (1).

Prickett pushed his record to 14-7 with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Cole Thomas (15-6).

At No. 1 doubles, Triton Central’s Ben Toth and Griffin Sego slowly pulled away from Aiden Smith and Caden Claxton, 7-5, 6-4, which earned them a spot in the state doubles tournament, which starts next week at Center Grove.

Toth and Sego are 14-5 this season.

That left matches at No. 2 singles and No. 2 doubles as the swing matches.

Shelbyville’s Caden Tackett  fell behind early at No. 2 singles against Avram Rund but rallied to win the first set and then controlled the second set for a 7-5, 6-3 victory. With a pair of wins in the sectional, Tackett evened his season record at 10-10. Rund ended his season at 12-9.

Karson Schaf and Reece Prickett had an even tougher battle with Triton Central’s Oliver Gearlds and Joey Brosnan but won a tiebreaker in the first set and an evenly-contested second set, 7-6 (6), 7-5.

Schaf and Prickett improved to 17-5 while Gearlds and Brosnan, who did not start the season as playing partners, finished 10-2.

Shelbyville reached Friday’s sectional championship match with a 5-0 victory over Morristown (5-10) Thursday. The Golden Bears lost a total of two games in sweeping the Yellow Jackets.

Triton Central (16-5) swept Southwestern Thursday in the other sectional semifinal match. Cole Thomas accepted a forfeit at No. 3 singles and the Tigers lost only five games over the remaining four matches.

ICC showdown: Triton Central's offense vs. Scecina's defense in battle of top-10 ranked programs

Triton Central’s high-powered offense will be tested by Indianapolis Scecina’s ultra-stingy defense Friday in a battle of two of Class 2A’s top programs.

Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central (5-1, 3-1 Indiana Crossroads Conference) is averaging 42 points per game. The Tigers scored 51 points in the first half last week against Indianapolis Ritter.

Class 2A, No. 5 Scecina (5-1, 3-1 ICC) already has two shutouts this season and allowed just 34 points in the first five weeks. Last week, the Crusaders’ defense held Class A, No. 1 Lutheran in check in a 28-19 loss – their first of the season. The Saints are averaging 49 ppg through the first six weeks of the season.

In contrast, Lutheran scored 54 points in week three’s 54-41 win in Fairland.

“They are an outstanding defensive team … they have been the last two or three years,” said Triton Central head coach Tim Able.

Head coach Ott Hurrle morphs his defense to face the challenge ahead. The Crusaders have played with three down linemen at times and with a more traditional four-man front.

“It depends on what we get as to how we attack them,” said Able. “They have played a different defense that last two weeks.”

That uncertainty will not leave Able unprepared. The Tigers have failed to score a point in three of the last five meetings with Scecina so flipping the script to something new is not necessary believes Able.

Offensively, Scecina is more successful running the ball than throwing it around the field.

Senior running back Brandon Fitts-Ramsey has nearly twice as many attempts as junior quarterback David Mendez and 549 yards and eight touchdowns.

“We have to close the running lanes on (Fitts-Ramsey),” said Able. “He is a very explosive runner.”

Mendez is the Crusaders’ second-leading rusher at 187 yards and four TDs. When he drops back to pass, Mendez has completed 48% of his attempts for 640 yards and seven TDs.

“(Mendez) has a good arm,” said Able. “He is athletic and elusive too. We have got to contain him in the pocket.”

Senior Mason Beriault, an All-ICC performer in 2021, leads the team with 14 catches for 410 yards and four TDs.

Triton Central counters with its own dynamic trio of junior quarterback Jace Stuckey, junior running back Ray Crawford and senior receiver Brad Schultz.

With 315 yards passing and three TDs in last week’s win over Ritter, Stuckey has surpassed 3,000 career passing yards, which has him fifth all-time in the Triton Central program.

Stuckey needs 343 more yards to pass Keith Ducker (3,367 yards) for fourth on the list.

Crawford passed Tedd Stokes for No. 3 on TC’s career rushing yards record board against Ritter. In two-and-a-half varsity seasons, Crawford has racked up 3,172 yards and 32 total touchdowns.

Schultz, who is averaging nearly 141 yards receiving per game this season, needs just 83 yards Friday to become Triton Central’s career leader in receiving yards.

Dakota Nelson (2009-2012) holds the record at 1,717 yards on 118 receptions. Schultz currently has 1,635 yards on just 85 catches.

Other notable players to watch Friday include Scecina senior Tamir Woods, who has 53 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss and eight quarterback sacks. Woods was named All-ICC in 2021.

Able also expects to see Beriault, who leads Scecina with 58 total tackles, to shadow Schultz from his strong safety position.

With the injury to Triton Central senior receiver Luke Faust, junior Mason Compton has filled the void to become a reliable No. 2 target for Stuckey. Compton has 11 receptions for 226 yards and two TDs. He also has 25 total tackles on defense and three interceptions.

The winner of Friday’s game will take over sole possession of second place in the ICC standings behind Lutheran (6-0, 5-0 ICC).

Triton Central and Scecina could meet again in the postseason after sectional realignment placed both teams in Sectional 39 along with Class 2A, No. 13 Brownstown Central (4-2).

 

 

QUICK FACTS:

Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central vs. Class 2A, No. 5 Indianapolis Scecina

Game time: 7 p.m. at Manual High School, 2405 Madison Avenue in Indianapolis. Tickets will be $6 at the gate – cash only.

Broadcast time: 6 p.m. pregame show live from Manual High School with Johnny McCrory and Mark Drake on GIANT fm (96.5 fm, 106.3 fm, 1520 am) or on the GIANT fm app.

Head coaches: Tim Able, 85-33 in 10th year at Triton Central; 210-131 in 29th year overall; Ott Hurrle, 219-145 in 31st year at Scecina, 220-154 in 33rd year overall.

2021 record: Triton Central 8-5; Scecina 10-4.

Sagarin ratings: Triton Central, 74.13, 48th overall, 3rd in Class 2A; Scecina, 75.62, 45th overall, 2nd in Class 2A.

Point spread: Scecina is a 1.5-point favorite.

Last year: Scecina shut out Triton Central, 27-0, at Mendenhall Field in Fairland.

Last 10 meetings: Scecina has won seven of the last 10 meetings since 2014, including six straight from 2016 through 2019.

Around the ICC Friday: Indianapolis Ritter (1-4, 0-4) at Beech Grove (3-3, 2-3); Monrovia (2-4, 1-3) at Class A, No. 1 Indianapolis Lutheran (6-0, 5-0); Speedway (4-2, 2-2) at Cascade (3-3, 1-3).

Sectional 39 lookahead: Class 2A, No. 13 Brownstown Central (4-2); Indianapolis Scecina (5-1); Triton Central (5-1); Switzerland County (3-3); Christel House Manual (3-3); Clarksville (2-4); Brown County (0-6); Eastern (Pekin) (1-5).

Note: The IHSAA Football State Tournament Pairings Show is Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. on IHSAAtv.org.


Shelbyville still trending in right direction as Class 4A, No. 1 New Palestine comes to McKeand Stadium

One of the most dominant high school football programs in the state of Indiana arrives at J.M. McKeand Stadium Friday.

Class 4A, No. 1 New Palestine (6-0, 4-0 Hoosier Heritage Conference) is Shelbyville’s week seven opponent.

The Golden Bears (1-5, 1-3 HHC) have lost two straight HHC contests and are allowing 39 points per game.

“They are huge, big and strong. They have everything rolling right now,” said Shelbyville head coach Brian Glesing. “Their only challenge has been Westfield in week one. I think they are the real deal. They look like a state-championship team. They have all the parts.”

New Palestine’s offensive line features features the No. 1 ranked offensive tackle in the Class of 2024 and a University of Louisville recruit.

Ian Moore (6-6, 290 pounds) is ranked as the No. 33 overall player in the Class of 2024, along with being the top tackle in the country, by Rivals.com.

Senior Luke Burgess (6-7, 291) is committed to Louisville and bookends the offensive line with Moore as tackles.

The interior line features senior center Trey Keele (6-1, 273), who has college offers from DePauw and Taylor, and senior guards Thomas Wood (6-2, 284) and Ben Purciful (5-11, 258).

That kind of protection has allowed quarterback Daniel Tippit IV to throw for 1,257 yards and 14 touchdowns this season. The senior tied the program record for touchdown passes in game (5) last week in a 42-7 victory over Class 4A, No. 10 Greenfield-Central.

For the third week in a row, Shelbyville is playing a top 15-ranked program – and all are from the HHC. That streak will continue into week eight when the Golden Bears travel to 4A No. 13 Mt. Vernon (3-3, 3-1 HHC).

Now 13 games into his Shelbyville coaching career, Glesing sees all the benchmarks the program has put in place. The Golden Bears ended a long losing streak in 2021 and followed that up with its first conference win since 2018 this season.

Missed opportunities cost Shelbyville in losses this season to Greensburg and Rushville. And with its win over New Castle, Glesing believes the program is stable enough to compete with football programs in similar situations.

However, catching up to the upper echelon of the Hoosier Heritage Conference is a much bigger challenge.

“We lost two close games there early and then we win the one with New Castle and now it’s a buzzsaw the rest of the way,” said Glesing. “You would love to have a couple of those games back but you can’t. Realistically, going in to the year … two wins … one, two, three wins is what you were shooting for.”

A favorable draw in the sectional will offer Shelbyville another opportunity to enter a game where it is not a double-digit underdog. There are two state-ranked teams in Sectional 23 but there also are three more teams that are 1-5 like the Golden Bears.

“We are making progress,” said Glesing. “The numbers are still not where we need to be. Our strength is not where it needs to be. Our size and speed is not where it needs to be. We have to continue doing what we’re doing.”

The program will graduate just five seniors which should help the roster size grow in 2023.

The Shelbyville Central Schools board recently visited the high school’s new weight room which is not yet fully-stocked with equipment. The board also announced a plan to replace the track surface at McKeand Stadium and replace the natural grass playing surface on the football field with artificial turf in time for the 2023 season.

Shelbyville’s junior varsity squad is currently 3-3, according to Glesing, with wins over Greenfield-Central, Yorktown and Greensburg.

“We are having some success and that’s good,” said Glesing. “JV wins are not indicative of what is going to happen in the future. I’ve been coaching long enough to know that it is not indicative in football.

“It helps morale but it’s not necessarily indicative of what will happen in the future.”

Shelbyville Middle School’s program also is 3-3 with wins over Rushville, Triton Central and Indian Creek. The three losses came to HHC programs.

“The program is getting set in stone with how it’s going to be,” said Glesing. “They are running what we are running. They are lifting (weights) with us and some of those kids will be far more advanced as freshmen than our current seniors and juniors were as freshmen.”

 

 

QUICK FACTS

Class 4A, No. 1 New Palestine at Shelbyville

Game Time: 7 p.m. at McKeand Stadium in Shelbyville, Ind.

Media coverage: Follow Shelby County Post News Editor Jeff Brown on Twitter at @Sportsboss4life for live updates from McKeand Stadium.

SHS student section theme: Student Section T-shirts.

Head coaches: Kyle Ralph, 110-10 in 10th year at New Palestine; Brian Glesing, 2-11 in 2nd year at Shelbyville, 120-105 in 20th year overall.

2021 record: New Palestine 8-4; Shelbyville 1-6.

Sagarin ratings: New Palestine, 100.68, 2nd overall; 1st in Class 4A; Shelbyville, 26.62, 247th overall, 53rd in Class 4A.

Point spread: New Palestine is favored by 72 points.

Last meeting: Shelbyville lost 52-0 in 2021 at New Palestine.

Last 10 meetings: Shelbyville is 1-9 against New Palestine in the last decade and has never beaten the Dragons in head coach Kyle Ralph’s career.

Around the HHC Friday: New Castle (2-4, 1-3) at Class 4A, No. 13 Mt. Vernon (3-3, 3-1); Pendleton Heights (2-4, 1-3) at Delta (3-3, 1-3); Class 3A, No. 15 Yorktown (5-1, 3-1) at Class 4A, No. 10 Greenfield-Central (4-2, 2-2).

Sectional 23 lookahead: Class 4A, No. 8 Martinsville (5-1); Bedford North Lawrence (3-3); Shelbyville (1-5); Class 4A, No. 4 East Central (5-1); Silver Creek (3-3); Edgewood (1-5); Jennings County (1-5); Greenwood (1-5).

Note: The IHSAA Football State Tournament Pairings Show is Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. on IHSAAtv.org.

Prep Report: Triton Central tennis advances past Waldron at Shelbyville Sectional

Triton Central advanced to the semifinal round of the Shelbyville tennis sectional tournament Wednesday with a 5-0 victory over Waldron.

The Tigers (15-4) dominated the singles matches, losing just four games total in three matches.

At No. 1 singles, Tucker Hutchinson defeated Lucas Shaw, 6-0, 6-0.

Avram Rund topped Sam Jones, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 2 singles.

Cole Thomas lost just two games at No. 3 singles, 6-1, 6-1 over Caiden Young.

At No. 1 doubles, Griffin Sego and Ben Toth bested Josh Kellems and Jacob Lindsey, 6-3, 7-5.

Oliver Gearlds and Joey Brosnan closed out the sweep with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Connor Hinchman and Matthew Thomas at No. 2 doubles.

Waldron ended its tennis season with a 10-9 record.

Triton Central will face Southwestern today at 5 p.m. at Shelbyville High School.

In the other semifinal round match, the host Golden Bears will take on Morristown.

The sectional championship match is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday.

In other prep events Wednesday:

Boys Soccer

Southwestern 3, Greenwood 1

At Southwestern, Garreth Stringer collected the hat trick on Senior Night to lead Class A, No. 17 Southwestern to its 10th win of the season.

Stringer started the scoring midway through the first half when he converted a penalty kick. His second goal came off an assist from Josh Karr with just under 10 minutes left in the half to make it 2-0.

Jake Callow cut Southwestern’s lead in half with a goal off an assist by Nick Mullins late in the half.

Stringer got his third goal, a Shelby County leading 14th of the season, near the midpoint of the second half from a Tucker Simmons assist to make it 3-1.

Goalkeeper Matthew Clements was credited with 16 saves for the Spartans (10-2-2).

Greenwood dropped to 7-8 this season.

Southwestern caps off its regular-season schedule today at Bethesda Christian (8-5-1).

Girls Soccer

Triton Central 2, University 1

At University, Lizzie Graham scored a pair of second-half goals less than two minutes apart to help the Tigers (6-9) steal the road victory from the Trailblazers (5-7-1).

University led 1-0 at the end of the first half.

Graham tallied her 15th and 16th goals of the season off assists from Emma Firebaugh and Olivia Reedy.

Triton Central wrap up its regular-season schedule Saturday at Greensburg (5-7).


Prep Report: Arabians score pair of late goals to spoil Senior Night at Shelbyville

Shelbyville soccer built a 1-0 lead at halftime but surrendered a pair of late goals to fall to Pendleton Heights, 2-1, Tuesday on Senior Night in Shelbyville.

Drew Hassebroek scored his ninth goal of the season in the first half to stake the Golden Bears (8-7-1, 3-4 Hoosier Heritage Conference) to the lead.

Inside the game’s final four minutes of regulation, Wyatt Debertrand and Aiden Boys scored to steal the win for the Arabians (9-6, 5-1 HHC).

In other prep events Tuesday:

Knightstown 1, Morristown 0

At Knightstown, the visiting Yellow Jackets took their first loss of the season against a potential sectional foe.

Knightstown’s Owen Newkirk scored a second-half goal off an assist by Heath Goodman to push the Panthers’ record to 7-8.

Morristown dropped to 8-6-2.

The Yellow Jackets and Panthers are on the opposite side of the Knightstown Sectional bracket and would not meet again until the championship game.

Morristown opens the sectional against Oldenburg Academy, with the winner facing either Union County or Wapahani in the semifinals. The Yellow Jackets have shutout victories over Wapahani (3-0) and Union County (1-0) this season.

Volleyball

Pendleton Heights def. Shelbyville, 25-13, 25-15, 25-12

At Pendleton Heights, the host Arabians improved to 18-9 overall and 3-3 against HHC foes with a sweep of the Golden Bears (5-18, 0-5 HHC).

Shelby Lasure led Shelbyville with six kills. Riley Lee had a team-high seven digs. Sophomore setter Addison Hartman finished with nine assists.

Indianapolis Scecina def. Triton Central, 25-17, 23-25, 16-25, 25-10, 15-11

At Triton Central, the visiting Crusaders closed out their Indiana Crossroads Conference championship with a five-set win over the Tigers (16-6, 4-3 ICC).

Scecina (22-4, 7-0 ICC) trailed in sets 2-1 before rallying to win the last two in Fairland.

Collegiate Update: Schweitzer directs Hanover volleyball to win over Asbury University

Sophomore setter Maggie Schweitzer racked up 21 assists, one service ace and seven digs Tuesday to lead Hanover’s volleyball team to a 23-25, 25-14, 25-15, 25-19 victory over visiting Asbury University (Ky.).

The win pushed Hanover’s record back over .500 at 9-8.

On Friday, Hanover split a pair of matches in the Rose-Hulman Invitational in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Hanover defeated Concordia University Chicago, 25-17, 29-27, 25-17. Schweitzer, a Triton Central graduate, had one kill, nine assists, one ace and five digs.

Illinois Institute of Technology then swept the Panthers, 25-20, 25-22, 25-21. Schweitzer (photo, jersey No. 11) finished with one kill, eight assists and six digs.

On Saturday, Hanover traveled to Greencastle and won a pair of matches.

The Panthers defeated Oberlin College, 25-19, 25-22, 25-11. Schweitzer collected two kills, 10 assists, one ace and six digs.

Hanover completed the weekend with a 25-23, 21-25, 25-16, 25-19 win over DePauw. Schweitzer had three kills, 17 assists, four aces and 12 digs.

Here is a look at other Shelby County graduates competing at the collegiate level.

 

 

Brooklyn Schiffli

The Triton Central graduate helped Jacksonville State’s volleyball team improve to 14-1 this season with a pair of conference wins Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, Jacksonville State defeated Central Arkansas, 25-11, 25-19, 19-25, 25-14. Schiffli had one kill, three assists, one ace and nine digs.

The Gamecocks swept North Alabama Saturday, 25-9, 25-12, 25-16. Schiffli was credited with one assist and four digs.

 

 

Julia Sanders

The Triton Central graduate had one assist, one ace and four digs Tuesday in Indiana University Kokomo’s 25-15, 25-17, 25-10 win over visiting Indiana University Southeast in a River States Conference clash.

On Friday, IU Kokomo traveled to Midway University (Ky.) and prevailed 25-20, 25-14, 25-18. Sanders finished with one assist and five digs.

IU Kokomo suffered its fourth loss of the season Saturday at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, 25-21, 25-21, 14-25, 25-16. Sanders had one assist, one ace and six digs.

IU Kokomo is 14-4 this season and 3-0 in conference matches.

 

 

Emma Nolley

The Shelbyville graduate took the court in two sets Saturday for Texas Woman’s University in a 25-22, 25-15, 15-25, 25-16 loss at UT Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas.

Nolley was credited with one dig for Texas Woman’s University (10-6).


Prep Report: New Palestine ends Shelbyville soccer's 9-game win streak

New Palestine scored a pair of goals in the first half and kept the Golden Bears in check to end their nine-game win streak Monday night in Shelbyville.

The Dragons closed out the Golden Bears, 3-1, to secure a runner-up finish in the Hoosier Heritage Conference standings with a 6-1 mark. New Palestine improved to 10-3-1 overall this season.

Shelbyville suffered just its second loss of the season but it was costly. Now 11-2 and 4-2 in the HHC, the Golden Bears need a win Saturday over Yorktown to secure a third-place finish in the conference standings.

Tylar Whitaker scored the first of two goals in the first half to stake the Dragons to an early 1-0 lead. Anna Luker doubled the lead with a goal off a free kick.

New Palestine carried a 2-0 lead into halftime and extended it to 3-0 midway through the second half with Whitaker’s second goal of the game.

Shelbyville’s Evelyn Kiefer collected her 25th goal of the season three minutes later to complete the scoring.

Mt. Vernon wrapped up the HHC championship Monday with a 6-1 win over Pendleton Heights. The Class 3A, No. 19 Marauders (10-4, 7-0 HHC) have won 47 of their last 49 conference contests and six of the last seven HHC titles.

In other prep events Monday:

Girls Soccer

Whiteland 9, Triton Central 1

At Whiteland, the Warriors (9-5) extended a 3-1 halftime lead with six second-half goals to defeat the Tigers (5-9).

Lizzie Graham notched her team-leading 14th goal of the season for Triton Central.

Boys Tennis

Morristown 3, Edinburgh 2

At Edinburgh, the visiting Yellow Jackets closed out their regular-season schedule with a win over the Lancers.

Morristown’s Jameson Palmer defeated Bailey Totten at No. 2 singles, 6-2, 6-0.

At No. 3 singles, Dalton McMichael added a 6-2, 6-0 win for the Yellow Jackets.

Morristown’s third win came from the No. 2 doubles pairing of Bryce Bryant and Brady Schonfeld, 6-0, 6-0 over Teddy Crawhorn and Jayson Music.

Morristown’s Tyler Schonfeld lost his battle with Milas Burkman at No. 1 singles, 6-7 (4), 6-0, 11-9.

At No. 2 doubles, Edinburgh’s Austin Brockman and Max Blandford topped Austin Gabbard and Michael Ballinger, 6-1, 6-0.

Scecina 3, Waldron 2

The Mohawks (10-8) closed out their regular-season schedule with a road loss to the Crusaders.

Volleyball

Monrovia def. Triton Central, 25-20, 25-19, 25-22

At Monrovia, the visiting Tigers suffered their second Indiana Crossroads Conference loss of the season.

Maddy Brown led Triton Central (16-5, 4-2 ICC) with eight kills and 13 digs. Kaitlin Bramlett and Brooklyn Bailey each had six kills.

Hallie Schweitzer led the defensive effort with 15 digs. Kayden Simmons added 13 digs.

Kate Isley finished with 23 assists.

Monrovia improved to 10-9 overall (3-2 ICC) and is one of four teams with two conference losses trailing Scecina (6-0 ICC).

Greensburg def. Southwestern, 25-12, 25-7, 25-9

At Greensburg, the host Pirates (26-0) remained unbeaten with a three-game sweep of the Spartans (8-15).

Ella Chapman led the Pirates with 11 kills. Josie Nobbe had seven service aces. Setter Jenna Foster finished with 14 assists and seven digs.

Edinburgh def. Waldron, 25-15, 27-25, 25-12

At Waldron, the visiting Lancers improved to 15-6 (4-1 Mid-Hoosier Conference) with a straight-set win over the Mohawks (12-9, 2-2 MHC).

Waldron gets rematch with Triton Central in tennis sectional opener at Shelbyville

The IHSAA Boys Tennis Sectional at Shelbyville opens with a rematch between Waldron and Triton Central.

On Monday, the IHSAA announced the sectional pairings for the 56th Annual IHSAA Boys Tennis State Tournament. A total of 290 schools were drawn and placed into brackets for the team tournament which begins today and runs through Saturday.

On Wednesday at Shelbyville High School, Waldron (10-8) takes on Triton Central (14-4) in a rematch from a tightly-contested match on Sept. 10 in the semifinal round of the Shelby County Tournament.

Triton Central prevailed 3-2 and went on to win the county tournament title.

The rematch starts at 5 p.m. with the winner advancing to Thursday’s semifinal round against Southwestern. Both Waldron and Triton Central hold 5-0 wins over the Spartans this season.

In the other semifinal match Thursday, the host Golden Bears (12-10) face Morristown (5-9). The two teams did not meet this season.

The championship match is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday.

The sectional champion advances to the Center Grove Regional on Oct. 4 to face the Southport Sectional champion in the regional semifinal round.

The Southport Sectional features Indianapolis Scecina vs. Decatur Central with the winner facing Southport and Indianapolis Shortridge taking on Perry Meridian.

The other regional semifinal match will pit the Center Grove Sectional champion against the Franklin Central Sectional champion.

The regional championship match is Oct. 5.

In addition, any No. 1 singles player or No. 1 doubles team that does not lose a match in the Shelbyville Sectional advances into the state singles and doubles tournament, which will continue at Center Grove along with the team regional.


Triton Central holds steady at No. 6 in state coaches poll

Friday night’s Indiana Crossroads Conference meeting between Indianapolis Scecina and Triton Central has both conference runner-up status and top-five status in the state coaches poll at stake.

Following its 29-18 loss last week to Class A, No. 1 Indianapolis Lutheran, Scecina dropped from No. 2 to No. 5 in this week’s Indiana Football Coaches Association Class 2A poll.

Triton Central routed Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter, 58-15, and held pat at No. 6 as the Crusaders (5-1, 3-1 ICC) and Tigers (5-1, 3-1 ICC) prepare for Friday’s clash in Indianapolis.

Linton-Stockton (6-0) remained No. 1 in the 2A poll as Andrean (4-2), LaVille (6-0) and Evansville Mater Dei (4-2) jumped over Scecina.

Triton Central leads the second five ahead of Lafayette Central Catholic (4-2), Fort Wayne Luers (4-2), Lewis Cass (5-1) and Eastbrook (4-2).

 

 

The biggest shakeup in the polls came in Class 5A after No. 1 Whiteland lost 35-21 at Martinsville. The Warriors dropped to No. 4 in this week’s poll behind a trio of northern Indiana programs.

Mishawaka (6-0) is the new No. 1 with Merrillville (5-1) and Fort Wayne Snider (5-1) rounding out the top three ahead of Whiteland (5-1).

Bloomington South (5-1) and Harrison (West Lafayette) (5-1) share the No. 5 ranking with Valparaiso (4-2), Fort Wayne North (4-2), Castle (4-2) and Franklin (4-2) rounding out the top 10.

Brownsburg (6-0) continues to hold off Center Grove (5-1) for the top spot in Class 6A. Cathedral (4-1) is No. 3 ahead of Hamilton Southeastern (6-0), Ben Davis (4-2), Carmel (4-2), Carroll (Allen) (6-0), Fishers (4-2), Crown Point (6-0) and Penn (4-2).

Five of the top six ranked teams in Class 4A are still unbeaten. New Palestine (6-0) is No. 1 and followed by Roncalli (6-0), Kokomo (6-0), East Central (5-1), NorthWood (6-0), New Prairie (6-0), Mooresville (5-1), Martinsville (5-1), Evansville Reitz (6-0) and Greenfield-Central (4-2).

 

 

Shelbyville (1-5) hosts New Palestine Friday at McKeand Stadium.

Four of the top five in Class 3A remain undefeated. West Lafayette (6-0) is still No. 1 and being chased by Chatard (4-2), Gibson Southern (6-0), Norwell (6-0), Hanover Central (6-0), Western Boone (5-1), Lawrenceburg (5-1), Guerin Catholic (3-3), Owen Valley (6-0) and Tri-West (4-2).

The entire top five in Class A has not lost a game yet. Lutheran (6-0) still reigns over Class A and is riding a 21-game win streak. Adams Central (6-0) is No. 2 ahead of North Judson (6-0), North Decatur (6-0), Carroll (Flora) (6-0), Park Tudor (5-1), South Putnam (5-1), Triton (5-1), South Adams (4-2) and Tri (5-1).

Prep Report: Kiefer's big day leads to pair of girls soccer program records

Evelyn Kiefer set two Shelbyville girls soccer records Saturday in a 14-1 victory at Rushville.

Kiefer scored seven goals to set a program record for goals scored in a game and that pushed her career total to 70 goals – also a program record for the Golden Bears.

The Golden Bears have won nine straight games to improve to 11-1 this season.

Kiefer, a senior, also had three assists in the win at Rushville.

Ava Wilson scored a pair of goals and Lilly Marshall, Hannah Baker, Ava Mummert, Ella Johnson and Lilly Johnson found the back of the net.

Assists were credited to Kiefer (3), Wilson (3), Lilly Johnson (1) and Kincade Dorsey (1).

Rushville dropped to 1-12-1 this season.

Shelbyville (11-1, 4-1 HHC) looks to take over second place in the Hoosier Heritage Conference standings tonight with a win over New Palestine (9-3-1, 5-1 HHC). Mt. Vernon (9-4) sits atop the HHC standings with a 6-0 record, including wins over Shelbyville and New Palestine.

In other prep events Saturday:

Girls Golf

Franklin Regional

Southwestern’s McKinley Correll shot 53 on the front nine and 54 on the back nine to card 107 in the girls golf regional at The Legends Golf Club in Franklin.

Correll, Southwestern’s first ever golf regional qualifier, did not make the cut to the state championship meet.

 

Steve Bush photo
 

Boys Soccer

Shelbyville 3, Yorktown 2

At Yorktown, Osvaldo Reyes scored twice and Christian Haas added a third goal to net the Golden Bears’ their third Hoosier Heritage Conference win of the season.

Reyes scored off assists from Drew Hassebroek and Al Hernandez.

Josue Gil earned the win in goal, starting for the injured Jalen Hounshell.

Shelbyville improved to 8-6-1 overall and 3-3 in the HHC standings. Yorktown is 6-6-1 (2-4 HHC).

Shelbyville won the junior varsity contest 7-1. Goal scorers for the Golden Bears were Rory O’Connor (2), Brock Wischmeyer (2), Brayan De La Cruz (2) and Eli Slaven.

Girls Soccer

Monrovia 5, Triton Central 0

At Triton Central, the visiting Bulldogs scored four first-half goals to secure the Indiana Crossroads Conference victory.

