GREENFIELD — What a whirlwind.
Spring sports have come and gone, seemingly in a flash. It feels like last week that I was spending a day putting together a master calendar of events and planning out our spring coverage, and now it’s all in the rearview.
The immediate future is incredibly exciting though. We’ve got Player of the Year stories starting this Saturday, with our girls tennis honoree. Next week we will cover boys and girls track athletes of the year, along with the boys golf, baseball and softball players of the year.
Don’t forget our new annual awards, currently scheduled for our June 29 edition.
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But while there is a lot to look forward to, I wanted to take some time to look back. While the spring season culminated in another state championship, plenty of exciting things happened from March until this past Saturday. Here is a look back at a few of them.
Cougars make a regional run
The Greenfield-Central baseball team might have been the biggest surprise of the 2019 spring season, and their turnaround was exciting to witness.
The Cougars bounced back from a 14-13 year and fourth place finish (at 7-7) in the Hoosier Heritage Conference in 2018 to finish 21-8 this season and win the conference title outright with an 11-3 HHC record, their first conference championship since 2013.
They won a sectional title, their 14th as a program, and advanced all the way to the regional championship before seeing their season end against Avon, who later fell in the semistate round.
Greenfield-Central’s pitching was dominant all year, and with ace Adam Hutchison and Brady Mundell back next year, that doesn’t figure to change much next year.
Dragons complete their 3-peat
Less surprising this spring was the New Palestine softball team’s success. The Dragons entered 2019 as the favorites to win another state championship and they did just that, claiming their sixth state title with a 10-0 win against Yorktown on Saturday.
The Dragons won their third straight state championship in utterly dominant fashion, beating everyone they faced in the tournament by at least 10 runs. They played an incredibly difficult regular-season schedule and finished with just three losses, while also topping the eventual 4A champion, Center Grove.
It was the last hurrah in Class 3A for the Dragons, who move up to 4A next season due to both enrollment and success factor. They lose six seniors but return several important pieces, including all three pitchers — Kaylea Bullock, Sam Booe and Katie Kottlowksi — an all-state shortstop in Michaela Jones, starting catchers Raegan Hiatt and Vivian Long and regular starters Kinsey Mitchell and Kendal Calvert.
Rising in the rankings
The other three county softball all had big years, with Greenfield-Central spending several weeks in the Class 4A rankings and both Mt. Vernon and Eastern Hancock winning sectional championships.
It was an impressive year from all three schools, making for an exciting softball season across the county. The Marauders and Royals each fell in the regional semifinals but return a lot of important pieces for next season.
Mt. Vernon was led by standout sophomore pitcher Karlee Franklin, along with numerous underclassmen in the field, including two-sport standout Sydnee Perry. Their sectional-championship win against Pendleton Heights was an incredible moment, and the Marauders gave plenty of reason for optimism moving into the future.
The Royals used three pitchers to great success, with two of them — Maddie Turner and Jessi Potts — back next year. They used small-ball offense and a record-setting year from freshman Caroline Stapleton to win the Mid-Eastern Conference and a sectional championship. Eastern Hancock returns the majority of its lineup and should be dangerous again next year.
Marauders tennis machine keeps rolling
It looked like the other county tennis teams could give Mt. Vernon a run for its money this year after the Marauders lost three all-state honorable mention players from 2018.
That didn’t turn out to be the case. The Marauders won their sixth straight county title, then did the same at the sectional, topping Greenfield-Central and New Palestine to win their sixth straight sectional title.
Sophomore Lydia Ruegsegger dominated all year at the No. 1 singles position, never losing a set to a county opponent. Kaleigh Helm and Louisa Batge were both county champions at the No. 2 and No. 3 singles positions, respectively. Sophomore Lexi Shelton and freshman Maddie Swingle were a surprise at No. 2 doubles, winning a county title in their first season with the team.
Mt. Vernon loses two singles and one doubles player but will be in strong position to go for a seventh straight county and sectional title next season.
Dragons dominate on track
New Palestine had a strong year in both boys and girls track, with both teams winning county and conference titles.
Dragons athletes Jordan Reid and Laine Schonauer dominated the county meet, each winning multiple events. Both teams did well in the sectional and regional rounds, advancing athletes to state.
Reid medaled in the 400 and set a school record. The girls 4×800 team also medaled and set a school mark.
Greenfield-Central had the highest finishers on the boys side, with Tate Helm finishing ninth in the shot put and Adam Lee just missing the podium with a 10th-place finish in the pole vault.
Also worth noting this spring was the impressive performance from the Eastern Hancock boys track team, which finished fifth at the sectional and had one champion, Skyler Sexton. It was the Royals’ best sectional finish since 2015.
Parity on the golf course
While the boys golf season ended short of the state meet, there was plenty of success to go around this spring.
Mt. Vernon regained its county dominance, winning the county championship after its eight-year run was snapped last year. New Palestine had the best finish in the HHC championship, finishing third. The Dragons finished second in the sectional, with the Cougars finishing a stroke ahead of Mt. Vernon to advance to the regional with a third-place finish. New Palestine then finished 10th in the regional, with the Cougars 12th.
The parity wasn’t just team-based. On the individual level, it seemed like different players stepped up at different tournaments.
The Marauders had the individual county champion, Elijah Dunham. The Cougars had the individual HHC champion, Noah Mohler, and Kyle Arrowood finished second in the regional, the highest finish from the county. New Palestine’s Quinn Dobbins and Mt. Vernon’s Sam McWilliams had the best regional finishes, coming up two strokes shy of state with 77s.
