HANCOCK COUNTY — A year ago this time, the sports world was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Games, tournaments and athletic activities at all levels from recreational to professional sports were officially postponed and cancelled indefinitely while words such as social distancing, contact tracing, quarantine and face masks were ushered into the new normal.
Now, 12 months later, the word competition has returned and so has the world of sports — though with some restrictions and protocols.
Regardless, student-athletes and professionals are back at work, finally, and no more so than at the collegiate level.
After missing out on a chance to compete for team championships and individual glory in their respective NCAA tournaments, spring sports seasons and for some the conclusion of winter sports, the college athletics arena is moving forward.
Along with it quite a few former high school standouts from Hancock County are back on the courts, mats and in between the lines, again.
Here are a few stories — not all — of note from the collegiate ranks, involving some of the county’s finest competitors.
Noble races to national title
It took five grueling years, but Christian Noble at last achieved greatness on Friday afternoon during the 2021 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala.
Noble, a Mt. Vernon graduate, became the first NCAA Division II National Champion in Lee University school history by winning the 5,000-meter race.
Noble was the No. 1 seed entering the race after he set a Division II record of 13 minutes, 37.39 seconds on the same track inside the Birmingham CrossPlex on Jan. 24.
During indoor nationals, Noble covered the same distance in 13:47.45 to win over Isaac Harding of Grand Valley State University by 0.91 seconds.
“I’m really happy with the way that I raced, and I’m glad I could pull away with the win,” Noble remarked after winning the national title. “I haven’t made an indoor nationals. This is my first time ever competing at one, so five years of just going for it. I’m glad. I’ve worked really hard for this. This is something I thought about since I got recruited by coach (Caleb) Morgan.
“We sat down and talked about this is the end goal, and I’m glad we could see it through. I’m super happy, and I’m glad I could represent Lee.”
After the initial 200 meters in the race, Noble was positioned at 14th, but he steadily moved up and reached the top four at the 1,800-meter mark.
He was in second from the 3,000 meters through 3,600 meters before holding the lead for 600 meters, but Noble fell behind to third for the next 200 meters.
He trailed by 0.03 seconds with 200 meters left, but he kicked into another gear down the stretch, covering the final 200 meters in 28.05 second to beat Harding.
“Obviously, the plan was to relax through the first half and not really exert any more energy than I was supposed to. I wanted to make a move with 600 to go, but obviously, I had a target on my back by everybody,” Noble said. “I found myself up in the front with 1,200 to go. I probably should have waited a little bit. It just took a little more out of me than I expected, but with 400 to go, I knew I had enough in me to pull it out, and I did.”
A graduate student at Lee University, Noble was recently named a Sourth Region Track Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for the 2021 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field season.
Noble set NCAA DII records in back-to-back weeks to make his mark on the 2021 season. He set divisional records in the 3,000-meter (7:51.46) and 5,000 (13:37.39). He also notched the fourth-fastest mile in divisional history at 4:00.60. He was All-Region and was the top regional performer in each event.
Noble won the mile run by 11 seconds (4:00.60) during the Flames’ indoor season opener in January. He bested the automatic NCAA Division II standard of 4:02.62 and improved his own Lee record from 4:13.21 set four years ago.
In 2017 and 2019, he was named NCAA All-American as a distance runner.
“Outstanding job for him,” said Lee head coach Caleb Morgan. “I feel like he’s accomplished everything he could the last year and to come away with the individual win is huge for our program and for him. Hopefully this is one of many more to come.”
Hall Heading to the Big Dance
Greenfield-Central graduate Tate Hall is heading to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament this month with the Loyola University Ramblers.
Hall and the top-seeded Ramblers defeated Drake, 75-65, in the title game of the Missouri Valley Conference Championship at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis on March 7, to earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament to be conducted in Indianapolis.
Loyola’s NCAA tournament invite is the second in four seasons. The program is ranked 18th in the Associated Press Top 25 Men’s Basketball Poll and has won 17 of its last 18 games, including six straight. The Ramblers have the nation’s top-scoring defense, averaging 55.5 points allowed.
During the MVC Tournament, the Ramblers won all of their games by double digits, marking the first time a league team has done so in the championships since 2017.
Loyola (24-4) will discover its NCAA Tournament first-round opponent this Sunday when the selections and pairings are officially announced on CBS at 6 p.m.
In the Ramblers’ game against Drake, Hall, a 6-foot-6, redshirt senior, contributed three points, three rebounds and four assists. The former Cougars’ star buried a 3-pointer during Loyola’s 10-2 run to break a 24-all tie to put the Ramblers ahead 34-26.
