What were the top 10 Bloomington area high school sports stories of 2023?
State champions, broken records, milestone wins, surprises, smiles and tears.
The year 2023 had it all for Bloomington area high school sports. So let's take a look back at the top moments as 2024 gets underway.
1. South girls' soccer makes run to state finals
A few weeks into the season, the Panthers were nowhere near the kind of team they would be at the end of the season, and a 4-0 loss to rival Castle sent that message loud and clear. From that day forward, David Prall's players were determined to get a little bit better every day and they did. The playoffs began with a thrilling 3-1 win over nemesis Center Grove and a 3-0 win over Terre Haute North for the sectional title. Then came a regional win at Franklin Central (2-1) and it was back home for a rematch with Castle. Scoreless through regulation and overtime, the Panthers won the regional title on penalty kicks, 3-1, after a huge save by keeper Paloma Martinez and the winning boot by Annalyse Coyne. More drama ensued at semistate in a 1-0 nail-biter, over a Cathedral squad that had knocked out No. 1 Carmel, on a windy afternoon in Columbus. The gusty breeze forced South to play defense almost the entire second half after Izzy Sweet's first-half goal, but they hung on to head to the Class 3A state championship match. In the final, South was first to score on a chilly night at IUPUI, but alas, the magical run ended as defending champ Noblesville proved too strong, winning 3-1. South finished 18-3-1.
2. North boys' basketball gets thrill-ride back to semistate
It doesn't get more exciting than the sectional and regional title game wins that sent the Cardiac Cougars back to semistate. After pounding Mooresville and a physical win over Martinsville, host Center Grove awaited in the final. The Trojans took a 41-40 lead and North held for the last shot, setting up a game-winning 3 by Gavin Reed with .4 left on the clock. But the Cougars still had to sweat out a block-charge call that went their way in the 43-41 win. Next weekend, North headed to the Seymour Regional to one-up that effort. The Cougars, who trailed from the start, were down 14 in the second half to Columbus North. But they chipped away until a three-point play at JaQualon Roberts with 3.7 seconds left gave them another improbable win, 45-43. No. 1 Ben Davis, the eventual state champs, was just too much at New Castle Semistate as North finished 19-6. Along the way, head coach Jason Speer picked up career win No. 200. After the season, senior JaQualon Roberts, a Vanderbilt commit, was named to the Indiana All-Stars.
3. South football marches to semistate
The football Panthers lost just once in the regular season and that was all the motivation they needed in the much-anticipated rematch with rival North in the sectional opener. South turned around that one-point overtime stunner with a big second-half push to oust the undefeated Cougars, 44-31. It figured the winner would be favored to be playing for a semistate title and that's just what happened for the powerhouse Panthers, who rolled by Seymour 49-14 for a sectional title after dominating the second half, then came a 42-21 trouncing of Evansville North in the regional in South's only home playoff game of the run. It all came to a crashing halt at Decatur Central, where little went right in a 24-12 loss.
4. North football goes 9-0, says good-bye to Coach Bless
It was the best football season in school history but ended on a couple of sad and bittersweet notes. No Cougar team had ever started better than 3-0 or 4-0-1, but this one did. North made winning close games a habit all year, beating Mooresville (34-29), Bedford North Lawrence (21-14 on a TD with 18 seconds left), Terre Haute South (38-28) and then rival South, 25-24 in an overtime thriller on a touchdown by Cole Grupenhoff and two-point conversion pass to Jack Leonard. North routed its next three opponents, held on to beat Columbus North 38-35, then blew past Southport for the first 9-0 season in school history. The old record for most wins was eight. But it ended with a tough 44-31 loss in the sectional opener, a battle between top-three ranked teams that was tied at half and saw QB Dash King toss for a school-record 442 yards to no avail. Then in December came the retirement of head coach Scott Bless after a 19-year run, longest in program history.
5. A track season full of records and medals
It started on opening day back on a chilly day in late March and never let up until the last race of the state finals. Bloomington North and South, in particular, as well as Edgewood, saw their boys and girls track records re-written and the medal haul from state was enormous. The biggest boys moments came when North broke the state record in the 3,200 relay (7:37.24) for a title and the 400 relay (41.69) for third and South's Ryan Rheam broke a 41-year old mark in the 3,200 (9:03.96) for third. JQ Roberts (400), Jayden Johnson (100) and Kyle Clark in 1,600 and 3,200 (8:59.98) also broke school marks as did South's 400 relay. North's Caleb Winders was second in the 800, South's Sawyer Bailey fourth in pole vault and D'Andre Black seventh in the 110 hurdles. The girls saw South's Lily Myers graduate with five school records: 3,200 (10:36.84), 1,600 (4:54.71), 800 (2:13.48) and 1,600 and 3,200 relays, the last third at state to go with 3-8 finishes in the 1,600 and 800. North's Hadley Lucas went 1-2 in shot and discus and raised her school records to 50-11 and 167-2. North's 400 relay, Nola Somers Glenn (2:11.64) in the 800 also broke record and medaled. South freshman Ellie Barada medaled in the 400, Edgewood's Clara Crain was fourth in the 3,200 and North's Dede Eberle was sixth in long jump. Edgewood broke its 400 and 1,600 relay records.