Monrovia improved to 11-1 this season and 4-1 against ICC foes.

Triton Central is 5-8 (2-4 ICC).

Boys Tennis

Lapel 4, Triton Central 1

Triton Central’s only win came from Tucker Hutchinson at No. 1 singles. He defeated Mason Poynter, 6-1, 6-0.

Avram Rund and Cole Thomas each lost three-set singles matches.

At No. 2 doubles, Lapel’s Jaden Cash and Grant Humerickhouse pinned the first loss of the season on Oliver Gearlds and Joey Brosnan, 4-6, 6-4, 12-10.

Triton Central 3, Jay County 2

Hutchinson pulled out a three-set victory over Abraham Dirksen, 6-1, 1-6, 14-12 to lead Triton Central (14-4) to the win.

Rund won at No. 2 singles, 6-0, 6-0 over Simon Dirksen.

Brosnan and Gearlds improved to 8-1 this season at No. 2 doubles with  a 6-2, 6-1 win.

New Castle 3, Shelbyville 2

Shelbyville lost both doubles matches in three sets to close out its regular season schedule with a 12-10 record (4-3 HHC).

At No. 2 singles, Caden Tackett defeated Caden Blackfold, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Logan Prickett was successful at No. 3 singles, 6-3, 7-6 (2) over Jake Jenkins.

Aidan Asher was defeated at No. 1 singles by Trent Alfrey, 6-4, 6-4.

 

 

Hope Heritage Classic

Waldron defeated Edinburgh, 4-1, and Hauser, 3-2, to claim the championship.

Lucas Shaw dropped just five games in winning both his No. 1 singles matches.

Jack Fischer also went 2-0 on the day at No. 2 singles for Waldron (10-7).

Caiden Young defeated Hauser’s Hogan Wiedersatz, 6-3, 6-2 at No. 3 singles to help the Mohawks sweep all three singles matches in the championship.

Volleyball

Class A Showdown

Morristown lost a pair of matches in straight sets to Loogootee and Lafayette Central Catholic.

Against Lafayette Central Catholic, Carley Barrett had six kills and Rachel Vorst had six service aces and 15 digs to lead the Knights to a 25-13, 25-11 win over the Yellow Jackets (3-18).

Loogootee defeated Morristown, 25-8, 25-9.

Delta def. Shelbyville, 25-6, 25-7, 25-12

At Delta, Kendra Keesling had a match-high 10 kills to lead the host Eagles to the victory. Delta improved to 13-7 overall and 3-3 in the HHC standings.

Shelby Lasure led Shelbyville (5-17, 0-4 HHC) with four kills, two aces and eight digs.

 

 

Cross Country

Golden Bear Invite

At Blue River Memorial Park in Shelbyville, the host Golden Bears collected 10 personal-best times on their home course against a large field that included seven state-ranked teams.

Beau Kenkel finished 56th overall in the large school race with a new personal best time of 18:01. Also running were Logan Reinhart (88th, 19:11), Ben Hinojosa (100th, 20:07), Gavin Harker (112th, 21:13), Christian Powell (116th, 21:46), Gaige Harker (118th, 22:41), Ayden Holmes (120th, 23:02), Isaac Zermeno (121st, 23:18), Leland Fox (124th, 24:10) and Iran Daza (125th, 24:16).

In the small school race, Southwestern’s Dane Kissell (18:52) and Jackson Bentz (18:55) finished 40th and 41st, respectively.

Dakota Claiborne followed in 46th (19:01). Chris Claiborne finished 81st (21:48) and Ryan Wildman was 97th (23:49).

Hannah Wright led Shelbyville in the girls race. The junior crossed the finish line in 22:04, a new personal best, to place 65th overall in the large school race.

Also competing for Shelbyville were Angel Kreider (89th, 23:44), Aerin Garcia-Santiago (98th, 24:56) and Ava Ruschhaupt (109th, 33:27).

In the small school race, Southwestern’s Malori Pike finished 62nd in 26:39 and Maxine Higdon placed 65th in 27:01.

 

 

Heritage Days Classic

In Hope, Triton Central’s Hallie Schweitzer (photo) finished runner-up in the girls race and Waldron’s Will Larrison was seventh in the boys race to lead all Shelby County participants.

Schweitzer crossed the finish line in 22:03. Waldron’s Sophie Hudnall was eighth (23:26) and Morristown’s Grace McLaughlin finished 12th in 23:53.

Larrison’s time of 17:26 led to a seventh-place finish. His teammates, Jared Crosby, Nathaniel Evans and Jimmie Taylor, placed ninth (17:38), 23rd (19:10) and 46th (22:54), respectively.

Morristown’s Max Compton finished 27th in 19:18. Drake Hibst placed 36th (20:17).

For Triton Central, Liam Thompson was 32nd (20:12), Hank Hadler was 44th (21:37) and Nick Straber was 47th (25:24).

IHSAA Boys Tennis State Tournament Pairings Show airs tonight

Boys tennis teams around the state will learn their postseason route Monday night during the IHSAA Boys Tennis State Tournament Pairings Show.

The show will be streamed exclusively at 7 p.m. at IHSAAtv.org and hosted by Greg Rakestraw.

The complete pairings will be posted to IHSAA.org following the webcast.

Shelbyville is the host site for Sectional 7, which begins this week. The sectional tournament features all five Shelby County boys tennis programs – Morristown, Shelbyville, Southwestern, Triton Central and Waldron.

The sectional champion will advance to regional competition beginning Oct. 4.

Shelbyville, Southwestern and Triton Central hosting postseason sectional tournaments

A record number of boys and girls soccer teams will compete in the 29th Annual IHSAA Boys and Girls Soccer State Tournaments.

A total of 305 boys teams and 273 girls teams learned their opening-round sectional opponents Sunday night during the IHSAA’s state tournament draw. The previous record for participants was 301 for the boys in 2017 and 2019, and 272 girls teams in 2019.

Both tournaments mirror each other beginning with 16 sectionals in each of three classes running Oct. 3-8.

Regional semifinals will be played Oct. 12-13 with regional championships on Oct. 15.

Semistate champions will be determined on Oct. 22 at four sites with the winners advancing to the state championship matches Oct. 28-29 at Michael Carroll Stadium at IUPUI in Indianapolis.

This is the second year that a mid-week regional semifinal match will be played on the home field of one of the sectional winners. This year, the winners of the even-numbered sectionals will host a regional semifinal match on Wednesday (boys) and Thursday (girls) with all championship matches played at a pre-determined site on Saturday.

 

 

Boys Tournament

Shelbyville

The host Golden Bears will open Class 3A, Sectional 12 against Greenfield-Central. The winner will advance to the semifinal round to face New Palestine, who received a bye.

In the other quarterfinal matches, Connersville will face Richmond while Mt. Vernon takes on East Central. Both winners advance to a semifinal match.

The Shelbyville Sectional champion will host a regional semifinal match against the Indianapolis Arsenal Technical Sectional champion.

The regional championship match will be hosted by Carmel.

 

 

Southwestern

The host Spartans, ranked No. 17 in the most recent state coaches poll, begin Class A, Sectional 42 in the semifinal round against Indiana Math & Science.

In the quarterfinal matches at Southwestern, Central Christian opens against Indianapolis Lutheran and Hauser takes on Irvington Prep. The winners advance into the other semifinal match.

The Southwestern Sectional champion hosts the Bethesda Christian Sectional champion in the regional semifinal round.

Knightstown will be the host site for the regional championship match.

 

 

Morristown

The Yellow Jackets were slotted into the opening match of Class A, Sectional 44 at Knightstown against No. 18 Oldenburg Academy. The winner will face either Union County or Wapahani in the sectional semifinal round.

In the other semifinal, Knightstown hosts Seton Catholic.

The Knightstown Sectional champion will host the White River Valley Sectional champion in the regional semifinal round.

The regional championship match will be played at Knightstown.

 

 

Girls Tournament

Shelbyville

Class 3A, Sectional 12, hosted by New Palestine, will feature a strong field.

Shelbyville will open the postseason with a quarterfinal round match against Richmond. The winner will face the winner of the No. 17 East Central vs. Greenfield-Central match in the semifinals.

The other semifinal round match pits No. 19 Mt. Vernon against New Palestine.

The Shelbyville Sectional champion will host the Warren Central Sectional champion in the regional semifinal round.

Carmel is the host site for the regional championship match.

 

 

Triton Central

Triton Central is the host school for Class A, Sectional 44 and the Tigers will open the tournament with a quarterfinal match against Knightstown.

The winner will face No. 18 Muncie Burris in the semifinals.

The other semifinal match has Union County taking on Wapahani.

The Triton Central Sectional champion will host the Heritage Christian Sectional champion in the regional semifinal round.

Knightstown will host the regional championship match.

Steve Bush photo

Area soccer teams learn sectional fates Sunday

The complete pairings for the IHSAA boys and girls soccer state tournaments will be announced at 7 p.m. Sunday at IHSAAtv.org.

The program will be hosted by Greg Rakestraw. Complete pairings will be posted to IHSAA.org following the webcast.

Shelbyville is the host site for Class 3A, Sectional 12 that includes seven teams. Traveling to Shelbyville to compete along with the Golden Bears will be Connersville, East Central, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon, New Palestine and Richmond.

The Shelbyville Sectional champion will host a one-game regional against the winner of the Indianapolis Arsenal Tech Sectional that includes Tech, Cathedral, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, 3A No. 11 Perry Meridian, Southport and Warren Central.

Southwestern is host for Class A, Sectional 42 that features six teams. Joining No. 17-ranked Southwestern will be Central Christian Academy, Hauser, Indianapolis Lutheran, Indiana Math & Science Academy, and Irvington Prep.

The Southwestern Sectional champion will host the Bethesda Christian Sectional champion in a one-game regional. The Bethesda Christian Sectional includes No. 13 Covenant Christian, No. 19 North Putnam, No. 10 Providence Cristo Rey, Riverside and Bethesda Christian.

Morristown will travel to Knightstown for the Class A, Sectional 44 tournament. Joining the Yellow Jackets and Panthers will be No. 18 Oldenburg Academy, Seton Catholic, Union County and Wapahani.

The Knightstown Sectional champion will host the White River Valley Sectional champ in the regional round. The White River Valley Sectional includes Bloomfield, Eminence, Greenwood Christian, Lighthouse Christian and White River Valley.

Girls Tournament

Shelbyville’s girls soccer team is off to one of its best starts ever to a season but will face stiff competition in the Class 3A, Sectional 12 tournament hosted by New Palestine.

The six-team field features 3A No. 17 East Central, Greenfield-Central, 3A No. 19 Mt. Vernon, New Palestine, Richmond and Shelbyville.

The New Palestine Sectional champ will host the Warren Central Sectional champ in the regional. The Warren Central Sectional includes 3A No. 8 Cathedral, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, Perry Meridian, Southport and Warren Central.

Triton Central will host Class A, Sectional 44 that includes Knightstown, No. 18 Muncie Burris, Union County, Wapahani.

The Triton Central Sectional champion will host the Heritage Christian Sectional champion in the regional round. Heritage Christian is ranked No. 3 in the Class A poll.

Prep Report: Shelbyville girls soccer stays in HHC title contention with shutout win over Greenfield-Central

Shelbyville’s girls soccer program kept itself in contention for a Hoosier Heritage Conference championship Thursday with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Greenfield-Central.

Cyanne St. Bernard scored in the closing minutes of the first half and that goal stood up for the Golden Bears (10-1, 4-1 HHC), winners of eight straight.

The Cougars dropped to 6-6-1 overall and 3-4 in the HHC standings.

Shelbyville’s lone loss this season came to Mt. Vernon on Aug. 30. The Marauders sit atop the HHC standings with a 5-0 mark. New Palestine is 5-1 and Shelbyville is 4-1.

The Golden Bears host New Palestine (9-3-1) Monday.

In other prep events Thursday:

Boys Soccer

Greenfield-Central 4, Shelbyville 0

At Greenfield-Central, four different Cougars scored goals to pin a loss on the Golden Bears (7-6-1, 2-3 HHC).

Dalton Evanoff, Alex Reed, Drew Davidson and Ethan Hollis tallied goals for Greenfield-Central (9-1-2, 6-0 HHC).

Morristown 9, Irvington Prep 0

The Yellow Jackets improved to 8-5-2 this season with a shutout victory over Irvington Prep (0-7).

Boys Tennis

Waldron 5, Milan 0

At Milan, Lucas Shaw and Jack Fischer each upped their season records at No. 1 singles and No. 2 singles, respectively, to 10-6 with dominant wins.

Caiden Young finished off the singles sweep with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Aiden McFarland.

Waldron’s No. 1 doubles combination of Jacob Lindsey and Josh Kellems improved to 9-3 with a 6-0, 6-0 victory.

Connor Hinchman and Matthew Thomas defeated Ben Miller and Carson Doolittle at No. 2 doubles, 6-1, 7-6.

Andy Lacy won a junior varsity singles match for Waldron while Isaiah Jones and Connor Ping won a doubles match, 8-1.

Triton Central 5, Beech Grove 0

At Triton Central, the host Tigers (13-3) won four of the five matches easily. At No. 1 singles, Tucker Hutchinson needed three sets to dispatch of Chase Alford, 6-2, 5-7, 10-7.

Avram Rund and Cole Thomas dropped a combined total of three games to win the other two singles matches.

The doubles teams of Griffin Sego/Ben Toth and Oliver Gearlds/Joey Brosnan did not lose a game in their matches.

TC got JV doubles match wins from Connor Evans/Bohdan Rollo and Derreck Uhls/Janssen Capps.

Shelbyville 3, Greenwood 2

At Greenwood, Caden Tackett pulled out a three-set victory at No. 2 singles to lead the Golden Bears to the victory. Tackett defeated Aidyn Green, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 10-7.

At No. 3 singles, Shelbyville’s Logan Prickett topped Carter Chatham, 6-3, 7-5.

And Shelbyville’s No. 2 doubles pairing of Karson Schaf and Reece Prickett prevailed over Ben Cruser and Devin Weidner, 6-3, 6-1.

Volleyball

Triton Central def. Southwestern, 25-16, 25-17, 25-13

At Triton Central, Maddy Brown led the host Tigers with 12 kills and 10 digs. Brooklyn Bailey contributed nine kills and three blocks.

Kate Isley finished with 29 assists for Triton Central (16-4).

Southwestern dropped to 8-14 this season.

Franklin def. Shelbyville, 25-8, 25-8, 25-15

At Shelbyville, Scarlett Kimbrell led Franklin (14-6) with 12 kills. Aubrey Runyon, Veronica Whitaker and Rose Mahin each had six kills.

Kate Pinnick added 21 digs and Kennedy Urban totaled 28 assists.

Shelby Lasure and Ashlyn Turner led Shelbyville (5-16) with six kills and five kills, respectively.

Sophomore Addison Hartman ran the offense and collected nine assists to go along with seven digs.

Riley Lee had a team-high 13 digs.

Yorktown's stars shine in 42-0 win over Shelbyville Friday

The best defense is a good offense is an old adage used by coaches to describe how important it is to maintain possession of the ball and keep it away from an opponent’s high-powered offense. 

Unfortunately, Shelbyville’s offense never got on track Friday and the Golden Bears were shutout at Yorktown, 42-0.

Shelbyville’s ground game accounted for only 67 yards rushing on 29 attempts and added 53 yards in the passing game. The Golden Bears crossed into Yorktown territory once and saw two turnovers turn into Tiger touchdowns.

Luke Jackson led the Golden Bears rushing attack with 27 yards on six carries.  Quarterback Eli Chappelow rushed for 15 yards on four carries and Axel Conover mustered only 10 yards on eight attempts.

Chappelow was 6-of-12 passing the ball for 53 yards. Cael Lux caught three balls for 31 yards.

Yorktown’s leading rusher, junior Jalen Thomas, was the catalyst for the Tigers' offense Friday. He rushed for the game’s first two scores in the first quarter, including a 30-yard touchdown run that capped a drive to begin the game. On that drive, Thomas accounted for 55 of the 70 yards.

Thomas also scored the second touchdown of the night on a four-yard run to give Yorktown a 14-0 lead.  He finished with 141 yards on 13 carries -- 123 of those rushing yards were in the first half.

Yorktown led 28-0 at halftime.

Junior quarterback Mason Moulton started his fourth game for the Tigers after missing the opening two weeks with an injury. Moulton found his favorite target, senior Kolton Nanko, for touchdown receptions of 32 and 25 yards. He also threw a 25-yard touchdown to receiver Blair Webster.

Moulton was 11-of-15 passing for 145 yards and three touchdowns. He completed eight of his last nine pass attempts.

In all, Nanko had four catches for 46 yards as a wide receiver. The do-it-all Tiger also narrowly missed on two interceptions (he has two on the season) and forced Shelbyville to start each possession after a Yorktown score at the 20-yard line by kicking off into the endzone. The only time Nanko failed in that category was a short kick to open the second half that the Golden Bears brought out to the 27.

It was a fifth consecutive win in the series for Yorktown (5-1, 3-1 HHC).

Shelbyville (1-5, 1-3 HHC) will host Class 4A, No. 1 New Palestine (6-0, 4-0 HHC) Friday at McKeand Stadium. The Dragons defeated visiting Greenfield-Central Friday in an HHC matchup, 42-7.

Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central nearly flawless in win over Cardinal Ritter

INDIANAPOLIS – Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central played a nearly flawless first half Friday night to throttle Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter, 58-15.

Quarterback Jace Stuckey completed 10 of his 11 pass attempts for 306 yards and three touchdowns. The junior also ran for a touchdown in a dominant two-quarter performance.

Senior Brad Schultz caught seven passes for 223 yards and all three of Stuckey’s TD passes.

And junior Ray Crawford rushed for 99 yards on nine carries and had two touchdowns.

That trio did not take an offensive snap in the second half.

“We didn’t like the start real well with our first special teams play and we didn’t do too well on our second-down play but once we scored that first touchdown everything went our way,” said Triton Central head coach Tim Able.

After a 9-yard run by Crawford on the game’s first offensive play, Stuckey was sacked for a 5-yard loss. Stuckey rectified that negative yardage with an 82-yard touchdown strike to Schultz, who was 10 yards past any Ritter defender when he caught the ball in stride.

That set the tone for Triton Central’s first-team offense which scored on all seven of its possessions in the first half Friday at St. Vincent Field on the campus of Marian University.

“We will want to start a little bit better next week, make those first few plays a little sharper,” said Able. “There are always things you can getter better at and learn from – don’t repeat the same mistakes. We have a huge week ahead because Scecina is a really good ball club.”

 

 

The Tigers (5-1, 3-1 Indiana Crossroads Conference) did an excellent job of not overlooking a struggling football program while a greater challenge awaits on the horizon.

The defense forced Ritter to punt on four of its first-half possessions, got a fumble recovery and held tough on fourth down when the Raiders (1-4, 0-4 ICC) moved into the red zone.

Crawford produced a 53-yard run on the first down of TC’s second possession then finished the second scoring drive with an 8-yard run.

The third touchdown, a Stuckey 1-yard plunge, came after three straight completions to Schultz, Mason Compton and Schultz again.

Brayden Wilkins tackled Ritter punter Osvaldo Carlos in the end zone after a bad snap for a safety.

Following the Ritter free kick, three Crawford and Wilkins runs netted 22 yards and Schultz took a quick pass from Stuckey and avoided a handful of defenders to reach the end zone for a second time.

Following a Ritter fumble, Stuckey connected with Compton deep down the field for a 50-yard gain. Sam Kemper punched the ball in the end zone for a 37-0 lead early in the second quarter.

Ritter’s best drive against Triton Central’s first-team defense followed. The Raiders put together an 11-play drive that stalled at the TC 19 when quarterback Ben Johnson overthrew his receiver.

Three plays later, Stuckey found Schultz along the Ritter sideline. He cut back across the field and nearly reached the end zone. Schultz was tackled at the 1-yard line and Crawford collected his second score of the game to make it 44-0.

Following another three-and-out for the Ritter offense and a long punt return by Schultz to the Ritter 19, Stuckey rewarded Schultz with a 19-yard scoring reception to cap off the first half.

Low on numbers, Ritter did not have a junior varsity team to face Triton Central. That worked out for the TC coach who was able to get the JV two quarters of work on a Friday night.

Jay Roberts broke free for a 53-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter to get the Raiders on the scoreboard.

Chris Perkon finished off a six-play scoring drive early in the fourth quarter with a powerful 9-yard touchdown run that extended the lead to 58-7.

“I am proud of our JV getting it in there and scoring,” said Able.

Roberts collected his second touchdown of the game on a 4-yard pass from Johnson with just over a minute left in the game.

Triton Central now turns its attention toward a key ICC matchup with Class 2A, No. 2 Scecina (5-1, 3-1 ICC), who lost 28-19 Friday to Class A, No. 1 Indianapolis Lutheran (6-0, 5-0 ICC).

Triton Central and Scecina each have one loss this season – both to Lutheran.

“It’s a whole different game,” said Able. “There will be a lot less room for error. Let’s see if we are ready for the big time because that’s a huge game because we are also in the same sectional.”

 

Triton Central 58, Cardinal Ritter 15

SCORE BY QUARTERS

TC --  30  21  0  7  --  58

CR --   0    0   7  8  --  15

First Quarter:

TC -- Schultz, 82 pass Stuckey (Dewey kick), 10:53

TC – Crawford, 8 run (Dewey kick), 7:06

TC – Stuckey, 1 run (Dewey kick), 4:11

TC – Wilkins safety, 3:02

TC – Schultz, 38 pass Stuckey (Dewey kick), :48

Second Quarter:

TC – Kemper, 1 run (Dewey kick), 7:18

TC – Crawford, 1 run (Winslow kick), 1:48

TC – Schultz, 19 pass Stuckey (Winslow kick), 1:01

Third Quarter:

CR – Roberts, 53 run (Carlos kick), 1:37

Fourth Quarter:

TC – Perkon, 9 run (Winslow kick), 8:46

CR – Roberts, 4 pass Johnson (Johnson run), 1:37

Individual:

Rushing: Crawford 9-99, Perkon 4-52, Copeland 2-13, Wilkins 1-11, Kemper 1-1, Brown 1-(-4), Stuckey 3-(-4) (TC); Roberts 14-99, Lloyd 3-18, Johnson 3-10, Flemming 3-5, Jackson 1-(-12) (CR).

Passing: Stuckey 10-11-306, Collier 2-3-11 (TC); Johnson 15-24-126 (CR).

Receiving: Schultz 7-223, Compton 2-69, Crawford 2-14, Robertson 1-12, Copeland 1-(-1) (TC); Roberts 5-50, Jackson 7-40, Knutson 2-25, Gregory 1-11 (CR).

Shelbyville football regroups for road trip to Yorktown

Class 4A, No. 10 Greenfield-Central had an interception return for a touchdown and two kickoff returns for scores Friday to power past Shelbyville, 54-7.

The Golden Bears know to compete against the top half of the Hoosier Heritage Conference, they cannot allow quick scores and big plays – including a 70-yard run for a touchdown by G-C in the third quarter.

“Our special teams … we botched a field goal attempt too,” said Shelbyville head coach Brian Glesing. “The kickoff coverage is one of the harder things when you have a superior team and an inferior team, kickoffs is an area where you can be exploited or exposed the most.”

Greenfield-Central finished with 360 rushing yards and five touchdowns on the ground while not attempting a pass.

“I thought defensively, one of the things about an option team or a team that runs the wishbone like (Greenfield-Central), we forced them to do a couple of other things. I was excited about that,” said Glesing. “We did a good job of stopping the dive and getting to the quarterback. Then they had to run a quick pitch for a big score and their quarterback counter play hurt us.

“I was excited. I thought we did a good job going through our progression on the option even though the score didn’t indicate that.”

Preparing for Greenfield-Central is tough when you don’t have the personnel to simulate the unique offense. Preparing for Yorktown and its pro-style offense this week is much easier.

The Tigers are 4-1 overall (2-1 HHC) and coming off back-to-back wins over Delta (35-21) and New Castle (25-19).

“Football games have so many different pieces to the puzzle,” said Glesing about the final score of Yorktown’s win over New Castle, who Shelbyville beat one week earlier. “Things that happen in games, whether a penalty here or there or a turnover here or there can just change the way the score looks on the scoreboard.

“New Castle did some good things against Yorktown and kept it close. I would be tickled pink if we had it within one possession in the fourth quarter. That would be huge.”

Shelbyville’s defense has to slow down Yorktown junior running back Jalen Thomas, who has nearly 500 yards rushing in five games. Against Delta, Thomas had 169 rushing yards and 55 yards receiving while finding the end zone three times.

“They can probably give him the ball more,” said Glesing. No other Tiger has more than 14 carries this season.

Quarterback Mason Moulton is back from an injury and completing 57% of his pass attempts for 545 yards and three touchdowns in three games. The junior has thrown seven interceptions, though.

Shelbyville (1-4, 1-2 HHC) has five players with at least 100 yards rushing this season, led by Axel Conover’s 292 yards on 66 attempts. Cael Lux (146 yards), Alex Macharia (142 yards), Luke Jackson (113 yards) and Eli Chappelow (111 yards) also have surpassed the century mark. Combined, the quintet have eight rushing touchdowns.

Chappelow has completed 52% of his pass attempts for 512 yards and three touchdowns.

Jackson Parker (14 receptions, 178 yards) and Lux (seven receptions, 174 yards) lead the Golden Bears in receiving yards.

 

 

QUICK FACTS

Shelbyville at Class 3A, No. 15 Yorktown

Game Time: 7:30 p.m. at Tiger Stadium in Yorktown, Ind. All tickets are $6 at the gate and cash only.

Broadcast time: 6:30 p.m. pregame show live from McKeand Stadium with Johnny McCrory and Mark Drake on GIANT fm (96.5 fm, 106.3 fm, 1520 am) or on the GIANT fm app.

YT promotion: Homecoming.

Head coaches: Brian Glesing, 2-10 in 2nd year at Shelbyville, 120-104 in 20th year overall; Mike Wilhelm, 95-94 in 18th year at Yorktown.

2021 record: Shelbyville 1-6; Yorktown 5-5.

Sagarin ratings: Shelbyville, 29.25, 232nd overall, 51st in Class 4A; Yorktown, 58.46, 103rd overall, 19th in Class 3A.

Point spread: Yorktown is favored by 31 points.

Last meeting: Shelbyville lost 35-0 in 2021 after a three-week layoff due to COVID-19 protocols limiting the roster size and forcing the cancellation of games.

Last 10 meetings: Shelbyville is 4-6 against Yorktown in the last decade. The Tigers have won four straight meetings.

Around the HHC Friday: Delta (3-2, 1-2 HHC) at New Castle (1-4, 0-3 HHC); Class 4A, No. 10 Greenfield-Central (4-1, 2-1 HHC) at Class 4A, No. 1 New Palestine (5-0, 3-0 HHC); and Mt. Vernon (2-3, 2-1 HHC) at Pendleton Heights (2-3, 1-2 HHC).

Sectional 23 lookahead: Class 4A, No. 5 East Central (4-1); Class 4A, No. 11 Martinsville (4-1); Silver Creek (3-2), Bedford North Lawrence (2-3), Shelbyville (1-4), Edgewood (1-4), Jennings County (1-4), Greenwood (1-4).

Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central looks to maintain momentum against Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter

Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter had a nearly two-decade run as a state powerhouse, winning four state championships and finishing runner-up three more times between 2003 and 2016.

Hard times have fallen on the Raiders program, which finished 1-10 in 2021 under first-year coach Brad Purcell.

Ritter, 1-3 this season, hosts Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central (4-1) Friday night at Marian University in Indianapolis. The Raiders are limited in roster size and have cancelled the program’s junior varsity season.

Triton Central head coach Tim Able won’t let his team fall into a “trap” this week.

“We cannot get caught up in they’ve only won one game and we’ve only lost one game,” said Able. The Tigers are favored to win by more than 50 points Friday.

In addition, Triton Central has a date with Class 2A, No. 2 Indianapolis Scecina the following week, which could have Indiana Crossroads Conference championship implications. Scecina (5-0, 3-0 ICC) hosts Class A, No. 1 Lutheran (5-0, 4-0 ICC) this Friday. Lutheran is the only team to defeat Triton Central this season.

“We just have to do what we did last week,” said Able. “It’s all about execution and being ready to play.”

Triton Central overwhelmed Class 3A, No. 15 Indian Creek last week, grabbing five interceptions and rolling to a 49-14 victory.

Indian Creek was a pass-first offense. Ritter prefers to run behind an athletic offensive line, according to Able.

“They like to run the ball a little more than they throw,” said Able. “They are more successful running than throwing. If we can control the run, I feel we can defend their passing game pretty well.”

The Raiders opened the season with three straight ICC losses in which they were outscored 160-12. Last week, Ritter found success in a 44-8 win over Indianapolis Shortridge (2-3).

Senior quarterback Ben Johnson completed 6-of-11 pass attempts for 83 yards and a touchdown. Seniors Jay Roberts and Jayden Flemming combined for 192 rushing yards and five TDs.

Able wants to see Triton Central continue to find success running the ball. Ray Crawford has carried the ball 70 times in the first five games for 434 yards and five TDs.

Quarterback Jace Stuckey (photo) is already over 1,300 yards passing this season while hitting at a 68% clip. The junior has thrown 12 TDs with just four interceptions.

