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JUNE 8, 2021
THE POSEY COUNTY NEWS - PAGE B3
Posey boys golf ends in one of states toughest sectionals By Chris Morlan The Indiana High School Athletic Association boys’ golf sectional took place last Thursday morning at Helfrich Hills Golf Course in Evansville. The sectional was hosted by Evansville Mater Dei. There were 12 schools competing in the first round of this part of the state tournament. Tee times were scheduled as early as seven o’clock in the morning last Thursday. Then around nine o’clock, heavy rain delayed play for nearly three hours. After the rain delay, the forecast cleared up for the golfers to complete their 18-holes. Mount Vernon and North Posey competed in one of the toughest sectionals in the state with many powerhouse schools. The top three schools and the top three individuals who did not advance with a team will advance to this Thursday’s Washington Regional at Country Oaks Golf Club. There will be six sectionals (Attica, Evansville Mater Dei, Indianapolis Crispus Attucks, Linton-Stockton, Martinsville and Vincennes Lincoln) competing in the Washington Regional. Freshman Daymen Rij from Evansville North finished first in the sectional with a low score of 69. Eli Rohleder from Evansville Mater Dei placed second with 73. Thomas Broshers from Evansville Memorial and Josuah Feil from Evansville Reitz tied for third place with a 76 and Evansville North freshman Ottie Droste placed fifth overall with a 77. Evansville North won the sectional with a team score of 306. Evansville Mater Dei finished second with 321 shots and Evansville Memorial with a score of 334. North, Mater Dei and Memorial teams will play at the Wash-
ington Regional. Josuah Feil (Evansville Reitz) with 76, Caleb Hampton (Evansville Reitz) with 81 and Zeke Niehaus (Castle) with 82 shots also qualify for the upcoming regional. Other team scores were Evansville Reitz placing fourth with 336 shots, followed by Castle in fifth place with 348, Evansville Central in sixth place with 369, North Posey finished seventh with 379, Boonville in eighth place with 391, Mount Vernon in ninth place with 394, Evansville Day School in tenth place with 439. Evansville Harrison placed eleventh with 468 and Evansville Bosse placed twelfth with no team score. The North Posey Vikings wrapped up their season with a team score of 369 shots and a seventh-place finish. Jaxson Bender led the Vikings with a low score of 88. Brennon Sweeney finished with a 93, Caleb Dyson ended the day with a 94, Tyler Thompson shot a 104 and Carter Hannah finished with a 109. Dru Henderson led the Mount Vernon Wildcats with a low score of 91. Mount Vernon placed ninth as a team with 394 shots. Zach Culley finished the course with 99 shots, Landon Fischer with a 100, Logan Dutkiewicz finished with a 104 and Alex Carlisle with a 105. The North Posey boys’ golf team played their final regular season match at the Washington Invitational at the Country Oaks Golf Club on May 29. This was a good final tune up for the upcoming Evansville Sectional. There were 12 teams competing at the Washington Invitational with some teams coming from the Indianapolis area, along Southern Indiana powerhouse Evansville North. Zionsville won the meet with a team score
Members of the North Posey golf team pose for a team picture prior to beginning sectional play this week at Helfrich Golf Course. Pictured are Carter Hannah, Brennon Sweeney, Jaxson Bender, Caleb Dyson, and Rylee Thompson. The course took on nearly two inches of rain overnight and the morning of the sectional but the team tackled it anyhow. Photo courtesy of Cathy Dyson low of 312 shots. Evansville North came in sec- Vincennes Rivet finished eleventh with 404 and ond place with 335, followed by Avon in third Evansville Reitz came in twelfth with 405 shots. place with 336, Barr-Reeve in fourth place with Jaxson Bender and Brennon Sweeney tied 341, Brownsburg in fifth place with 345, Castle in low scores to lead the Vikings with 93 shots finished sixth with 354, Terre Haute North in apiece. Caleb Dyson finished the 18-hole course seventh place with 359, Bedford North Law- with 104 shots, followed by Blake Zirkelbach rence in eighth place with 380. North Posey and with 111 and Carter Hannah with 116 for the Southridge tied for ninth place with 401 shots. day.
