Area athletes still going

Thursday, February 15, 2007
Former South Putnam High School girls' basketball standout Jessica Canary (with ball) pulls up while being guarded by Greencastle's Grace Fisher. Canary is currently a freshman at the University of Indianapolis and is averaging 6.7 points per game for the Greyhounds.

Several area athletes have continued their careers at the collegiate level, including a handful of swimmers.

Jessie Menzel, Tracy Menzel and Andrew Bretscher, all Greencastle graduates, in addition to North Putnam graduates Amanda Roberts and Zach Whitaker are all continuing their careers in the pools.

Both Jessie and Tracy compete for Kenyon College. Jessie is a senior on the roster while Tracy is a sophomore.

According to the Kenyon website roster, Jessie competes in the breaststroke and the individual medley while the roster says Tracy competes in freestyle sprints.

The duo recently competed with Kenyon in the 2007 North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships. Kenyon was the victor of the meet with 1,636.5 points.

Tracy was part of the 200-yard medley relay team that won with a time of 1:45.80. In addition, she competed on the 800-yard freestyle relay team that placed second at 7:43.19.

Tracy also competed in the 100-yard breaststroke, placing fifth overall with a time of 1:06.54, while also finishing seventh in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:12.02.

Kenyon is 8-4 in dual meets this season and will host the Kenyon College Invitational on Saturday.

Roberts is a sophomore at Vincennes. Recently, the Trailblazers competed in a three-way meet against Butler and Xavier, finishing third overall.

At the meet, Roberts competed in the 200-yard medley relay, where her team finished fourth with a time of 2:04.69. In addition, she competed in the 50-yard freestyle, placing sixth, and the 100-yard freestyle, finishing fourth.

Whitaker is a senior at Ball State. The Cardinals last competed on Jan. 31, coming away with a victory over Indiana University-Purdue University of Indianapolis. They are set to compete in the Mid-American Conference Championships in Buffalo, N.Y., on Feb. 22.

Whitaker earned All-Academic MAC honors last year while earning 10 first-place finishes.

Bretscher is a freshman at Auburn University. The Tigers recently placed first in the Southeastern Conference Championships, which took place in Lexington, Ky.

According to his website bio, Bretscher competes in the freestyle, backstroke and butterfly.

Swimmers aren't the only area athletes that have continued at the collegiate level.

Former South Putnam standout Jessica Canary is a freshman at the University of Indianapolis. The Greyhounds are 13-9 this season.

Canary has started all 22 games for the Greyhounds this season, scoring 147 points for an average of 6.7 points per game. In addition, she averages 4.1 boards per game while dishing out two assists. She is also shooting 43 percent from the field in only an average of 24 minutes per game.

Mitch Oetken is also a junior at Northland College. The former Cloverdale standout is second on the team in scoring this year at 10.4 points per game, having scored 218 points in 21 games. Oetken also leads the team in rebounding at 5.1 per game and has dished out 36 assists.

Northland is 7-14 overall this season.

Former Greencastle wrestling standout Charlie Pingleton has also continued his stellar career at Indianapolis.

At 149 pounds this season, the junior grappler is 28-6-3. Throughout his career, he is 71-11 and is currently ranked seventh in the nation.

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