TERRE HAUTE —
Taylor Carter. Colin Carver. Connor Curley.
There are a lot of Cs in those initials (Carter was not asked to change her first name for the benefit of this story, by the way), but that doesn’t mean they turned in average work during the high school spring sports season.
So far above average were these three athletes, in fact, that they are the Tribune-Star’s Wabash Valley Athletes of the Year for the spring — Carter because she might have been the Valley’s best softball hitter or its best softball pitcher, or both, for Northview; Curley because his quest for an undefeated season in pole vault for Terre Haute North came just one place short at the Indiana boys track and field finals; and Carver because he was unbeaten in his two main events for Casey, winning both Illinois Class A hurdles championships.
Carver was not only the only state champion among these three athletes, he might be the most unlikely state champion around, he revealed last week while sitting out a practice for the Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association with a chronic groin injury.
“I’m not flexible at all. I can’t even touch my toes,” he said with a grin, appreciating the irony of someone with chronic groin pain being asked — and being able — to run fast while jumping over things.
The Warrior senior did that pretty consistently all four years at Casey, where he also played four years of football and three seasons of basketball.
Except for a false start in the sectional of his freshman season, “I’ve been to the state finals since seventh grade,” Carver said.
As a sophomore he placed ninth in the 110-meter high hurdles, then added the 300-meter intermediate hurdles as a junior — when he was second in the state in that event and fourth in the highs.
Going into his senior year, his goals were pretty obvious.
“The guy who came in first [in the high hurdles in 2011] moved up to [Class] 2A, and the other two guys ahead of me graduated,” Carver pointed out. “The guy who was first in the [intermediate hurdles] graduated.”
Had he not been undefeated, then, Carver would have been disappointed in himself. He wasn’t thrilled even by winning two state championships, helping the Warriors finish in a fifth-place tie as a team.
“At the finals I didn’t run good at all,” Carver insisted, posting winning times of 14.65 seconds in the highs and 38.71 seconds in the intermediates. He’ll be taking his speed and his balky groin to Eastern Illinois.
Curley, who had a strong fourth-place finish last weekend at the Midwest Meet of Champions — vaulting 15-foot-6 and losing only to state champions from other states — also wasn’t completely satisfied with his state-finals showing of 15-3 (the winner went 16-1), but could appreciate the season as a whole.
“I didn’t get as high as I wanted to go [at the finals] … but it was a really successful season. I’m pretty proud of myself,” he said.
It was quite a journey in the event for the Patriot graduate, who improved from 10-6 as a freshman — “when I couldn’t even bend the pole,” Curley noted — to 12 feet indoors and 13 feet outdoors as a sophomore, then started a summer training regimen that enabled him to reach the state finals his last two years.
His personal best in competition so far is 15-7, his winning height at this year’s Evansville Regional — where he just missed a try at 16 feet.
He expects to better that mark sometime this summer as he prepares to enter Indiana State in the fall, and he’s had two other summer meets — winning in one at Fort Wayne, placing second in another at Rushville — to help him get there.
“I’ve been working my butt off,” Curley said. “I want to get 16-3 before I get to ISU.”
Unlike the two boys, Carter still has a senior season waiting for her at Northview, although she too knows where she’ll be playing in college. She’s made a verbal commitment to East Tennessee State.
The star of the Knights looks ready to fulfill any role on a college team. She had a 16-6 record during her junior season as a pitcher — including a complete-game win over eventual Class 4A champion Plainfield during the regular season — with 166 strikeouts in 141 innings.
At the plate, Carter batted .490 with 12 doubles, a triple and nine homers, driving in 42 runs and scoring 29. Her slugging percentage was .900, her on-base percentage .549, which means her OPS — the trendy new statistic in which a mark of 1.000 indicates a superstar — was 1.449. A superstar-and-a-half, if you will.
With her college choice out of the way — “I really liked it down there,” she said of the Johnson City campus of ETSU — Carter’s motivation involves getting to where Carver and Curley have been, the state finals.
“At the beginning [of the 2012 season] we were all different [from the 2011 team] … but as the season went along we learned to play together,” she recalled. “It all came together for us, we just couldn’t pull it out in the end [losing to Terre Haute South in the sectional semifinals].