Senior Brad Schultz continues to terrorize defensive backfields, catching 36 passes for 751 yards and nine TDs.

 

 

QUICK FACTS:

Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central at Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter

Game time: 7 p.m. at Marian University, 3200 Cold Springs Road in Indianapolis. Parking is $5. Advance tickets may be purchased online for $6 at gocardinalritter.org/event-tickets. Tickets purchased at the stadium will be $8.

Media coverage: Follow Shelby County Post News Editor Jeff Brown on Twitter at @Sportsboss4life for live updates from Marian University.

TC student section theme: Out of this World.

Head coaches: Tim Able, 84-33 in 10th year at Triton Central; 209-131 in 29th year overall; Brad Purcell, 2-13 in 2nd year at Ritter, 7-17 in 3rd year overall.

2021 record: Triton Central 8-5; Ritter 1-10.

Sagarin ratings: Triton Central, 75.57, 40th overall, 1st in Class 2A; Ritter, 23.29, 255th overall, 44th in Class 2A.

Point spread: Triton Central is a 52-point favorite.

Last year: Triton Central won 23-0 at Mendenhall Field in Fairland.

Last 10 meetings: Triton Central has won six of nine meetings over the last decade, including four straight.

Around the ICC Friday: Connersville (4-1) at Speedway (3-2); Class A, No. 1 Lutheran (5-0, 4-2 ICC) vs. Class 2A, No. 2 Scecina (5-0, 3-0 ICC) at Roncalli; Monrovia (2-3, 1-2 ICC) at Beech Grove (2-3, 1-3 ICC); and North Putnam (1-4) at Cascade (2-3).

Sectional 39 lookahead: Class 2A, No. 2 Scecina (5-0); Class 2A, No. 6 Triton Central (4-1); Class 2A, No 13 Brownstown Central (4-1); Christel House Manual (3-2); Switzerland County (2-3); Clarksville (2-3); Eastern (Pekin) (1-4); and Brown County (0-5).

Steve Bush photo

Prep Report: Triton Central soccer defeats Scecina on Senior Night

Triton Central’s girls soccer program celebrated Senior Night Wednesday with a 2-1 victory over Indianapolis Scecina.

Triton Central (5-7, 2-3 Indiana Crossroads Conference) got goals from Emma Firebaugh and Lizzie Graham. Sophia Robertson was credited with an assist.

Cheyenne Allen was the winning goalkeeper.

The lone goal for Scecina (3-6-2, 0-4 ICC) came in the second half by Chelsea Aragon.

In other prep events Wednesday:

Boys Soccer

Herron 4, Southwestern 2

At Herron, Gideon Nelson scored a pair of goals and Jack Wagner and Andy Beck found the back of the net to lead the Achaeans (4-4-1) to the win over Class A, No. 17 Southwestern (8-2-2).

Volleyball

Mt. Vernon def. Triton Central, 25-17, 25-14, 25-20

At Mt. Vernon, Sierra Holverson led the host Marauders (8-14) with 12 kills. Alivia Morgan added 11 kills.

Libby Gee-Weiler had a team-high 25 digs. Ava Whitmore collected 36 assists.

Kayden Simmons topped Triton Central (15-4) with six kills. Kaitlin Bramlett had five.

Veteran Triton Central volleyball team pins loss on youthful Shelbyville squad

For Triton Central, pace creates pressure. And pressure creates more scoring opportunities.

After splitting the first two games Monday at William L. Garrett Gymnasium with Shelbyville, the visiting Tigers turned up the pace on the Golden Bears and took the next two games to secure a 25-23, 17-25, 25-17, 25-19 victory.

“We’ve been trying not only with the sets and the attacks but just getting into and out of our offense (quicker),” said Triton Central head coach Ray Basile. “The point is over and getting our server back and getting everybody reset and go. Volleyball tends to be a wait and see if (the opponent) is ready and then serve the ball. Everybody gets used to a tempo.

“We are trying to create our own energy by just playing faster with everything we are doing, even between points on our side. I thought we did a pretty good job of doing that.”

Triton Central (15-3) needed a late rally to salvage game one against the Golden Bears (5-15). Shelbyville led 21-17 before the Tigers produced six straight points on a Kaitlin Bramlett kill, two Shelbyville unforced hitting errors, back-to-back service aces by Kate Isley and a Maddy Brown kill to make is 23-21.

The Golden Bears scored the next two points to tie the game but a serve into the net and a wide spike attempt closed out game one in Triton Central’s favor.

Shelbyville started quickly in game two and finished off the Tigers, who never found their rhythm.

“In that second set, we started missing serves and  started making bad passes on serve receive,” said Basile. “I don’t remember the exact statistic, but somewhere around 75% to 80% of the teams that win on serve and serve receive, those two statistics, will win the match regardless of anything else you do. I thought we probably won those on three of the sets and definitely lost it on that second set and you could see it.”

Shelbyville established another lead in the crucial third game but Triton Central overcame a poor serving stretch to tie the game at 8-all before scoring 10 of the next 13 points – the last one on an emphatic spike from Kayden Simmons to make it 18-11.

Triton Central closed out the game with a kill from Bramlett and an ace from Isley.

A Maddy Brown kill early in game four started a 5-0 run for the Tigers to make it 11-8. Triton Central would trail only once more in the game before pulling away in the end.

 

 

“We are a team that just goes on a roller coaster,” said first-year Shelbyville coach Katie Winters. “We have some really good sets, and then the next set we get too comfortable and lose focus and that trickles down and it’s hard to get back into it.”

The wins have been sporadic for an inexperienced Shelbyville program that lost seven seniors including record-setting setter Gracie Leffler and defensive specialist Emma Nolley, who is playing collegiately at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas.

“We lost seven and that was pretty much the whole starting lineup,” said Winters, who was an assistant coach at Shelbyville last season. “The maturity and experience at this level, we lack that in some cases. The game, mentally, is keeping up from winning in the end.

Triton Central strung together 11-straight wins earlier this season before losing to Speedway. With four seniors contributing including Brown, who set the program’s career kills record in the first match of the season, Basile believes there is still room for improvement from a team that has already won 15 matches.

“They seem to be ready to play at a better level and that’s what we’ve been waiting on,” said Basile. “It’s not a talent thing, it’s a mental thing  and it was a lot better tonight.”

Brown led Triton Central with 12 kills against the Golden Bears. Brooklyn Bailey finished with 11 and Bramlett had eight. Isley had 35 assists.

Triton Central travels to Mt. Vernon (7-14) Thursday.

For Shelbyville, the goal is to play with more consistency.

“Every day I want to see us compete,” said Winters. “I think if we would have competed tonight, you would have seen a better outcome. Mentally-staying engaged is our key to success. Hopefully, this second half of the season we can keep them engaged and compete to be at our best at the end of the season.”

Senior Shelby Lasure led Shelbyville with 16 kills. Sophomore Ashlyn Turner had 13 kills, four aces and 11 digs.

Senior setter Karlie Lawson collected 32 assists and 20 digs.

The Golden Bears quickly shook off the loss to Triton Central and produced a 4-game win Tuesday at Lawrence Central.

After losing game one, Shelbyville responded to get a 23-25, 25-16, 25-17, 25-7 win over the Bears (4-13).

Kenyara Agnew led Lawrence Central with six kills. Izzy Simonsen had three aces and 17 assists.

Shelbyville will go for its first back-to-back wins Thursday when Franklin (13-6) visits Garrett Gymnasium.

Prep Report: Shelbyville girls soccer overpowers Greenwood Christian

Greenwood Christian ended Shelbyville’s five-match shutout streak. The Cougars, however, did not end the Golden Bears’ six-match win streak.

On Tuesday in Greenwood, Shelbyville scored four times in the first half and backed that with five more goals over the final 40 minutes to secure a 9-3 victory and its seventh-straight win.

Ava Wilson had the hat trick for Shelbyville, now 9-1 (3-1 Hoosier Heritage Conference), and Cyanne St. Bernard and Hailey Pogue each had two goals.

Hannah Baker and Evelyn Kiefer tallied the Golden Bears’ other two goals.

Baker, Kiefer, Pogue and Emma Sandman were credited with assists.

Macy Cooley earned the win in goal.

Allie Curlee scored two goals for Greenwood Christian (3-8). Adeline Jolley also scored.

Shelbyville hosts Greenfield-Central (6-5-1, 3-3 HHC) Thursday.

In other prep events Tuesday:

Boys Soccer

South Dearborn 3, Shelbyville 1

At Shelbyville, the visiting Knights (8-4-1) scored two first-half goals to seize momentum and roll to the road victory.

Jason Hall scored a pair of goals for South Dearborn and Dana Lewis added a third.

Shelbyville dropped to 7-5-1 this season. The Golden Bears travel to Greenfield-Central (8-1-2) Thursday.

Boys Tennis

Triton Central 5, Morristown 0

At Morristown on Senior Night, the visiting Tigers (12-3) won all five matches in straight sets over the Yellow Jackets (4-9).

At No. 1 singles, Tucker Hutchinson improved to 11-4 this season with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Tyler Schonfeld.

Avram Rund dropped just two games in defeating Jameson Palmer at No. 2 singles, 6-2, 6-0.

Cole Thomas pushed his No. 3 singles record to 12-3 with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Austin Gabbard.

Griffin Sego and Ben Toth secured their 10th victory of the season at No. 1 doubles with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Dalton McMichael and Michael Ballinger.

At No. 2 doubles, Joey Brosnan and Oliver Gearlds stayed unbeaten at 6-0 with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Bryce Bryant and Brady Schonfeld.

TC’s Connor Evans and Derreck Uhls won junior varsity singles matches.

Knightstown 3, Waldron 2

The Panthers secured the team victory by sweeping the singles matches in straight sets.

Waldron won both doubles matches.

At No. 1 doubles, the pairing of Jacob Lindsey and Josh Kellems improved to 8-3 this season with a 6-0, 7-5, win over Baylor Hogan and Ethan Woods.

Connor Hinchman and Matthew Thomas defeated Jeffrey Alexander and Leeland Gallion, 6-2, 6-1 to push their No. 2 doubles record to 7-4.

Waldron got JV wins from Isaiah Jones, Andy Lacy and the doubles pairing of Sam Jones and Connor Ping.

Volleyball

Waldron def. South Decatur, 21-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-12, 15-9

At South Decatur, Waldron (10-6) rallied from a 2-1 deficit to win its third straight match.

Sophia Bushhorn led South Decatur with seven kills.

Hauser def. Southwestern, 25-13, 25-18, 25-15

At Southwestern, visiting Hauser (16-6, 4-0 Mid-Hoosier Conference) maintained its conference lead with a sweep of the Spartans (8-13, 2-2 MHC).

Collegiate Update: Perry closes out Rose-Hulman's fall tennis season with win at Wabash Invitational

Austin Perry won a singles match and lost a doubles match for Rose-Hulman’s men’s tennis program while competing in the Wabash College Fall Invitational on Sept. 16-17 at the Collett Tennis Center in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

Perry, a Shelbyville graduate, defeated Illinois Wesleyan’s Josh Cortez, 6-3, 1-6, 10-4.

Perry (photo, sixth from left) teamed with Corey Pollard and lost 8-3 to Blake Discher II and Eduardo Werneck of Wabash.

Rose-Hulman won 14 singles matches and seven doubles matches in the invitational competing against Earlham, Illinois Wesleyan and Wabash to close out the fall regular-season schedule.

Here is a look at other Shelby County graduates competing at the collegiate level.

 

 

Asher Caldwell

The Morristown graduate made his collegiate debut Tuesday for Trine University’s men’s golf program at the Ken Venturi Invitational in Angola, Indiana.

Trine hosted its first home match of the season at Zollner Golf Course and finished third overall.

Trine entered multiple teams in the event. Caldwell’s team finished eighth overall. Caldwell shot 82.

 

 

Jill Anspaugh

The Shelbyville graduate finished 138th (21:36) for Franklin College’s women’s cross country team Saturday competing in the Indiana State University McNichols Invitational in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Franklin finished 14th in the team standings that featured Division I, Division II and Division III programs.

 

 

Hayden Kermode

The Triton Central graduate had two kickoff returns totaling 15 yards Saturday for Concordia in a 28-20 loss at Roosevelt in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Concordia led 14-0 before Roosevelt scored 28-straight points to secure the victory.

 

 

Kenneth Gipson

The Triton Central graduate started on the offensive line for Rose-Hulman Saturday in a 49-17 loss to Albion in Terre Haute, Ind.

The Engineers are 0-3 this season.

 

 

Julia Sanders

The Triton Central graduate had one assist, one service ace and seven digs Tuesday for Indiana University Kokomo in a 25-12, 25-17, 25-16 victory over IU South Bend that pushed the Cougars’ record to 11-3 this season.

IU Kokomo collected two wins Saturday over IU East (25-22, 21-25, 25-12, 25-18) and Trinity International University (25-19, 25-27, 25-19, 25-17.

Sanders had three assists and 11 digs against IU East and four assists and 11 digs in the win over Trinity International.

 

 

Maggie Schweitzer

The Triton Central graduate recorded eight assists and seven digs Saturday in Hanover College’s 25-18, 25-18, 25-22 loss to Berea College (Ky.) in the final match of the Hanover Invitational.

The Panthers opened the event Friday with a 19-25, 25-11, 26-24, 22-25, 15-11 win over Adrian College. Schweitzer had two kills, 15 assists and nine digs.

On Saturday, Hanover defeated Westminster College (Mo.), 25-16, 25-16, 19-25, 25-13. Schweitzer led the Panthers with 19 assists, one kill, one ace and four digs.

On Sept. 14, Hanover swept Spalding University, 25-14, 25-18, 25-23. Schweitzer had one kill, 12 assists and four digs.

Hanover is 5-7 this season.

 

 

Brooklyn Schiffli

The Triton Central graduate had three assists and nine digs Saturday in Jacksonville State’s 25-19, 25-20, 19-25, 23-25, 15-11 loss to unbeaten Auburn (11-0) in the conclusion of the JSU Invitational.

The Gamecocks defeated Jackson State (25-15, 25-10, 25-21) and Southern Miss (25-17, 23-25, 25-19, 25-18) Friday. Schweitzer had five digs in the win over Jackson State and one assist and 11 digs against Southern Miss.

On Sept. 13, Jacksonville State defeated Alabama State, 25-15, 25-10, 25-13. Schweitzer finished with one ace and five digs.

Jacksonville State wrapped up its non-conference schedule with a 12-1 record.

Loper Elementary claims both city cross country titles

Hendricks Elementary School produced both individual champions Monday at the Shelbyville Elementary Cross Country Championship Meet at Blue River Memorial Park, but Loper captured the team titles with five runners in the top 10 of each race.

Hendricks Elementary’s Griffin Hassebroek won the boys race in eight minutes, 52 seconds at the Blue River Cross Country Venue in Shelbyville.

St. Joseph’s Harrison Fischer (9:05) was runner-up ahead of three Loper athletes – Carson Claxton (9:08), Parker Keith (9:12) and Dylan Barnes (9:19).

Loper also got top-10 performances from Skylar Sale (8th in 10:16) and Russell Cherry (9th in 10:19).

Rounding out the top 10 were St. Joseph’s Beckham Lee (6th in 9:20), Hendricks’ Drew Muckerheide (7th in 9:30) and St. Joseph’s Gabriel Telez (10th in 10:23).

Coulston Elementary’s top finisher was Jose Cazares Vega (11th in 10:32).

Loper (photo below) won the team title with 22 points. Hendricks was second at 36. Coulston finished third (72) while St. Joseph did not field enough runners for a team score.

 

 

In the girls race, Hendricks’ Aria Buis crossed the finish line first in 10:07. She was followed by Loper’s Stella Cunningham (10:28) and Macy Shultz (10:39).

St. Joseph’s Maggie Kolkmeier finished fourth in 11:06 while Hendricks’ Vivian McIntire was fifth in 11:13.

Loper’s Mila Eads (11:22) and Jenna Carroll (11:36) placed sixth and seventh, respectively.

Coulston’s Adalyn Vanderpohl was eighth (11:51); St. Joseph’s Sophia Meriweather followed in ninth (12:27); and Loper’s Autumn Gooding placed 10th in 12:36.

Loper (photo below) was crowned champions with 24 points. Hendricks was runner-up at 37. Coulston was third with 65 points. St. Joseph did not field a complete team.

 

Triton Central climbs three positions in latest football coaches association poll

With a second consecutive strong performance, Triton Central has climbed three spots in this week’s Indiana Football Coaches Association Class 2A poll.

The Tigers, now 4-1 after a 49-14 win over 3A, No. 15 Indian Creek (3-2), are sixth in the poll after landing at No. 9 last week.

Linton-Stockton (5-0) remains unbeaten and atop the 2A poll with Indianapolis Scecina (5-0) rising to No. 2 this week over Andrean (3-2).

LaVille (5-0) is No. 4 ahead of Evansville Mater Dei (3-2), Triton Central, Lewis Cass (5-0), Fort Wayne Luers (3-2), Lafayette Central Catholic (3-2) and Eastbrook (3-2).

Triton Central and Scecina will meet in week seven on Sept. 30.

 

 

The top four teams in the Class A poll are still unbeaten.

Lutheran (5-0) is No. 1 again this week with Adams Central (5-0), North Judson (5-0), North Decatur (5-0), South Adams (4-1), Park Tudor (4-1), Carroll (Flora) (5-0), South Putnam (4-1), Triton (4-1) and Tri (4-1) rounding out the top 10.

Edinburgh (4-1) is No. 12 in this week’s poll.

West Lafayette (5-0) maintained the top spot in the Class 3A poll. Chatard (3-2) is No. 2 ahead of Gibson Southern (5-0), Tri-West (4-1), Norwell (5-0), Hanover Central (5-0), Western Boone (4-1), Lawrenceburg (4-1), Guerin Catholic (3-2) and Owen Valley (5-0).

Seven of the top 10 teams in Class 4A are undefeated.

New Palestine (5-0) leads Roncalli (5-0), Mooresville (5-0), Kokomo (5-0), East Central (4-1), Northwood (5-0), New Prairie (5-0), Brebeuf (3-1), Evansville Reitz (5-0) and Greenfield-Central (4-1).

Whiteland (5-0) and Mishawaka (5-0) lead the Class 5A poll, respectively. Merrillville (4-1), Fort Wayne Snider (4-1), Valparaiso (4-1), Castle (4-1), Bloomington South (4-1), Harrison (West Lafayette) (4-1), Fort Wayne Dwenger (3-2) and Fort Wayne North (3-2) are in pursuit.

Brownsburg (5-0) continues to hold the top spot in Class 6A, ahead of Center Grove (4-1), Cathedral (3-1), Hamilton Southeastern (5-0), Ben Davis (3-2), Carmel (3-2), Carroll (Allen) (5-0), Fishers (3-2), Westfield (3-2) and Lawrence Central (3-2).

Steve Bush photo

Prep Report: Morristown, TC close out girls golf season

The golf programs at Morristown and Triton Central closed out the 2022 season Monday at the New Palestine Sectional.

The top three teams and the top three individuals not on an advancing team qualified for the Lapel Regional Saturday at Edgewood Golf Course.

New Palestine was the sectional champion at Hawk’s Tail Golf Course with a 354 team score. Mt. Vernon (399) and Rushville (406) also qualified for the regional.

Shenandoah (420) was fourth ahead of Greenfield-Central (434), Triton Central (541) and Morristown (549).

Greenfield-Central’s Sydnie Wherry was the sectional champion with an 81. She qualified for the regional along with Shenandoah’s Carly Chandler (86) and Madelyn Shelton (104).

Morristown’s quartet of golfers finished within five strokes of each other. Competing were Clara Hale (135), Mollie Runnebohm (136), Ashley Ballinger (138) and Oakleigh Goedde (140).

Triton Central was led by Lindsay Huxford’s 131. Olivia Williams followed at 133. Hanna Fink shot 136 and Jaylee Davis carded 141.

In other prep events Monday:

Boys Soccer

Southwestern 7, Trinity Lutheran 1

At Southwestern, the host Spartans, ranked No. 17 in this week’s state coaches poll, scored five first-half goals to cruise past the Cougars (3-8-2).

Southwestern improved to 8-1-2.

Boys Tennis

Triton Central 5, Hauser 0

At Hauser, the visiting Tigers improved to 11-3 this season with strong performances in all five matches.

At No. 1 singles, Tucker Hutchinson defeated Caleb Wallace, 6-1, 6-1.

Avram Rund won at No. 2 singles, 6-4, 6-3 over Jackson Burcham.

Cole Thomas bested Hagan Widersatz at No. 3 singles, 6-0, 6-2.

At No. 1 doubles, Griffin Sego and Ben Toth defeated Levi Gollmer and Hunter Pappano, 6-2, 6-1.

And Oliver Gearlds and Joey Brosnan dominated Jentzen Bechtel and Cameron Blair, 6-1, 6-1.

TC got junior varsity wins from Connor Evans, Bryce Toth, Wyatt Fisher and the doubles pairing of Aidan Morris and Nick Tormoehlen.

 

 

Waldron 5, Oldenburg Academy 0

At Waldron on Senior Night, the Mohawks’ lone senior, Josh Kellems, teamed with Lucas Shaw to produce a 6-1, 6-0 win over Jack Freeland and Zach Phillips at No. 1 doubles.

Jack Fischer replaced Shaw at No. 1 singles and won a 7-5, 6-1 match against Clay Eckstein.

Jacob Lindsey won at No. 2 singles, 6-0, 6-1 over Will Hollingsworth.

Caiden Young blanked Jonah Short, 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles.

And at No. 2 doubles, Connor Hinchman and Matthew Thomas defeated Carson Phillips and Carson Ruter, 6-0, 6-1.

Waldron improved to 7-6.

 

 

Shelbyville 5, Rushville 0

At Shelbyville on Senior Night, the Golden Bears improved to 11-9 with straight-set wins in all five matches.

Aidan Asher, Caden Tackett and Logan Prickett lost a total of 11 games in sweeping the singles matches.

Aiden Smith and Caden Claxton were victorious 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 doubles.

Karson Schaf and Reece Prickett collected their 14th win of the season, 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles.

Volleyball

Southwestern def. Knightstown, 25-16, 25-27, 23-25, 25-22, 15-11

At Knightstown, the visiting Spartans rallied to win the final two games to improve to 8-12 this season.

Jayla Kopp and Josie Koehler each had five kills to lead Knightstown (6-12).

Waldron football wins rematch with Rock Creek Academy

WALDRON -- Cayden Balzen only gets one shot at a high school football career. A severely sprained ankle is not about to slow him down.

Balzen sprained his right ankle again early in the first half Saturday during Waldron’s 8-man football game against Rock Creek Academy. That same injury forced him to miss Waldron’s season opener two weeks earlier against the same Lions in Jeffersonville.

The Waldron senior got the ankle taped up and went back to work in the rematch Saturday night in front of a raucous Mohawks crowd.

Balzen scored three second-half touchdowns to deliver Waldron a 48-40 victory that improved its record to 2-1 this season.

“It’s hurting a bit but we taped it up enough that its stiff,” said Balzen after celebrating Waldron’s second win in five days – both at home. “It also happened Tuesday. There is so much tape right now. We worked through it.”

Balzen and junior starting quarterback Walker Dodson did not play in the program’s inaugural loss, 36-16 at Rock Creek. On Tuesday, the Mohawks defeated Irvington Prep, 36-26, in Waldron for its first victory.

Balzen had 97 rushing yards on five carries and a touchdown. Dodson rushed for 70 more yards and two touchdowns.

“The two kids, we were missing them first time against Rock Creek,” said Waldron coach Corey Barton. “Those two are the best athletes, a junior and a senior that are strong and fast. They are tough kids and we rally around those two.”

The five-day turnaround for a game is difficult for an 8-man team that only has 20 players on its entire roster.

Rock Creek Academy’s Malachi Starks took the opening kickoff Saturday 69 yards for the game’s first touchdown. Quarterback Zach Clark connected with Ryan Ingram for the 2-point conversion.

 

 

Waldron needed just two plays to answer back. Following a Balzen 13-yard scamper, Hunter Dodson, who played quarterback in the season opener, fumbled and recovered to run 52 yards for a touchdown. Balzen completed the drive with a 2-point conversion run and the game was tied again before one minute ran off the scoreboard clock.

After forcing the Lions to punt on their first offensive series, Walker Dodson got loose and ran 45 yards for a touchdown. Hunter Dodson ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 16-8.

 

 

Following a Waldron turnover on its next possession, Clark (photo, left) hit Ingram for a 49-yard scoring strike and Dylan Parente rumbled into the end zone for the 2-point conversion to tie the game again with just over three minutes left in the opening quarter.

The Lions (1-2) would not trail again until midway through the fourth quarter.

Clark put Rock Creek ahead again with a 38-yard TD pass to Zion Barnes.

Balzen collected his first touchdown of the night late in the second quarter with a 28-yard run.

The Lions scored before the half ended when Parente, now playing quarterback after Clark was injured, hit Barnes for a 22-yard TD reception. The 2-point conversion failed and the Lions led 28-22 at halftime.

 

 

Both teams scored touchdowns in the third quarter and failed converting the 2-point attempts. Balzen sprinted 23 yards for his second TD with 9:13 left in the third quarter. Starks broke free for a 53-yard run just 20 seconds later and Rock Creek led 34-28 going into the fourth quarter.

Without Clark, Rock Creek’s passing game was limited and the Mohawks took advantage with four second-half interceptions – two each from Walker Dodson and Hunter Dodson.

Waldron tied the game again early in the fourth quarter when Walker Dodson hit Balzen for a 22-yard TD. The conversion failed again and it was 34-34 with 9:05 left.

A Rock Creek turnover put the Mohawks back in business at the 23-yard line. Four plays later, Walker Dodson put the ball in the end zone and Balzen raced into the end zone for the 2-point conversion and the Mohawks’ first lead, 42-34, since midway through the first quarter.

An interception stopped the Lions’ next drive and the Mohawks needed one first down to run out the clock.

Back-to-back runs by Balzen netted seven yards but consecutive false start penalties pushed Waldron into a third-and-13 situation from its own 37-yard line.

Barton called Balzen’s number one more time and the senior delivered. Walker Dodson took the snap and rolled to his left. Balzen slipped the line of scrimmage and moved into the flat where Dodson lofted him a pass. He turned toward the end zone and raced untouched for a 63-yard touchdown that made it 48-34.

“All I had to do was catch it and go – icing on the cake,” said Balzen.

 

For more on the first meeting between Waldron and Rock Creek Academy, go to https://shelbycountypost.com/sports/650994

 

“We ran it last drive and I saw a weakness on their defense,” explained Barton. “I called another pass to that weak side but they were catching on to the formation we were in and packing the line of scrimmage. I knew with a little bit of a hesitation, a little fake and go deep. (Dodson) got it through and complete to where we wanted it. I knew it would work.”

Rock Creek answered right back with Barnes collecting his third TD reception, this one a 57-yard catch and run that gave the Lions hope.

Waldron prepared for the onside kick with 31 seconds left but Parente could not keep it in bounds. Walker Dodson took a knee and the Mohawks celebrated a hard-fought victory.

“This is a dream,” said Balzen. “It’s what you picture high school being like … it’s like in the movies almost. I can’t even explain it. I am so excited.”

Walker Dodson finished with 111 yards rushing Saturday. Hunter Dodson added 76 more and Balzen ended with 70.

Balzen had four catches for 116 yards.

The Mohawks travel to Fort Wayne Saturday night to face Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian.

Shelbyville girls soccer notches another shutout victory

Shelbyville set the tone with early pressure, scored the first goal and add two more in the first half to spark the program’s sixth-consecutive victory Saturday morning, 3-0, over visiting Whiteland.

The Golden Bears improved to 8-1 overall and completed their fifth-straight shutout win.

“We are playing pretty solid across the board,” said first-year Shelbyville coach Garrett Belden. “The offense is scoring. The defense is playing great defense. When they play together well, this is the result.”

The Warriors (7-3) arrived in Shelbyville riding a 7-match win streak but were stifled by Shelbyville’s early aggressive runs to the goal.

Evelyn Kiefer set up Shelbyville’s first goal with a through pass that met Ava Wilson in stride. The junior avoided a Whiteland defender then beat goalkeeper McKinley Garrett for the game’s first goal less than 13 minutes into the contest.

“That was huge. That took a lot of pressure off,” admitted Belden.

Shelbyville put 15 shots on goal in the first half and that paid off with two more goals before halftime.

Cyanne St. Bernard found room for a shot and pushed it low past Garrett in the box. The ball rolled to the far post, hit it and rebounded out to Hailey Pogue, who finished it for her second goal in as many games.

Pogue, a senior who was a key part of Shelbyville’s semistate softball run in June, has shared goalkeeping duties with Macy Cooley this season but is now adding more athleticism to Shelbyville’s front-line attack.

“We put her in last game and we saw what she could do,” said Belden. “And today she had a goal and an assist. It gives our top line another body to let us breathe.”

Pogue broke free for a long run in the first half’s final seconds. She crossed the ball to Wilson in front of the net who beat Garrett for a second time and a momentum-building 3-0 lead.

Whiteland started the second half strong challenging Cooley in goal but with juniors Lilly Marshall and Ellie Simpson in front of her, the Warriors never found the back of the net.

Shelbyville finished 9-5-2 in 2021 and returned plenty of experience for a new coach.

“Coming in, I knew these girls wanted to win. I knew they wanted to play well,” said Belden. “They’ve connected on what we’ve worked on in practice and done it out in the games.”

