BENNETT'S MINUTES: Former Eagles have big college weeks

Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Cooper Neese of Cloverdale (right) enjoys a team meal during Butler’s trip to Spain last month in a photo shared by coach LaVall Jordan on Twitter. Neese was unable to play on the trip due to a wrist injury, but has now been cleared to play.
Contributed photo

On the heels of tying a school record and breaking a 19-game losing streak, the Wilmington College offensive line has picked up a national honor as part of the D3Football.com Team of the Week.

South Putnam grad Lane Hacker, a senior tackle, was one of the members of the offensive line honored for helping the Fightin’ Quakers tie a school record with 381 rushing yards in Saturday’s 49-20 victory over Earlham.

After averaging just 74 rushing yards per game last season, Wilmington tied the school record for single-game rushing yards that was set in 1993. Two players went over 100 yards rushing, and another player finished with 77 yards.

Lane Hacker

“I am extremely proud of that group of men,” said first-year Wilmington head coach Bryan Moore. “We returned four starters up front from a year ago, so they have a lot of experience playing together. Coach [Matt] Byrne and Coach [Hayden] Thomas have done a terrific job of shuffling guys around this year searching for the best fit up front. Three of the four returners are playing a different position this year for the first time. Those moves seem to fit our offensive style the best.

“As with most offensive line groups, they are a little quirky, but bring a ton of energy to practice every day. There is plenty of room for improvement, but I am very proud of the ‘Tuffness’ they showed this past weekend.”

In addition to the 381 yards rushing, the line gave quarterback Luke Creditt a clean pocket all day long. The Fightin’ Quakers threw the ball 17 times in the game, and yielded zero sacks.

Hacker — a 6-foot-1, 255-pound senior majoring in agriculture — was the team’s starting center last year, but was moved to tackle this season.

The Fightin’ Quakers have a bye this week before stepping into Ohio Athletic Conference action 2 p.m. Sept. 16 at Otterbein.

Vittetow first for UIndy — The University of Indianapolis Greyhounds kicked off their 2017 cross country season Friday evening in the 2017 Butler Twilight.

The Greyhound men finished fifth against runners from Butler, IUPUI, Cincinnati and Wabash College.

Kieffer Vittetow

Freshman Kieffer Vittetow of South Putnam paced the men’s team by placing 17th place overall (19:43.1), while fellow freshman Jacob Woodrow was close behind in 19th (19:47.3).

“We had a good night all around,” UIndy head coach Brad Robinson said after the meet. “I was very proud of both the men’s and women’s team for sticking to our game plan of going out controlled and not over running the first mile. We were competitive in the middle of the race and kept passing other runners.”

Robinson also pointed out some of the team’s highlights after the meet.

“The men’s team did a great job of keeping our top seven runners together the first half of the race,” he said. “We accomplished our goal of placing our top five men’s finishers within 30 seconds of each other.”

Next up, the Greyhounds will travel to Purdue on Sept. 15 for the Indiana Intercollegiate Championships.

“We are in a great position as we prepare for the Indiana Intercollegiate Championships in two weeks,” said Robinson. “Both teams will be focusing on trying to win the ‘Little State’ title.”

Comings and goings

• Devin Clar, the leading rusher in Greencastle football history, has left the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky and returned to Putnam County.

Clar is currently taking courses at Ivy Tech and serving as an assistant coach for the Tiger Cubs. He is hopeful of resuming his college career at Franklin or Hanover next fall.

• Former South Putnam girls’ varsity basketball coach and North Putnam athletic director Tim Garver is returning to the bench this winter.

Garver was recently named as girls’ varsity coach at Eminence. His team will be competing against Cloverdale, North Putnam and South Putnam this winter.

• Cloverdale has hired former Northview assistant coach Kent Bass as its new baseball coach.

Kent Bass

Bass had a long career as an assistant with the Knights. His son, Damon, currently pitches for East Central University in Oklahoma after playing the past two seasons at Olney Central College and Danville Area Community College.

Also in the spring, North Putnam hired girls’ basketball coach Jarrod Duff to coach the school’s softball team.

• Aubrey Barker, who helped South Putnam to the girls’ basketball sectional title last winter and qualified for the state finals in the long jump in the spring has transferred from the school.

Barker attended Greencastle as a freshman, and unconfirmed reports have her possibly being enrolled at Plainfield.

• Ryan Coble, one of the state’s leading scorers for Greencastle two winters ago, has enrolled at Adrian College in Michigan.

He signed with Anderson University after his senior year with the Tiger Cubs, but instead went to the Standard of Excellence Academy in North Carolina.

