Menu
BENNETT'S MINUTES: Looking back at the 2017-18 school year highlights in Putnam County sports
The 2017-18 sports year for Putnam County officially ended in June when Greencastle’s Jake Bennett finished competing in the IHSAA boys’ golf state finals.
The school year started off strongly, with Putnam County teams winning three sectional titles in the fall season — South Putnam in boys’ tennis and Greencastle in boys’ soccer and volleyball.
Those crowns amounted to half of the six titles won by the 64 varsity teams fielded by Putnam County schools.
Cloverdale’s boys and South Putnam’s girls successfully defended basketball sectional titles in the winter, and Greencastle won the boys’ golf sectional for the county’s only spring team crown.
Greencastle won five team titles in the Western Indiana Conference, taking first in boys’ golf, girls’ golf, boys’ tennis, boys’ soccer and girls’ track.
In Putnam County competition, Greencastle won 11 of the 19 titles.
Cloverdale placed first in boys’ basketball and softball, while North Putnam won its 12th county football title in the past 24 years.
South Putnam won five county titles, taking firsts in boys’ track, girls’ tennis, boys’ swimming, boys’ cross country and girls’ country.
Greencastle won the rest.
(I’m not sure they officially recognize soccer and tennis as county champions since only two of the four schools field teams, but the head-to-head winner between the two schools in those sports also deserves recognition.)
Individually, there was at least one state finalist in each of the three sports seasons. Greencastle’s Emma Wilson did what she does, and was joined in the state finals club by Bennett and South Putnam diver Lee Haywood.
So, how does one evaluate the year? To me, it’s an improvement over the previous year — and that’s about all I can compare it to.
The number of individual state finalists was greater, as was the number of team sectional titles. Sectional-wise, we did pretty well. Greencastle had sectional runnerup finishes in boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball and football, while South Putnam was second in softball to the eventual regional champion, while the Eagle football team was also second. Cloverdale was runnerup to Covenant Christian in volleyball.
Unfortunately, many of our sports have little or no chance to ever win sectionals — especially those in single-class sports who would have to beat exponentially-larger schools like Avon, Brownsburg or the Terre Haute schools to win a sectional. Some sports like wrestling and track and field need a numbers boost to be able to field full teams to compete for team titles.
Conference-wise, Greencastle did well as it will always do in the Western Indiana Conference with five team titles.
It will take an exceptional group of athletes (South Putnam softball, perhaps?) for any of the other size-disadvantaged Putnam County schools to break into the WIC team champion category — unless some magical occurrence takes place that would find them a home in a Class 1A-2A conference that currently doesn’t seem to exist.
County-wise, the titles were much more spread out than last year — when Greencastle won all but a few titles.
All in all, it was a really good year.
What does next year have in store? Hard to say. Thirty-one county athletes have signed to play sports collegiately, and will leave big holes to fill. Greencastle’s Wilson will have her swan song at the high school level, and her eventual college choice will undoubtedly be a big deal.
There were lots of good underclassmen this year just waiting their chance to move even more into the spotlight. As always, it will be fascinating to watch that process take place.
A few awards
From nearly every event I attend, something happens that I found interesting but didn’t happen to make it into the story.
So, here are a few awards for some of those things that I can actually remember:
• Worst luck award — This goes to me, for having three of my longest days of the year extended by 90-minute weather delays.
In the fall, it was the incredibly busy Saturday that saw the South Putnam cross country sectional and Sullivan boys’ soccer sectional go off with no problems, but the nighttime Southmont girls’ soccer sectional being delayed by the worst of the three storms. (Compared to the other two, at least everyone had somewhere safe to go.)
In the spring, this nightmare happened twice. On the normally exhausting Friday with the Attica boys’ golf sectional in the morning and the girls’ track state finals that night, the weather held off until Emma Wilson had run her first race but delayed the second for a long time.
Then at the boys’ golf state finals a couple of weeks later, it happened yet again and lengthened Jake Bennett’s final round even more.