Shelbyville’s only loss came on Aug. 30 at Mt. Vernon, 3-0. Since then, the Golden Bears are 6-0 and have outscored their opposition, 28-3.

The program now prepares for a busy week traveling to Greenwood Christian Tuesday before hosting Greenfield-Central Thursday and traveling to Rushville Saturday.

“We are doing a lot well,” said Belden. “We need to maintain possession a little bit more. There are times where we get rid of the ball a little too early. If we can keep that and continue to find our chances, I think we will find more success.”

Southwestern's Correll qualifies for Franklin Golf Regional

McKinley Correll extended her golf season an extra week with a strong performance Saturday at the Greensburg Sectional.

Playing at Greensburg Country Club, Correll shot 50 on the front nine and came home in 46 to card 96  to secure the second advancing position from the sectional.

The top three teams and the top three individuals not on an advancing team qualified for the Franklin Regional on Sept. 24 at The Legends Golf Course in Franklin.

Batesville captured the sectional title with a 294. Franklin County (359) and East Central (411) also qualified from the 9-team field.

Greensburg (428) finished fourth ahead of Milan (459), Shelbyville (466), Southwestern (468), South Ripley (504) and Jac-Cen-Del (Inc.).

Batesville’s Emma Weiler was crowned sectional champion after posting a 1-over par score of 71. Weiler’s teammates, Josie Meyer and Ava South each shot 72.

Advancing from the sectional competition as individuals were Greensburg’s Sarah Stapp (93), Correll (photo with SW head coach Gary Muldoon at Shelby County Tournament), and North Decatur’s Addie Gauck (97).

Golfers from Morristown and Triton Central will compete in the New Palestine Sectional Monday at Hawk’s Tail Golf Course in Greenfield. Those advancing from the New Palestine Sectional travel to Edgewood Golf Course on Sept. 24 for the Lapel Regional.

Prep Report: Waldron wins all five flights at MHC Tennis Tournament

Waldron won all five flights of the Mid-Hoosier Conference Tennis Tournament Saturday on its home courts.

At No. 1 singles, Waldron’s Lucas Shaw improved to 9-5 this season with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Morristown’s Tyler Schonfeld in the semifinal match and a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Edinburgh’s Max Blandford in the championship.

Jack Fischer followed suit at No. 2 singles for Waldron. Fischer defeated Morristown’s Jameson Palmer in the semifinals, 6-1, 6-0. In the championship, he defeated Edinburgh’s Austin Brockman, 6-2, 6-1 to push his record to 9-5.

Caiden Young was the No. 3 singles champion with wins over Southwestern’s James Oliver (6-0, 6-1) and Edinburgh’s Miles Burkman (6-1, 6-3).

Jacob Lindsey and Josh Kellems improved to 7-3 this season with wins over Morristown’s Michael Ballinger and Dalton McMichael, 6-1, 6-4, and the Hauser pairing of Gollmer and Pappano, 7-6 (4), 6-2.

Connor Hinchman and Matthew Thomas finished off the Mohawks’ celebration with straight-set wins over Morristown and Hauser at No. 2 doubles.

In other prep events Saturday:

Cross Country

FlashRock Invitational

At Northview Church in Carmel, Shelbyville finished 19th in the boys team standings.

 

Steve Bush photo

 

Beau Kenkel (photo, center) led Shelbyville with a 67th-place finish in 18:55. He was followed across the finish line by Logan Reinhart (85th, 19:29), Ben Hinojosa (116th, 20:36), Gavin Harker (139th, 21:36), Christian Powell (161st, 22:52), Gaige Harker (168th, 23:55), Leland Fox (171st, 24:29), Isaac Zermeno (172nd, 24:29), Ayden Holmes (177th, 25:21) and Iran Daza (183rd, 26:48).

Shelbyville did not field a complete girls team due to illness. Four Golden Bears did compete, though.

Hannah Wright crossed the finish line in 22:45 for a 28th-place finish.

 

Steve Bush photo

 

Also running were Aerin Garcia-Santiago (84th, 26:21) (photo), Cora Flynn (105th, 31:18) and Ava Ruschhaupt (107th, 36:16).

Shelbyville hosts the Golden Bear Invitational Saturday at Blue River Memorial Park.

Mid-Hoosier Conference Meet

At Blue River Memorial Park in Shelbyville, Hauser captured the boys team title while North Decatur was crowned champions after the girls race.

Waldron’s Will Larrison won the boys race in 18:19. Fellow sophomores Jared Crosby (4th, 18:43) and Nathaniel Evans (11th, 20:13) also finished in the top 12.

Kyle Lacy (24th, 21:48) and Ethan Richardson (29th, 22:32) completed Waldron’s scoring.

Southwestern had four runners in the top 10 – Dane Kissell (5th, 19:24), Dakota Claiborne (6th, 19:43), Jackson Bentz (7th, 19:49) and Chris Claiborne (10th, 20:08). Ryan Wildman finished 35th in 25:43.

Morristown had two competitors – Max Compton (17th, 21:08) and Drake Hibst (18th, 21:15).

Morristown, Southwestern and Waldron totaled just five competitors in the girls race.

Waldron’s Sophie Hudnall placed third in 24:55. Her teammate, Riley Price, finished sixth in 25:09.

Morristown’s Grace McLaughlin was fifth in 25:09.

Southwestern’s Malori Pike (27:02) and Maxine Higdon (27:32) placed 11th and 13th, respectively.

Indiana Crossroads Conference Meet

Triton Central sent four runners to Cascade for the ICC Meet.

Liam Thompson finished 35th in the boys race in 21:12. Fellow Tigers Hank Hadler placed 49th in 22:46 and Nick Straber placed 59th in 24:25.

TC senior Hallie Schweitzer finished fifth overall in the girls race in 22:33.

Boys Soccer

Morristown 1, Union County 0

At Union County, the visiting Yellow Jackets snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 7-4-2.

Union County fell to 2-6-3 this season.

Girls Soccer

Heritage Christian 9, Triton Central 0

At Heritage Christian, the Class A, No. 3-ranked Eagles improved to 6-5 with the shutout victory,

Abby Foulk scored five goals to lead Heritage Christian while Kya Crooke had the hat trick and Eimy Lozano-Fuentes had a goal.

Triton Central dropped to 4-7.

Boys Tennis

Whiteland Invitational

Shelbyville 3, Jennings County 2

Shelbyville got a No. 3 singles victory from Logan Prickett and swept the doubles matches.

At No. 1 doubles, Aiden Smith and Caden Claxton needed three sets to prevail 4-6, 6-4, 10-4.

Whiteland 5, Shelbyville 0

The host Warriors dropped a total 10 games in sweeping all five matches.

Batesville 3, Shelbyville 2

The Golden Bears got victories from Aidan Asher at No. 1 singles (6-3, 7-5) and Prickett at No. 3 singles (1-6, 6-3, 10-7).

 

 

Volleyball

Yorktown def. Shelbyville, 25-6, 25-10, 25-10

At Shelbyville, the high-powered Tigers improved to 18-2 this season and 5-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference standings.

Charlotte Vinson led Yorktown with 15 kills.

Shelbyville dropped to 4-14 this season and 0-3 in the HHC standings.

Yorktown won the junior varsity match, 25-6, 25-6.

Shelbyville hosts Triton Central (14-3) Monday at Garrett Gymnasium.

Lawrenceburg Invitational

Lawrenceburg def. Southwestern, 25-14, 25-6

Lizzie Redar and Trinity Taylor combined for 14 kills and Natalie Knigga collected 17 assists and 12 digs to lead Lawrenceburg (14-3) past the Spartans.

Beechwood def. Southwestern, 25-22, 25-19

The Fort Mitchell, Kentucky squad swept Southwestern in two sets to improve to 8-10.

Hauser def. Southwestern, 27-25, 25-18

Southwestern closed out the event with a straight-set loss to the Jets.

The Spartans are 7-12 this season and travel to Knightstown (6-10) Monday.

Prep Report: Southwestern secures MHC soccer title with shutout victory over Hauser

Owen Stringer’s goal in the first eight minutes Friday was enough for Class A, No. 19 Southwestern to claim the Mid-Hoosier Conference championship.

The Spartans added four more goals for an emphatic 5-0 victory at home over Hauser (0-7-1, 0-3 MHC).

Southwestern’s first goal was backed by a pair of goals from Garreth Stringer and second-half scores from Carter Cooley and Eli Fix.

Fix also had a pair of assists and Ben Khaler was credited with an assist on Fix’s goal.

Matthew Clements and Garett Shaw combined for the shutout in goal for the Spartans (7-1-2, 4-0 MHC).

The win comes off a scoreless tie Thursday against Indianapolis Lutheran (3-7-2).

Clements was credited with 10 saves in the draw.

In other prep events Thursday:

Girls Golf

Greenfield-Central 208, Shelbyville 217

At Blue Bear Golf Course, Madison Monroe (48) and Emmie Higgins (50) posted season-best rounds in the host Golden Bears final match of the regular season.

Also playing for Shelbyville were Kate Linville (55), Livanet Rosales (64) and Ella Connolly (68).

Greenfield-Central’s Sydnie Wherry was the medalist with a 35.

Shelbyville competes in the Greensburg Sectional Saturday at the Greensburg Country Club.

Edinburgh 202, Southwestern 248, North Decatur 256

At Timbergate Golf Course in Edinburgh, the host Lancers had three golfers shoot 53 or better to defeat their MHC rivals.

McKinley Correll (51) led Southwestern in its final regular-season match.

Also on the Spartans’ scorecard were Sydney Griffin (60), Emma Isgrigg (67), Aurora Belton (70) and Hannah Hicks (70).

Edinburgh’s Izzy Richardson was the medalist with a 42.

Southwestern travels Saturday to the Greensburg Country Club to complete in the Greensburg Sectional.

Boys Soccer

Shelbyville 4, New Castle 0

At New Castle, Al Hernandez scored a pair of goals and Osvaldo Reyes and Drew Hassebroek found the back of the net to improve the Golden Bears to 7-4-1 this season and 2-2 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference standings.

Girls Soccer

Shelbyville 9, Greensburg 0

At Shelbyville, Evelyn Kiefer and Ava Wilson each scored twice to lead the Golden Bears (7-1) to their fifth-straight victory and fourth-straight shutout.

Shelbyville scored six goals in the first half to take control against the Pirates (4-4).

Hannah Baker, Ava Mummert, Ella Johnson, Emma Sandman and Cyanne St. Bernard also scored goals.

Assists were credited to Baker, Mummert (2), Wilson, Johnson, Sandman, Kiefer and Hailey Pogue.

Macy Cooley had three saves in goal to preserve the shutout.

Triton Central 3, Warren Central 0

At Triton Central, Lizzie Graham scored twice and Bella Ball found the back of the net to break the Tigers’ five-match losing streak.

Graham had an assist as did Emma Firebaugh and Lucy Spall.

Cheyenne Allen got the shutout victory in goal.

Boys Tennis

Indian Creek 3, Shelbyville 2

At Shelbyville, the Golden Bears came up one match win short of defeating the unbeaten Braves (15-0).

At No. 1 singles, Shelbyville’s Aiden Asher defeated Peyton Strunk, 6-1, 6-0.

Logan Prickett added a No. 3 singles win over Grant Dalton, 6-3, 6-4.

The Braves swept the doubles matches and got a three-set win from Brendan Conner at No. 2 singles over Caden Tackett, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

At No. 1 doubles, Aiden Pemberton and Landon Sichting topped Shelbyville’s Aiden Smith and Caden Claxton, 6-2, 7-6 (5).

And Aaron Spurgeon and Trent Volz bested Karson Schaf and Reece Prickett at No. 2 doubles, 6-0, 6-4.

Shelbyville is 9-7 this season.

New Palestine 3, Triton Central 2

At New Palestine, the visiting Tigers got wins from Cole Thomas at No. 3 singles and the No. 2 doubles pairing of Oliver Gearlds and Joey Brosnan.

Thomas improved to 10-3 this season with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Brady Torzewski.

Brosnan and Gearlds defeated Andrew Hahn and William Hahn, 7-5, 6-0.

The Dragons swept the other three matches.

Triton Central is 10-3.

Eastern Hancock 5, Morristown 0

At Morristown, the visiting Royals dropped just one game in sweeping the Yellow Jackets (4-8).

At No. 2 singles, Eastern Hancock’s Luke Fletcher defeated Morristown’s Jameson Palmer, 6-0, 6-1.

Volleyball

Greenfield-Central def. Shelbyville, 25-22, 23-25, 25-19, 25-17

At Shelbyville, Mya Grigsby had 20 kills to lead the visiting Cougars (6-9, 1-4 HHC) to the conference victory.

Shelby Lasure led Shelbyville (4-13, 0-2 HHC) with 17 kills and three service aces. Karlie Lawson had team-highs in digs (12) and assists (28).

Eastern Hancock def. Southwestern, 18-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-22, 15-9

At Southwestern, the visiting Royals won the last two sets to improve to 11-9 this season.

The Spartans dropped to 7-9.

The Royals won the junior varsity match, 25-15, 20-25, 15-5.

Triton Central def. Rushville, 25-7, 25-18, 25-11

At Triton Central, Kaitlin Bramlett led the host Tigers (14-3) with six kills.

Hallie Schweitzer and Mckenzie Jett each had three aces and combined for 23 digs. Brooklyn Bailey finished with four total blocks. Kate Isley collected 19 assists.

Class 2A, No. 9 Triton Central stifles Indian Creek for Homecoming victory

FAIRLAND – Class 2A, No. 9 Triton Central put forth its most complete effort of the season Friday and throttled Indian Creek, 49-14, at Mendenhall Field.

“You can see the last two weeks we are really starting to hit our stride,” said Triton Central head coach Tim Able. “We are not where we need to be yet, but it’s good to see things are starting to mix.”

The Tigers scored touchdowns on their first six offensive series of the game and intercepted Indian Creek quarterback Arj Lothe four times to improve to 4-1 in their final non-conference game of the season.

Triton Central struck offensive balance with running back Ray Crawford rushing for 101 yards and collecting two interceptions on defense.

Quarterback Jace Stuckey saw little pressure from the Indian Creek defense and completed 13-of-15 pass attempts for 260 yards and two touchdowns. The junior ran for another touchdown and did not play the fourth quarter.

“That’s a credit to our (offensive) line,” said Stuckey. “We know they (the offensive line) can do it but being able to grow and get that chemistry together and getting it done was nice.”

Lothe’s quick release kept the TC defensive line from getting to him but the lefty never found a rhythm, completing just 15 of 31 attempts for 182 yards and four interceptions.

 

 

Mason Compton (photo) started the pick parade on the second play of the game when he intercepted Lothe near the Triton Central sideline.

Triton Central went on a 90-yard drive that featured Crawford running the ball seven times and catching a short pass. A 35-yard catch and run early in the drive by Brad Schultz helped the Tigers get into the red zone and Brayden Wilkins finished it off with a 6-yard scoring run. Brogan Winslow added the extra point to make it 7-0.

Lothe and the Braves (3-2) responded with an 80-yard drive that ended with a 34-yard scoring strike to Lance Butler.

Compton had a pair of catches on TC’s next drive and Stuckey stuck his nose in the end zone early in the second quarter to make it 14-7. Levi Dewey added the extra point kick.

The defense forced the first punt of the game and Stuckey came back on the field. After an 8-yard Crawford run, the two did not pull off a clean exchange on second down and Stuckey was forced to scramble. Thirty yards later the Tigers had first-and-goal.

 

 

Consecutive 5-yard runs by Crawford (photo) extended the lead to 21-7.

Crawford got his first interception on the sixth play of Indian Creek’s next drive and TC needed three plays to score again. Compton ran open down the middle of the field and Stuckey hit him perfectly for a 35-yard scoring strike and a 28-7 lead.

 

 

Dewey snatched the third interception of the half and returned it 64 yards for a touchdown. Then he added the extra point kick (photo) in the unique scenario for a cornerback/kicker.

Indian Creek punted on its next series and Triton Central went for its sixth touchdown to secure a running clock in the second half. Stuckey hit Schultz with a screen pass that turned into a 33-yard scoring reception.

Crawford’s second interception came in the end zone and he returned it to midfield before stepping out of bounds just before the clock ran out.

The Tigers led 42-7 at halftime after a stellar defensive performance.

“That’s coach K (Tim Kegley) putting them in the right spots,” said Stuckey. “Our defensive backs are really, really skilled. There are athletes all over the field. Coach Kegley studied well and put them in the right places to make plays.”

Crawford’s 34-yard run opened the second half and he finished off the four-play drive with a 7-yard scoring run.

Indian Creek put together an 11-play, 78-yard scoring drive in response. Malachi Mink burst into the end zone from two yards out to set the final score.

Winslow collected Triton Central’s fifth interception of the game midway through the fourth quarter when he intercepted a Jackson Wise pass attempt along the sideline.

Both of Triton Central’s kickers had interceptions in the Homecoming victory.

“We did a good job of playing over the top of the deep route,” said Able. “When you are in the trail position then you have to play the man. Even the touchdown they got, we were right there.”

Triton Central returns to the Indiana Crossroads Conference grind next Friday against Indianapolis Ritter on the campus of Marian University. The Raiders are 1-3 (0-3 ICC) after a 44-8 victory Friday over Indianapolis Shortridge (2-3).

 

Triton Central 49, Indian Creek 14

SCORE BY QUARTERS

IC (3-2)   7    0  7  0  --  14

TC (4-1)  7  35  7  0  --  49

First Quarter:

TC – Wilkins, 6 run (Winslow kick), 4:20

IC – Butler, 34 pass Lothe (Jackson kick), 1:37

Second Quarter:

TC – Stuckey, 1 run (Dewey kick), 10:45

TC – Crawford, 5 run (Dewey kick), 7:23

TC – Compton, 35 pass Stuckey (Dewey kick), 4:42

TC – Dewey, 64 interception return (Dewey kick), 2:52

TC – Schultz, 33 pass Stuckey (Dewey kick), 1:09

Third Quarter:

TC – Crawford, 7 run (Winslow kick), 8:50

IC – Mink, 2 run (Jackson kick), 2:31

Individual stats:

Rushing: Sauer 6-50, Mink 9-27, Lothe 2-15 (IC); Crawford 15-101, Stuckey 3-30, Kemper 3-22, Copeland 5-14, Schultz 1-1, Perkon 1-7, Brown 1-5, Collier 1-(-1) (TC).

Passing: Lothe 15-31-182, Wise 0-1-0 (IC); Stuckey 13-15-260, Collier 2-2-17 (TC).

Receiving: Coroa 5-43, Pappas 3-47, Mink 4-22, Ramey 1-20, Butler 1-34, Sauer 1-16 (IC); Schultz 4-109, Compton 4-71, Chandler 2-45, Kemper 1-23, Brown 1-13, Crawford 1-11, Gurganus 1-4, Wilkins 1-1 (TC).

Steve Bush photos

Shelbyville's Lux, Triton Central's Kleeman proving defensive leaders come in all sizes

Physical size is not a requirement for leadership responsibilities.

Shelbyville football head coach Brian Glesing and Triton Central football head coach Tim Able are relying on undersized linebackers to lead their respective defenses in 2022.

Cael Lux, listed as five-foot, six inches and 134 pounds, was converted from safety to linebacker this season at Shelbyville to take advantage of his tackling skills.

Lucas Kleeman, 5-7, 175 pounds, has been groomed to be the Tigers’ defensive leader since he showed up at the high school level as a freshman.

Both lead by example at practices and on Friday nights where Lux is leading the Golden Bears in total tackles while Kleeman is third for a Tigers squad ranked No. 9 in Class 2A.

“It’s been pretty smooth honestly,” said Lux of the transition from defensive back to linebacker.

He closed out his junior season with 35 total tackles in seven games. Through the first four weeks this season, he already has 60 tackles (40 solo/20 assists) and an interception.

Lux first learned of the position switch in the spring from Glesing.

“My first thought was I have to play with some big boys now,” said Lux. “I can’t come up and fly and make tackles anymore. I have to shed a lot more blocks usually.”

Able saw Kleeman’s defensive capabilities early on in his career.

“He loves to play football,” said Able. “When he was a freshman, we knew he was going to be a hitter. He has never backed away from that.”

 

 

Kleeman (photo) delivered an authoritative “stick” Friday in Monrovia, completely shutting down a fourth-and-short attempt that resulted in Triton Central taking over on downs. The running back saw the hole open between two linemen but never saw Kleeman, who arrived and made a statement.

“It’s hard but sometimes I think it plays to an advantage a little because I can weave in and out,” said Kleeman of being a smaller linebacker. “As long as I can get their hands off me, I can use my speed and quickness and my IQ. It’s hard but I like the challenge.”

After each Friday night game this season, Kleeman has addressed the team to set the tone for the next challenge that lies ahead.

“I’ve had some great leaders in the past with Luke Hornung and Hayden Kermode showing me how I should lead the team,” said Kleeman. “I am passing their knowledge on. I’m just trying to lead the next people on the team so we can have more leaders to come.”

Lux admits being vocal is not his strong suit but he recognizes it’s a growing part of his leadership duties.

“Usually I am not a big talker but this year I kind of have to be,” he said. “I know more than anyone else on the field. I have more experience. I have to be more vocal this year.”

On Friday in Shelbyville’s 22-20 victory over New Castle, Lux had 10 total tackles and his first interception of the season. He is making an impact on the Golden Bears’ defense that Glesing admits will be hard to replace when he graduates.

“He is making 10-12 tackles a game,” said Glesing. “That will be a big hole to fill in the future. Who is going to make those tackles?

“And offensively, he is running the ball. He doesn’t come off the field very much. He is a jack-of-all-trades and he is 5-6 and 135 pounds. He has a lot of guts and a lot of courage.”

Lux made his linebacker debut in week one this season against Greensburg. There were definitely nerves involved when he took the field for the first time.

“Oh yeah,” said Lux with a smile. “We played a lot of our base defense and I played a lot of middle linebacker. It’s a lot bigger kids coming at you than those wide receivers.”

 

 

Lux (photo) rewarded the coaching decision with a 22-tackle performance in Shelbyville’s 35-21 loss.

“We knew he could do it,” said Glesing. “It was what the team needed and he didn’t hesitate.”

Kleeman was Triton Central’s leading tackler as a junior.

“He is a very cerebral defender,” said Able. “He is very feisty, gritty and ultra-competitive.”

That made TC’s 54-41 loss in week three to Class A, No. 1 Lutheran disappointing.

“That is something that just kills you,” said Kleeman. “We played a great game on offense and we fought back and battled back. Knowing if we can put a little more effort into the defensive side, that could have been a different story.”

Triton Central’s defense bounced back in Monrovia Friday, allowing a long game-opening drive that ended with a field goal before stifling the Bulldogs’ offense the rest of the contest. In addition, the school system closed out a tough week that followed the death of  a student, Nick Winter, in an automobile accident.

“It was a tough week of practice,” Kleeman admitted Friday after the win in Monrovia. “We were facing a lot of adversity and a lot of distractions. Nick’s brother came in and talked to us and that really made a difference for some of us on the team. It really made us think about Nick and making decisions.

“It was tough and we fought through it. This one was for him.”

Triton Central (3-1) hosts Indian Creek (3-1) Friday at Mendenhall Field. Shelbyville (1-3) hosts Class 4A, No. 10 Greenfield-Central (3-1) at McKeand Stadium. Homecoming festivities will take place at both Shelby County schools. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in each game.

Main photo by Steve Bush

Our Louisiana Girl wins Leader of the Class Sale Futurity at Horseshoe Indianapolis

Trainer Randy Smith had a dilemma heading into the 10th running of the $188,080 Leader of the Class Sale Futurity Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville.

Six horses from his barn made the final and after assigning jockeys to horses from the local colony, he still came up short on two horses. So, a phone call to two of the sport’s top jockeys right now was made.

James Flores and Juan Pulido filled the final two spots in the race, which was offering the largest purse in the history of the event for graduations of the QHRAI Speed Sale.

Flores, winner of the 2022 All American Futurity, rode Royal Sin, the third fastest qualifier from the trials, while Pulido, winner of the 2022 All American Derby, climbed aboard Our Louisiana Girl for the first time. The latter combination proved to be a winning match as Our Louisiana Girl, the fourth fastest qualifier, scored the win and gave the Smith Stable an emotional win.

The story starts with My Louisiana Rod, multiple Indiana stakes winner of six races and a filly who never finished worse than third in 11 career starts. At the conclusion of her racing career, a decision was made to retain her into a new role for the Smith Stable.

“We thought a lot of this filly’s mother (My Louisiana Rod),” said Smith. “We bred her and lost her first baby, so this is her second baby. We sure do think a lot of this family.”

Our Louisiana Girl began her career just like her mother, winning her first two starts before stepping up into stakes action. She always raced well but just couldn’t get the elusive stakes win. That scenario changed in the Leader of the Class Sale Futurity.

Starting from post two, Pulido got a great start aboard Our Louisiana Girl and had her in contention early, but stablemate and undefeated Piloted by an Angel and Juan Marquez took over the top spot early in the 350-yard dash. Midway through the race, Piloted by an Angel was strong on the front end as Our Louisiana Girl began to close ground on the inside, snagging the wire first from Piloted by an Angel for the win by a neck in 17.614 seconds. The Dirty Wagon and German Rodriguez finished third.

The top four finishers in the race were all from the Smith barn.

 

 

“They told me this filly had speed,” said Pulido, who rode in Indiana in 2017 and was among the track’s top 10 Quarter Horse jockeys. “She was running perfect early on so I thought I would just keep doing what I was doing. I saw she was closing in and she gave me all she had for the win.”

Our Louisiana Girl paid $13 for the win. The sorrel daughter of Duponte in now three for five in her career, and just like her mother, she has yet to finish off the board. The filly bred by Gordon Timm, who owned My Louisiana Rod during her racing career, bumped her career bankroll up to more than $156,000 with the win. Debbie Smith owns Our Louisiana Girl and was the reason Pulido came to Indiana to ride.

“Debbie picked me to ride her horse,” said Pulido. “She asked Randy to call me and when the text came in, I was happy to come in. I thank them for the opportunity to come here and ride such a nice filly.”

The Leader of the Class Sale Futurity is expected to grow even more next year. With 80 yearlings catalogued in this weekend’s 12th annual QHRAI Speed Sale, the number of potential starters next year could triple, creating an exciting prospect on the stakes calendar in 2023. The sale is set for Saturday in the Receiving Barn at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The first horse through the ring is slated for noon.

Fireball Baby sizzles in $100,000 Hoosier Heartland at Horseshoe Indianapolis

Fireball Baby left Horseshoe Indianapolis last fall on a winning note in the $150,000 Lady Fog Horn. The multiple stakes winning Indiana sired mare was thought to be moving into retirement, but after consideration this winter by owners Tammy and Richard Rigney, she is back in action. And what a return it was.

Fireball Baby and Marcelino Pedroza Jr. renewed their connection with a win in the 22nd running of the $100,000 Hoosier Heartland Stakes, her first start in nearly 11 months.

Starting from post seven, Pedroza Jr. was patient out of the gate, getting away in mid pack as Anna’s Tribute and Orlando Mojica moved out for the lead on the inside tracked closely by Hungarian Princess and Sammy Bermudez on the outside of Queen Charmaine and Alex Achard on the inside.

Fireball Baby found the spot right behind Hungarian Princess in the early stages of the race and heading into the final turn, they were able to dip to the inside to save ground before Pedroza Jr. pulled Fireball Baby back out behind Hungarian Princess for the stretch drive.

In the stretch, Hungarian Princess took the lead by a small margin over Anna’s Tribute, but the filly fought back. The two were locked into a heated stretch duel and it appeared they were racing for the win. In the final strides, Fireball Baby found the gear that has brought her across the wire for so many wins before. She split between Anna’s Tribute and Hungarian Princess to score the win by a neck.

Hungarian Princess finished second over Anna’s Tribute in the four-horse photo as Pretty Assets and Manny Esquivel closed in late on the outside in the photo finish. The time of the one and one-sixteenth mile stakes race was 1:45.72.

 

 

Fireball Baby paid $6.40 for her return to the track. She has been conditioned her entire career by trainer Philip Bauer, who also handled the training duties for her sire, Noble’s Promise, before he was retired to stud duty in Indiana. Unfortunately, his time in the stallion ranks was cut short when he succumbed to sickness, making his limited crop even more special for the Rigneys.

“She’s been so special to our family and our daughter had plans to use her as a show horse,” said Tammy Rigney. “But she wants to run, so we brought her back. Our daughter will be moving up a class in dressage next year, so the timing probably won’t be right for her to become a show horse. We have plans now to breed her when she’s done racing.”

Fireball Baby proved that timeline may be pushed back again following her performance in the Hoosier Heartland. Layoffs have never been her friend in the past, but the six-year-old chestnut mare proved that wasn’t an obstacle this time.

“She has run out of her conditions,” said Bauer. “We tried a couple of spots on the turf, but we couldn’t get lucky with the rain. We knew this race was coming up, so we tried to crank her down the last two weeks, but it boils down to her. She’s just a seasoned veteran racehorse now that knows what to do.”

Max Express rules in $100,000 Empire Stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis

Max Express has been a horse that has always been consistent and competitive throughout his career. He has been right there in many stakes races, but it wasn’t until the 21st running of the $100,000 Empire Stakes Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis that his status changed from stakes placed to stakes winner.

