Columbus North and Columbus East track and field athletes who advance out of sectional competition this year will compete at new regional sites.
Although the four sectionals feeding into the regional involving North, East, Hauser and Edinburgh remain the same, the girls regional now will be at Warren Central and the boys regional will be at Franklin.
Franklin still will host the girls sectional, and North still will host the boys sectional.
Meanwhile, sectional sites have been announced for baseball and softball. Boys golf and girls tennis sites remain unchanged from the past few years.
In baseball, East and North will compete in a sectional at Winslow Park in Bloomington, hosted by Bloomington South. Jennings County will play in the Floyd Central Sectional, Hauser will be in the Madison Shawe Sectional, Edinburgh will play in the Morristown Sectional and Brown County will be in the Sullivan Sectional.
The East and North softball teams will play their sectional at Shelbyville this year. Defending Class A state champion Hauser has been moved to the Rising Sun Sectional, while Edinburgh, which played at Hauser last year, will host its own sectional. Jennings County will play in the Seymour Sectional, and Brown County will be in the West Vigo Sectional.
All area softball teams except Edinburgh would play their regional contests at the home of another sectional winner this year.
Senior earns another honor
Columbus North senior Paige Littrell, who was named to the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association Academic All-State team last week, has earned the same honor from the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association.
Hauser’s Abbey Ashbrook and Columbus East’s Audrey Wetzel are IBCA Academic All-State honorable mention selections. Boys honorable mention picks are East’s Alex Galle and Kevin Williams, North’s Mitchell Kelley and Brown County’s Collin Hoskins.
To be nominated for Academic All-State, a senior must have at least a 3.5 GPA, rank in the top 25 percent of their class and score at least a 1,000 on the reading and math portions of the SAT or a 23 on the ACT.
Panther wins in All-Star meet
Senior Andrew Herrin became Jennings County’s all-time winningest wrestler last weekend when he beat Jared Packer of Dakota (Illinois) South 7-0 in the Indiana/Illinois All-Star Classic Duals in Springfield, Illinois.
Herrin, who went 43-5 this season and finished fourth in the state at 152 pounds, finished with 164 career wins.
Meanwhile, Columbus East senior Sean Galligar lost to Darien Kaufman of Glenbard West 3-2 on a last-second takedown in double overtime. Galligar, who finished third in the state at 285, finished the season 43-5.
Bull Dogs make All-Conference
Three members of the Conference Indiana champion and Class 4A state runner-up Columbus North girls basketball team have been named to this year’s All-Conference squad.
Littrell and juniors Maliah Howard Bass and Ashlyn Huffman made the first team. Senior Elle Williams is an honorable mention selection.
North junior Alex King made the boys basketball first team.
North’s Pat McKee in girls basketball and Sandy Freshour in gymnastics were named Coach of the Year in their respective sports. All-Conference honors for gymnastics, boys and girls swimming and wrestling were determined earlier by finishes at the conference meets.
North honors swimmers
Seniors Chase McQueen and Mackenzie Fry have been named MVP of the Columbus North boys and girls swim teams.
Junior Jackson Nagel won the boys most improved award. Freshman Jared Carroll captured the boys Bull Frog Award.
Freshman Rachel Gutman won the girls most improved award. Sophomore Pavithra Venkataraman took the girls Bull Frog Award.