Hallam academic all-state, Hoehn and Kihn are 2A all-state By Chris Morlan The North Posey softball season ended but not the awards and honors. North Posey was eliminated from the state tournament last week by the second ranked Tecumseh Lady Braves to end their season with twenty wins and four losses. “This is a fantastic group to be part of,” North Posey coach Gary Gentil said. “They really did surprise a lot of people how they improved and played with so much passion. We had a few play-
ers break records that stood for many years, but they constantly wanted to improve daily.” Senior Kennedy Hallam was selected to the Academic All-State First Team. Hallam played catcher for the Lady Vikings and finished the season with a .369 batting average with 13 runs batted in. Coach Gentil said, “we will definitely miss Kennedy. She was a perfect leader for this group. She was able to have her greatest year statically in her senior season.
Sophomore Erin Hoehn earned Class 2A AllState first team honors. Hoehn is the third player in school history to ever be selected and the first sophomore at North Posey to be named to the team. In the 22 games played this season, Hoehn’s batting average was .446 with 11 home runs and 32 runs batted in. She was also the teams leading pitcher. Hoehn started 14 games on the mound for 94 total innings pitched with a 12-3 record, 183 strikeouts and a 1.34 earned run average.
Lauren Kihn was named to the Class 2A AllState third team. Kihn is also a sophomore that broke the single season record for stolen bases with 25. In 22 games played, Kihn had a .432 batting average with 17 runs batted in. This is the first time in North Posey softball history that the Lady Vikings had two players get All-State status in the same season. Gentil said, “the coaches really enjoyed coaching these young ladies. Thanks to all of them.”
Wiggins track season ends against tough field at state finals By Chris Morlan North Posey senior Jaxon Wiggins had an outstanding season for the Viking track team. He was one of the fastest runners in Southern Indiana that never lost a 200-meter dash in the regular season. Wiggins made it to the final day of the state tournament at Ben Davis High School last Friday afternoon for the Indiana High School Athletic Association track and field state finals. The previous week, Wiggins became a state qualifier in the 200-meter dash at the Evansville Central regional. At the state meet, Wiggins was one of the 27 best sprinters in the 200-meter dash. The competition up north and around the Indianapolis is very tough. All three state qualifiers from the Evansville Central Regional in the 200-meter dash did not place in the top 20. That alone explains the competition level at the state finals. Wiggins was in the third of the three preliminary 200-meter dash races in the outside lane. To advance to the 200-meter finals, you had to be one of the top two runners in your heat or one of the next three fastest times. The competition was extremely quick, and Wiggins came up short from placing at the state finals and ran the race in a time of 23.77 seconds for twenty-sixth
place. This season was outstanding for Wiggins and he was the only participant from the two Posey County schools. Carmel won the state finals meet with a team score of 68 points. Brownsburg finished second with 40 points, followed by Center Grove in third place with 38 points, Fishers finished fourth with 32 points, Harrison (West Lafayette) and Warren Central tied for fifth place with 24 points. Boonville, Plainfield and Columbus North tied for seventh place with 18 points and Hobart placed tenth with 17 points. Other local schools scoring team points were Heritage Hills finishing thirty-first with eight and a half points. South Knox finished thirty-second with eight points, followed by Evansville Reitz in thirty-eighth place with seven points, Evansville Bosse in forty-fifth place with six points, Castle in fifty-third place with four points, Paoli in fifty-ninth place with three points and Forest Park in seventy-first place with one point. There was some local state finalist that placed at the meet. Devin Mockobee from Boonville won the long jump at the distance of 23-feet, three and three quarters inches. Mockobee also placed second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.58 sec-
‘Vikings’ continued from Page B1 second base, then on two wild throws, he stole third base and made it across home plate to give the Vikings a 5-3 advantage. Things were still looking good for North Posey after five innings. In the top of the sixth inning, Providence gained momentum and changed the game by scoring five runs, taking control of this matchup at 8-5. That inning silenced the Viking fans. North Posey had one last chance in the bottom of the seventh inning being down by three runs. Clay Douglas led off the inning and smacked a solo home run over the left field fence to get the Vikings within two runs at 8-6. After that, North Posey struggled to get any other hits and lost this game by two runs to end their season at 19 wins and eight losses for the year. “Kyle pitched well and when Clay came in, he threw the ball well, too,” Kirkman said “He just caught a couple of tough breaks and we just