There was no actual place to go at Indiana University track stadium and it took everyone a long time to make it from the Prairie View golf course to the clubhouse.
Fortunately, no one was injured during any of these events.
• Best leap — Cloverdale football player Tyler Kaeff is even better known as a hurdler, and proved it in his team’s game at Cascade this year.
Facing the prospect of being drilled by a host of Cadet defenders, Kaeff soared over the entire group before being taken down. He was assessed a 15-yard penalty on the play for making an unsafe move.
Still impressive.
• Best use of momentum — This goes to the Lebanon boys’ basketball team, which took just an 8-15 record into the sectional tourney it hosted.
The Tigers were almost down for the count against Southmont in the semifinals, but rode a wave of emotion from the shooting death of a Boone County law enforcement officer earlier in the day to pull out the victory.
That game was one of the most memorable of the year, even though it didn’t involve any of our teams. Western Boone had lost a student in an accident that same week, and many of its students were on hand even though the Stars had already been eliminated.
Lebanon kept its momentum going and defeated Greencastle to win the sectional title and then knock off Edgewood in the regional semifinals.
• No class award — Undoubtedly goes to Danville football, for its ridiculously unnecessary action toward the end of the sectional final game against Greencastle.
In case you forgot, Danville led 30-0 with three minutes left, but felt it needed to block a punt and return it for a touchdown against a team that had barely gotten past midfield all night long. Pathetic.
• Best non-title winning victory — Greencastle’s 14-0 football sectional semifinal win over Sullivan, after having lost 41-10 to the Arrows earlier in the year.
INDIVIDUAL HIGHLIGHTS
STATE FINALS QUALIFIERS
Emma Wilson, Greencastle, cross country (first place)
Emma Wilson, Greencastle, track and field (first place in 3,200, fourth place in 1,600)
Lee Haywood, South Putnam, diving (17th place)
Jake Bennett, Greencastle, golf (58th place)
SEMISTATE CHAMPIONS
Emma Wilson, Greencastle, cross country
REGIONAL CHAMPIONS
Emma Wilson, Greencastle, cross country
Emma Wilson, Greencastle, track and field (1,600 and 3,200)
SECTIONAL CHAMPIONS
Emma Wilson, Greencastle, cross country (800, 1,600 and 3,200)
Nicole Newgent/Molly Ramey, Greencastle, doubles tennis
Austin Rumley, South Putnam, track and field (800 meters)
WIC CHAMPIONS
Cloverdale — Tyler Kaeff (track and field, 110HH)
Greencastle — Emma Wilson (cross country and track and field — 800, 1,600 and 3,200), Trace Thomas (wrestling, 160 pounds), Cade Winslow (wrestling, 182 pounds), Jake Bennett (golf), Claire Gillen (track and field, shot put), Seelye Stoffregen, Kennedy Trigg, Sydney Lewis and Kiearra Hayes (track and field, 4x100 relay)
North Putnam — Gage Bell, Brandon Barker, Scott Proctor, Chris Murray (track and field, 4x100 relay), Ashley O’Neal (track and field, long jump), Emily Gasho (track and field, discus)
TEAM HIGHLIGHTS
SECTIONAL CHAMPIONS
Cloverdale (1) — Boys’ basketball
Greencastle (3) — Boys’ golf, boys’ soccer, volleyball
South Putnam (2) — Girls’ basketball, boys’ tennis
WIC CHAMPIONS
Greencastle (5) — Boys’ golf, girls’ golf, boys’ tennis, boys’ soccer, girls’ track
PUTNAM COUNTY TITLES
Cloverdale (2) — Boys’ basketball, softball
Greencastle (11) — Girls’ basketball, boys’ soccer, girls’ soccer, boys’ golf, girls’ golf, boys’ tennis, baseball, girls’ swimming, wrestling, volleyball, girls’ track
North Putnam (1) — Football
South Putnam (5) — Boys’ track, girls’ tennis, boys’ swimming, boys’ cross country, girls’ cross country