The grey six-year-old (photo) scored the win with Geovanni Franco aboard in the one and one-sixteenth mile event in Shelbyville.

Starting from post five in the reduced field of seven, Max Express got away near the rear of the race and was gapping off the top flight of horses led by Mr Chaos and Rodney Prescott. Me and Chili and DeShawn Parker joined Mr Chaos in the pursuit for the top spot early on.

Heading into the final turn, Max Express was still eight lengths back from the leaders and began to make his move. Mr Chaos continued to lead the way into the stretch and Me and Chili was still in hot pursuit. Midway through the stretch, Max Express emerged as a potential threat and was able to pass up the leaders for the win in the final strides, winning by one length over Mr Chaos.

Me and Chili finished another neck back in third. The time of the event was 1:43.95.

 

 

Max Express rewarded his backers, paying $13.20 for the win. It was the second start aboard Max Express for the French-born Franco, who shipped in to pilot the horse for the second straight stakes race.

“I learned the last time that he likes to take his time,” said Franco. “So, I let him go out there and do his thing. Last time, he was a little bit rank on the grass, but he was fine today. This horse has a very big stride, so I just let the stride take over in the stretch. We were really running down the stretch fast, but he was able to get there. He’s very professional and answers any question that he is asked.”

It was the first win in five starts this season for Max Express, who has six career wins and has hit the board in 30 of his 44 career starts. The Indiana sired gelding now has more than $384,000 on his card for his connections.

Prep Report: Morristown tennis scores dominant win over Lutheran

Morristown tennis put forth a dominant performance Wednesday in a 5-0 win on its home courts.

The visiting Saints forfeited at No. 2 doubles, putting the Yellow Jackets (4-7) up 1-0 now before the first serve.

At No. 1 doubles, Dalton McMichael and Michael Ballinger blanked Lutheran’s Matthew Naing and Josh Amstutz, 6-0, 6-0.

Tyler Schonfeld was solid at No. 1 singles, producing a 6-1, 6-2 win over J.T. Anderson.

Jameson Palmer did not lose a game in a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Isaac Vance at No. 2 singles.

Austin Gabbard completed the sweep with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Joe Amstutz at No. 3 singles.

Morristown hosts Eastern Hancock today.

In another prep event Wednesday:

Volleyball

Speedway def. Triton Central, 23-25, 28-26, 25-12, 25-18

At Speedway, the visiting Tigers had their 11-match win streak snapped and suffered their first Indiana Crossroads Conference loss to fall out of a first-place tie with Scecina (12-3, 4-0 ICC).

The Sparkplugs (2-9, 1-2 ICC) lost the first game before rallying to take the next three.

Maddy Brown led Triton Central with 11 kills and 12 digs.

Brooklyn Bailey finished with nine kills and three blocks. Hallie Schweitzer had a team-high 20 digs and three service aces. And Kate Isley collected 28 assists.

Triton Central dropped to 13-3 overall and 4-1 in the ICC standings.

The Tigers attempt to start a new win streak tonight in Fairland against visiting Rushville (3-11).

Triton Central is at Shelbyville (4-12) Monday.

Shelbyville's Homecoming week special following first HHC win since 2018

Shelbyville football hit another stepping stone Friday at McKeand Stadium with a 22-20 victory over New Castle.

The Golden Bears secured their first victory over a Hoosier Heritage Conference opponent since Sept. 14, 2018. The win could keep Shelbyville out of the bottom rung in the conference standings – another milestone mark on the road back from anonymity.

“It solidifies or backs up what we’ve been teaching for two years and what we are trying to do,” said Glesing, now 2-9 in his first 11 games as Shelbyville’s head coach. His hiring followed back-to-back winless seasons. “Our players know, our coaches know, everybody in our community knows where this program was.

“To win a conference game and basically be in three out of the four games we’ve played … three of the four games have come down to the last play or the last snap, that is satisfying although I don’t want to use the word satisfying because you are never satisfied. This is what can happen if we get on board with what’s going on. I’ve seen it at other schools that we’ve built football programs. It’s contagious – that winning feeling.”

With the win comes a celebration two years in the making. Week five is Homecoming week at Shelbyville with the annual parade returning Wednesday afternoon to the streets near the high school.

The week-long festivities conclude Friday when Class 4A, No. 10 Greenfield-Central (3-1, 1-1 HHC) visits McKeand Stadium.

“They are going to pound it. They are big and they run their option schemes really well,” said Glesing. “We will have our work cut out for us. They have their plan and they stick to it. They are good at it. We will have to have some breaks go our way – maybe a turnover or two.”

Sophomore quarterback Dallas Freeman (27-of-46 passing, 327 yards, four touchdowns) directs an offense averaging 34 points per game. The Cougars utilize seniors Andrew Zellers (75 rushes, 508 yards, seven TDs) and Brayden Herrell (44 rushes, 350 yards, three TDs) to wear down opposing defenses.

Owen Anderson, another senior, is G-C’s leading receiver at 190 yards on 10 catches.

Friday’s contest is the beginning of Shelbyville’s toughest stretch of the season. The Golden Bears still have games left at Yorktown and Mt. Vernon and host New Palestine and Pendleton Heights.

That makes the win over New Castle that much more important.

 

 

“It’s a game. You have to enjoy it,” said Glesing (photo). “It should be fun. You’ve got to have success at some point. You cannot build a program when you get your brains beat in every week. That is frustrating.”

Looking back, Glesing sees a program that has had the opportunity to win three of its first four games this season.

“Of course, I know what we’ve got coming up,” he said. “We all know but we had an opportunity to win a football game and we didn’t do it those first two weeks, but New Castle week, we somehow got it done.

“That’s a big stepping stone. It puts a big belief in what we are trying to do. For us to win, that is huge. I am happy for our seniors. They deserve it, and everyone else deserves it as well. It’s something we can build on, that feeling of what it takes and what it feels like and figure out how to do it again.”

Glesing will look for measured improvement in the weeks ahead against five solid programs that includes four state-ranked teams.

“We want to get better. We want to get stronger. We want to get faster. We want to get quicker. We want to get tougher,” said Glesing. “I think that’s one thing we have done, we’ve gotten tougher. You have to have that on a football team. If you are not going to be fast and you are not going to be big, you better be tough. You better be hard-nosed. I think we are understanding that that is what we have to have.”

 

 

QUICK FACTS

Class 4A, No. 10 Greenfield-Central at Shelbyville

Game Time: 7 p.m. at McKeand Stadium in Shelbyville, Ind.

Broadcast time: 6 p.m. pregame show live from McKeand Stadium with Johnny McCrory and Mark Drake on GIANT fm (96.5 fm, 106.3 fm, 1520 am) or on the GIANT fm app.

SHS promotion: Homecoming.

Student section theme: Adam Sandler.

Head coaches:  Travis Nolting, 15-19 in fourth year at G-C, 75-47 in 12th year overall; Brian Glesing, 2-9 in 2nd year at Shelbyville, 120-103 in 20th year overall.

2021 record: Greenfield-Central 7-4; Shelbyville 1-6.

Sagarin ratings: Greenfield-Central, 79.11, 33rd overall, 8th in Class 4A; Shelbyville, 31.32, 222nd overall, 50th in Class 4A.

Point spread: Greenfield-Central is favored by 46 points.

Last meeting: The two teams did not play in 2021 due to Shelbyville’s roster limitations from COVID-19 protocols. In 2020, Greenfield-Central won 51-0.

Around the HHC Friday: Class 4A, No. 14 Mt. Vernon (1-3, 1-1 HHC) at Delta (3-1, 1-1 HHC); Class 4A, No. 1 New Palestine (4-0, 2-0 HHC) at Pendleton Heights (2-2, 1-1 HHC); and Class 3A, No. 16 Yorktown (3-1, 1-1 HHC) at New Castle (1-3, 0-2 HHC).

Steve Bush photo

Class 2A, No. 9 Triton Central prepped for Indian Creek's aerial attack

Two of the top passers in central Indiana take center stage Friday at  Mendenhall Field in Fairland.

Triton Central’s Jace Stuckey and Indian Creek’s Arj Lothe have their respective teams off to 3-1 starts.

Class 2A, No. 9 Triton Central has been searching for offensive balance all season. Indian Creek, with first-year head coach Casey Gillin, prefers to get the ball in the air.

“All our guys have got to do their jobs,” said Able of slowing down the Braves, who are averaging 38 points per game. “We have to take their routes … run their routes with them.”

Lothe, a six-foot, four-inch senior, has completed 69% of his passes this season for 1,088 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“They have a really nice quarterback,” said Able of the left-handed Lothe. “They have a really nice passing game. They’ve put tons of points on the scoreboard every week.”

The Braves are a product of their coach. Gillin is in his first season as a head coach after setting several passing records as a player at Indian Creek two decades earlier. His 8,806 career passing yards is 14th all-time in Indiana.

Gillin started his college football career at Ball State University before transferring to the University of Indianapolis where he finished fifth in career pass attempts, completions and yards.

Gillin returned to Trafalgar in 2008 to work for his father, Mike Gillin, who has 353 career wins over 44 seasons as a head coach in Indiana. He is currently the head coach at Class 4A, No. 3 Mooresville.

The younger Gillin returned to UIndy as quarterbacks coach and, eventually, offensive coordinator for three seasons before returning to work for his father at Mooresville.

“He’s got a pedigree,” said Able, who succeeded Mike Gillin at Decatur Central in 2001 when Gillin took over at Indian Creek. “They have both been very respectful to me.”

While Lothe can spread the ball around the field – seven different Braves have a touchdown reception – Stuckey has found a rhythm with senior wide receiver Brad Schultz, who announced this week he received an offer to play football at Butler University in Indianapolis.

 

 

In four games, Schultz (photo) has 32 receptions for 642 yards and eight TDs. And with senior Luke Faust (14 catches, 214 yards) injured and unavailable Friday, no other Tiger has more than five catches this season.

Stuckey’s statistics are similar to Lothe’s. The junior quarterback has completed 64% of his pass attempts for 1,065 yards and 10 TDs.

Triton Central’s struggle this season has been getting all-state candidate running back Ray Crawford off and rolling. The junior has just 335 yards rushing through four games on 55 attempts.

Able would love to use Crawford to churn up yards and keep the clock rolling Friday while Indian Creek’s high-powered offense sits on the sidelines.

Triton Central celebrates Homecoming Friday in its final non-conference contest of the season. The Tigers are at Ritter and Scecina the following two weeks before closing out the regular season with home contests against Beech Grove and Speedway.

Able warned his Tigers not to lose focus this week during the Homecoming activities. After a dominant 41-10 win at Monrovia in week four, the Tigers need to show the consistency they have been lacking this season.

“I told them their job is to win one game Friday night,” said Able. “Let everyone else cheer you on and after the ball game that you have success in … then you can celebrate.”

 

 

QUICK FACTS

Indian Creek at Class 2A, No. 9 Triton Central

Game time: 7 p.m. at Mendenhall Field in Fairland, Ind.

Media coverage: Follow Shelby County Post News Editor Jeff Brown on Twitter at @Sportsboss4life for live updates from Triton Central.

TC promotion: Homecoming.

Head coaches: Casey Gillin, 3-1 in first year at Indian Creek; Tim Able, 83-33 in 10th year at Triton Central, 208-131 in 29th year overall.

2021 record: Indian Creek 3-8; Triton Central 8-5.

Sagarin ratings: Indian Creek, 57.7, 105th overall, 20th in Class 3A; Triton Central, 69.82, 65th overall, 6th in Class 2A.

Point spread: Triton Central is favored by 14 points.

Last year: TC running back Ray Crawford rushed for 196 yards and two touchdowns on just 14 carries in the Tigers’ 27-9 win in Trafalgar.

Last 10 years: Triton Central has won five of six meetings since the rivalry was renewed in 2016.

Around the ICC Friday: Beech Grove (1-3, 1-3 ICC) at Southport (0-4); Class 2A, No. 8 Heritage Christian (3-1) at Class 2A, No. 3 Scecina (4-0, 3-0 ICC); Class A, No. 1 Lutheran (4-0, 3-0 ICC) at Cascade (2-2, 1-2 ICC); Shortridge (2-2) at Ritter (0-3, 0-3 ICC); Monrovia (2-2, 1-1 ICC) at Speedway (2-2, 1-2 ICC).

Prep Report: Shelbyville soccer secures third-straight shutout victory

Shelbyville extended its win streak to four straight with its third consecutive shutout victory Tuesday at Connersville.

Evelyn Kiefer scored her Shelby County-leading 13th and 14th goals of the season to lead the Golden Bears (6-1).

Hannah Baker punched in her fourth goal of the season while Lilly Marshall, Ava Wilson and Brooke Byers were credited with assists.

Hailey Pogue made two saves in goal to preserve the shutout.

In other prep events Tuesday:

Girls Golf

Franklin 163, Shelbyville 217

At Blue Bear Golf Course in Shelbyville, Franklin’s Lexi Ray fired a 39 to take the medalist honor and lead the Grizzly Cubs over the Golden Bears.

Madison Monroe led Shelbyville with a 52. Emmie Higgins and Kate Linville followed at 53 and 54, respectively. Livanet Rosales complete the scorecard with a 58.

Greenwood Christian 213, Southwestern 237, International 269

At Smock Golf Course in Greenwood, Taylor Harris led Greenwood Christian to the win with the low round of 48.

McKinley Correll topped Southwestern’s scorecard with a 50. Emma Isgrigg and Aurora Belton each shot 60 and Sydney Griffin finished at 67.

Morristown 255, Knightstown Inc.

At Royal Hylands Golf Course in Knightstown, Oakleigh Goedde carded her season-best round of 60 to lead the visiting Yellow Jackets.

Also competing for Morristown were Ashlee Ballinger (62), Clara Hale (65) and Mollie Runnebohm (68).

Boys Soccer

Southwestern 3, Morristown 0

At Southwestern, Garreth Stringer scored twice to push his season goal total to nine and lead the Class A, No. 19 Spartans (6-1-1) to their third straight victory.

Stringer’s nine goals lead all Shelby County boys soccer players this season.

Tucker Simmons scored his fourth goal of the season to get Southwestern a 2-0 halftime lead.

Michael Clements was credited with six saves in goal for the Spartans.

Morristown (6-4-2) has lost three straight.

Mt. Vernon 4, Shelbyville 0

At Shelbyville, the host Golden Bears (6-4-1, 1-2 HHC) suffered their second consecutive shutout loss.

Evan LeRoy, Zach Johnson, Drew Lynch and Brennan LaBelle each scored goals for Mt. Vernon (6-3, 5-1 HHC).

Boys Tennis

Waldron 3, Hauser 2

Waldron closed out its Mid-Hoosier Conference schedule with a perfect record to claim the championship.

The Mohawks (6-6, 4-0 MHC) swept all three singles matches to defeat the Jets.

Lucas Shaw cruised to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Caleb Wallace. Jack Fischer took down Jackson Burcham, 6-2, 6-0. And Jacob Lindsey won 6-1, 6-1.

Hauser won at No. 1 doubles in straight sets while Caiden Young and Matthew Thomas lost in three sets at No. 2 doubles, 4-6, 6-3, 10-6.

Isaiah Jones and Andy Lacy won junior varsity singles matches for Waldron.

Triton Central 5, Edinburgh 0

At Edinburgh, the visiting Tigers (10-2) dominated both doubles matches to collect their fifth-straight victory.

The doubles pairings of Griffin Sego/Ben Toth and Oliver Gearlds/Joey Brosnan did not lose a game in sweeping the Lancers.

Tucker Hutchinson needed three sets to defeat Max Blandford at No. 1 singles, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

At No. 2 singles, Avram Rund also went three sets with Austin Brockman before prevailing, 0-6, 7-5, 10-5.

Cole Thomas swept Milas Burkman at No. 3 singles, 6-1, 6-3.

Morristown 4, Blue River Valley 1

At Morristown, the host Yellow Jackets won three of the four matches that went three sets to improve to 3-7 this season.

At No. 1 singles, Morristown’s Tyler Schonfeld defeated Kyler Keck, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Jameson Palmer also won a three-set match at No. 2 singles for Morristown over Layke Leonard, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Morristown’s No. 1 doubles pairing of Dalton McMichael topped Clayton Turley and Zayne Parrish, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

At No. 2 doubles, Morristown’s Bryce Bryant and Brady Schonfeld improved to 5-4 this season with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Jude Ellsworth and C.J. Keremly.

Blue River Valley’s only win came at No. 3 singles where Caleb Inman bested Austin Gabbard, 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-1.

Shelbyville 3, Greenfield-Central 2

At Greenfield-Central, Aidan Asher became the first Shelby County singles player to reach 10 wins this season.

Asher defeated G-C’s C.J. Michalek, 6-4, 6-4 to push his record to 10-5.

Shelbyville (9-6, 4-2 HHC) won both doubles matches in three sets.

At No. 1 doubles, Aiden Smith and Caden Claxton rallied to defeat Caden Robertson and Lucas Sitzman, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Karson Schaf and Reece Prickett improved to 12-1 this season at No. 2 doubles with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win.

Caden Tackett and Logan Prickett were defeated in straight sets at No. 2 singles and No. 3 singles, respectively.

Gavin Reed and Aiden Alton secured JV wins for Shelbyville.

Southwestern 3, Oldenburg Academy 2

At Southwestern, the host Spartans got a singles victory from James Oliver and doubles victories from Josh Wenger/Chris Cecil and Ben Schlabach/David Coulston.

Volleyball

Greensburg def. Shelbyville, 25-14, 25-20, 25-16

At Shelbyville, Josie Nobbe led the unbeaten Pirates (18-0) with 10 kills and 11 digs.

Abigail Hoeing topped Greensburg with 13 digs and Jenna Foster finished with 12 assists.

Shelby Lasure and Ashlyn Turner led Shelbyville (4-12) with 10 kills each.

Collegiate Update: Jill Anspaugh leads Franklin College cross country in season opener

Shelbyville graduate Jill Anspaugh led Franklin College’s women’s cross country team with a 19th-place finish Saturday in the Hanover Invitational in Hanover, Indiana.

Anspaugh (photo) ran the course in 21:37.

Franklin College’s season-opening event at Blue River Memorial Park in Shelbyville on Sept. 3 was rained out. In what became their first event of the year, the Grizzlies finished fourth in the team standings with three individuals finishing in the top 25 of the five-kilometer race.

Following Anspaugh, a senior, across the finish line for Franklin College were sophomore Ella Bashor (21st in 21:52) and freshman Wynn Wellington (25th in 22:30).

Here is a look at other Shelby County graduates competing at the collegiate level.

 

 

Brooklyn Schiffli

The Triton Central graduate had 17 digs and one service ace Saturday for Jacksonville State’s volleyball team in a 17-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-21 win over Samford to keep the Gamecocks undefeated this season at 9-0.

Jacksonville State opened its own invitational Friday with wins over Nicholls (25-21, 25-10, 25-23) and South Dakota State (25-14, 25-23, 25-20). Schiffli combined for nine digs, three aces and one assist.

The Gamecocks are off to their best non-conference start in the program’s Division I history.

 

 

Maggie Schweitzer

The Triton Central graduate recorded 19 assists, three aces and seven digs Saturday in Hanover College’s 16-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-19 loss to Thiel College in the final contest of the Pam Briggs Classic in Columbus, Ohio.

Hanover opened the event with a 25-16, 25-17, 25-15 win Friday over Capital University. Schweitzer had two kills, nine assists, one ace and 10 digs.

The Panthers were then swept by Birmingham-Southern College, 25-20, 25-9, 25-12. Schweitzer had one kill, three assists and three digs in the loss.

On Wednesday, Hanover traveled to Centre College and lost, 22-25, 27-25, 25-12, 25-12. Schweitzer notched 17 digs, one kill, six assists and three aces.

Hanover is 2-6 this season.

 

 

Julia Sanders

The Triton Central graduate had one kill, one assist, two aces and five digs Saturday in IU Kokomo’s 23-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-14 win at Aquinas College to close out the Aquinas/Cornerstone Invitational in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

IU Kokomo opened the event Friday with a 22-25, 25-17, 25-13, 28-26 win over St. Xavier University (Illinois). Sanders had one kill, one ace and nine digs in the win.

The Cougars’ only loss of the weekend came Friday to Cornerstone University, 25-20, 25-20, 30-28. Sanders finished with three digs.

In its first match Saturday, IU Kokomo defeated Judson University, 25-23, 25-11, 25-14. Sanders had one ace and two digs.

IU Kokomo is 9-3.

 

 

Kenneth Gipson

The Triton Central graduate was a starting offensive lineman for Rose-Hulman in a 24-23 loss to Trine Saturday in Terre Haute.

Trine scored 21 second-half points to secure the win and improve to 2-0 this season.

Rose-Hulman is 0-2 with both losses coming by a combined four points.

 

 

Austin Perry

The Shelbyville graduate lost two singles matches and a doubles match Saturday competing for Rose-Hulman in the DePauw Invitational.

Perry started the No. 6 singles flight with a 6-2, 6-3 loss to DePauw’s Ikkei Oguma. Perry lost the third-place match, 6-3, 7-6 (3).

In a No. 3 doubles match, Perry and Corey Pollard were defeated by DePauw’s Oguma and Christian Prokopear, 8-3.

 

 

Hayden Kermode

The Triton Central graduate was credited with one tackle Saturday for No. 6 Concordia in a 41-24 victory over St. Ambrose at Cardinal Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Concordia used a 21-point third quarter to take control of the game.

 

 

Elizabeth Kemper

The Triton Central graduate finished 11th overall Saturday for No. 16 Taylor at the Players Club Invitational at The Players Club at Woodland Trails in Yorktown, Indiana.

Kemper carded rounds of 77, 76 and 71 to help Taylor to a runner-up finish in an event that featured seven top-25 NAIA golf programs.

Taylor’s 291 final-round team score tied the lowest single round total in program history. And the 889 three-round total was one shot off the best 54-hole score in program history.

Taylor opened the season with a win on Sept. 6 in the Battle at Brookwood played at Brookwood Country Club in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Kemper’s 10-over par 154 total over two days put her in fifth place overall.

Taylor bested the six-team field with a 603 team score over two rounds of play.

 

 

Layton Stieneker

The Shelbyville graduate teamed with Dustin Garrison in an 8-4 doubles loss to Trine’s Cole Goodman and Drew Dixon Saturday. Stieneker then lost a No. 3 singles match to Aaron Streit, 7-5, 6-1 in Franklin College’s 8-1 loss to Trine in its season debut.

Also on Saturday, Webster defeated Franklin College, 6-0, in a rain-shortened match.

Steineker and Garrison were defeated at No. 1 doubles by Alex Pinkston and Matthew Birchmeier, 8-0.

Carson Fisher topped Stieneker at No. 4 singles, 6-4, 6-2.

 

 

Michael Fox

The Shelbyville graduate finished 86th for Manchester University Saturday in the Wittenberg Collegiate Cross Country Invitational in Springfield, Ohio.

Fox completed the 8-kilometer course in 31:21.

Prep Report: TC volleyball extends win streak to 11 straight

With a balanced hitting attack, Triton Central volleyball secured its 11th-straight victory Monday at Knightstown, 25-18, 25-15, 25-10.

Kaitlin Bramlett finished with a team-high nine kills. Brooklyn Bailey followed with seven and Maddy Brown collected six in the straight-set win over the Panthers (3-9).

Hallie Schweitzer had nine digs and Kate Isley racked up 19 assists.

Triton Central (13-2, 4-0 Indiana Crossroads Conference) puts its win streak on the line Wednesday at Speedway (1-8, 0-1 ICC).

In other prep events Monday:

Boys Soccer

Southwestern 3, Morristown 2

Garreth Stringer scored with just under seven minutes left on the clock to lift Class A, No. 19 Southwestern to the victory.

The match started on Aug. 29 at Morristown but was suspended with 31:23 left in the second half due to lightning. The score was tied at 1-all.

Jonah DeArmitt was credited with an assist on the game-winning goal.

The Yellow Jackets (6-3-2) built a 1-0 lead on Mathew Carlton’s goal with 10:56 left in the first half. Parker Theobald had the assist.

Stringer scored in the first minute of the second half to tie the score before play was suspended.

Kade Rogers put Morristown back in the lead with an unassisted goal with 26:23 left in regulation.

Owen Stringer answered right back for Southwestern (5-1-1), scoring off an assist from Garreth Stringer.

The match stayed tied at 2-all for nearly 20 minutes before Garreth Stringer collected his seventh goal of the season.

Morristown travels to Southwestern today for a rematch.

Girls Soccer

Ritter 1, Triton Central 0

The host Raiders scored a first-half goal and made that stand to improve to 3-5 overall and 2-2 against Indiana Crossroads Conference opponents.

Triton Central dropped to 3-6 (1-3 ICC). The Tigers host Warren Central (0-4) Thursday.

New No. 1 team in IFCA Class 3A football poll

There is a new No. 1 team in Class 3A in this week’s Indiana Football Coaches Association state poll.

Chatard’s 38-0 loss to Class 6A, No. 3 Cathedral cost the Trojans the top ranking.

West Lafayette (4-0) takes over atop the 3A poll with Chatard (2-2), with two losses to top-10 ranked opponents, falling to No. 2 this week.

Unbeaten Gibson Southern (4-0) is No. 3 ahead of Tri-West (3-1), Guerin Catholic (3-1), Norwell (4-0), Western Boone (3-1), Hanover Central (4-0), Lawrenceburg (3-1) and Owen Valley (4-0).

The top three teams in last week’s Class 2A poll sit atop the latest poll.

Linton-Stockton (4-0), Andrean (2-2) and Scecina (4-0) are ahead of LaVille (4-0), Eastbrook (3-1), Fort Wayne Luers (2-2), Evansville Mater Dei (2-2), Heritage Christian (3-1), Triton Central (3-1) and Lafayette Central Catholic (2-2).

 

 

Triton Central moved up one spot after a dominant win at Monrovia while Evansville Mater Dei fell from No. 4 to No. 7 after suffering a 22-6 loss to Evansville Memorial.

The top five ranked teams in Class A are still unbeaten.

Lutheran (4-0), Adams Central (4-0), Park Tudor (4-0), North Judson (4-0) and North Decatur (4-0) round out the top five. South Adams (3-1) is No. 6 followed by Carroll (Flora) (4-0), Tri (4-0), South Putnam (3-1) and Monroe Central (2-1).

The best team in Class 4A is not unanimous. New Palestine (4-0) continues its grip on the No. 1 ranking but Roncalli (4-0) is receiving several first-place votes while ending up ranked No. 2.

 

 

Mooresville (4-0) is No. 3 followed by Kokomo (4-0), East Central (3-1), Northwood (4-0), Brebeuf Jesuit (2-1), New Prairie (4-0), Evansville Reitz (4-0) and Greenfield-Central (3-1), who travel to Shelbyville Friday for a Hoosier Heritage Conference contest.

Whiteland (4-0) is the unanimous No. 1 team in Class 5A ahead of Mishawaka (4-0), Merrillville (3-1), Fort Wayne Snider (3-1), Valparaiso (3-1), Fort Wayne Dwenger (3-1), Franklin (3-1), Castle (3-1), Decatur Central (2-2) and Harrison (West Lafayette) (3-1).

Brownsburg (4-0) held on to the top ranking in Class 6A with a 60-21 win over Avon. Center Grove (3-1) is No. 2 followed by Cathedral (3-1), Hamilton Southeastern (4-0), Ben Davis (2-2), Carmel (2-2), Carroll (Allen) (4-0), Westfield (3-1), Fishers (3-1) and Warren Central (2-2).

Triton Central defeats Waldron, Morristown to claim Shelby County Tennis Tournament title

Triton Central fought off Waldron then rolled past Morristown to claim the Shelby County Tennis Tournament title Saturday in Morristown.

Waldron earned a pair of singles victories against Triton Central but could not find an elusive third victory.

At No. 1 singles, Triton Central’s Tucker Hutchinson defeated Waldron’s Lucas Shaw, 6-3, 6-3.

Waldron got singles victories from Jack Fischer at No. 2 singles and Jacob Lindsey at No. 3 singles. Fischer bested Avram Rund, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 while Lindsey topped Cole Thomas, 6-3, 6-4.

At No. 1 doubles, Griffin Sego and Ben Toth defeated Waldron’s Matthew Thomas and Caiden Young, 6-2, 6-2.

Oliver Gearlds and Joey Brosnan produced a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 2 doubles for Triton Central over Josh Kellems and Connor Hinchman.

In the other semifinal, Morristown eliminated Southwestern, 4-1.

The Spartans’ only win came  at No. 3 singles where James Oliver defeated Jacob Robey, 6-1, 6-1.

At No. 1 singles, Morristown’s Tyler Schonfeld secured a win over Kyle Beck, 6-4, 7-5.

Jameson Palmer earned a 6-0, 6-1 win over Carter Snepp at No. 2 singles.

Morristown’s doubles pairings of Dalton McMichael/Austin Gabbard and Brady Schonfeld/Bryce Bryant won in straight sets.

In the championship match, Rund needed three sets to defeat Palmer at No. 2 singles, 6-3, 4-6, 10-4 to complete the sweep for Triton Central.

Hutchinson defeated Tyler Schonfeld, 6-0, 6-0.

Cole Thomas topped Robey, 6-0, 6-1.

Sego and Toth lost just three games at No. 1 doubles while Gearlds and Brosnan dropped just two games at No. 2 doubles.

