HANCOCK COUNTY — As we count down the last remaining days until the calendar finally flips, it’s difficult to ignore the multitude of sports triumphs realized despite the immense adversity the past 365 days.
And, as we all know, 2020 presented several obstacles (an obvious understatement).
From a global pandemic to the overall sports shutdown this past March and the on-going uncertainty since the 2020 fall sports season commenced, athletic success has come with great sacrifice this year.
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But with each hurdle cleared, there has been an even sweeter satisfaction.
In a year defined by “fortitude,” Hancock County student-athletes, coaches and administrators have and continue to personify resilience: adapting, adhering, overcoming and persevering in the face of immeasurable odds.
As we look back on a year like no other, we congratulate every single student-athlete (at every level and in every sport not mentioned), mentor, athletic director, coach, community leader, the volunteers, the role players, the parents and each and every supporter.
We applaud all of you!
Here’s to another year in the books and a hopefully a brighter future ahead for everyone in 2021.
Now, in no particular order, let’s take a moment to look back at some of the best sports stories of 2020.
No Stopping the Marauders
Mt. Vernon boys tennis coach Gabe Muterspaugh called his 2020 Marauders the best team he’s ever had the privilege to lead.
Never one to mute his perspective, Muterspaugh, the 2020 Hancock County boys tennis coach of the year, wasn’t disregarding his previous boys teams’ accomplishments. Nowhere near.
Instead, he was simply pointing out the obvious. A senior-laden team focused on winning each match as if it could be its last, the Marauders nearly did.
Mt. Vernon won 18 straight matches en route to retaining the Hancock County Tennis Championship team title, finishing second in the Hoosier Heritage Conference and repeating as sectional champions.
At 21-2 overall — a single-season record for wins — the Marauders claimed their 13th sectional team title in program history and repeated in the tournament for the fifth time in history, which marked a third time in Muterspaugh’s 26-year tenure.
The Marauders ended their run by reaching the team regional finals for the first time in boys program history after defeating Lawrence North 3-2 in the semifinals.
Something to Prove
While we’ll never know how far they could have gone, due to the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the IHSAA boys basketball state tournament, but the New Palestine Dragons definitely achieved their goal.
Entering the 2019-20 season with something to prove after some onlookers called their sectional title run in 2018-19 a fluke, the Dragons dug an early hole this past season only to overcome a 3-9 start to repeat as sectional champions.
At 14-12 overall, the Dragons led by the program’s all-time career scoring leader, Maximus Gizzi (1,612 points), utilized team chemistry, in-season development and competitive fire to capture the HHC title and the program’s ninth sectional championship all time.
The Dragons earned an invitation to the Southport Regional for a second straight year, but unfortunately, the pandemic led to the first-ever cancellation of the IHSAA state tournament days prior.
Regardless of the heartbreaking end of the boys basketball season, the Dragons made their mark, winning their last four games, and more importantly, their final contest of the 2019-20 campaign against Muncie Central, 54-53, in the sectional finals.
Year of the Dragons
New Palestine girls basketball coach Sarah Gizzi had no idea what the 2019-20 season would bring.
A year after falling short of their goal of a sectional repeat, the Dragons came in with more questions than answers in the winter of 2019.
Several new starters filled out the varsity lineup, and there were many ups and downs leading up to the postseason, but when it mattered most, the Dragons found their groove.
At 18-8 overall, the Dragons put together a late charge in February to capture the program’s sixth sectional title all time and second in three years.
The key for the Dragons was learning from their setbacks and applying that knowledge, which was a focal point against rival Mt. Vernon.
Losing hold of their HHC title aspirations after falling to the Marauders in the regular season, 44-25, on Dec. 19, 2019, New Palestine regrouped to hand Mt. Vernon its first loss in 21 straight games during the sectional tournament.
The Dragons defeated the state-ranked Marauders, 41-32, in the opening round of the sectional and then went on to beat HHC foe Pendleton Heights, 58-50, in the semifinals, and Anderson, 64-53, in the finals.
Marauders Set a New Standard
The Mt. Vernon football team garnered little respect despite its semistate run in 2019.
Unranked and overlooked the year prior, the Class 4A Marauders changed voters’ mindsets quickly in 2020 by establishing a new program standard.
The Marauders ran roughshod over the HHC in 2020 to win the conference title, prying away both the league’s traveling helmet trophy and the Boundary Rail from rival New Palestine.
Mt. Vernon set a new school mark with a 12-1 record, won the HHC for the first time since 2012 and seized back-to-back sectional titles for six overall.
While the top-ranked Marauders were upset by No. 4 Roncalli, the eventual state champion, in the Regional 11 championship, 35-14, the team’s seniors set the bar high with a 23-4 record the past two years.
Cougars Push Two Through
The Greenfield-Central wrestling team was slightly overshadowed by rivals Mt. Vernon and New Palestine in 2019-20, but once the postseason arrived, the Cougars stuck to what they do best.
Advance.
With two wrestlers reaching the IHSAA state finals this past February, both seniors Dylan Dorman and Cooper Noehre made the most of their opportunities, moving into the medal rounds at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Dorman (38-9), a first-time state qualifier, won his opening-round match at 138 pounds to advance into the tournament’s second day where he placed eighth overall in the state.
