PREP ROUNDUP: Cass' Hlebasko falls just short of regional in playoff

Sep. 19—Maconaquah repeated as team champion and Western senior Elizabeth Mercer four-peated as individual champion in the IHSAA Western Girls Golf Sectional on a beautiful Friday afternoon at Chippendale G.C.

The Braves posted a score of 349 to comfortably win the title. Western was second with 400 and Eastern was third with 409. The top three teams advance to the Lafayette Jeff Regional on Saturday, Sept. 23, at Battle Ground G.C.

Northwestern was fourth with 412 and Peru was fifth with 413. They were followed by Lewis Cass (445), North Miami (438) and Kokomo (511). Taylor and Tri-Central were incomplete.

Maconaquah showed a nice 1-2 punch in taking the title. Daisy Williams took third place with a 77 and Miranda Stoll was fourth with a 79. The Braves also counted No. 5 player Aubrey Stoll's 96 and Finley Dobbs' 97.

Individually, Western's Mercer and Peru freshman Piercey Dyer tied for first place with 74s. Mercer beat Dyer on the first hole of a playoff to win her fourth straight sectional title. Mercer is an Evansville recruit.

The top three players on the non-advancing teams also qualified for the regional. Those spots went to Peru's Dyer, Northwestern's Berkley Wray (85) and Kokomo's Brileigh Quillen-Popejoy (98). Quillen-Popejoy defeated Cass senior Kendall Hlebasko in a playoff for the final spot.

Following Hlebasko's score of 98 for Cass was Maddy Willis (109), Alisha Toops (116), Lindsay Landis (122) and Elliana Richey (140). — Bryan Gaskins, Kokomo Tribune

VOLLEYBALL

PIONEER 3, N. JUDSON 0

First-place Pioneer turned back third-place North Judson 25-15, 25-20, 25-22 in Royal Center.

Mack Rogers had a triple-double with 15 assists, 12 kills and 11 digs for the Panthers (16-10, 5-0 HNAC). Brooklyn Borges floored nine kills and two blocks. Liz Rance had eight kills and 11 digs. Blair Grigsby posted six kills, nine assists and eight digs. Kylie Attinger had four kills and two blocks. Keirsten Nies added four kills, three aces, 10 assists and eight digs.

Pioneer went 2-2 at the Leo Invite Saturday. The Panthers started with losses to Fort Wayne Blackhawk 25-23, 25-9 and Woodlan 25-21, 25-19 and had wins against New Haven 25-17, 25-14 and Fort Wayne Snider 25-14, 25-19.

TRI-TOWNSHIP 3, WINAMAC 0

Winamac traveled to the Tiger Den in LaCrosse to take on Tri-Township in their second matchup of the season. Previously, the Warriors had defeated the Tigers 2-0 at the Winamac Invitational earlier this season. The much improved Tri-Township had more in store for the Warriors on their home court.

With equal amounts of hustle and effort, the Warriors were once again stopped by unforced errors behind the serving line and at the net. Four missed serves and four net violations in each of the first two sets, put the Warriors down 0-2 (25-22, 25-19). Set three, which has proved to be a good set for Winamac so far this season, saw improvements in unforced errors with only one missed serve and two net violations, but it was too little too late as the Tigers topped the Warriors 25-21.

Brooke Rausch and Piper Link led the Warriors offensively with four kills each. Ally Campbell had two aces, a kill and two assists. Maggie Keller led the defense with 10 digs and an ace, while Linzy Walters added 13 assists.

GIRLS XC

FLASHROCK INVITE

Cass competed in the invitational race Saturday at the Athletic Annex Flashrock Invitational at Northview Church in Carmel.

Cass sophomore Aftin Griffin ran away from her nearest competitor finishing in a time of 19:29.3. Her closest competition were Greenfield Central teammates who were both able to run PRs. Josie Kinnaman, a freshman, and Lexie Copeland, a junior ran 19:42.9 and 19:55.7 respectively. The duo helped lead the Cougars to a team win with 78 points over Park Tudor's 98 points.

"The first Flashrock Invitational experience for my team was a great one," Cass coach Denise Rush said. "The varsity placed sixth out of 18 schools and our JV placed 15th. Aftin was the individual champion taking the lead from the start. Also scoring in the top five were: AnnaLeigh Hedrick, Kylie Logan, who ran a season-best time and Grace Spicer. Mia Hall stepped up as our fifth runner to run her best time by almost a minute. Sophie Holmquist also ran her best time followed by Hannah Zamora who ran sixth and seventh for us."

NEW PRAIRIE INVITE

The Logansport girls cross country team took on Agony Hill Saturday.

"This week was about being intentional and preparing for the remainder of our season," Logan coach Kailin Bowman said. "Racing every weekend will challenge these athletes physically and mentally and in an effort to stay healthy, we backed off the effort this week and used Saturday more as a training day rather than a race."

Competing in the varsity race was sophomores Jacqueline Hernandez-Flores and Audrey Graham, juniors Claire Bundy, Kate Maxson, Ashley Murillo, Lily Newell and Libby Dexter. The JV runners were juniors Frida Purtak, Madison Zimmerer, Marbella Nievez-Hernandez, Ava Martin and sophomore Olivia Gibson.

"I am so proud of the restraint this team showed this weekend. It's very challenging as a competitor to intentionally slow down in a race setting but we hope that their self-control on this tough course will pay off as we move into the final few meets of the season," said Bauman.

The Berries will compete at the Culver Invitation on Saturday.

BOYS TENNIS

LOGANSPORT 4, ROCHESTER 1

Logansport defeated Rochester Monday to move to 10-4 on the season.

Dylan Pearson won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 singles, Cooper Smith won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 singles and Conner Penz won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 3 singles. Blake Pearson and Aiden Swank won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2 doubles.

Rochester got its point at No. 1 doubles, where Robert Bozzo and Tanner Reinartz defeated Max Kitchell and Aryan Patel 7-5, 6-3.

"Varsity played well losing six games total among the four wins," Logan coach Adam Thompson said. "1 doubles did pretty well in their loss considering Rochester had their normal 1 and 2 singles players together for their senior night."

Logan beat Lafayette Jeff 3-2 and McCutcheon 3-2 Saturday at the NCC 5-8 tourney to place fifth in the league.

Penz at No. 3 singles and Swank and Blake Pearson at No. 2 doubles went 2-0 on the day.

BOYS SOCCER

LOGANSPORT 4, MARION 2

Logan evened its record to 6-6-1 and 3-3-1 in the NCC with a win at Marion.

Gaspar Francisco, Aaron Gazcon, Aldair Zarate and Logan Lange each had a goal for the Berries. Lange also had an assist.

Logan outshot Marion 22-7 for the game.

"We created good opportunities but we need more shots on goal," Logan coach Mike Turner said. "It was a great NCC win on the road. We have no matches this week, we can get healthy and work hard to finish out the season and get ready for a very tough sectional coming up."

CASTON 1, CULVER 0

Alex Craig scored a goal in the first half and the Comets made it hold up.

"The Cavaliers were a tough team to break down today. We had over 19 shots on goal but only were able to convert one for a score," Caston coach Nars Sanchez said. "The play was solid in the defensive third and middle third. However, the final third seemed to be a struggle for us as we got a lot of shots off, but Culver was able to keep most of them out of goal.

"We're content with the win but not satisfied with our performance in the finishing third."