Hall transferred from the University of Indianapolis to Loyola in 2018-19 and sat out a season, but he quickly acclimated in 2019-20 by being named Third-Team All-MVC and MVC All-Newcomer after averaging 12.7 points. 3.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game. He shot 42.6 percent from 3-point range (58-for-136) and 47.8 percent from the field.
Hall is averaging 7.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game this season, starting 11 of the Ramblers 28 games.
Voelz posts career-best at NCAAs
New Palestine graduate Samuel Voelz continues to beat the clock at the University of Notre Dame.
A senior middle-distance runner for the Irish, Voelz entered the men’s 2021 indoor track season a 2020 ACC champion in the 800-meter run (1:50.03) and a two-time champion on the medley relay team.
In 2019, he claimed his first NCAA championship on the medley relay team and earned First-Team All-American status and was named All-ACC First Team.
Previously, Voelz was a 2017 IHSAA state champion and the winner of the Midwest Meet of Champions as a senior at New Palestine High School in the 800.
Late last month in Clemson, S.C., Voelz was second in the 800 at 1:48.39, missing out on an ACC Indoor Championship repeat by five one-hundredths of a second.
On Friday in Fayetteville, Ark., Voelz posted a career-best in the 800 during the NCAA Championships, placing second with a time of 1:47.82 on day two of the three-day meet.
Voelz’s time tied for the second fastest in program history in the event. Voelz will compete in the 800 final today at 3:40 p.m. for a chance at an indoor national title.
Reid earns All-Crossroads honors
New Palestine graduate Jordan Reid has had a banner first year with the Indiana Wesleyan University’s women’s basketball team.
A former standout with the Dragons girls basketball team, winning a sectional title during her final season in 2019-20, Reid was recently named Honorable Mention All-Crossroads League. In addition, she earned All-Freshman Team honors.
Reid started 20 games for the Wildcats this winter, averaging 8.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 23.2 minutes played per contest while shooting 48 percent from the field.
The freshman posted a season-best 17 points in her first game on Oct. 30, 2020, and later had nine points against No. 5 Marion during the Crossroads League Tournament championship game for No. 20 IWU on March 1.
The Wildcats won the league title for the first time in six years by defeating Marian 77-67 in the tournament championship game, snapping the Knights’ 20-game winning streak in the process.
Reid and the Wildcats earned an automatic bid to compete in the NAIA Women’s National Championship Tournament.
Bulmahn nabs MVC weekly honors
The Mt. Vernon volleyball team’s all-time career assists leader (2,371), Victoria Bulmahn, hasn’t skipped a beat during her freshman year at Valparaiso University.
On March 2, Bulmahn earned her second Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Week honor in her collegiate career as a setter for the Valparaiso women’s volleyball team.
Bulmahn netted her second weekly accolade after a strong performance over the team’s two road wins, 3-1 and 3-2, respectively, at Drake on Feb. 28 and March 1.
In the first four-set victory, Bulmahn dished out 50 assists while Valparaiso hit at .247 percent during the match. She set a career high with 21 digs and added three blocks and two service aces.
In the second match, Bulmahn recorded 57 assists and surpassed her career best with 26 digs. For the series, Bulmahn averaged 11.89 assists and 5.22 digs per set.
Bulmahn’s first MVC Freshman of the Week honor was issued on Feb. 3 after Valparaiso’s wins over Butler and Loyala. She averaged 11.43 assists and 2.86 digs per set for the week.
Bulmahn was Valpo’s first MVC Freshman of the Week honoree since Brittany Anderson earned the accolade on Nov. 20, 2017.
Red heading back to NCAA tournament
Former four-time and unbeaten IHSAA state champion Chad “C.J.” Red Jr. is heading to his fourth NCAA Wrestling Championships as a nationally-ranked wrestler at Nebraska.
Red is seeded eighth at 141 pounds for next week’s NCAA Championships, beginning Thursday, March 18 in St. Louis.
The three-time All-American is eighth in the nation at 141, according to Intermat’s recent rankings.
Red helped the third-ranked Huskers finish third as a team during the 2021 Big Ten Championships at University Park, Pa., on March 7, inside the Bryce Jordan Center with 105.5 points for the program’s seventh top-five placement at the meet overall.
Red scored a major decision, 10-2, over Northwestern’s Colin Valdiviez in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament and posted another major, 12-3, in the quarterfinals over Illinois’ Dylan Duncan.
Top-seeded Jaydin Eierman of Iowa halted Red’s run in the semifinals with a 7-1 decision before the former New Palestine Dragon bounced back in the consolation semifinals with a 13-2 major decision against Valdiviez.
Rutgers’ Sebastian Rivera defeated Red by decision, 4-3, in the third-place match.
Red enters the NCAA Championship tournament 10-3 on the year. He will meet 25th-seeded Drew Matten of Michigan in the first-round as one of nine Huskers in the field of 330 total qualifiers for the national tournament.
