The Columbus North boys have lofty goals for Saturday’s Cross Country State Finals, while the North girls and Jennings County boys are shooting for top-15 finishes.
The Bull Dog boys moved up to No. 9 in this week’s state rankings following a runner-up finish in Saturday’s Brown County Semistate. Coach Danny Fisher thinks a top-five finish — which would put them on the medals podium — isn’t out of the question.
“I’ve looked over the results and followed all the good teams throughout the year, and I think we have an outside shot of being on the podium,” Fisher said. “It will take a great effort, but I told the boys it would take a great effort to beat Bloomington South this past weekend and we came a little bit short. We didn’t have that great day. Definitely, the expectation going in right now would be top-eight for sure, and we’re going to shoot for top five.”
North, which finished 17th at state last season, is led by a trio of seniors in John Sluys, Sam Horak and Rishi Poludasu. They have been joined on varsity most of the season by sophomore Collin Pruitt and a trio of freshmen — Matt Newell, Reese Kilbarger-Stumpff and Evan Carr.
“Everybody on the varsity has ran great,” Fisher said. “They just haven’t done it on the same day, so we’re still looking for that great day that’s hard to put together. But if we could do it one time this year, it would be great if we could do it at state.”
Jennings finished fifth in the semistate to earn their third consecutive trip to the state finals. The Panthers finished 23rd in 2016 and 16th last year.
Junior Carter Leak and senior Alex Hendrix have run at state each of the past two years, but none of Jennings other runners have competed at state.
“We know the environment at this point,” Jennings coach Bryant Layman said. “We know what to expect with the different type of competition. This week, we just have to kind of run toward the front and see what we can do. My goal is top 12, but ultimately if we can be about the same as what were last year, that would be good.”
Meanwhile, the Bull Dog girls also are coming off a fifth-place semistate finish. They were 24th at state last season.
Junior Olivia Morlok has been North’s frontrunner, followed by sophomores Aric Tong and Ella Anderson, seniors Emma Smith and Sydney Geckler, freshman Abigail Jacobi and senior Emma Lawson. But sophomore Mackenzie Barnett, who was the No. 2 runner before sustaining a calf injury that turned into shin injury, might be able to return to compete on Saturday.
“Our goal always has kind of been to be one of the top semistate teams going into the state meet, and then we were looking at being in the top 15,” North girls coach Rick Sluder said. “I think we’re still on track for that. We had a little off day on Saturday, and were only 40 points from winning on Saturday, so we can hopefully turn that around.”
The girls race begins at 1 p.m., followed by the boys race at 1:45 p.m., at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.
Bull Dogs selected All-State
Columbus North senior Kevin Lin has been named second-team All-State Singles, and North junior Adam Saad and freshman Nathan Lin are second-team All-State Doubles by the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Association.
North junior Bhavey Jain made honorable mention All-State Singles, and North junior Joey Zhao and freshman Matthew Liu made honorable mention All-State Doubles.
All of those six players were named All-District. Kevin Lin also earned Academic All-State honors.
Soccer players make All-District
Columbus East junior Eric Stiles has been selected to the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association boys All-District team, while East junior Lindsey Stoughton and Columbus North freshman Jenna Lang are on the girls All-District squad.
North Junior Graham Keele and East juniors Zach Roberts and Jorge Nieto made boys honorable mention All-District. East sophomore Alana Dwenger and North senior Tanner Johnson are girls honorable mention All-District.
Locals earn Academic honors
Fifteen area seniors have been named to the Indiana High School Volleyball Coaches Academic All-State team.
Selections include Columbus East’s Ashlyn Bergman, CJ Clausen and Keeleigh Kikendall; Columbus North’s Andrea Corbeels, Agustina Fainguersch, Lily Meyercord and Maddy Sebahar; Brown County’s Mekenzie Dunnuck, Baelyn Koester and Alanya Steele; South Decatur’s Karah Biddinger, Brianna Collins and Samantha Goodfellow; and Trinity Lutheran’s Savannah Harweger and Abby Schult.
East seniors Garrett McGaha and Owen Rupp and juniors Colby Hertle and Brandon Taylor, along with North seniors Eric Huang, Poludasu and Sluys have been named to the Indiana Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches boys Academic All-State squad. East junior Matt Novreske, North senior Sam Horak and junior Carson Littrell, Brown County senior Jackson McPheeters and South Decatur senior Nolan Storm made honorable mention.
North seniors Sydney Geckler, Abbey Landini, Emma Lawson and Emma Smith are on the IATCCC girls Academic All-State team. That quartet also was named Academic All-State by the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association.
East seniors Annie Bastian and Kamebry Wagner made the ICGSA Academic All-State girls soccer team. East senior Sarah Park and Jennings County seniors Naomi Beal and Callie Wilder are honorable mention selections.
East senior Ellie Buntin and North senior Alex Munnicha are on the ICGSA Academic All-State girls golf squad. Jennings senior Destiny Joray made honorable mention.
All-MHC teams announced
Three players from the Mid-Hoosier Conference co-champion Hauser volleyball team have been named to the All-MHC squad.
Junior Melanie Taylor and sophomores Hannah Johnson and Aunaka Wasil made the team. South Decatur’s Biddinger also was selected.
Junior Sam Johnson and senior Kameron Lawson from the MHC champion Hauser boys soccer team made the All-MHC squad. Edinburgh senior Coltan Henderson and Hauser seniors Jacob Luken and Aaron Mee made the All-MHC boys tennis team.
North 9th hoops sets callout
Any freshman boy who wants to try out for the Columbus North freshman basketball team needs to attend an informational meeting.
The meeting will take place during both lunch periods Monday in the athletic conference room.
Ted Schultz is sports editor for The Republic. He can be reached at [email protected] or 812-379-5628.