Dorman lost to eventual state champion Blake Boarman of Evansville Mater Dei by major decision 16-2 in the morning’s quarterfinals on the second day before competing in the consolation bracket.
Slowed by the flu, Noehre issued no excuses.
The 2018-19 state runner-up at 152, Noehre lost to the state’s 160-pound state runner-up in 2019-20 on the second day by decision 6-2 in the quarterfinals, ending his pursuit at a state title.
Noehre (36-3), who was ranked fourth in the state by IndianaMat, clawed back in the consolation bracket to place fifth overall at 160 behind an 11-4 decision and a 10-8 decision.
Swimming Success Everywhere
There were and are so many storylines around the pool this year that’s its hard to pick just one.
When taking into account last year’s regular-season and postseason and the current boys and girls campaign, it would be negligent to overlook them all.
This past January, the Greenfield-Central boys swim team made it a decade of dominance in the HHC, claiming the team title for a 10th consecutive season. The girls won their second straight.
This month, both runs came to an end, partly due to COVID-19 quarantines, but nonetheless, the Mt. Vernon boys, who are currently unbeaten, finally overtook Greenfield-Central to capture the program’s first-ever league team title.
Led by a solid group of senior swimmers and several talented underclassmen, the Mt. Vernon boys are built to contend, especially with Aiden Tierney streaming towards another run at the IHSAA state finals in 2021 after setting three individual school records in the 200-yard IM, 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke in 2019-20.
At state in 2020, Tierney placed 12th in the 200 IM and was sixth in the 100 breaststroke while breaking his own school record time.
During the 2020-21 girls HHC diving championships, Greenfield-Central’s Reagan Crouch won her first-career individual league title, and despite being unable to compete in the HHC meet this month, Cougars’ Travis Black remains a contender in the sprints.
Black helped the Cougars’ boys finish 14th overall at the state meet in 2020 as he placed fourth in the 50 free and 12th in the 100 free.
Not to be forgotten, New Palestine’s Colin Stacey finished third overall in the 1-meter diving competition at state in 2019-20 with a score of 470.40.
So many success stories to highlight.
Cougars Go Back to the Future
For the first time since 1994, the Greenfield-Central girls golf team reached the IHSAA state finals.
Years in the making, if not decades, the team’s seniors made certain this fall would signify the end of the program’s drought, and they finished their quest with a 13th team finale at state.
Led by team captain Caroline Gibson at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel, the Cougars shot a two-day total of 748.
Gibson shot a 163 with a first-round tally of 78 — a career best — and concluded the state tournament with an 85 on the final 18 holes to tie for 22nd overall. She tied for 30th in 2019.
The team’s 2019 sectional title finish marked the first for the program since 2011-12. The Cougars shot a school-record 340 in September to win a second straight and 11th sectional all time.
At the Lapel Regional, the Cougars finally broke through, shooting a 345 for third place, at long last clearing a hurdle the program hadn’t soared over in 26 years.
No Better Way to Retire
Steve Williams knew he would step down one day. The Mt. Vernon girls soccer coach just hoped when that time came it would end on a positive note.
His Marauders made sure of that as they gifted the long-standing soccer coach the program’s first sectional title since 2015 and third overall.
Announcing his retirement at season’s end, Williams’ squad went all-in, winning 10 consecutive games out of its final 11 contest to nearly reach Class 3A’s final four in October.
Mt. Vernon outscored its foes 47-8 through 19 games and finished the year 16-3, which tied the single-season wins mark.
Williams coached the Marauders’ boys team until 2008 before he retired for the first time. He’s coached a combined 16 years as head coach of both the boys and girls programs at Mt. Vernon.
In honor of its coach, Mt. Vernon achieved it’s primary goal of winning sectional, nearly added the program’s first regional title since 1996, and despite falling short in the Hoosier Heritage Conference at 6-1 for second, his final group came through.
Perfect Landing
New Palestine’s Grace Shanahan wanted to have fun in her final gymnastics season in 2019-20.
No pressure, just enjoyment.
She achieved her goal and also won in the process to reach the IHSAA state meet, which was conducted at Ball State University without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, Shanahan posted a solid performance at the Connersville Sectional to win the beam and place third in the all-around.
At the Columbus East Regional, Shanahan placed third in the all-around competition. She was fourth on vault, fifth on floor, seventh on bars and 10th on beam to become the first New Palestine gymnast to reach the state finals since 2017.
At the state meet in March, Shanahan finished 16th in the all-around with her best placing at eighth on vault.
Shanahan’s outing was the best state finals showing by a Dragon gymnast since 2015 when Regan Elsea placed third overall and was runner-up on vault.
Difficult to Replicate
In the future, anyone going through the New Palestine girls cross-country record books will be hard pressed not to find the name Brenna Shaw.
A four-time Hancock County champion, three-time regional winner and a state qualifier three times in her high school career, Shaw cemented her place as one of the all-time greats in Dragons history.
A Purdue recruit, Shaw won a pair of HHC crowns in her career and is now a fixture among legendary names such as Emily Husted and Courtney Edon after setting the 5K record in 18 minutes, 27 seconds as a senior.
In addition to a school record, Shaw won her first-ever sectional title her senior year and placed in the top 20 at semistate for a third straight time.
At state this fall, she was the lone county representative and finished 75th overall on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.
