This past year was one to remember in the Hancock County sports landscape. From team state championship runs to impressive individual accomplishments, the year that was in 2019 won’t soon be forgotten.
New Palestine seized a pair of team state titles with a repeat run in football, while the Dragons’ softball team brought home a third consecutive state championship.
On the gridiron this past fall, Mt. Vernon, led by coach Mike Kirschner, charged towards the Marauders’ first regional title in program history, while the girls basketball team snapped its six-year sectional title drought.
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At Eastern Hancock, the girls softball team proved it was a force to reckon with this past spring. At New Palestine, Jordan Reid sprinted her way to a placement medal at the girls’ track and field state finals.
The Greenfield-Central boys swim team made its presence known once again in downtown Indianapolis at state, and local Cougars’ product Drey Jameson made his professional baseball dreams come true.
With so many sports stories and achievements, here are a few in no particular order that will be cemented and serve as watermarks for future successes.
Dragons make
it two straight
The New Palestine Dragons made history once again in 2019 with a dominating defense and the state’s most prolific rusher in Charlie Spegal.
Named the 2019 Mr. Football award winner, Spegal grabbed headlines by setting state career-records in rushing yards (10,867), rushing touchdowns (173), total touchdowns (175) and points (1,054).
Spegal, Indiana’s Gatorade Player of the Year for football, set eight school records in his career as the Dragons went undefeated for a second straight season to capture back-to-back Class 5A state titles. The stakes were even higher this time around with Cathedral in the regional field and Valparaiso, formerly a 6A program, dropping down to 5A to challenge the Dragons in the state championship.
An unexpected injury also looked to derail New Palestine’s quest at a repeat, but backup quarterback Eric Roudebush came in to save the day for the Dragons.
Nothing could stop these Dragons and their 22 seniors went out on top with a 28-0 record over two championship seasons by outscoring their opponents 1,470 to 256.
In the process, they won their seventh straight conference title and improved their record to 88-4 in Coach Kyle Ralph’s seven-year tenure.
Record-setting run at six titles
Ed Marcum’s New Palestine softball team doesn’t know how to fail, and it showed with a 10-0 win over Hoosier Heritage Conference foe Yorktown at Purdue to win the Class 3A state championship.
Marcum, a Hall of Fame inductee, picked up his sixth state softball championship in 2019, a record among Indiana coaches. He helped guide the Dragons to a third straight state title, the first for softball in Indiana history.
The Dragons finished with a 29-3 record and outscored their opponents 86-5 in the state tournament, winning each contest by double figures.
Marcum’s career record soared to 414-62, and the Dragons clubbed a state-best 61 home runs in 31 games.
Marauders prove the doubters wrong
No one believed it was possible. The voters ignored them. Even after winning six straight games to end the regular season 8-2, the Mt. Vernon football team got zero respect.
They hadn’t won a sectional title since 2012, and a regional championship was merely a pipe dream, let alone a final four appearance.
Not until coach Mike Kirschner’s Marauders made history to win the program’s first regional championship and reached the semistate to finish the year with an 11-3 record.
Mt. Vernon’s 21-14 sectional win over rival Pendleton Heights secured the program’s fifth title since 1997 and first in seven years. The Marauders’ 25-17 regional victory over Indianapolis Roncalli advanced them to semistate where they lost on the road to Evansville Memorial 28-3.
The drought ends
for Marauders
Six years was long enough for the Mt. Vernon girls basketball team. Held without a sectional title since 2013, the Marauders broke through and it took overtaking rival New Palestine to achieve it.
The Marauders turned an 11-win 2017-18 season into a 20-6 campaign, highlighted by a 35-29 sectional championship victory over the Dragons.
The Marauders relied on sophomore Abby Worley and junior Tessa Freeman to put away the senior-driven Dragons during a game that was fueled by an intense atmosphere and roaring crowd into a packed gymnasium. The Dragons had previously defeated the Marauders 46-40 during the regular season.
The victory advanced coach Julie Shelton’s Marauders to the regional level where they fell to the Ben Davis Giants 52-32 despite a back-and-forth first quarter.
Making his dream
come true
Greenfield-Central graduate Drey Jameson saw his professional baseball dream come true this summer when his name was call during the Major League Baseball draft.
Jameson, a 2017 Greenfield-Central graduate, was a second team All-American as a sophomore at Ball State, and the 2019 MAC Pitcher of the Year, which helped his draft stock rise.
He was chosen 34th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks.The 6-foot, 165-pound pitcher went 6-3 with a 3.24 ERA and established a conference record with 146 strikeouts, a year after earning MAC Freshman Pitcher of the Year honors in 2018.
He is the eighth BSU player to be chosen in the first round of the draft and was the fourth Greenfield-Central graduate to to be selected.