Plainfield needed its march to the state championship to pass the 20-win mark, something the Knights, the Braves and Terre Haute North — Northview’s first-round sectional victim thanks to two Carter homers — also attained. The 2013 sectional could be just as tough — and possibly provide another state champion.
“I’m looking forward to everyone [on the Northview team] working over the summer,” Carter continued. “We need to focus on softball … and get our bats together.”
High School
Wabash Valley Athletes of the Year
Honorees had stellar high school athletic seasons
- High School
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Goatee, Bertoli ran away with Spring Athlete of the Year
When honoring athletes after a season of excellence, the phrase “what might have been” doesn’t usually come up.
But in the case of Terre Haute South’s Jackson Bertoli and Terre Haute North’s TaPring Goatee – the Tribune-Star’s Athletes of the Year for spring sports – there’s an air of unfinished business despite obvious recent successes.
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Post 346 opens tournament with two victories
Preston Tofaute got on base enough to score three runs, Cody Thornton smashed a two-run triple in the first inning and pitcher Pete Lannoo scattered four hits over a seven-inning complete game.
All of that helped Wayne Newton Post 346 down Lafayette Post 11 by a 7-2 score in the opener of the Terre Haute Inviatational tournament for American Legion baseball Thursday afternoon at Terre Haute North High School. -
North boys move up to 13th in golf state finals
Early Wednesday morning, Terre Haute North senior Ryan Baker and coach Abe Nasser headed out to the Legends of Indiana Golf Course for a range session.
Baker wasn’t happy with the 85 he shot in Tuesday’s first round of the IHSAA boys golf state finals.
“He was frustrated,” Nasser said.
Problem solved. Baker bounced back with a 2-over 74 Wednesday, helping the Patriots improve their team score by seven strokes.
The Patriots shot 304 as a team Wednesday, giving them a two-day score of 615, good for 13th place in the 15-team field. -
Big hill to climb for North golf
Terre Haute North boys golf is 21 strokes behind leaders at IHSAA boys golf tourney.
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Top of her game
There are a lot of surprising facts about blossoming volleyball prodigy Caitlyn Newton, including that shape-shifting thing she can apparently do, but maybe one of them stands out the most. She may only be scratching the surface.
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Camp, Howe win, then lose in state tennis tourney
Miranda Camp and Nicole Howe of Terre Haute South won their first match of high school tennis Friday at the state individual doubles finals, then won the first set against a powerful Park Tudor team before falling in three sets.
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Terre Haute North heading back to state finals in boys golf
Terre Haute North is going back to the state finals in boys high school golf for the first time in more than 10 years. The Patriots qualified for a trip to The Legends Course next week by tying for third in the Washington Regional at Country Oaks Golf Club and advancing with the better fifth score.
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North, South, Sullivan to compete at golf regional
Boys high school golf teams from the Wabash Valley will compete in the Washington Regional on Thursday, seeking a spot in the state finals to be played next week.
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Terre Haute North falls 6-1 to Brownsburg in opening game of Class 4A Regional
Terre Haute North coach Shawn Turner told the Patriots to raise their heads. He wanted to see their eyes at the close of their 24-7 high school baseball season.
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Terre Haute North girls shine on dreary day at track state finals
Led by a record setting 3,200-meter relay team and Keirra Porter’s long jump, Terre Haute North turned in its best finish ever in the 40th annual IHSAA Girls Track & Field Championships on Saturday at Indiana University in Bloomington.
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Valley teams will have to wait until Monday for baseball regionals
Rain and the threat of more rain caused postponements of high school baseball regionals involving Terre Haute North, West Vigo and Shakamak on Saturday.
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Rockville's season ends at Lafayette Central Catholic
Lafayette Central Catholic ended Rockville’s tourney run in high school baseball Saturday, defeating the Rox 8-0 in the first game of the LCC Class A Regional.
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IHSAA boys state track finals: Standing alone
It hadn’t been a particularly good day for Wabash Valley track and field Friday, and it wasn’t looking like a good one for Jackson Bertoli either.
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Terre Haute North, West Vigo return to baseball regionals
Terre Haute North’s baseball team hasn’t participated in an IHSAA regional since 2006. West Vigo’s wait hasn’t been as long, but it was 2010 when the Vikings last advanced from a sectional.
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Patriots girls take aim at state track title
Terre Haute North’s girls have several potential state champions today at Indiana University.