Odds and ends

• Howard University was a 45-point underdog to UNLV in college football last weekend, but the Bison pulled off the biggest upset in college football history (based upon point spreads) with a 43-40 upset win.

Standout Edgewood lineman Ryan Stuffle (6-foot-4, 275 pounds) verbally committed this summer to sign with the Bison this fall.

• Cloverdale’s Cooper Neese accompanied Butler’s men’s basketball team on its trip to Spain last month, but was unable to play in the four games the team had against Spanish opponents.

Neese suffered a wrist injury during summer practice, and was held out of the games as a precaution.

He has since been cleared to resume practice. The Bulldogs open the season on Oct. 28 with an exhibition game at Hinkle Fieldhouse against Hanover.

Neese will be wearing his familiar No. 11 for the Bulldogs, and has decided to major in sports media.

The Bulldogs will be playing their first season under new head coach LaVall Jordan, a former Butler player.

All things Emma

• Greencastle’s Emma Wilson has won all three meets this season and is deservedly earning mention from several running websites.

Indiana Runner recently listed its projections for the top runners in each of the four IHSAA Semistates, and had Wilson ranked first among all runners feeding into that event.

Her best time so far is a 17:51.43 at the Dave Bannon Invitational on Aug. 26 at Shelbyville’s Blue River Memorial Park (site of the semistate).

MileSplit.com reported this week that DeKalb senior Tyler Schwartz has the state’s best female 5K time this year with a 17:34. That time ranks Schwartz — the defending IHSAA state champion — eighth in the nation.

WIC wanderings

• The first night of football in the Western Indiana Conference saw four of the six divisional games decided by 14 points or fewer, and only two of more than that margin.

Cloverdale and Cascade each picked up its first win of the season in the East Division. The Clovers had two close intra-county matchups, while Cascade opened the season with Class 3A powers Danville and Monrovia.

Indian Creek, defending East Division champs, defeated Owen Valley 27-7 and now stands 2-1 under its new coach.

In the West Division, the game of the night was at Sullivan as the defending divisional champion Arrows pulled off a miraculous comeback.

Trailing 28-21, the Arrows drove 84 yards in 1:32 with no timeouts and scored a touchdown with 16 seconds left. Sullivan then went for the 2-point conversion.

Standout receiver Dakota Caton, who had missed the first two weeks due to injury, scored the conversion to give the Arrows the win.

Greencastle has turned in some impressive defensive numbers this season, allowing just 9.0 points per game this season (tied for 30th for all teams, ranked seventh-best in Class 3A).

Tourney dates

• Greencastle has already won county titles in boys’ soccer, girls’ soccer and boys’ tennis, with football playing out over the course of the regular season and the other sports having their county events soon.

The county volleyball tourney will be Saturday at Cloverdale, and should be interesting based upon results of the same matchups in regular-season action last week.

Cloverdale led Greencastle 2-1 after three sets, but the Tiger Cubs came back to win the final two sets and the match.

South Putnam dropped the first two sets to North Putnam, but came back to win the last three sets and pull off the comeback.

The pairings are the same this week, but based upon the unpredictable nature of the sport picking a winner in advance would be nearly impossible.

The county cross country meet will be Sept. 26 at South Putnam.

Other than Emma Wilson likely winning the girls’ individual title, the team competitions and the boys’ individual title look to be up for grabs.

Greencastle won the girls’ golf WIC title last month, and the remaining crossover matches and competitions are also coming up soon.

Here are other important dates for WIC and sectional competition:

• Girls’ golf — County meet Sept. 11; sectional Sept. 16; regional Sept. 23; state finals Sept. 29-30.

• Boys’ tennis — WIC crossover matches Sept. 9; state tourney draw Sept. 25; sectional Sept. 27-28; regional Oct. 3-4; semistates Oct. 7; state finals Oct. 13-14.

• Soccer — WIC crossover matches Sept. 23; state tourney draw Sept. 24; sectionals Oct. 2-7; regionals Oct. 14; semistates Oct. 21; state finals Oct. 27-28.

• Cross country — WIC meet Sept. 30; sectionals Oct. 7; regionals Oct. 14; semistates Oct. 21; state finals Oct. 28.

• Football — WIC crossover games Oct. 13; state tourney draw, Oct. 1; sectionals Oct. 20, 27, Nov. 3; regionals Nov. 10; semistate Nov. 17; state finals Nov. 24-25.

• Volleyball — County tourney Saturday; WIC crossover matches Oct. 5; state tourney draw, Oct. 2; sectionals Oct. 10-14; regionals Oct. 21; semistates Oct. 28; state finals Nov. 4.

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