BENNETT'S MINUTES: Sullivan only football team carrying WIC torch

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

A few odds and ends as the brief transition from fall sports to winter sports ends:

• Sullivan defeated Vincennes Lincoln 42-14 on Friday night to advance to the Class 3A Sectional 32 championship game this Friday.

The 9-1 Arrows will host Evansville Memorial, which is 8-3 and includes two of its losses to top 10-ranked teams Evansville Reitz and Evansville Central.

Sullivan was the only Western Indiana Conference team to survive the semifinal round.

Besides Greencastle’s 21-14 loss to Danville and North Putnam’s 56-13 loss at Monrovia, Indian Creek fell 44-21 to Lawrenceburg and Cascade lost 44-12 to Mitchell.

• Northview lost 3-2 to New Palestine in the Jasper volleyball semistate on Saturday. New Palestine lost to Providence in the finals.

This Saturday’s championship matches are:

Class A — Christian Academy vs. Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian

Class 2A — Covenant Christian vs. Wapahani

Class 3A — Providence vs. Yorktown

Class 4A — Indianapolis Cathedral vs. Crown Point

• Soccer state titles were decided on Saturday.

Winners were:

Class A boys — Mishawaka Marian 4, Providence 0

Class 2A boys — Evansville Memorial 2, Chesterton 1

Class A girls —Andrean 2, Lawrenceburg 0

Class 2A girls — Penn 2, Brebeuf Jesuit 0

• The first Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association basketball polls came out on Monday, with two WIC teams getting recognition.

Cascade, which hosts Greencastle on Friday night, is ranked 15th in Class 2A.

Indian Creek is No. 20 in the Class 3A rankings.

Among other opponents of Putnam County teams, Clay City is ranked 17th in Class A and North Vermillion is 19th.

The appearance of North Vermillion further exemplifies the pointless nature of pre-season polls. The Falcons lost all five starters from last year’s sectional team and have a new coach.

Voting for a team based upon success in the previous season, without factoring in graduation losses, results in outcomes that are invalid like this one — unless some voters have thorough scouting reports on the school’s bench players and JV squad from last year.

North Putnam plays at North Vermillion on Thursday.

• Several runners from the recently-concluded cross country season are planning to run collegiately, although none has definite plans yet.

South Putnam’s Kieffer Vittetow has visited Division I Morehead State, and is also talking with Division II Indianapolis and Division III DePauw.

Teammate Logan Vandermark is looking to run at Franklin, while Greencastle senior Clayton Wilson is talking with Anderson.

Shelby Kallem also plans to run collegiately at a Christian college.

We’ll pursue these and other prospective signees as the school year goes along.

• Paced by three all-conference performances including a runner-up finish, DePauw totaled 88 points and finished third at the 2016 North Coast Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday.

Cloverdale’s Claudia Monnett placed second in 22:04.2 to earn first-team honors after a third-place showing last year.

• Lacrosse is becoming a popular sport for Putnam County female athletes.

Cloverdale’s Bailee Stevens originally went to Transylvania University in Kentucky to play basketball, but she has changed sports and now plays lacrosse for the Pioneers. She has two goals in action this fall.

On Saturday, two former South Putnam volleyball players will match up against each other on the lacrosse field as Marian plays Bethel.

Emily Dobson, a 2015 Eagle graduate, is playing lacrosse for Bethel.

Katie McHugh, a 2014 South Putnam grad, plays for Marian.

Both Bethel and Marian currently field only club teams, but will be moving into official intercollegiate competition soon.

• St. Mary-of-the-Woods College and its high-powered “Grinnell-type” offense racked up 95 points in its basketball season opener on Tuesday night against Brescia.

Unfortunately, the Pomeroys allowed 130 and suffered a 35-point defeat.

Greencastle sophomore Callan Taylor’s 22 points led the Pomeroys. Taylor hit 9 of 22 field goals, including 4 of 14 from 3-point range, in 19 minutes of action.

The Pomeroys will be back in action on Friday and Saturday when they head to Southern State near Cincinnati to play Wright State–Lake Campus and Kentucky Christian.

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