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South, North track athletes looking for big performances at state finals
Terre Haute South’s distance trio of Jackson Bertoli, Logan Hambrock and Riley Stohler appear to be the favorites to crack all-state status among Wabash Valley competitors today in the IHSAA boys track and field state finals at Indiana University.
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Internet site keeps area prep teams on airwaves
- PREP ROUNDUP: Locals to take part in Hoosiers All-Star Game
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South Vermillion softball can't overcome errors, Tri-West
Uncharacteristic errors led to eight unearned runs and hard-luck hitting made that impossible to overcome for South Vermillion, which fell 8-0 to Tri-West in Class 3A regional play.
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Clay City softball comes up short against Lutheran
Clay City closed its high school softball season Tuesday night with the best record ever for the program at 21-9.
The Eels wanted to add another win, the school’s first regional title, but they came up short.
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PREP ROUNDUP: Rockville wins baseball sectional
Rockville won its own Class A sectional in high school baseball Tuesday, defeating Covington 10-4 in the rain-delayed championship game.
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Class 4A Terre Haute South Sectional:The wait is over
Three minutes into an interview with various media members, Terre Haute North baseball coach Shawn Turner couldn’t react fast enough to avoid a bucket of ice water being dumped over his head from behind by his giddy players. The soaking-wet Turner could shake it off with a smile, however, because his Patriots had just won the IHSAA Class 4A Terre Haute South Sectional championship with a 13-3 six-inning triumph over Plainfield on Monday evening.
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Class 4A Terre Haute South Sectional: TH North, Plainfield win squeakers
The high school baseball teams of Terre Haute North and Plainfield proved Monday that what a batter does early in the game is not necessarily indicative of what he will do in the late innings.
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Class 2A Linton Sectional: Eastern rains on Sullivan parade
Mother Nature put Sullivan’s quest for a high school baseball sectional championship on hold Monday night at Linton-Stockton High School. Sullivan (14-15) and Eastern Greene (16-7) will resume play in the Class 2A Sectional 47 championship game at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Linton’s Roy Herndon Field.
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Opening Day: Terre Haute Rex host Quincy
In his first season at the helm, first-year Terre Haute Rex manager Ronnie Prettyman is going to be surrounded by men he knows and trusts.
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Class A Shakamak Sectional: Stout pitching leads Union, Shakamak to final
Trey Bedwell and Patrick Green made sure their respective high school baseball teams would meet for the championship of the Class A Shakamak Sectional by pitching shutouts in semifinal contests Monday afternoon.
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Class A Rockville Sectional: Covington, Rockville title game postponed
Rockville and Covington won semifinal high school baseball games Monday to advance to the championship game of the Rockville Class A Sectional. Due to rain, the championship game was postponed. A decision was expected this morning whether the game will be played today or Wednesday.
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South Vermillion, Linton, Clay City look to stay alive in softball
There might have been as many reasons to think they wouldn’t be winning sectionals this spring as evidence to show they would, but high school softball teams from South Vermillion, Linton and Clay City will be playing one-game regionals Tuesday with the chance to keep defying the odds.
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West Vigo back on top of Class 3A baseball sectional
West Vigo won its sectional with a 6-4 victory over South Vermillion on a rainy night at Dick Ballinger Field.
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South runs into ‘buzzsaw’ at girls tennis semistate
Postmatch interviews don’t often begin with a coach and a reporter ready to blurt out the same word, but that was the case for Bill Blankenbaker and his interviewer Saturday morning after the Center Grove Semistate for girls high school tennis.
Unfortunately for Blankenbaker’s Terre Haute South team, that word was “buzzsaw.”
Greenwood’s Kawamoto twins made quick work of the top of the Braves’ singles lineup, so despite stellar efforts by both South doubles teams the Woodmen’s 3-2 victory didn’t seem all that close.
Greenwood moves on to Fishers, where it plays Floyd Central or Jasper on Friday in the state quarterfinals.
Also playing Friday, but at Park Tudor, will be South’s Miranda Camp and Nicole Howe, who reached the individual doubles finals for the second straight season by virtue of their 6-4, 6-2 win over the Greenwood team of Taylor Hudnall and Brittany Toney.
“It’s really exciting,” said Howe of the prospect of a second straight finals trip, “but I wish our team could’ve gone with us.”
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