6. South's Ruhlman second at wrestling state again
The Bloomington South senior made it to the state championship match in three different weight class, including 170 pounds this time. But each time, a wrestler from Crown Point stood in the way as Cody Goodwin did this time, downing Ruhlman 2-1. Ruhlman finished with 141 wins and three runner-up medals for his decorated career that included an Al Smith Classic title. Ruhlman was the first wrestler from Bloomington since North's three-time champ Patrick Cassidy (1993-95) and first Panther since three-time champ Randy May (1974-76) to appear in back-to-back-to-back state championship matches. Ruhlman committed to Purdue where his older brother Tristan is a starter at heavyweight.
7. Milestones for South boys' basketball coach J.R. Holmes
The numbers, and the commemorative basketballs in his office, just keep piling up. This time it was 1,000, the number of games J.R. Holmes has coached at South. Then came career win No. 900, which the Panthers earned the hard way, forcing overtime thanks to a big finish by Zach Sims before coming out on top, 60-56. Holmes has been coaching an incredible 54 years.
8. South boys' golf fourth, Happy Gilmore seventh at state
South battled with the top teams all season and ended up fourth in the IHSAA state finals at Prairie View, the top team not from the immediate Carmel area. The Panthers shot a 607 total to earn their medals, trailing Guerin Catholic (589), Westfield (591) and Hamilton Southeastern (600). Junior Happy Gilmore also earned an individual medal by tying for seventh (72-72—144), while junior Connor Byon tied for 12th (71-76—147) and senior Nick Bellush tied for 23rd (77-74—151). Gilmore and Bellush were also awarded All-State honors. South and Guerin Catholic are the only programs to finish in the top six the past three years.
9. North relays, South's Kovacs have big days at state boys' swim meet
It was a group effort for North as three swimmers committed to one individual event and three relays in the postseason. It paid off with three school records set or matched in the preliminaries and two state medals. First, the 200 medley relay Jay Stewart, Jeremiah Boshears, Jack Steiner and Ben Buehler went 1:34.14 in the prelims to break a 2012 record, then Stewart, Steiner, Ben Dixon and Buehler went 1:25.75 in the 200 free relay to tie that mark also from 2012. Then Steiner, Dixon, Buehler and Stewart went 3:09.58 in the 400 free relay to break a year-old record. The Cougars ended up seventh in the medley, 10th in the 200 free and sixth in the 400 free to make ninth as a team. Stewart was also third in the 100 fly. As for South's David Kovacs he was second in 100 backstroke in a school record 48.54 to the fastest swimmer in the country, Will Modglin of Zionsville. Kovacs was also at his best in the 200 individual medley, lowering his best time to 1:49.32 for fifth.
T10. North's Freel breaks through at girls' state swim meet
North junior Ashley Freel broke the school record in the preliminaries of the 100 backstroke at state with a 56.57, then came back strong finishing sixth to become the Cougars' first medalist since diver Ashley Carnes was sixth in 2005 and first swimming medalist since Kassidy Kirchner was eighth in the 50 free in 2004. No North swimmer has done better since Megan Richardson was fifth in the breaststroke in 1999. Freel, who recently signed with Duquesne, was also 10th in the 100 butterfly after a school record 55.73 in prelims.
T10. North gymnastics wins first regional since 1981, seventh at state
North, led by Sofie Garcia who was fourth in the all-around, scored a 108.625 to make history at Franklin Central, winning its first regional title since 1981. The Cougars went on to take seventh at state, their second top-eight finish in a row in the finals. South's Mia Langley (beam) and junior Maddie Kawanishi (floor) were the first Panthers to make state since 2017.
Other top stories
(In no particular order): Lilyanna Blais and Esther Crane become the first girls from Eastern Greene to make it to the state cross country championships; Lighthouse Christian boys' basketball team wins the first sectional games in school history before losing to Bloomfield in the final; North's Hadley Lucas, who signed with Wisconsin, earns a spot on Team USA for the Pan Am games with a runner-up finish in the discus at the USATF U20 National Championships; South girls' golf wins a sectional title for the first time since 2015; South's Ryan Rheam medals for a second time at state boys cross country meet; South girls, North boys win cross country regional titles; Edgewood hires Scott Fischer as its new football coach; North's Connor O'Guinn makes a surprising run to the state singles finals in his first year at No. 1; Mick Hammett resigns as Edgewood athletic director after long run, Jerry Bland named successor; North baseball coach Richard Hurt picked up career win No. 500; Eastern Greene fields its first soccer team and picks up its first win; Eastern Greene football goes 5-5, it's most wins since 2018; Rob Gibson leaves as Owen Valley football coach after a 22-3 two-year run to take over at Avon.
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Top 10 Bloomington area high school sports stories of 2023
