Eastern Hancock players celebrate after winning against Union County in a IHSAA Class 2A regional championship game. Eastern Hancock won, 3-2, to advance to today’s semi-state in Huntinburg.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — One spring sport’s standouts are wanting to finish their seasons strong.
Three other sports are hoping their finish line is a little further down the road.
Hancock County is well-represented in today’s IHSAA Boys Track and Field State Finals in Bloomington.
Area baseball, softball and golf competitors aren’t quite ready to call it a year.
The county count is 16 athletes in 10 events at the state track meet, which gets underway today at 3 p.m. Mt. Vernon has athletes in seven different events, Greenfield-Central is in four and New Palestine has one representative. There are multiple county competitors in the 800 (Mt. Vernon’s Tristan Trevino and G-C’s Griffen Wheeler) and pole vault (Mt. Vernon’s Keagan LaBelle and New Palestine’s Jack Rossell).
Mt. Vernon’s George Burhenn is in both hurdle races and part of a Marauder relay. Teammates Andres Langston and Trevino are also in multiple events. G-C’s Kirk Knecht is part of a Cougar relay and the long jump.
At New Palestine today, the Dragons will host and play in a Class 4A Regional.
New Palestine (23-6) plays Brownsburg (21-7) in the second of two semi-final games, expected to start at 2 p.m. In the 11 a.m. opener, Anderson (17-12) takes on Cathedral (15-10-2). The championship game is slated for 8 p.m.
The Dragons have won 17 of their last 18 games. The lone loss was an extra-inning setback to Center Grove on May 20. They picked up their 17th sectional championship earlier this week by defeating Franklin Central 12-2 at Roncalli.
The regional champion will advance to the semi-state to be held Saturday, June 11 at either Mooresville or Jasper.
Eastern Hancock (21-4-1) won their Class 2A softball regional round game Tuesday over Union County.
The Royals are now just two wins away from reaching the Class 2A state title game.
They’ll play North Posey (22-1) at 11 a.m. today in the Forest Park Semi-State at Cedar Crest Intermediate School in Huntingburg. At 2 p.m., Eastern Pekin (17-12) takes on South Vermillion (24-3).
The semi-state title game is slated for 7 p.m. The winner will go to the Class 2A state championship game to be played either June 10 or June 11 at Bittinger Stadium on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette.
While some teams are either at or can see the finish line, area golfers are just getting started.
Hawk’s Tail of Greenfield is the host site for the first round of the boys golf postseason.
The Greenfield Sectional is slated to tee off Monday at 9 a.m. All four county schools, Eastern Hancock, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon and New Palestine are part of the 13-team field.
The top three teams and top three low individuals, not on the top three teams will advance to Thursday’s Muncie Central Regional to be hosted at The Players Club in Yorktown.