Prep Report: Shelbyville's Kenkel, Wright earn top-15 finishes at Whiteland Invitational

Shelbyville’s Beau Kenkel and Hannah Wright scored top-15 finishes Saturday at the Whiteland Invitational.

Kenkel (photo, left) finished fifth in the boys cross country race in 18:05, following a pair of Greenwood and Whiteland runners across the finish line.

Whiteland captured the team title by three points over Greenwood, 53-56. Shelbyville finished 11th in the team standings.

Also running for the Golden Bears were Logan Reinhart (41st, 19:44), Gavin Harker (94th, 21:32), Ben Hinojosa (95th, 21:38), Gaige Harker (105th, 22:35), Ayden Holmes (111th, 23:06), Christian Powell (121st, 23:47), Isaac Zermeno (127th, 24:25), Leland Fox (132nd, 25:48) and Iran Daza (134th, 28:48).

Southwestern and Morristown also ran in the invitational but did not have enough runners to produce team scores.

Southwestern’s Dakota Claiborne finished 32nd overall in 19:13. He was followed by Chris Claiborne (52nd, 20:09), Jackson Bentz (120th, 23:38) and Ryan Wildman (122nd, 23:54).

Morristown’s top finisher was Max Compton (76th, 21:01). Drake Hibst finished 92nd in 21:32.

In the girls race, Wright (photo, right) notched a new personal-best in her 13th-place finish. She crossed the finish line in 22:15.

Also competing for Shelbyville were Angel Kreider (23rd, 22:53), Aerin Garcia-Santiago (58th, 25:38), Cora Flynn (75th, 26:39) and Ava Ruschhaupt (103rd, 35:32).

The Golden Bears placed eighth in the team standings.

Morristown’s Grace McLaughlin finished 46th in 25:04.

Southwestern was represented by Malori Pike (62nd, 25:46) and Maxine Higdon (82nd, 28:01).

Shelbyville placed sixth in both middle school team standings.

Shia Veach led the Golden Bears with a 5th-place finish (11:39) in the boys race. America Leon was 12th (13:21) in the girls race.

Morristown finished 8th in the boys standings and third in the girls standings.

Ryan Crisman (31st, 12:47), Thane Cole (32nd, 12:48) and Bradley Theobald (36th, 13:00) secured top-40 finishes for the Yellow Jackets.

Lauren Kuhn’s time of 12:58 earned her a fourth-place finish for Morristown in the girls race. Also finishing in the top 20 were Brooke Kuhn (11th, 13:16), Clara Wallace (16th, 13:41), Chloe Theobald (19th, 13:53) and Sawyer Rogers (20th, 13:59).

Southwestern’s top finisher in the boys race was Brayden Beasley (74th, 14:35). Bella Leeper placed 67th (15:39) in the girls race.

In other prep events:

Girls Golf

Mid-Hoosier Conference Tournament

At Timbergate Golf Course, Edinburgh’s Izzy Richardson posted a 9-over par score of 81 to earn the medalist honor and lead the Lancers’ to the team title.

Edinburgh’s 413 bested Southwestern (481), Morristown (507) and North Decatur (518).

McKinley Correll led Southwestern with a 102 and earned All-Conference honors.

Ashlee Ballinger topped Morristown’s scorecard with a 119.

Hoosier Heritage Conference Tournament

At Albany Golf Club, Delta’s 344 bested the 8-team field.

New Palestine (365) was runner-up ahead of Yorktown (370), Pendleton Heights (385), Greenfield-Central (402), Mt. Vernon (408), New Castle (435) and Shelbyville (476).

Greenfield-Central’s Sydney Wherry defeated Delta’s Belle Brown in a playoff to take the medalist honor after both shot 78s.

Emmie Higgins led Shelbyville with a 109 and Madison Monroe shot 110.

Boys Soccer

Providence Cristo Rey 5, Morristown 3

Class A, No. 11 Providence Cristo Rey stayed unbeaten Saturday with a 5-3 victory at Morristown.

Eduardo Castillo scored three goals and Luis Rodriguez and Jayro Guerrero added scores to up the Wolves’ record to 4-0 this season.

Morristown dropped to 6-2-2.

Southwestern 6, Hauser 0

Tucker Simmons scored a pair of goals for Class A, No. 19 Southwestern and four more Spartans found the back of the net to push Southwestern’s record to 4-1-1 this season.

Conner Jewell, Jonah DeArmitt, Owen Stringer and Garreth Stringer also scored goals for Southwestern.

Michael Clements earned the shutout in goal.

Girls Soccer

Shelbyville 2, Delta 0

The Golden Bears secured their third shutout victory of the season and improved to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference standings.

Evelyn Kiefer scored her team-leading 12th goal of the season in the first half and Hannah Baker tallied her third goal late in the contest to seal the victory.

Macy Cooley was credited with two saves in goal to get the shutout.

Perry Meridian 2, Triton Central 0

The Tigers lost their fourth straight match after a third straight contest with no goals scored.

The Falcons (3-6) scored a goal in each half to get the road victory.

Triton Central dropped to 3-5.

Boys Tennis

Shelbyville Invitational

Shelbyville 4, Columbus East 1

The Golden Bears’ only loss came at No. 3 singles where Logan Prickett dropped a 1-6, 6-3, 10-8 match to Brady Redelman.

At No. 1 singles, Aidan Asher needed three sets to defeat Erik Takahashi, 3-6, 6-4, 10-5.

Seymour 4, Shelbyville 1

Shelbyville’s lone win came at No. 1 singles where Asher defeated Eli Meyers, 6-1, 6-2.

At No. 2 doubles, Shelbyville’s Karson Schaf and Reece Prickett suffered their first loss of the season, 6-4, 6-3 to Parker Thompson and Drew Handloser.

Westfield 5, Shelbyville 0

The No. 20-ranked Shamrocks swept the Golden Bears to claim the invitational team title.

Asher took his only loss of the event, falling 7-5, 6-3 to Mitch Amenta.

The Golden Bears’ record sits at 8-6 this season.

Volleyball

Noblesville Invitational

Jay County def. Shelbyville, 25-21, 25-23

Abbie Fields and Isabella Denton each had five kills to lead Jay County over the Golden Bears.

Shelbyville def. Western, 25-20, 25-22

Kenzie Broman had a team-high six kills and five total blocks for Western but the Golden Bears secured the victory in two sets.

Noblesville def. Shelbyville, 25-13, 25-10

Ava Harris led the host Millers with seven kills and freshman Madison Brown collected 18 assists in the win over Shelbyville.

Wes-Del def. Shelbyville, 25-13, 25-21

The Golden Bears closed out the invitational with a straight-set loss to the Warriors.

Shelbyville is 4-11 this season.

Indiana Deaf Invitational

Southwestern lost its opening match to Eastern Hancock, 25-13, 25-13, but recovered to defeat Indiana Deaf (25-23, 25-22) and Sheridan (27-25, 33-31) to finish runner-up in the invitational.

The Spartans are 7-8 this season.

Hauser def. Waldron, 25-11, 25-16, 25-17

The Jets improved to 11-3 this season and 2-0 in the Mid-Hoosier Conference standings with a straight-set win over Waldron (6-6, 0-1 MHC).

South Ripley def. Morristown, 25-20, 25-13, 26-24

The Raiders handed the Yellow Jackets their seventh-consecutive loss and improved to 9-6.

Madison Espich led Morristown (2-11) with nine kills. Zoey Coons had six kills.

Kindall Dorsey had a team-high 15 digs and Raegan Kleine finished with 13 assists.

Prep Report: Kiefer collects four goals in Shelbyville's 7-0 win at Triton Central

Evelyn Kiefer’s four-goal performance Thursday led Shelbyville to a 7-0 victory over Triton Central in Fairland.

Kiefer’s four goals pushed her season total to 11 for the Golden Bears (4-1) and leads all Shelby County goal scorers in 2022.

Sydney Baker, Brooke Byers and Ella Johnson also scored goals for Shelbyville.

Assists were credited to Hannah Baker (2), Ava Wilson, Lilly Marshall and Ella Johnson.

Hailey Pogue earned the shutout in goal. Pogue and the Shelbyville defense held Triton Central’s leading scorer, Lizzie Graham (10 goals), without a goal.

Triton Central is 3-4 this season.

In other prep events Thursday:

Girls Golf

New Palestine 182, Shelbyville 256

At Hawk’s Tail, Zoe Nelson and Katie Kelley led the Dragons with rounds of 42 and 44, respectively. Lily Kirchner followed with a 46.

Madison Monroe led Shelbyville with a 62.

Boys Soccer

New Palestine 3, Shelbyville 0

Shelbyville’s five-match win streak came to an end with its third shutout loss of the season.

Cole Christopher, Brendan Tanksley and Paxton Holmes scored goals for New Palestine (6-3, 2-2 HHC).

The Golden Bears dropped to 6-3-1 overall and 1-1 in the HHC standings.

Morristown 3, Rushville 0

The Yellow Jackets improved to 6-1-2 this season with a win over the Lions (2-6-1).

Boys Tennis

Hauser 4, Morristown 1

Morristown’s lone win came from Jameson Palmer at No. 2 singles. Palmer defeated Jackson Burchman, 6-1, 6-4.

Tyler Schonfeld, Jacob Robey and the doubles pairing of Dalton McMichael and Michael Ballinger lost in straight sets.

At No. 2 doubles, Hauser’s Jentzen Bechtel and Kameron Blair needed three sets to get past Bryce Bryant and Brady Schonfeld, 6-1, 5-7, 10-6.

Eastern Hancock 4, Waldron 1

Jack Fischer evened his season record back at .500 with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Eastern Hancock’s Luke Fletcher at No. 2 singles. Fischer is 5-5 this season.

The Royals won the other four matches in straight sets.

Isaiah Jones, Andy Lacy and the doubles pairing of Sam Jones and Connor Ping won junior varsity matches.

Mt. Vernon 3, Shelbyville 2

Shelbyville’s No. 2 doubles pairing of Karson Schaf and Reece Prickett extended their season-opening win streak to 10 with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Matt Jones and Max Orelup.

Schaf and Prickett are 10-0 this season as a doubles team.

Shelbyville’s No. 1 doubles pairing of Aiden Smith and Caden Claxton defeated Brendan Wylie and Robbie Moore, 6-4, 6-3.

The Marauders retained possession of the Hoosier Heritage Conference’s traveling trophy by sweeping all three singles matches in straight sets.

Shelbyville got junior varsity wins from Aiden Alton and the doubles team of Alex Bunton and Gavin Reed.

Volleyball

Triton Central def. Morristown, 25-19, 25-17, 35-33

Brooklyn Bailey and Maddy Brown each had nine kills to lead Triton Central to its 10th-straight victory of the season.

Hallie Schweitzer had team-highs in service aces (6) and digs (12).

Kate Isley and Hailey Harris combined for 25 assists for Triton Central, now 12-2 this season.

Danika Rutledge had 10 kills to lead Morristown (2-10). Kindall Dorsey had 17 digs and Raegan Kleine finished with 18 assists.

Hauser def. Shelbyville, 25-16, 25-17, 25-14

Kenze Bostic led Hauser (10-3) with 16 kills.

Bostic, Charlie Clark (team-high 11 digs) and Kyra Meister combined for 28 digs and Adrianna Musillami had 32 assists.

Ashlyn Turner led Shelbyville (3-8) with seven kills. Karlie Lawson finished with five aces.

Shelbyville ends another football streak with HHC win over New Castle

On September 14, 2018, Shelbyville edged Greenfield-Central for a win at McKeand Stadium, 28-27.

 

The Golden Bears wouldn’t win another football game until the second week of the 2021 regular season, a 22-16 win over Richmond that snapped a 26-game losing streak.

 

But that 2018 win over the Cougars still had meaning.  It was the last time Shelbyville had defeated a Hoosier Heritage Conference team.

 

Until now.

 

The Golden Bears snapped a 23-game HHC losing streak Friday by outlasting New Castle, 22-20.

 

Shelbyville won despite being turned away without points twice on drives that featured first-and-goal scoring opportunities. The second of which appeared it could be an Axel Conover rushing touchdown in the later stages of the fourth quarter that could have all but put the game away.  Conover lunged for the end zone and the ball squirted out of his hands as the Trojans recovered.  The officials ruled that Conover did not break the plane of the end zone and was down at the goal line.  So, instead of a Golden Bear game sealing touchdown or a New Castle fumble recovery in the end zone, the Trojans took over on downs at the half-yard line.  Their ensuing drive was forced into a punt by the Golden Bears who would then run out the clock and preserve the win.

 

SHS head coach Brian Glesing appeared on the GIANT fm Sports Cagney’s Pizza King postgame report.

 

 

Shelbyville (1-3, 1-1 HHC) held a double-digit lead in the first half after trailing early.  Following a Golden Bear punt on the game’s opening possession New Castle’s Quintin Boatright returned a punt from midfield to the SHS 35-yard line.  The Trojans took advantage of the short field moments later when quarterback Tyson Lewis ran it in for a three-yard score.  New Castle’s lead was 6-0 with a missed extra point.

 

Shelbyville took its first lead with a 57-yard drive capped with an Eli Chappelow 11-yard touchdown pass to Conover.  With the extra point Shelbyville led 7-6.

 

Chappelow was 6-for-13 passing for 85 yards and a touchdown.

 

Shelbyville’s defense set up the Bears next scoring opportunity when Cael Lux intercepted a Lewis pass at the 35-yard line and returned it 31 yards for a first-and-goal opportunity. 

 

Photos by Steve Bush

 

But the Trojans defense stiffened and stopped the Golden Bears on four plays and took over possession on downs.

 

New Castle (1-3, 0-2 HHC) has been plagued this season with bad snaps from the line of scrimmage. That issue reared its head on the next play as Lewis had trouble handling a shotgun snap in the end zone.  With heavy pressure from the Golden Bears front line the New Castle quarterback stepped out the back of the endzone for a safety.

 

Up 9-6, Shelbyville took the kickoff after the safety and scored again less than two minutes later on a Conover 1-yard run to lead by ten, 16-6.

 

Conover rushed for 57 yards on 16 carries.  He rushed for two touchdowns, caught another and had two catches for 32 yards.

 

Rounding out the Shelbyville rushing attack was Cael Lux, 14 carries for 56; Alex Macharia, 3 – 67; and Luke Jackson, 6 – 26.

 

New Castle’s longest scoring strike of the game came with 2:20 remaining in the half.  Following a Golden Bear punt Lewis found a wide open Boatright for a 65-yard touchdown pass on the very next play from scrimmage to trim Shelbyville’s lead to three, 16-13.

 

Lewis was 7-for-16 passing for 137 yards with a touchdown and an interception.  Lewis has thrown nine picks this season.

 

Jon Eberhart had rushed for 200 yards through the first three games.  His 117 yards on 20 carries topped all rushers in the game.  65 yards came on the Trojans’ opening possession of the third quarter as Eberhart accounted for every yard and a two-yard touchdown to put New Castle back on top, 20-16.

 

Conover’s third touchdown of the night, a 10-yard run with 9:04 to go in the fourth quarter, was the final score of the night as Shelbyville took back the lead for good.

 

Shelbyville will host Greenfield-Central (3-1, 1-1 HHC) Friday, September 16.  The Cougars were 35-0 winners over Pendleton Heights.

Class 2A, No. 10 Triton Central overcomes emotional week to overwhelm Monrovia

MONROVIA – Class 2A, No. 10 Triton Central put a tough week of distractions behind it to secure a 41-10 Indiana Crossroads Conference victory Friday at Monrovia.

Several Tigers missed school earlier in the day to attend the funeral of Nick Winter, a TC junior who died in a car crash early Saturday morning.

“Nick was in my class and he played football for a part of the summer,” said Triton Central coach Tim Able. “He loved to lift weights. He loved to be around the kids. … He chose to work (instead of play football). It’s a sad situation. Our kids listened to his brother, who was really good with the kids and explaining the situation. He was real candid. Our kids grew a lot as people this week.”

Triton Central (3-1, 2-1 ICC) was prepared for Monrovia’s run-heavy offensive attack but still was pushed around on the game’s opening possession. An incomplete pass on third-and-eight from the Triton Central 10, though, forced the Bulldogs to take a short field goal.

Emery Newlin, a member of Monrovia’s 7-1 girls soccer team, kicked a 25-yard field goal for the lead that lasted mere seconds.

Ray Crawford took Newlin’s ensuing kickoff 77 yards for the Tigers’ first special teams touchdown of the season.

The Tigers’ defense adjusted after that first series that went 16 plays and 68 yards and limited the Bulldogs to 22 plays the rest of the first half and 105 more yards of total offense.

Meanwhile, Brad Schultz was toying with the Monrovia secondary. The TC senior took a short pass from quarterback Jace Stuckey, picked up two downfield blocks and raced 61 yards for his first of three touchdowns in the win.

“It was rough,” said Schultz of the Monrovia secondary. “They had some busted coverages but that’s how it goes.”

The second touchdown reception came when Stuckey unleashed a throw downfield that Schultz ran under for a 69-yard scoring strike.

Following a Ray Crawford interception, Stuckey scrambled for 11 yards then called his own number to reach the end zone from four yards out and the rout was on.

Monrovia (2-2, 1-1 ICC) tried to get a quick score before halftime but Mason Compton intercepted a halfback pass attempt and returned it 56 yards to set the halftime score at 34-3.

Following a bevy of Crawford runs to open the third quarter, Stuckey connected with Schultz once again on a fourth-and-four play from the Monrovia 30 which put the running clock in play for the rest of the game.

 

 

“It was tough for the team (this week) because as everyone knows we lost a student,” said Schultz (photo). “Overall, as a team we were really, really distracted throughout the week. It was rough. We could have practiced a lot better. We came out and played well but we could have played a lot better.”

Schultz finished the game with six catches for 220 yards and three touchdowns. He moved into the No. 4 all-time at Triton Central for career receiving yards, surpassing 1,350 total yards.

Triton Central’s defense limited Monrovia to 238 yards of offense and just 10 points after surrendering 54 points in a week three loss to Class A, No. 1 Lutheran.

 

 

“We put our foot in the ground and came back out (to work),” said Triton Central linebacker Lucas Kleeman (photo) of his team’s reaction after Monrovia’s long opening drive. “We got punched in the mouth and we knew we needed to come back out swinging … and we did.”

Kleeman had the highlight hit of the season with his team leading 14-0 midway through the second quarter and Monrovia at the TC 25-yard line with a fourth-and-1 play called up.

Dominic Kindle took a quick handoff from quarterback Eli Wagner and had a big hole ahead but Kleeman closed it in a hurry with a jarring tackle that resulted in no gain and a change of possession.

“That felt great,” said Kleeman with a big smile. “It’s something whenever you know you are playing at a level where you don’t have to read and just react because you know what’s going to happen. I saw the hole and just filled it.”

 

 

Triton Central followed a tough loss to Lutheran and the death of a fellow student with a strong road performance at Hadley Field in Monrovia. Now, it can turn its sights toward a week five meeting at Mendenhall Field against Indian Creek (3-1).

“The two games previous, we had a lot of mistakes,” said Able. “We still had a lot of mistakes tonight. We have to correct that -- its mental errors and mental focus. We have to make the plays. There are so many opportunities when we didn’t make plays that were there. We just have to make the play.

“Part of that is focus every day and every minute of practice. That carries over to the games. We will just keep trying to improve and grow.”

 

Triton Central 41, Monrovia 10

SCORE BY QUARTERS

TC (3-1)    13  21  7  0  --  41

MO (2-2)    3    0   0  7  -- 10

FIRST QUARTER:

MO – Newlin, 25 field goal, 3:22

TC – Crawford, 77 kickoff return (Dewey kick), 3:10

TC – Schultz, 61 pass Stuckey (kick blocked), :20

SECOND QUARTER:

TC – Schultz, 69 pass Stuckey (Dewey kick), 3:09

TC – Stuckey, 4 run (Dewey kick), 1:04

TC – Compton, 56 interception return (Dewey kick), :21

THIRD QUARTER:

TC – Schultz, 30 pass Stuckey (Winslow kick), 8:25

FOURTH QUARTER:

MO – Belcher, 7 pass Wagner (Newlin kick), 9:47

Individuals:

Rushing: Crawford 9-49, Stuckey 4-7, Schultz 1-4, Copeland 2-(-2) (TC); Kostrzewski 10-81, Kindle 10-37, Belcher 11-24, Clements 1-5, Followell 2-0, Ramos 1-0, Thacker 1-0 (MO).

Passing: Stuckey 9-13-264, Collier 0-1-0 (TC); Wagner 6-9-98, Kostrzewski 0-1-0 (MO).

Receiving: Schultz 6-220, Chandler 1-29, Kemper 1-10, Crawford 1-5 (TC); Byrnes 2-67, Kostrzewski 2-10, Belcher 2-21 (MO).

Southwestern repeats as Shelby County Golf Tournament champions

With McKinley Correll firing a season-best round, the Southwestern Spartans repeated as Shelby County Golf Tournament champions Thursday at Timbergate Golf Course in Edinburgh.

Correll knocked four strokes off her previous season-best round, posting a 46 to earn the medalist honor. That score also helped the Spartans shoot their best nine-hole score of the season. Southwestern is coached by Gary Muldoon.

Southwestern’s 225 bested Morristown (251) and Triton Central (258) Thursday. Waldron does not have a girls golf program.

 

 

Correll (photo, right) earned her third medalist honor of the season, matching Kate Linville’s three awards for Shelbyville. Correll and Linville are the only two Shelby County golfers to shoot sub-50 this season.

Southwestern’s Sydney Griffin and Emma Isgrigg posted 57 and 58, respectively, to back Correll. Aurora Belton’s 64 rounded out the Southwestern scoring. Hannah Hicks also competed and shot 70.

Ashlee Ballinger matched her season-best round of 50 to lead Morristown. Also competing for the Yellow Jackets were Mollie Runnebohm (63), Clara Hale (67) and Oakleigh Goedde (71).

Olivia Williams led Triton Central with a 60. Lindsay Huxford followed with a 62. Hanna Fink finished at 65 and Jaylee Davis shot 71.

Golden Bears turn attention to New Castle in return to McKeand Stadium

Brian Glesing continues to look for measurable gains.

Despite losing 42-7 Friday at Class 3A, No. 11 Delta, the second-year Shelbyville football coach took away some positives.

“This sounds crazy, but after that (slow start) we probably played our best football game against a team that is 3-0,” said Glesing Tuesday evening as he watched Shelbyville’s junior varsity squad host Delta at McKeand Stadium. “We got some first downs. They were just bigger and faster than us.”

The Golden Bears fell behind 21-0 after one quarter in part due to allowing a long kickoff return to open the game and a 34-yard touchdown throw following a fumble.

“It was like we didn’t get off the bus,” said Glesing. “They are better than us. I don’t think it would have mattered in the grand scheme of things in terms of wins and losses but it’s no fun when you get down 21-0 like that. But we did fight. We didn’t quit.”

The week four challenge is to start fast and finish strong against New Castle (1-2, 0-1 Hoosier Heritage Conference) in the Golden Bears’ second home game of the season.

“I think we match up better with them, and they will say the same thing about us,” said Glesing. “I think it should be a good football game.”

Teams have succeeded this season against Shelbyville (0-3, 0-1 HHC) controlling the line of scrimmage and racking up rushing yards in big chunks. New Castle prefers to attack through the air which helps create gaps along the line for quick-hitting run plays.

Junior quarterback Tyson Lewis has completed 22-of-68 pass attempts (32%) for 227 yards and three touchdowns. He has thrown eight interceptions.

Lewis’ top target has been senior wideout Quintin Boatright, who has 13 receptions for 109 yards and two touchdowns – both against Triton Central in week two.

Senior Jon Eberhart is New Castle’s leading rusher with 45 carries for 201 yards.

“They spread it out a little bit,” said Glesing. “They like throwing the ball and spreading you out and hitting the gaps running.”

Shelbyville’s defensive line needs to push forward and create pressure on Lewis.

“This will be one of those, Delta pushed us back but maybe we can get a little surge … a little push like the first couple of games,” said Glesing.

 

 

Cael Lux (photo) has emerged as Shelbyville’s defensive stopper. The five-foot, six-inch tall undersized linebacker has a team-leading 50 total tackles through the first three weeks.

“He is flipping back and forth from safety to linebacker,” said Glesing. “He’s all over the place. He’s a guy that has a nose for the ball. He is a good open field tackler. He’s the little guy on the field but he has a lot of heart.”

Glesing complimented senior linebacker Riley Fortune and junior cornerback Alex Macharia on their development as well. Fortune is third on the team with 20 total tackles behind senior Jordan Marcum’s 23.

 

 

Freshman Donavon Martin (photo) has earned his first varsity start Friday against New Castle.

“He will start at safety,” said Glesing. “He is built. He is stronger than some of our juniors and seniors. He has earned some of his spots because of how he has practiced and how he has performed in junior varsity games.”

Quarterback Eli Chappelow completed 7-of-9 pass attempts at Delta for 98 yards. He also ran for 23 yards on eight carries. 

For the season, the junior has connected on 23-of-39 passes for 404 yards and two touchdowns. He has not thrown an interception. He is second on team in rushing yards with 85.

 

 

Axel Conover (photo) leads the Golden Bears in rushing with 217 yards and two touchdowns.

Jackson Parker has a team-high 10 catches for 133 yards. Lux has seven receptions for 174 yards.

 

 

QUICK FACTS

New Castle at Shelbyville

Game Time: 7 p.m. at McKeand Stadium in Shelbyville, Ind.

Broadcast time: 6 p.m. pregame show live from McKeand Stadium with Johnny McCrory and Mark Drake on GIANT fm (96.5 fm, 106.3 fm, 1520 am) or on the GIANT fm app.

Student section theme: Country.

Head coaches:  Kyle York, 23-33 in 6th year at New Castle; Brian Glesing, 1-9 in 2nd year at Shelbyville, 119-103 in 20th year overall.

2021 record: New Castle 2-8; Shelbyville 1-6.

Sagarin ratings: New Castle, 45.38, 158th overall, 37th in Class 4A; Shelbyville, 27.74, 235th overall, 52nd in Class 4A.

Point spread: New Castle is favored by 16 points.

Last meeting: Shelbyville and New Castle did not play in 2021 due to the Golden Bears’ roster being compromised by COVID-19 protocols. In 2020, New Castle won 55-0.

Around the HHC Friday: Class 3A, No. 11 Delta (3-0, 1-0 HHC) at Yorktown (2-1, 0-1 HHC); Class 4A, No. 1 New Palestine (3-0, 1-0 HHC) at Class 4A, No. 9 Mt. Vernon (1-2, 1-0 HHC); and Pendleton Heights (2-1, 1-0 HHC) at Class 4A, No. 11 Greenfield-Central (2-1, 0-1 HHC).

Prep Report: Class A, No.19 Southwestern defeats Indian Creek

Class A, No. 19 Southwestern used three first-half goals to secure a victory at Indian Creek Wednesday in Trafalgar.

Constant Martinez got the visiting Spartans (3-1-1) on the scoreboard in the game’s opening minute with his fourth goal of the season.

Less than 15 minutes later, Garreth Stringer scored his fourth goal of the season to spot Southwestern to a 2-0 lead.

Jonah DeArmitt followed quickly with his first tally of the year to make it 3-0.

Aiden Long scored late in the first half for Indian Creek (0-5).

Clay Funkhouser scored with 28 minutes left in the second half but Michael Clements and the Southwestern defense did not allow another score to seal the win.

In other prep events Wednesday:

Boys Soccer

Morristown 2, Hauser 0

At Hauser, the visiting Yellow Jackets collected their third shutout victory of the season to improve to 5-1-2.

Hauser dropped to 0-3-1.

The Yellow Jackets host Rushville (2-5-1) today.

Boys Tennis

Elwood 4, Morristown 1

At Elwood, Morristown’s only victory came at No. 2 doubles where Bryce Bryant and Brady Schonfeld defeated Anthony Pan and Xavier Davenport, 6-0, 6-3.

Bryan and Schonfeld are 3-2 this season at No. 2 doubles.

At No. 1 singles, Owen Hinchman topped Morristown’s Tyler Schonfeld, 6-0, 6-0.

Beau Brandon bested Jameson Palmer at No. 2 singles, 7-5, 6-0.

Jayden Reese notched a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles over Jacob Robey.

And at No. 1 doubles, Peterson Pan and Zane Henry defeated Dalton McMichael and Michael Ballinger, 6-4, 6-3.

Morristown (1-5) travels to Hauser today.

Good move proves winning decision for Good Forever in the $100,000 Circle City Stakes

Indiana’s leading jockey Marcelino Pedroza Jr. had a choice at the top of the stretch. Move to the outside or try his luck inside. He opted for the latter with Good Forever which was the winning decision in the 22nd Running of the $100,000 Circle City Stakes Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville.

A full field of 12 two-year-old colts and geldings entered the starting gate for the stakes race, and several had intentions of being on or near the lead early. Bruster Justice and Fernando De La Cruz emerged first from the center of the pack but were quickly overtaken by a pair of inside horses as Oh So Social and DeShawn Parker with Win Me Over and Eddie Perez between horses early on.

The field remained bunched up heading down the backstretch with little racing room available for several trailing horses, including Good Forever.

Around the turn, Good Forever was wanting to move on and Pedroza Jr. had to keep the reins tight on the colt until the stretch. Bruster Justice had a short lead as the field behind him began to close in. Good Forever had the option of moving to the outside of him or dipping to the inside. Pedroza Jr. was able to find just the right racing room to advance to the inside of Bruster Justice. Once he cleared him, Good Forever opened up on his opponents and was a clear winner by two and three-quarter lengths in 1:12.77.