COMEBACK COMPLETE FOR REID
After suffering an ACL tear her sophomore year while playing soccer, Jordan Reid wasn’t expected to bounce back so quickly.
She proved the doubters wrong almost immediately. An all-county honoree in basketball, the Indiana Wesleyan recruit hit her stride — quite literally — once track and field season came around this past spring.
She averaged 10.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.0 steals per game on the basketball court, but in track she was named Athlete of the Meet in the girls county track meet and placed in two events at state.
She was the lead leg on the 4×400-meter relay team that finished seventh at state. She was ninth individually in the 400-meter dash with a school-record time of 56.075 seconds.
To add to her career accolades, Reid became the first female football player in New Palestine history, serving as a backup place kicker. She scored her first varsity point on her first try with an extra point against Pendleton Heights on Sept. 20 as the Dragons rolled to a 47-6 win. She was 24-for-29 in her extra-point attempts.
ROYAL-LY SUCCESSFUL
The Eastern Hancock softball team finished the 2018-19 season 18-7-1 and scored its first Mid-Eastern Conference championship in the process.
The Royals were powered by freshman, Caroline Stapleton, who exploded onto the county softball scene with a huge splash. She led the county in batting average (.575) and stolen bases (14).
She also championed the state in triples (11). She was ranked in the top 10 the county in on-base percentage, runs scored and RBIs as the Royals blanked Heritage Christian 3-0 to open sectional, defeated rival Knightstown 13-2 in the semifinals and beat Triton Central 8-2 to win the program’s fifth sectional title all time.
DRAGONS END SECTIONAL WOES
Sectional championship were the norm for the New Palestine boys basketball team during three of four seasons back in 2009, but since 2012 they faced a steady drought.
At least, that was the case until the Dragons put it all together in 2019.
A win over rival Greenfield-Central, 60-45 sparked their run as the Dragons knocked off Connersville 56-47 before taking down Mt. Vernon 61-43 for the program’s first championship seven years.
Led by guard Maximus Gizzi, a Marian recruit, the Dragons took an even larger step at the regional by defeating Avon 64-59 before facing Ben Davis in the championship game.
After winning their second regional game in program history, the Dragons started out hot, jumping out to an early 9-2 lead and holding a 13-6 edge late in the first quarter before the Giants stormed ahead, turning a seven-point deficit into a six-point second quarter lead.
New Palestine fell behind in the second half but kept clawing back and came up just short, losing 53-47, while Gizzi surpassed the 1,000-point career mark.
NOEHRE EMBRACES THE SPOTLIGHT
Every wrestler dreams of being under the spotlight at the IHSAA State Finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Greenfield-Central’s Cooper Noehre achieved the feat and nearly brought home a state title in the process.
An under-recognized commodity in the wrestling state rankings his junior season, Noehre finished state runner-up at 152 pounds with a 41-4 record with 13 pins, eight technical falls and six major decisions.
A regional champion last year, Noehre topped Cathedral’s Elliott Rodgers in overtime to win the New Castle Semistate title after losing to him during the regular season in extra minutes. While, Rodgers turned the tables at state in the 152 title match, Noehre bounced back to win this past May by decision 12-2.
The victory at Avon High School secured Noehre’s second-career ISWA freestyle state championship in four years, and it gave him some momentarily closure.
Noehre, a Purdue recruit, entered his senior season with a 102-27 career record and the fifth-best single-season win mark in school history at 41. He is second in career takedowns with 296 compared to Josh Farrell’s 660.
COUGARS CONTINUE TO MAKE WAVES
The Carmel of Hancock County, Greenfield-Central swimming and diving continues to make waves and 2019 was no different.
This past month, the girls swim team on its second straight Hoosier Heritage Conference championship, while the boys team won it’s 10th consecutive led by junior Travis Black.
Sammuel Jennings and Black teamed with Samuel Logan and Anthony Nagel to win the 200-yard medley relay in a HHC record time of 1:36.51. The group posted a 3:15.71 to win the 400 free relay as well.
As a freshman, Black swam on two state-qualifying relays, including the sixth-place 200 freestyle team. As a sophomore in early 2019, he sliced towards a conference and sectional title in both the 50 and 100 freestyles while also winning sectional championships on the 200 medley and 400 free relays.
At the state finals, Black placed sixth in the 50 free as a sophomore, setting a school record by posting a 20.88 finish inside the IUPUI Natatorium during the preliminaries on opening night.
During the HHC this season, Black established two new individual league meet times and helped the 200 medley relay team rewrite history with a time of 1:36.51.
His 100 free time of 46.48 toppled Andrew Torres’ 47.32 set in 2017. His 50 free finale at 20.88 during the HHC meet erased Eric Mattingly’s former standard of 21.03 set in 2004.
