SP's Vittetow places second in sloppy Zionsville meet

Tiger Cub boys, NP girls win soccer matches

ZIONSVILLE -- South Putnam competed in the Zionsville Invitational on Saturday, with Eagle senior Kieffer Vittetow finishing second in the boys' junior-senior race in a time of 13:19.

"Kieffer Vittetow had a gutsy race, going out with the lead pack from the start and sitting tight," Welti said. "He held on despite the obvious struggle of maintaining that effort and speed, yet he was still strong enough to close the race out hard and get really close to the winner."

Vittetow was a semistate qualifier last fall, and Welti thinks he's poised for an even better season this time around.

"Kieffer is strong and focused," Welti said. "He's passionate and really hard working.

"Assuming he stays healthy, continues to be wise with his training and discipline on and off the course, we are expecting him to do some big things this season."

The meet was divided into separate races for freshman-sophomore runners and junior-senior runners, and the runners ran 4K instead of 5K.

"With it being this early in the season, it's nice having an off-distance to start with and kind of gauge our fitness from the summer mileage," SP coach Brandon Welti said. "During the boys and girls freshman-sophomore races, the weather was great for racing. Prior to the start of the girls' junior-senior race, the rain came in pretty heavily.

"The course conditions were a complete mess, and it was even worse by the time the guys got started."

Welti thought several other runners also performed well, despite the conditions.

"Logan Vandermark went out a little more conservatively, but he and Michael Crossman did a great job of steadily moving up and picking people off during the latter stages of the race," Welti said. "I'm really pleased with the effort there. These two have been working really well together in practices, and they are continually improving. I expect them to have pretty good seasons as well."

Welti felt Austin Rumley executed his running strategy well in the freshman-sophomore race.

"He ran a similar strategy as Logan and Michael, and it really paid off for him as well," Welti said. He too did a great job of racing smart and moving up late in the race."

The Eagles have a much smaller girls' squad than usual, with just five runners.

"Despite the small size, they do a great job of packing up and running together on many of their workouts," Welti said. "For this meet, Maddie McHugh and Ally Nichols, both juniors, did a great job of working together. They took off at a slightly faster pace but did a great job of hanging on and competing the entire time."

Rachel Jones and Addi Blaydes both took much different approaches, Welti said.

"They ran a conservative start with strong finishes," he said. "I was really impressed with Addi Blaydes. She didn't get to run at all this summer due to various health issues, and we weren't even sure if she was going to be able to run this year.

"However, she's been improving quickly, and the last mile of her race was really impressive."

Welti was pleased with the team ran overall, as well as the attitude and approach his runners had for the meet.

"Almost all of them knew that we had some really good, really fast competition, and they did a good job of running a smart race," he said. "Most of them had conservative starts and strong finishes.

"We know that it's going to be difficult to compete with the top teams in our conference, but I think the team has the ability and work ethic to really surprise people this year."

Freshmen/Sophomore Races

Boys

38. Austin Rumley 14:56, 92. Eric Hinkle 16:07, 103. Karl Egold 16:24, 159. Daniel Johnson 17:50, 160. Andrew Carr 17:53.

Girls

48. Samara Young 18:16, 12. Naomi Martinez, 22:48

__Junior/Senior Races

Boys

2. Kieffer Vittetow 13:19, 59. Logan Vandermark 14:43, 64. Michael Crossman 14:48, 64. Rachel Jones 20:28, 121. Dru Bottorff 16:25, 130. Adair Bock 16:47, 143. Blake Clearwaters 17:09

Girls

28. Maddie McHugh 17:52, 29. Ally Nichols 18:05, 86. Addi Blaydes 21:40

Soccer

* North Putnam 3, Cascade 1 -- At Roachdale, the North Putnam girls opened their season on Saturday with a victory.

All goals were scored in the first half.

Kaelynn Abner scored the first two Cougar goals, the first one assisted by Christa McRoy and the second assisted by Erin Livesay.

McRoy scored the final NP goal, assisted by Abner.

North Putnam is 1-0 on the season and hosts Owen Valley on Tuesday.

In other Saturday soccer action:

* Greencastle 4, Covington 2 -- Evan Crowe and Seth Nichols each had two goals for the Tiger Cubs, while Nichols and Kevin Polster each had an assist.

"The boys played well," Greencastle coach J.D. Sims said. "We had excellent passing and finishing, and great work off the ball."

Greencastle hosts Crawfordsville on Tuesday.

* Cascade 7, North Putnam 1 -- The Cadets led 6-1 at halftime and shut out the Cougars in the second half to finalize the win.

Alex Krominaker had the NP goal, beating two defenders and then the goalie near post.

"Grant Jarboe played a good game at right mid," NP coach David Moeller said. "It was his first varsity match."

Moeller was pleased that his team played better in the second half.

"Cascade was a tough opponent to start the season with, as they have a good squad," he said. "We had a better second half defensively and overall play."

The Cougars play Tuesday at North Montgomery.

Volleyball

* Eagles go 2-2 -- South Putnam hosted the Eagle Invitational on Saturday and split its four matches (which were best of three sets).

The Eagles defeated North Central by scores of 25-22 and 25-18, and also beat North Vermillion 26-24 and 25-23.

Turkey Run defeated South Putnam 25-10 and 25-15, while South Vermillion beat the Eagles 25-16, 25-16.

"The girls played well today and made significant gains," said Eagle coach Rachelle Custis. "They continued to work hard and fight until the end. As a coach, that's all I can ask for."

Drew Bratcher and Ashley Schroer led the Eagles with six aces each on the day, while Lillie Stein had four and Miranda Bieghler and Lexi Vanihel added two each.

Caitlin Capps and Stein made 13 kills each, Bieghler had 11, Aubrey Hill had four, Drew Bratcher had two and Jaylen Hughbanks and had Vanihel one each.

Capps led the Eagles with seven blocks, while Stein had five and Drew Bratcher and Vanihel added one each.

Bieghler had two digs, while Drew Bratcher, Hill, Hughbanks and Vanihel contributed one each.

Bieghler also paced South Putnam with 21 set-assists, while Drew Bratcher had 14 and Alex Bratcher had one.

The Eagles (2-4) host South Vermillion on Tuesday.

Tennis

* Eagles third in WV Invitational -- At West Terre Haute, the South Putnam boys' team placed third on Saturday.

Turkey Run won the event, with the host Vikings second and White River Valley taking fourth.

"The boys played well, against some tough competition," SP coach Johnny Briones said. "Our No. 1 doubles team [Noah Emmerick and Tanner Pistelli] played very well as a team."

Emmerick-Pistelli finished in second place, defeating Garcia-Bryant of WRV by scores of 6-1, 6-2 and losing 6-2, 6-0 to Gill-Joher of Turkey Run.

Thomas Fanning finished third in No. 1 singles, Ty VanSickle was third in No. 2 singles and Austin Arnold was fourth in No. 3 singles.

The No. 2 doubles team of Garrett Heavin-Jared Seidler finished third.

"We have a busy week coming up," SP coach Johnny Briones said. "We start the week with three matches in a row, exactly what we need to improve."

The Eagles play at Sullivan today.