Healing Waters and Edgar Morales closed in on the outside for second over Taillights and Gerardo Corrales for third.

 

 

Good Forever was a surprise, paying $39.40 for his maiden breaking win. The Good Forever chestnut gelding was making his third career start with two previous runner-up finishes for trainer Genaro Garcia and his Southwest Racing Stables Inc.

“We were following the three (Win Me Over) and we really wanted to follow the seven (Bruster Justice), but it ended up working out,” said Pedroza Jr., who is a three-time leading jockey at Horseshoe Indianapolis and currently leading the standings again in 2022. “When Edgar (Morales) made the move to the outside (with Healing Waters), I thought I’d go inside. He really finished well. I want to thank Genaro and the Garcia Stable for having this horse ready to go. They did a great job.”

Garcia purchased Good Forever privately. He was bred by Hidden Springs Farm in Indiana and was one of five Indiana-sired horses in the field. Garcia continues to find success with young horses in the Hoosier State and picked up his third stakes win of the season with Good Forever. Garcia and Pedroza Jr. have combined for 10 wins together this season.

It was one of two wins on the day for Garcia and his Southwest Racing Stable, also connecting earlier on the program with Mi Estrella, ridden by Edgar Morales. Garcia earned four back-to-back titles from 2017 through 2020. He is currently in second place on the leading trainer standings for 2022. He leads all trainers in purses this year with more than $1.1 million accumulated.

Sizzling performance by Hot Little Thing in $100,000 Back Home Again Stakes

Hot Little Thing and jockey Alex Achard made their step up into stakes action a seamless move, scoring the victory in the 22nd running of the $100,000 Back Home Again Stakes Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville.

It was the third career start for the Army Mule filly who is now two for three in her young career.

Hot Little Thing and Achard (photo) started their journey in the six-furlong sprint from post three and were surrounded by competition that had early speed from the gate. The speedy little chestnut filly was quick out of the gate and snagged the top spot in the first few strides of the race. Achard was able to maintain the desired spot on top with several fillies lurking just at their heels.

At the head of the stretch, Hot Little Thing hit another gear and pulled away from the field, gobbling up ground with every stride. As Track announcer John Dooley noted in the stretch call, “She’s an Army Mule filly and boy does she have a kick.”

Hot Little Thing was well under wraps by Achard, who had a huge smile on his face as they crossed under the wire for the win, scoring the victory by 14 and one-half lengths. Corningstone and Brian Hernandez Jr. rallied up late for second, just a neck ahead of Bluelightspecial and Manny Esquivel, who endured traffic trouble in the turn but later shook loose and came up the inside for third.

 

 

The time of the sprint was 1:10.43.

“We were lucky enough to get on the lead and no one put too much pressure on us,” said Achard. “When I asked her at the top of the stretch, she took off just like we did out of the gate.”

Hot Little Thing, trained by Rodolphe Brisset, shipped in for the win, paying $4.20. She was an $80,000 purchase from the Ocala Breeders Sale in March this year for the partnership of September Farm LLC, Union Park Thoroughbred LLC, Storyteller Racing, and Jonathan Wilmot. Several of the owners were trackside donning their gold ball caps representing the filly, which went over the $100,000 mark in earnings for her connections.

“She’s been great,” said Ted Nixon, who along with his wife, Mary, co-own the filly under Storyteller Racing. “Rodolphe (Brisset) found her for us at the Ocala Sale and we were super excited to have an Indiana bred. She has been everything we hoped for. This is our first stakes win in Indiana and as Rodolphe said, she’ll be back.”

Class 2A, No. 10 Triton Central still searching for offensive balance

Tim Able does not need to look at the statistics to tell him Triton Central has a balance problem.

The last two weeks of the football season have been exasperating to the veteran coach who would prefer more rushing yards than passing yards most any given Friday night.

“The last two weeks have been tough scenarios,” said Able. “Anyone that knows me knows I like to run the football.”

Through the first three weeks of the 2021 season, TC rushed the ball 102 times for 637 yards. Quarterback Jace Stuckey was a mere 25-of-46 for 396 yards and five touchdowns.

In 2022, Stuckey has already put the ball in the air 86 times for 807 yards and seven TDs. The rushing attack has been utilized 82 times for more than half the production (319 yards) of the first three games of 2021.

“So many mistakes. So many penalties. Bad field position. We didn’t get the run going early,” said Able of TC’s 54-41 loss to Class A, No. 1 Lutheran last week in Fairland. “It’s been that way two weeks now. We’ve got to quit shooting ourselves in the foot and getting second-and-long and third-and-long (situations). We’ve got to get balance.”

In week two’s 21-14 win at New Castle, Triton Central ran 22 second-down plays with 13 requiring 10 yards or more for a first down. Twelve of the 16 third-down plays required six yards or more for a first down.

Against Lutheran, 10-of-19 second-down snaps came with at least 10 yards for a first down. Nine of 11 third-down plays needed at least seven yards for a first down.

All-State candidate Ray Crawford has 46 carries through three games for 284 yards and three touchdowns. Able knows he has to stay faithful to Crawford and the running game.

“He’s doing fine,” said Able of Crawford’s mentality. “He understands the game, the situation. We’ve just got to get it to him more.”

 

 

Stuckey’s week three performance against the Saints netted him a school record for passing yards in a game. The junior (photo) completed 21-of-31 attempts for 406 yards and two TDs but he also had a fumble and three interceptions.

Able is all for celebrating records but he would prefer to do so after the season.

With his 807 yards passing this season, Stuckey is fifth on TC’s career passing yards list with 2,212 yards. He became the first TC quarterback to pass for more than 350 yards in a game. The previous record was 335 yards set by Jordan Martin in 2007 against Milan.

 

 

Seniors Brad Schultz (photo) and Luke Faust have benefited the most from the Tigers consistently being in passing downs. Schultz has 26 receptions for 417 yards and five TDs this season. With 71 career catches, Schultz is fifth on the program’s career receiving yards list with 1,154. He needs 49 yards Friday to pass Geoff Bond (61 catches, 1,202 yards from 1982-84) for fourth all-time.

 

 

Faust (photo), playing high school football for the first time in his prep career, had 14 receptions for 214 yards but will be out for several weeks with a broken collarbone suffered in the loss to Lutheran.

A second Indiana Crossroads Conference loss will knock Triton Central down the standings. The Tigers need a bounce back win against a team that bulldozed them last season.

Monrovia’s Dustin Kostrzewski and Brayton Belcher ran for five touchdowns in a 38-14 win in 2021 over the Tigers. In three games this season, the duo have rushed for a combined 564 yards and seven touchdowns.

“The running back sets the table. We have to shut down the fullback (Belcher),” said Able. “He is good.”

Senior quarterback Elias Wagner has only thrown the ball 25 times this season, completing 12 passes for 289 yards and three TDs.

“We have got to control the run to stay away from the big passes,” said Able. “They got us that way last year.”

Win or lose, Able wants to see a complete performance from the offense, defense and special teams.

“We need to get back to playing Tiger football – hard-nosed, physical, error-free and take care of the football,” he said.

 

 

QUICK FACTS

Class 2A, No. 10 Triton Central at Monrovia

Game time: 7 p.m. at Hadley Field in Monrovia, Ind.

Media coverage: Follow Shelby County Post News Editor Jeff Brown on Twitter at @Sportsboss4life for live updates from Monrovia.

TC student section theme: Toga Night.

Head coaches: Tim Able, 82-33 in 10th year at Triton Central, 207-131 in 29th year overall; Andy Olson, 11-13 in 3rd year at Monrovia

2021 record: Triton Central 8-5; Monrovia 7-4.

Sagarin ratings: Triton Central, 65.27, 82nd overall, 6th in Class 2A; Monrovia, 51.44, 128th overall, 28th in Class 3A.

Point spread: Triton Central is favored by 12 points.

Last year: Monrovia’s Dustin Kostrzewski and Brayton Belcher combined for five rushing touchdowns in a 38-14 victory at Mendenhall Field in Fairland.

Last 10 years: Triton Central holds the advantage over the last decade winning six of ten meetings.

Around the ICC Friday: Cascade (1-2, 1-2 ICC) at Cloverdale (1-2); Cardinal Ritter (0-2, 0-2 ICC) at Speedway (1-2, 0-2 ICC); Class 2A, No. 3 Indianapolis Scecina (3-0, 2-0 ICC) at Beech Grove (1-2, 1-2 ICC); and Lapel (2-1) at Class A, No. 1 Lutheran (3-0, 3-0 ICC).

Prep Report: Hernandez goal, Hounshell shutout gets Shelbyville soccer fifth-straight win

An Al Hernandez goal late in the first half was enough for Shelbyville boys soccer to secure a 1-0 victory Tuesday over Batesville.

The Bulldogs (6-3) packed its defense around the net to keep the Golden Bears in check but Hernandez scored unassisted from long distance with seven minutes left in the first half.

Shelbyville (6-2-1) had several scoring chances in the second half but couldn’t add on a goal. Meanwhile, the defense kept Batesville off the scoreboard.

Jalen Hounshell made two saves late to preserve the fourth shutout victory of the season.

Shelbyville won the junior varsity match, 5-1. Rory O’Connor had four goals and Mylez Clark scored in the first 50 seconds to lead Shelbyville.

Shelbyville has won five straight matches and looks to improve to 2-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference Thursday against New Palestine (5-3, 1-2 HHC).

In other prep events Tuesday:

Girls Golf

Edinburgh 204, Indian Creek 218, Southwestern 246

At Timbergate Golf Course, Indian Creek’s Hannah Emenhiser earned the medalist honor with a round of 42 but the Lancers’ top two golfers shot 46 or better to earn the team victory.

Izzy Richardson and Macie Blandford shot 44 and 46, respectively, to lead Edinburgh.

McKinley Correll led Southwestern with a 55. Also competing for the Spartans were Emma Isgrigg (59), Aurora Belton (65), Sydney Griffin (67) and Hannah Hicks (70).

Southwestern will compete in the Shelby County Golf Tournament Thursday at Blue Bear Golf Course in Shelbyville.

Girls Soccer

Shelbyville 4, Pendleton Heights 3

At Pendleton Heights, Ava Wilson and Evelyn Kiefer each scored a pair of goals to lead the visiting Golden Bears (3-1, 2-1 HHC) to the conference victory.

Kiefer scored her team-leading sixth and seventh goals in the win. Wilson now has five goals this season.

Lilly Johnson was credited with assists on two of the goals. Emma Sandman and Kiefer also had assists.

Macy Cooley had 23 saves in goal for Shelbyville.

Lyza DeShong scored her team-leading eighth goal of the season for Pendleton Heights (4-3, 1-1 HHC). Kaitlyn Prickett and Isabelle Phillips also scored for the Arabians.

Shelbyville travels to Fairland Thursday to face Triton Central (3-3).

Speedway 3, Triton Central 0

At Triton Central, the visiting Sparkplugs (7-0, 4-0 Indiana Crossroads Conference) got two goals from Audrey Burrell and another goal from Yadely Ruiz to stay undefeated this season.

Genesis Austin was credited with the shutout victory in goal.

Boys Tennis

Shelbyville 4, Greensburg 1

At Shelbyville, the host Golden Bears (7-3) swept four of the five matches to defeat the Pirates.

At No. 1 singles, Aidan Asher defeated Greensburg’s Bryce Stringer, 6-1, 6-3.

Caden Tackett secured a 7-5, 6-0 victory over Dan Fisse at No. 2 singles.

Logan Prickett made quick work of Jeter Edwards at No. 3 singles, 6-0, 6-2.

At No. 2 doubles, Karson Schaf and Reece Prickett topped Justin Adkins and Reece Beaver, 6-4, 6-0.

Greensburg’s only win came at No. 1 doubles where Abe Tebbe and Jack McKinsey defeated Aiden Smith and Caden Claxton, 6-4, 4-6, 10-8.

Shelbyville got junior varsity match wins from Layne Pogue, Gavin Reed and the doubles pairing of Reed and Alex Bunton.

Shelbyville hosts Mt. Vernon Thursday for a Hoosier Heritage Conference match with possession of the conference’s traveling trophy at stake. Mt. Vernon took the trophy from Greenfield-Central Tuesday.

Waldron 4, Rushville 1

At Waldron, the Mohawks won their third straight match to improve to 5-4 this season.

At No. 1 singles, Lucas Shaw defeated Rushville’s Alex Wainwright, 6-1, 6-1.

Jack Fischer played his best match of the year in winning at No. 2 singles over Jensen Smith, 6-1, 6-3.

Josh Kellems and Jacob Lindsey scored a dominant No. 1 doubles win for Waldron over Konnor Parsley and Mason Mosburg, 6-0, 6-1.

And Connor Hinchman and Sam Jones overcame a second-set loss to defeat Rushville’s Clayton Chase and Lucas Vaughn at No. 2 doubles, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-1.

Rushville’s lone win came at No. 3 singles where Travor Hunter defeated Caiden Young, 2-6, 6-0, 6-4.

Waldron got JV wins from Isaiah Keller, Connor Ping and the doubles pairing of Andy Lacy and Matthew Thomas.

Waldron hosts Eastern Hancock Thursday.

Volleyball

Triton Central def. Warren Central, 25-12, 25-13, 25-13

At Triton Central, the host Tigers (11-2) won their ninth straight and dropped Warren Central to 1-8 this season.

The Tigers racked up 22 services aces over three sets. Maddy Brown had a team-high five aces and Kaitlin Bramlett finished with four.

Brown also had a team-high six kills. Bramlett added five and Brooklyn Bailey collected four.

Kate Isley finished with 21 assists and Hallie Schweitzer had 12 digs.

Triton Central is at Morristown Thursday.

New Castle def. Shelbyville, 25-9, 25-14, 25-5

At New Castle, the visiting Golden Bears (3-7) had their worst offensive output of the season in getting swept by the Trojans (9-1) in the conference opener for both programs.

Shelbyville hosts Hauser (9-3) Thursday at William L. Garrett Gymnasium.

Hauser def. Morristown, 25-14, 25-19, 25-8

At Hauser, the Jets improved to 9-3 overall and 2-0 in the Mid-Hoosier Conference standings with a straight-set win over the Yellow Jackets (2-9, 0-3 MHC).

Collegiate Update: Kermode gets 8 tackles in Concordia's loss at Stetson

Hayden Kermode kicked off his sophomore season at Concordia University (Michigan) with eight tackles in a 24-14 loss at Stetson University Saturday in DeLand, Florida.

The Triton Central graduate had seven solo tackles and one assist in the Cardinals’ season-opening loss.

Kermode, a linebacker, played three games as a freshman and had seven tackles, one forced fumble and two blocked punts.

Here is a look at other Shelby County graduates competing at the collegiate level.

 

 

Kenneth Gipson

The Triton Central graduate started on the offensive line for Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Saturday in a 17-14 loss at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

Gipson, a junior, was the starting center on the 2021 offensive line that set school records for single season all-purpose yards (6,505), passing touchdowns (33) and total points scored (452).

 

 

Dylan Wasson

The Triton Central graduate took the field for Olivet Nazarene’s football program Saturday in a 28-24 loss at Siena Heights in Adrian, Michigan.
Wasson, a sophomore defensive lineman, did not record a defensive statistic.

 

 

Michael Fox

The Shelbyville graduate competed for Manchester University Thursday in the Manchester Hokum Karem.

Running with fellow freshman Gavin Byerly (Huntington North graduate), the duo completed the race in 46 minutes, nine seconds. Each pair alternated running the approximate one-mile cross country course four times on Manchester’s campus.

Fox clocked laps of 5:44, 5:48, 5:55 and 6:02.

 

 

Emma Nolley

The Shelbyville graduate recorded one dig Friday for Texas Woman’s University in a 25-18, 9-25, 27-25, 25-21 win over Missouri Southern in the opening match of the Denton Volleyfest at Kitty Magee Arena in Denton, Texas.

Nolley did not play in the Pioneers’ 25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 26-24 win over Fort Hays State nor in a 25-13, 25-15, 25-23 loss to Northwestern Oklahoma State.

Nolley did play in one set Saturday of a 23-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-7 win over Ouachita Baptist.

With a 3-1 weekend in its home opener, Texas Woman’s University improved to 5-3 this season.

 

 

Julia Sanders

The Triton Central graduate had four assists, two service aces and five digs Saturday in IU Kokomo’s 24-26, 25-22, 25-17, 25-16 loss to Cumberland University (Tenn.) in the final match of the Liz Hossler Labor Day Classic hosted by Bethel University in Mishawaka, Indiana.

IU Kokomo opened the invitational with a 27-25, 25-16, 26-24 win Friday over Campbellsville University (Ky.). Sanders finished with two assists and three digs.

Sanders had four assists and five digs in IU Kokomo’s 25-23, 23-25, 25-13, 16-25, 15-10 win over Bethel University.

On Saturday, IU Kokomo opened day two with a 25-13, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22 win over Grace College, Sanders had eight assists and nine digs.

IU Kokomo is 6-2 this season.

 

 

Maggie Schweitzer

Hanover College’s volleyball program opened the 2022 season with a 1-3 mark at the Great Lakes Cross Over held at the Cedar Point Sports Complex in Sandusky, Ohio.

Hanover opened the invitational Friday with a 25-14, 25-23, 23-25, 25-22, 15-12 win over Bethany College. Schweitzer had 17 assists, 14 digs, one kill and one ace.

Case Western Reserve University defeated the Panthers, 22-25, 25-19, 25-14, 25-22 in match two Friday. Schweitzer had 14 assists, one kill, one ace and five digs.

Hanover opened its Saturday schedule with a 25-10, 25-20, 25-18 loss to Muskingum University. Schweitzer had nine assists, one kill and four digs.

The Panthers closed out the event with a 25-14, 24-26, 23-25, 25-18, 17-15 loss to Baldwin Wallace University. Schweitzer finished with three kills, three aces, 13 digs and 20 assists.

 

 

Brooklyn Schiffli

Jacksonville State’s volleyball program secured its first 6-0 start to non-conference play since moving to Division I in 1995.

The Gamecocks went 3-0 at the Clemson Invitational in Clemson, South Carolina.

On Friday, Jacksonville State defeated The Citadel, 25-22, 25-17, 23-25, 9-25, 16-14 to improve to 4-0 this season. Schiffli, a Triton Central graduate, had 11 digs and one assist in the win.

With a 25-11, 21-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-11 win over Clemson Friday, Jacksonville State notched a second victory over a “Power 5” school this season – a first for the program since 2009. Schiffli had 17 digs, four assists and one ace.

On Saturday, Jacksonville State completed the invitational with a 25-18, 25-14, 25-14 win over Gardner Webb. Schiffli had four digs and one ace.

Columbus East volleyball sweeps Shelbyville

Shelbyville volleyball went to work on Labor Day at Columbus East.

The host Olympians dominated the first set and rolled to a 25-9, 25-11, 25-19 victory over the visiting Golden Bears (3-6).

Shelby Lasure (photo) and Ashlyn Turner each had five kills to lead Shelbyville. Ashlyn Clark had four kills.

 

 

Riley Lee finished with a team-high nine digs and Alivia Lee had three total blocks.

Karlie Lawson collected 13 assists, had two service aces and three blocks.

Columbus East improved to 7-5 this season.

Shelbyville travels to New Castle (8-1) today for a Hoosier Heritage Conference match with the Trojans.

Steve Bush photo

Trio of new top-ranked teams in Indiana Football Coaches Association state poll

There are three new No. 1 teams in the Indiana Football Coaches Association state poll.

Brownsburg (Class 6A), Whiteland (5A) and Linton-Stockton (2A) all rose to the top spot in their respective polls after the previous No. 1 suffered their first losses of the season.

With a 52-27 win over Monrovia Friday, Linton-Stockton moved to 3-0 this season and vaulted to No. 1 from No. 3 in the poll after Evansville Mater Dei and Eastbrook were defeated.

Andrean (1-2) moved from No. 4 to No. 2 with Indianapolis Scecina (3-0) also rising two spots. Evansville Mater Dei (2-1), Eastbrook (2-1), Lafayette Central Catholic (2-1), LaVille (3-0), Fort Wayne Luers (1-2), Heritage Christian (2-1) and Triton Central (2-1) round out the top 10 this week.

 

 

Triton Central dropped three spots after its 54-41 loss Friday to Class A, No. 1 Indianapolis Lutheran.

Lutheran (3-0) maintained its top ranking in Class A. Adams Central (3-0) is No. 2 followed by South Adams (3-0), Park Tudor (3-0), North Judson (3-0), North Decatur (3-0), Carroll (Flora) (3-0), Tri (3-0), Monroe Central (2-1) and South Putnam (2-1).

Despite taking its first loss of the season Friday to Class 4A, No. 2 Roncalli (17-14), Chatard (2-1) is again the top-ranked team in Class 3A. West Lafayette (3-0) is No. 2 ahead of Gibson Southern (3-0), Western Boone (3-0), Guerin Catholic (3-0), Tri-West (2-1), Norwell (3-0), Hanover Central (3-0), Lawrenceburg (2-1) and Mishawaka Marian (1-2).

Delta (3-0) defeated Shelbyville, 42-7, Friday and moved from No. 12 to No. 11 in this week’s poll.

New Palestine (3-0) remained the No. 1 team in Class 4A but Roncalli (3-0) also received votes as the top team in the class.

Mooresville (3-0) is No. 3 followed by Kokomo (3-0), East Central (2-1), Northwood (3-0), Brebeuf Jesuit (1-1), New Prairie (3-0), Mt. Vernon (1-2) and Martinsville (3-0).

For the first time in program history, Whiteland (3-0) is ranked No. 1 in the Class 5A poll. Whiteland’s 28-7 win over 5A No. 5 Decatur Central, combined with Merrillville’s 48-40 loss to Crown Point, was enough to push the Warriors to the No. 1 ranking.

Mishawaka (3-0) moved up to No. 2 ahead of Merrillville (2-1) and Fort Wayne Snider (2-1). Franklin (3-0) is No. 5 ahead of Valparaiso (2-1), Fort Wayne Dwenger (2-1), Decatur Central (1-2), Castle (2-1) and Harrison (West Lafayette (2-1).

Center Grove’s 30-game win streak was snapped by Louisville Trinity, 29-28 in two overtimes Friday, and cost the Trojans the top ranking in Class 6A.

Brownsburg (3-0) ascended to No. 1 with Center Grove (2-1), Cathedral (2-1), Ben Davis (2-1), Hamilton Southeastern (3-0), Carmel (1-2), Warren Central (2-1), Carroll (Allen) (3-0), Penn (2-1) and Westfield (2-1) rounding out the top 10.

Lions roar past Mohawks in debut of 8-man football in Indiana

JEFFERSONVILLE -- With one mighty push, Nate Milbourn landed in the end zone and Waldron’s inaugural 8-man football team had its first touchdown.

The Mohawks debuted Saturday night in Jeffersonville at Woehrle Fields against Rock Creek Academy as part of an Indiana High School Athletic Association pilot program.

Waldron did not win but earned the respect of Rock Creek Academy, a Class A school in Sellersburg, who dropped down from the traditional 11-man football format to 8-man football this year.

“I like it for the numbers that we have,” said first-year Rock Creek Academy head coach Scott Woods when asked about 8-man football. “I’m liking it right now being this is my first game as a head coach at the high school level and I get a win.”

RCA quarterback Zach Clark completed 9-of-14 pass attempts for 199 yards and two touchdowns in a 36-16 victory in a game cut short due to inclement weather.

“It was exciting,” said Waldron coach Corey Barton, who serves as offensive coordinator with Chandler Miller acting as defensive coordinator. “We have some things to fix. We were getting beat over the top of the defense and that has to be fixed. They were just faster and taller on the outside.”

Waldron’s first game came without five rostered players, including the No. 1 and No. 2 quarterbacks. That pushed freshman Hunter Dodson into the signal-caller’s role and he handled it well.

 

 

The diminutive quarterback (photo) carried the ball a game-high 25 times for 105 yards and connected with J.D. Smith for a 58-yard touchdown strike in the third quarter that cut the Lions’ lead to 22-16.

Dodson learned Thursday he had 48 hours to prepare to be the starting quarterback for the program’s first game.

“We didn’t try to stretch the field for much of that reason,” said Barton. “We didn’t get the repetitions to get the confidence (to throw the ball).”

Hunter Dodson completed the final two of his five pass attempts in the game Saturday and finished with 69 yards passing.

Starting quarterback Walker Dodson and reserve QB Cayden Balzen both were sidelined Saturday but should be available for a week two matchup with Irvington Christian in Waldron.

 

 

Waldron was the better team in the first half but didn’t close out with the lead and struggled to contain Rock Creek Academy receiver Ryan Ingram (photo), who finished with five catches for 87 yards.

“It was an amazing first half,” said Woods. “(Waldron) came out and punched us in the mouth and got up real quick and caught us off guard. We had to make some adjustments on defense and with those adjustments we were able to stop them a little bit.”

Dodson fumbled near midfield to end Waldron’s first-ever possession but the freshman intercepted a Clark pass attempt near the 15-yard line and returned it 50 yards to the RCA 35.

Dodson got loose for a 21-yard run down to the Lions’ 4-yard line and Barton went to the “heavy” package to finish off the drive.

Milbourn, a junior listed at nearly six-feet tall and 334 pounds, took the direct snap behind Waldron’s 3-man offensive line, stepped left and barreled into a group of defenders who slowed him down but didn’t stop him. With the offensive linemen pushing the pile from behind, Milbourn landed in the end zone. Dodson ran in the 2-point conversion attempt to complete a piece of history for Waldron football.

“It was not drawn up to get Nate the first touchdown in history,” admitted Barton. “Nate is nimble enough and I knew he could carry some guys. The situation just worked there.”

Milbourn has been part of Barton’s youth football program in Waldron since he was in second grade. He has continued over the years to pester Barton about the creation of a high school program. On Saturday, he was rewarded for his dedication.

“He’s a kid over the years that was always working toward this day to get a high school team,” said Barton.

When the first quarter ended, Waldron led 8-0.

The Lions got on the scoreboard midway through the second half when sophomore Dylan Parente crossed the goalline from six yards out. Parente was part of Rock Creek Academy’s 2021 football team that finished 1-8 and was outscored 426-70.

The 2-point conversion pass failed and the Mohawks still had the lead 8-6.

Waldron fumbled on a double-reverse play on its next possession and had a drive stall out on its final possession of the first half because of three penalties.

Following a punt and good return, the Lions took possession on the Waldron 25 with 12.8 seconds left in the quarter. Clark hit Zion Barnes in stride for a momentum-stealing touchdown. Clark ran in the 2-point conversion and RCA took a 14-8 lead into halftime.

“Staying positive,” said Barton of the halftime message to the Mohawks. “We needed to find energy and effort. We were tired, spent and beat up a little bit, but we were not giving up.”

Rock Creek Academy scored on the first play of the second half with Clark finding Barnes for a 31-yard touchdown pass and catch. The 2-point conversion pass to Graham was good and the Lions extended the lead to 22-8.

 

 

Waldron answered right back with Dodson hitting Smith (photo) for a long touchdown play and Ethan Richardson finished off the 2-point conversion run to make it 22-16.

However, the Lions scored on their next two possessions with Clark finishing off a drive with a 3-yard scoring run (2-point conversion failed) and Parente racing 47 yards for another touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Lightning rolled into the area and the game was halted at 8:49 p.m. with just over five minutes left on the scoreboard clock. Approximately 15 minutes later the game was ended as rain moved into the area.

“First of all, the win tonight means everything for Rock Creek,” said Woods. “It’s a tradition we are trying to build. So getting a win, even under these circumstances, which is awful. They could have obviously had a chance to come back. I hate that for Waldron.

“However, a 1-0 record for this team means a lot.”

Waldron took its first loss and invaluable experience from its long trip down to southern Indiana. Barton expects to have Waldron’s 20-man roster nearly intact for a week two matchup with Irvington Christian in what is expected to be a festive experience nearly a decade in the making – Waldron’s first ever home high school football game.

“It’s going to be awesome,” said Barton. “We will rock it out next weekend.”

Notes: The IHSAA 8-man football pilot program includes five schools – Waldron, Rock Creek Academy, Irvington Christian, Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian and Dugger Union. … The Mohawks’ 6-game schedule includes home-and-away contests with Rock Creek Academy, who dressed 15 of its 18-player roster Saturday against the Mohawks, Irvington Prep and Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian. Dugger Union was a late addition to the 8-man football program. … Rock Creek Academy started playing football in 2015 and finished 0-5 and 0-7 in its first two seasons. In seven seasons total, the Lions went 8-47. … 8-man football is played on a narrower field and with three less players than the traditional 11-man football setup. Offensively, teams typically use three-man offensive lines, a quarterback and four skill-position players (running backs and wide receivers).

Johnny McCrory photos

Winner Spirit a determined victor in QHRAI SSA Futurity

Trainer Randy Smith had four horses qualify for the 23rd running of the $196,736 QHRAI Stallion Service Auction Futurity. So he had to move outside of his regular jockeys to cover all four horses and called upon Erik Esqueda to ride Winner Spirit.

The pairing proved to be a winning connection as Esqueda guided Winner Spirit to victory in the stakes, which sported the largest purse in the history of the race.

It wasn’t the greatest start for Winner Spirit out of the gate. Esqueda had to quickly check and correct his ride, who jumped out of the gate from the extreme outside post, but he quickly got him back on track and focused on his job.