didn’t make enough plays. That’s just how it goes sometimes.” Kirkman said he was very proud of the team and the season and he told the boys so after the regional championship loss. “This doesn’t take away from who they are and what they accomplished,” the coach said. “They should hold their heads up because there are not a whole lot of teams who reach the regional championshjip game and have a legitimate shot to win it.” Earlier in the day, North Posey played against the LintonStockton Miners in the regional semifinal at Bosse Field. North Posey came out blazing in the bottom of the first inning when leadoff hitter Kyle LaVanchy doubled on a line drive to center field. Then Harold Bender singled on a ground ball to move LaVanchy to third base. Bender advanced to second base on a throwing error and LaVanchy scored the Vikings first run of the game on that same play. Gaige Kihn singled on a ground ball to right field that scored Bender to give the Vikings a 2-0 lead after one inning. In the top of the fifth inning, Linton-Stockton scored a run when bases were loaded. Owen Spears walked a batter giving the Miners a run. With the bases still loaded and two outs, Spears escaped the inning without letting Linton-Stockton score anymore runs when Jaydyn Wehmer caught a foul ball in his territory for the third out. After five innings, North Posey led 2-1 and this score stood for the final. This advanced the Vikings to the
regional championship game. Spears earned the win on the pitcher’s mound for North Posey. Spears threw five innings, allowing five hits, one run with seven strikeouts. Kyle LaVanchy threw the final two innings of the game, giving up no hits or runs and struck out five for the save. Gaige Kihn went two for three hitting with one RBI and one stolen base. LaVanchy went one for two with one double, one run, one walk and one stolen base. Harold Bender went one for three with one run scored. Chase Christie went one for three hitting and Jaydyn Wehmer had one stolen base. But Saturday’s mid-day sun and warmth was new for this year’s team and Kirkman was proud of the way the team guttede it our. “It was hot,” Kirkman said with a smile. “We got off to a real good start and for Owen to go as long as he did and Kyle (LaVanchy) to come in and close it out was special. And then for Kyle to turn around and throw five good innings in the championship shows the commitment these kids have to their school and the sport of baseball. They are all competitors.” Kirkman said he was not really surprised by the level of success this team achievede this season. “I knew the program had won back-to-back sectionals and a lot of those guys were back,” Kirkman said. “Now they were going to be upperclassmen and there waere expectations there.” Despite a stellar year, there were early-season games that had Kirkman getting to know the kids and the kids getting to know their roles but once things came together, the team won 16 of its last 19 games. “When we lost in 11 innings at Vincennes and we really didn’t look very good, I have to credit our guys with working together and holding each other to higher expectations,” Kirkman said. Kirkman said that this group of talented seniors will obviously be missed but it doesn’t leave the cupboard bare for next season. “We have guys coming back now who have learned from the competitive nature of these guys,” Kirkman said. “I am so thankful that this group helped me lay a foundation of what we would like to do with this program. I say it all the time, I don’t know if we are going to win or lose but we sure are going to fight you for 21 outs. That’s just who this group was the entire year.” Located at 408 Southwind Plaza. Mt Vernon, IN. 812-838-2392
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onds. The Castle 4 x 800-meter relay team finished ninth with a time of 8:03.98. Elliott Buechlein from Heritage Hills placed sixth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:18.88. Spencer Wolf from Forest Park finished ninth in the 3200-meter run with a time of 9:17.94. William Isaac Maynard from Evansville Reitz placed third in the high jump at six feet, seven inches. Jerome Hood from Evansville Bosse finished fourth in the high jump at six feet, seven inches. William Skaggs from South Knox placed second in the pole vault at 16 feet, three inches. Grant Gogel from Heritage Hills placed fifth in the pole vault at 15 feet, three inches and Parker Speth from Castle placed seventh in the pole vault at 15 feet. Again, congratulations to Jaxon Wiggins for an outstanding season. I would also like to thank Coaches Justin Wagner, Jessica Moll, Madison Aiton, Tiffany Harvey and Amber Dillman on a great season along with the nine seniors (Wiggins, Brooke Coleman, Taylor Freeman, Austin Danhauer, Clayton Lutz, Tyler Underwood, Caleb Doubler, Kedrick Wahl and Thomas Turner) for a three great seasons. Not only am I just a writer, but I’m also an assistant coach on the North Posey track team. My first year of writing was when this group were freshman. I started coaching these kids when they were in their sophomore year and this was a great class that will be missed. Thank you for the great memories, your team leadership and hard work you put in to succeed on the track.