Flat Out Smoking and Giovani Vazquez Gomez had the early advantage from the inside with Runaway Beach Chic and Francisco Quintero also getting good early positioning. Midway through the 350-yard dash, Winner Spirit began to lengthen his stride and was passing horses to his left with every step. Once he was clear of the field, he easily went under the wire as the winner by one length in a time of 17.999 seconds.

Runaway Beach Chic, the longest shot on the board, finished second over Flat Out Smoking.

 

 

It was the third win in five starts for Winner Spirit, who paid $13.20 for the win. The freshman son of Apollitical Spirit is owned by breeder Walter “Dick” Harrison and trained by Randy Smith. The gelding only had a little more than $19,000 on his card coming into the event, but he leaves with more than $126,000 on his card.

“The horse didn’t break great, but he was able to pull it together,” said Esqueda, who scored wins in both the QHRAI SSA Derby and Futurity, a first in his career. “I want to thank God, the trainer, and I’m just thankful for the opportunity to ride a great horse like this.”

 

 

Esqueda (photo, far left) has been among the track’s top five Quarter Horse riders all season. The 21-year-old is having a banner year and on track to top last year’s tally, his best to date since beginning his riding career in 2019.

“It feels good to win both stakes,” added Esqueda.

Mr Michel scores in QHRAI SSA Derby at Horseshoe Indianapolis

Mr Michel has been tough to defeat his entire career, and he just added another stakes win to his card Saturday in the $110,173 QHRAI Stallion Service Auction Derby at Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville, Indiana.

The 23rd running of the stakes race sported the biggest purse in the history of the event. The race began at Hoosier Park in 2000, just three years after pari-mutuel Quarter Horse racing was added in Indiana. It was relocated to Horseshoe Indianapolis when the state moved all Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing in 2013 to the Shelbyville racetrack.

As the field of nine broke from the gate, it was two inside horses, Keens Blood Legacy and Jose Ruiz and Ah One Special Wave, ridden by Cesar Esqueda, that got the early advantage. Midway through the 400-yard dash, Mr Michel and Erik Esqueda found another gear and began to close in. The timing was perfect for the wire to get the win by a half-length over Ah One Special Wave.

Keens Blood Legacy finished another neck back in third. The time of the 400-yard dash was 20.269 seconds over the sloppy track surface.

 

 

“I love this horse so much,” said Esqueda, who has guided Mr Michel to all but one of his career wins. “I’m so glad I have the opportunity to keep riding him.”

Mr Michel is owned by Alberto Valadez and trained by Claudio Barraza. He paid $6.20 for the win. The sorrel son of Kiss My Hocks was a $17,500 purchase from the QHRAI Speed Sale as a yearling. To date, he has accumulated more than $250,000 in earnings in six wins in 12 starts now on his card.

Mark Michel bred the gelding, who is out of his Indiana stakes winning mare Lovemelikethat.

“He always does well when he’s right in the middle of the pack,” said Barraza of Mr Michel. “I guess he likes the competition. I think he won his last stakes from post six too.”

As far as the next stop for Mr Michel, Barraza added, “I’m looking forward to the last couple of Derbies with Mr Michel at Horseshoe Indianapolis.”

Stone Lake dives to the wire for win in Woodard Memorial Classic

The field in the $83,500 Bob Woodard Memorial Classic endured a rain delay and sloppy track conditions Saturday before Stone Lake came home with the win in the 14th running of the event.

It was a good start for Stone Lake and L.D. “Daniel” Martinez, but they were not on the lead from the start. Race-favorite Beach Blast and Juan Marquez broke away as the early leaders of the race and appeared to be on the way to another win.

But in the final strides, a pair of runners began creeping up on the outside. Hooked on Jordan and Isidro Banuelos were the first to appear in the picture tracked closely by Stone Lake to his outside. The final two strides changed the outcome of the race with Stone Lake (photo) getting the nod by a neck at the wire over Hooked on Jordan.

Beach Blast finished third in the three-horse photo. The time of the 400-yard dash was 19.8 seconds.

 

 

Overlooked by bettors, Stone Lake paid $24.80 for the win. The four-year-old son of Escondido Beach is owned and trained by Tony Cunningham. He was a $15,000 purchase by Cunningham as a yearling at the QHRAI Speed Sale in 2019 and now has in excess of $339,000 on his card.

The win in the Woodard Memorial Classic is the third stakes win for the chestnut gelding, who has seven career wins.

“Today’s draw really helped,” said Cunningham. “The eight hole seemed to be just perfect for him. Salvador, who works with him in the mornings, really helped prepare him for today. He’s a really honest horse. You can see it in his form. Today was just the right fit.”

Stone Lake has gone to battle many times against Beach Blast over the past three years. The Woodard Classic marked the first time the tables were turned for the geldings.

“I think this is the first time he (Stone Lake) got Beach Blast,” added Cunningham. “He (Beach Blast) is a great horse and always tough. We are super happy with our horse today. He’s as consistent as you can get. Daniel (Martinez) did a great job riding him today and getting the finish.”

Prep Report: Shelbyville volleyball secures win over visiting Morristown

Shelbyville volleyball collected its third win of the season Saturday morning with a three-set win over visiting Morristown, 25-14, 25-13, 25-17.

At William L. Garrett Gymnasium, Shelby Lasure and Ashlyn Turner led the Golden Bears (3-5), who broke a four-match losing streak, with eight and seven kills, respectively.

Hailey Harness had a team-high four service aces.

Karlie Lawson and Lasure each had 10 digs and Lawson notched 24 assists.

Shelbyville travels to Columbus East (5-5) Monday while the Yellow Jackets are at Hauser (8-3) Tuesday.

In other prep events:

Boys Soccer

Shelbyville 2, Delta 1

At Delta, the host Eagles (3-3-1, 0-2 Hoosier Heritage Conference) scored early in the first half and frustrated the Golden Bears over the opening 40 minutes.

Midway through the second half, Shelbyville evened the contest when Jett Suiter connected with Christian Haas, who beat the Delta goalkeeper to the near post.

Suiter and Haas quickly connected again with Haas pulling a hesitation move to shake a defender then beat the goalkeeper with the game winner.

In the junior varsity contest, the Golden Bears and Eagles played to a 1-1 tie in one half of action.

Blake Hughes scored the lone goal for Shelbyville.

Shelbyville (5-2-1) hosts Batesville (6-2) Tuesday.

Boys Tennis

Waldron 5, Southwestern 0

At Southwestern, Waldron (4-4) swept the singles matches and did not lose a game in the doubles matches.

At No. 1 singles, Lucas Shaw defeated Kyle Beck, 6-2, 6-2.

Jack Fischer secured a 6-1, 6-1 win over Carter Snepp at No. 2 singles.

Caiden Young was victorious at No. 3 singles, 6-0, 6-1 over James Oliver.

At No. 1 doubles, Josh Kellems and Jacob Lindsey blanked Chris Cecil and Josh Wenger, 6-0, 6-0.

Matthew Thomas and Connor Hinchman collected a No. 2 doubles victory as Southwestern did not have an entrant.

Southwestern is 1-4 this season.

Waldron hosts Rushville Tuesday while Southwestern hosts Knightstown.

Volleyball

Waldron def. Rising Sun, 25-17, 25-19, 26-28, 25-23

At Rising Sun, the host Shiners (4-4) staved off defeat in the third set but the Mohawks (6-4) finished them off with a fourth-set victory.

Waldron is scheduled to host Indiana Deaf (7-2) Tuesday.

Prep Report: Shelbyville tennis collects third HHC win of season

With a three-set victory from a pair of freshmen playing No. 1 doubles, Shelbyville’s tennis program defeated New Palestine Thursday to improve to 6-3 this season and 3-1 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference standings.

Aiden Smith and Caden Claxton defeated Eli Sloan and Maxwell Havel, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 to lead the Golden Bears to a 3-2 victory.

Shelbyville’s No. 2 doubles pairing of Karson Schaf and Reece Prickett bested William Hahn and Dawson Lynch, 6-0, 7-5.

Shelbyville’s third victory came from Logan Prickett at No. 3 singles. He defeated Brady Torzewski, 6-3, 6-4.

At No. 1 singles, New Palestine’s Moses Haynes defeated Aidan Asher, 6-1, 6-3.

Arjomand Khokhar topped Caden Tackett at No. 2 singles, 6-3, 6-3.

Shelbyville got a junior varsity doubles victory from Alex Bunton and Gavin Reed.

In other prep events Thursday:

Girls Golf

Columbus East 175, Shelbyville 220

At Blue Bear Golf Course in Shelbyville, four Olympians shot 46 or better to defeat the Golden Bears.

Carter Gant was the medalist with a 41. Lilly Steinwedel followed at 42.

Madison Monroe and Kate Linville led Shelbyville with 51s.

Southwestern 231, Morristown 257

At Timbergate Golf Course in Edinburgh, McKinley Correll led the Spartans with a season-best 50 to earn the medalist honor. Emma Isgrigg also shot a season-best round of 55 for Southwestern.

Sydney Griffin (61), Aurora Belton (65) and Hannah Hicks (69) completed the Southwestern scorecard.

Ashlee Ballinger led Morristown with a 57. Also competing for the Yellow Jackets were Mollie Runnebohm (64), Clara Hale (66) and Oakleigh Goedde (70).

Mt. Vernon JV 224, Triton Central 264

At Hawk’s Tail Golf Course in Greenfield, Kylie Hyde led the Marauders’ junior varsity squad with a 50. Zoey Gaw followed at 56.

Boys Soccer

Shelbyville 3, Madison 2

At Madison, the visiting Golden Bears never trailed, scoring the first goal of the game and the first two of the second half to secure the road victory.

Drew Hassebroek scored a pair of goals – the first coming on a penalty kick in the first half – to lead Shelbyville (4-2-1). Hassebroek got Shelbyville’s third goal off an Aiden Helfer-Vazquez assist that extended the lead to 3-1.

Christian Haas scored Shelbyville’s second goal off an assist from Osvaldo Reyes.

Madison (4-2) scored with three minutes left to cut into Shelbyville’s lead but could not find the game winner.

Morristown 1, Greenwood Christian 1

At Morristown, the host Yellow Jackets (4-1-2) played to their second draw of the season.

Greenwood Christian’s record is 2-2-1.

Girls Soccer

Cascade 3, Triton Central 2

At Cascade, Triton Central’s Lizzie Graham scored a goal in each half but it was not enough to overcome the Cadets (3-4, 2-2 Indiana Crossroads Conference).

The Tigers dropped to 3-2 this season and 1-1 in the ICC standings.

Boys Tennis

Triton Central 4, Scecina 1

At Scecina, Triton Central won a pair of three-set matches to improve to 7-2 this season.

At No. 1 singles, TC’s Tucker Hutchinson defeated Daniel Eljach, 6-0, 5-7, 10-7.

Triton Central’s No. 2 doubles pairing of Ben Toth and Oliver Gearlds topped Raffe Morris and Max Krause, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.

The Tigers also got wins from Cole Thomas at No. 3 singles and the No. 1 doubles pairing of Griffin Sego and Joey Brosnan.

Scecina’s Quinn Schreiber needed three sets to dispatch of Avram Rund, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 10-3.

Triton Central got JV wins from Connor Evans, Connor McGuire and Talan Canter.

Waldron 4, Trinity Lutheran 1

At Trinity Lutheran, Waldron dominated the doubles matches and Lucas Shaw and Jack Fischer added singles wins to get the road victory.

Shaw defeated Soloman Hall at No. 1 singles, 6-1, 6-2.

Fischer topped Jonathan Neawebbe, 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.

Waldron’s No. 1 doubles pairing of Josh Kellems and Jacob Lindsey defeated Nathan Volker and Will Gaussman, 6-2, 6-1.

Sam Jones and Connor Hinchman did not lose a game in a 6-0, 6-0 victory at No. 2 doubles.

Trinity Lutheran’s lone win came at No. 3 singles where Nathan Finke outlasted Caiden Young, 7-6 (4), 6-4, in a two-hour match.

Greenfield-Central 5, Morristown 0

At Morristown, the visiting Cougars dropped just six games in sweeping the host Yellow Jackets.

Jameson Palmer, Austin Gabbard and Jacob Robey were defeated in singles matches.

G-C’s Caden Robertson and Michael Kwiatkowski defeated Dalton McMichael and Michael Ballinger at No. 1 doubles, 6-1, 6-1.

At No. 2 doubles, Lucas Sitzman and Alex Michalek topped Bryce Bryant and Brady Schonfeld, 6-1, 6-2.

Volleyball

Triton Central def. Lutheran, 25-10, 19-25, 25-16, 25-19

At Triton Central, the host Tigers pushed their win streak to eight straight and improved to 4-0 against ICC foes.

Maddy Brown (15 kills) and Brooklyn Bailey (10 kills) combined for 25 kills to move the Tigers to 10-2 this season.

Brown also had a team-high 14 digs. Kayden Simmons added 12 digs while setter Kate Isley finished with 32 assists.

The Saints dropped to 3-8 (2-2 ICC).

Greenwood def. Shelbyville, 25-12, 25-14, 25-22

At Greenwood, Shelby Lasure led the visiting Golden Bears with nine kills.

Lasure and Riley Lee each had a team-high nine digs and setter Karlie Lawson collected 20 assists for Shelbyville (2-5).

Greenwood improved to 7-4.

Oldenburg Academy def. Morristown, 15-25, 25-23, 25-19, 26-24

At Oldenburg Academy, the host Twisters (4-2) lost the first set but rallied to take the next three and defeat Morristown (2-7).

Edinburgh def. Southwestern, 25-18, 25-17, 25-18

At Southwestern, the visiting Lancers improved to 8-2 this season and 2-0 against Mid-Hoosier Conference opponents.

Southwestern dropped to 4-7 (1-1 MHC).

The Spartans won the JV contest, 24-25, 25-19, 15-11.

Waldron def. Knightstown, 25-18, 25-21, 25-18

At Waldron, the host Mohawks improved to 5-4 this season with a straight-set victory over the Panthers (3-6).

Emily Scott and Teagan Yoder led Knightstown with four kills each.

Middle School Tennis

Shelbyville 4, Triton Central 1

Triton Central’s lone win came at No. 1 doubles where Brayden Hoover and Drayton Kermode defeated Shelbyville’s Jack Van Wye and Eli Connolly, 8-2.

At No. 2 doubles, Shelbyville’s Owen Shively and Bram Kolkmeier bested Lucie Garver and Anna Gillespie, 8-0.

Shelbyville won all three singles matches by identical 8-3 scores. Kody Seller, Wyatt Armstrong and Kashton Laycock were victorious over Graham Gast, Ellie Gast and Lexi Poole, respectively.

Shelbyville won five of the eight JV matches with Zach Lakes, Owen Hartman, Ethan Carmony, Ethan Rife/Grant Tackett and Kirato Kawakami/Luca Kinker collecting wins.

TC winners were Bradyn Robinson, Cash Eck/Jason Gregory and Ryland Anderson/Brylon Scott.

Waldron 5, Rushville 0

Waldron’s middle school tennis program secured a 5-0 win over Rushville Thursday.

Winners were Charlie Fischer, Lincoln Fischer, Caige Sheaffer and the doubles teams of Noah Leap/Jackson Kuhn and Wyatt Everette/Kevin Crouch.

Tigers lose ICC showdown with top-ranked Saints

FAIRLAND -- The mood was somber but not defeated in Triton Central’s postgame huddle after a 54-41 loss Friday to Class A, No. 1 Indianapolis Lutheran.

The Tigers, ranked No. 7 in Class 2A, spotted the high-powered Saints 14 points before scoring but never shut down talented sophomore quarterback Jackson Willis, who threw for more than 400 yards and four touchdowns to secure Lutheran’s 18th-straight victory.

“It was 14-7 and the flood gates opened up,” said Triton Central coach Tim Able after the loss. “We were right there early and we were right there late. We just made way too many mistakes, too many penalties, bad decisions, you name it – a multitude of mistakes. It’s not because of effort and it’s not because of fight and heart, but just because of lack of execution. When you play a team as good as they are, they make you pay.”

Triton Central lost track of Lutheran receiver Micah Mackay early and often. The senior finished the game with 14 catches for 245 yards and three touchdowns.

“(Mackay) will probably be in contention for the No. 1 player in our conference,” said Able. “Every time they needed a play they went to (Mackay).”

 

 

Mackay opened the scoring Friday with a 31-yard touchdown catch on the Saints’ opening drive. Lutheran’s second drive ended the same way – with Mackay hauling in a 32-yard touchdown which resulted in a 14-0 lead with four minutes, 51 seconds left in the first half.

The Tigers weathered the early onslaught and forced a fumble and a punt on Lutheran’s next two series before finally getting its offense going.

Starting at midfield, TC quarterback Jace Stuckey, who also threw for more than 400 yards in the game, led his team on 10-play drive that was highlighted by a Brad Schultz 26-yard reception down to the Lutheran 1-yard line. Stuckey finished the drive with a plunge into the end zone and the Tigers had life.

That momentum was quickly gone when running back Joe Davis finished off an 82-yard drive with a 2-yard scoring run.

Following a Triton Central fumble, Willis connected with Cur’Brian Shelby, who raced to the end zone for a 50-yard touchdown.

And Stuckey’s second interception of the first half set up Lutheran for another scoring opportunity that was finished off by Davis’ second 2-yard TD run which set the halftime score at 33-7.

 

 

Triton Central running back Ray Crawford was held in check most of the night but produced back-to-back 20-plus-yard runs on the Tigers’ opening drive of the second half to cut into the lead.

The Tigers’ defense stifled the Saints on their first offensive series of the second half and Stuckey hit Luke Faust for 66 yards that set up Brayden Wilkins 4-yard scoring run and the lead was cut to 33-20.

Davis’ third touchdown run of the game extended the lead to 39-20 and the two teams traded scoring strikes in a long fourth quarter.

Schultz pulled in a 33-yard catch from Stuckey to make it 39-27.

Mackay’s third TD followed just over three minutes later to push the lead to 46-27.

Sam Kemper had a big fourth-down conversion catch on the next series then finished the drive with a 26-yard catch and run to cut it to 46-34.

Triton Central got the stop it needed but Stuckey was intercepted for a third time as the Saints defensive line was collapsing on him. Shelby returned the interception 37 yards for his second touchdown of the night and a 54-34 advantage.

Triton Central reserve quarterback Sam Collier turned three straight completions into one final score – hitting Braden Brown in the game’s final seconds.

The game took over three hours to complete and featured 68 pass attempts and three Levi Dewey onside kick attempts.

Willis completed 24-of 32 pass attempts for 434 yards. Shelby had four catches for 94 yards and DeVuan Jones had four catches for 84 yards.

Davis carried the ball 25 times for 126 yards.

Stuckey completed 22-of-33 passes for a career-high 408 yards, two touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown.

Schultz finished with eight catches for 189 yards and a touchdown.

The Tigers trailed 33-7 at halftime but outscored the Saints 34-21 in the second half.

“We are not nearly where we need to be and can be,” said Able. “It’s a daily choice. They got better all four days this week in practice.

“Sometimes it takes teams at different levels to develop. We are getting a little better but not at a fast enough pace yet.”

Triton Central (2-1, 1-1 Indiana Crossroads Conference) is at Monrovia (2-1) next week.

 

Indianapolis Lutheran 54, Triton Central 41

IL (3-0)    14  19     6  15  --  54

TC (2-1)     0    7   13  21  --  41

First Quarter:

IL – Mackay, 31 pass Willis (Miller kick), 9:51

IL – Mackay, 32 pass Willis (Miller kick), 4:51

Second Quarter:

TC – Stuckey, 1 run (Dewey kick), 7:52

IL – Davis, 2 run (Miller kick failed), 5:37

IL – Shelby, 50 pass Willis (Miller kick), 4:33

IL – Davis, 2 run (Miller kick failed), 1:46

Third Quarter:

TC – Crawford, 20 run (Dewey kick blocked), 10:28

TC – Wilkins, 4 run (Dewey kick), 5:30

IL – Davis, 2 run (Jones run failed), 2:20

Fourth Quarter:

TC – Schultz, 33 pass Stuckey (Dewey kick), 11:15

IL – Mackay, 23 pass Willis (Miller kick), 8:11

TC – Kemper, 26 pass Stuckey (Dewey kick), 5:21

IL – Shelby, 37 Interception (Jones pass to Hall), 2:48

TC – Brown, 7 pass Collier (Winslow kick), :02

Individuals:

Rushing: Davis 25-126, Jones 1-8, Willis 4-7 (IL); Crawford 8-44, Wilkins 6-10, Copeland 2-5, Stuckey 11-(-49) (TC).

Passing: Willis 24-32-434 (IL); Stuckey 22-33-408, Collier 3-3-27 (TC).

Receiving: Mackay 14-245, Shelby 4-94, Jones 4-84, King 1-9, Davis 1-(-2) (IL); Schultz 8-189, Faust 6-119, Kemper 3-50, Wilkins 3-36, Compton 1-8, Crawford 1-6, E. Wasson 1-7, Robertson 1-13, Brown 1-7 (TC).

Class 3A, No. 12 Delta uses fast start to blitz Shelbyville

In just five offensive plays, Class 3A, No. 12 Delta took a 14-0 lead Friday over Shelbyville and never looked back in the Hoosier Heritage Conference opener for both teams.

Delta improved to 3-0 this season with a 42-7 victory while the Golden Bears dropped to 0-3.

Caleb Elliott took the game’s opening kickoff down to the Shelbyville 19-yard line and Palmer Samuels reached the end zone four plays later from the Shelbyville 4 for a quick 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the contest.

The Golden Bears fumbled on their second snap of the game and Jonny Manor recovered to give Delta a second offensive series on Shelbyville’s side of the field.

Kaiden Bond quickly connected with D’amare Hood for a 34-yard touchdown strike and a 14-0 lead.

After Shelbyville’s next offensive series stalled and the Golden Bears punted, the Eagles went on an 86-yard drive that ended with Samuels second rushing touchdown of the game.

Delta’s 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter held through halftime but the Golden Bears never got their offense in gear.

 

 

Marquel Bond (photo) added a pair of second-half touchdown runs and Grey Backus delivered a long run that set up his 9-yard scoring run that doubled the halftime advantage.

 

 

Shelbyville’s final drive of the game ended with freshman Donavon Martin (photo) reaching the end zone. Sophomore Aidan Helfer-Vazquez added the extra point as time expired.

The Golden Bears host New Castle in week four at McKeand Stadium. The Trojans lost 35-0 to Pendleton Heights Friday to fall to 1-2 this season.

Prep Report: Triton Central tennis takes down Knightstown

Triton Central tennis pulled off a 3-2 win at Knightstown Wednesday with two new doubles pairings.

Joey Brosnan and Griffin Sego needed three sets to win their No. 1 doubles match over Knightstown’s Jace Wilkerson and Ethan Woods, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (0).

At No. 2 doubles, Oliver Gearlds teamed up with Ben Toth to defeat Jeffery Alexander and Leeland Gallion, 6-1, 6-1.

Triton Central’s third win came from Cole Thomas at No. 3 singles. He scored a 6-0, 6-0 win over Grey Williams.

Knightstown’s Braydon McDaniel topped TC’s Tucker Hutchinson at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 6-2.

Hunter Steimel picked up a No. 2 singles win over TC’s Avram Rund, 6-1, 6-1.

Triton Central won three doubles matches at Knightstown with the pairings of Connor Evans/Bohdan Rollo, Derreck Uhls/Dayne Bailey and Ramsey Mata/Andrew Mennel.

The Tigers are 6-2 this season.

In other prep events Wednesday:

Girls Golf

North Central 201, Speedway 241, Triton Central 266

At Brickyard Crossing Golf Course, Olivia Williams carded a season-best round of 60 to lead Triton Central.

Also on the Tigers’ scorecard were Jaylee Davis (68), Hanna Fink (69) and Lindsay Huxford (69).

Middle School Tennis

Triton Central 4, Rushville 1

Triton Central got singles victories from Graham Gast (8-4) and Hyatt Watson (8-0) and doubles victories from the pairings of Brayden Hoover/Drayton Kermode (8-6) and Lexi Poole/Ellie Gast (8-0).

The Tigers improved to 2-0 this season.

Triton Central seniors chasing elusive win against top-ranked Indianapolis Lutheran

Triton Central’s senior class has won 30 games over the last three-plus seasons, three sectional titles and a regional championship. The fact that the class has never beaten Indianapolis Lutheran is a sticking point for the Tigers, though.

One last opportunity comes Friday when Class 2A, No. 7 Triton Central hosts Class A, No. 1 Lutheran at Mendenhall Field in Fairland.

“This is a tall task,” said Triton Central head coach Tim Able. “They have drubbed their first two opponents. It’s a daunting task. I think we will see for the first time this year just how good we can be.”

Lutheran is 2-0 with dominating wins over Beech Grove (38-6) and Indianapolis Ritter (71-0) – two opponents who are a combined 0-4 this season.

Triton Central is 2-0 with victories over Cascade (42-14) and New Castle (21-14) – two teams that are 2-2.

While Triton Central’s defense has been solid, an anticipated powerhouse offense had been slow to click despite scoring 63 points over the first eight quarters.

“Every week is a different team and a different way to go about it, but not too many (defensive) adjustments (for Lutheran). We will be fine,” said Able.

Lutheran moved Montasi Clay to quarterback last season and it paid off in a 15-0 year and the Class A state championship. The senior, now on Marian University’s football roster, completed 130-of-180 pass attempts for 2,654 yards and 32 touchdowns. He also rushed for 1,298 yards and 11 touchdowns.

The Saints’ offense also lost receiver Jake Pasch, who caught 34 passes for 705 yards and eight touchdowns. He is a freshman defensive back on the Wabash College football roster.

Lutheran turns to sophomore Jackson Willis to replace Clay. He has completed 31-of-44 pass attempts in the first two weeks for 536 yards and eight touchdowns.

“He does run the ball but he’s more of a thrower,” said Able of Willis. “He has a quick release throw. We need to get in his face. He’s good, accurate and quick with fast receivers.”

Willis is backed by senior running back Joe Davis, who is just sort of 200 total yards rushing with five touchdowns. He ran for almost 1,300 yards and 11 TDs last season.

“He’s the cog,” said Able. “If they get him going, that sets everything up. We have to control him tackle to tackle. We won’t stop him.”

Senior receiver Micah Mackay, the team’s leading receiver in 2021 (41 receptions, 954 yards, 13 TDs), is back and has nine receptions for 136 yards and one touchdown.

Triton Central quarterback Jace Stuckey has very good statistics through the first two weeks – a 62% completion rate for 401 yards, five TDs and one interception. The junior knows his decision-making needs to get quicker to avoid mistakes, including forcing his offensive line to block longer which has resulted in holding penalties at inopportune moments.

“Jace played a lot in the summertime and just like with AAU basketball, you can get a lot of bad habits,” said Able. “You have four seconds to get (a pass) off. You don’t have that in games. He needs to have that clock going off in his head. He has to learn to get rid of it better.”

Able wants to see Stuckey hit the mid-range passes better that result in 20 yards and a potential run-after-catch rather than trying to pick up 50 yards in one downhill heave.

Senior Brad Schultz has 18 receptions already for 229 yards and four TDs but the production is limited after that with senior Luke Faust having eight catches for 95 yards.

Running back Ray Crawford has a goal of 2,000 all-purpose yards this season but sits at 205 total yards after two weeks.

“Last week with the penalties and the third-and-longs, we got out of sorts,” said Able. “We were not running well.”

The ICC showdown may come down to which team’s defense can make a crucial stop.

Four ICC teams are still unbeaten at 2-0. Lutheran is the only team with two ICC wins. Triton Central, Scecina and Monrovia – TC’s week four opponent, are all 1-0 in the ICC standings.

 

 

QUICK FACTS

Class A, No. 1 Indianapolis Lutheran at Class 2A, No. 7 Triton Central

Game time: 7 p.m. at Mendenhall Field in Fairland, Ind.

Broadcast time: 6 p.m. pregame show live from Mendenhall Field with Johnny McCrory and Mark Drake on GIANT fm (96.5 fm, 106.3 fm, 1520 am) or on the GIANT fm app.

TC student section theme: USA/Military.

TC game promotion: All military personnel, past and present, with their ID or in uniform will be admitted free to the game.

Head coaches: Dave Pasch, 125-53 in 15th year at Lutheran, 190-110 in 26th year overall; Tim Able, 82-32 in 10th year at Triton Central, 207-130 in 29th year overall.

2021 record: Lutheran 15-0 (Class A state champions); Triton Central 8-5.

Sagarin ratings: Lutheran, 80.42, 27th overall, 1st in Class A; Triton Central, 64.85, 96th overall, 12th in Class 2A.

Point spread: Lutheran favored by 13.5 points.

Last year: Lutheran defeated Triton Central, 35-7, on Sept. 3, 2021. Two of Triton Central’s best offensive weapons, Ray Crawford and Brad Schultz, were unavailable for the conference clash.

Last 10 years: The two programs have split the last 10 games evenly but Lutheran has won three straight in the series.

Around the ICC Friday: Beech Grove (0-2, 0-2 ICC) at Speedway (1-1, 0-1 ICC); Class 2A, No. 5 Indianapolis Scecina (2-0, 1-0 ICC) at Cascade (1-1, 1-1 ICC); and Monrovia (2-0) at Class 2A, No. 3 Linton-Stockton (2-0).

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