TERRE HAUTE —
Temperatures in the 60s greeted 443 runners — 223 girls and 220 boys — as they broke in the high school season Saturday morning, competing in the second annual Bloomington North Early Bird Meet at Terre Haute’s LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.
Terre Haute South junior Jackson Bertoli won the boys 5-kilometer race in 16 minutes, 3.7 seconds, defeating runner-up Cole Hester of Lawrence Central by exactly 10 seconds.
“I talked with [South] coach [Kyle] Walsh beforehand and he just wanted me to feel out this first race — no big pressure,” Bertoli told the Tribune-Star afterward. “I just tried to hang in the mid pack [at the beginning]. I didn’t want to lead it from the front necessarily. I waited ‘til we got to the 2K mark and I threw in a little surge. No one went with me, so I just kept on going [into the lead]. I felt good at the end… It definitely felt like a good run. I didn’t have to exert myself too much, just trying to get the win for the team.”
South teammate Logan Hambrock, a senior, crossed the finish line seventh in 16:45.6. Also, Northview junior Nic Yocom was ninth in 16:52.2.
Team-wise, South finished second with 52 points behind only Lawrence Central’s 44. Northview placed 10th (267), Bloomfield 15th (403) and Clay City 16th (418) in the 17-team field.
“We followed the race strategy pretty well,” Walsh assessed about the Braves. “I’d say the guys got out in good positions, settled in and ran the last 2K very hard. We set ourselves up for a positive run through the rest of the year.”
Walsh described Bertoli’s triumphant run as “smooth and relaxed.”
“He ran the way we wanted him to run,” South’s second-year coach continued. “He had a very strong finish. He looks very fit for this time of year.”
Meanwhile, Bertoli believes the Braves are ready for a big season in the next two-plus months.
“This is one of the strongest teams South’s ever had,” he emphasized. “We have a lot of aspirations and goals. We were going in ranked ninth in the state. That’s pretty high up for us. We have the runners and we have the talent to do it. We just have to make everything click and bring the team together in the end.”
In the girls 5K race, South junior Nikki Thiede came in second with a time of 19:58.6. She trailed winner Kate Raphael, a junior from Bloomington North, by 4.5 seconds.
The Braves finished third in the team competition with 110 points. Bloomington South (55) edged runner-up Westfield (56) for first, while Bloomfield placed eighth (242), Northview 10th (275) and Clay City 13th (336) in the 14-team field.
“I led up until the third or fourth K,” Thiede pointed out. “Then Kate started pushing me [figuratively, not literally]. She ended up getting me at the end. She has a better sprint than I do.”
Still, Thiede thought this was a great way to start the season — for her and the South team.
“I did better than I did last year [placing fourth in 20:06.3 as a sophomore], so that was good,” she mentioned. “And I was hoping to break 20 [minutes] and I did.
“I think we [as a team] did really well today. I think we can make it back to state [Oct. 27 on the same course] for the third year in a row.”
South girls coach Ed Jarvis also praised his runners’ efforts Saturday.
“There was a little bit of a different format with the unlimited entries [for each school],” he explained. “Probably a couple of the people who scored for me wouldn’t have even run if this were a top-seven varsity race. We ran 12 today. Usually, you pick who you think your best seven are and they run.”
Jarvis said the depth of the team, which was evident Saturday, is a good problem to have.
“A couple people were off their game,” he noted, “but Nikki looked real good today.”
From the Northview perspective, coaches Chad Smith (boys) and Rexanne Laue (girls) saw early-season positives that they can take into September.
“Looking at our times, I thought we ran extremely well,” Smith said. “I was happy with how our kids ran. Our No. 1, Nic, ran real well, breaking the top 10 in this meet with some pretty big schools in it. So I’m happy overall with how we did.”
“The girls did excellent today,” Laue stressed. “They all had excellent times for their first race on this course, because this is sort of a hard course for them.”
Also worth mentioning from Saturday is Alli Workman’s seventh-place finish for Bloomfield in the girls race.
Bloomington North Early Bird Meet
(Both races 5K)
GIRLS
Team scores — Bloomington South 55, Westfield 56, Terre Haute South 110, Lawrence Central 115, Bloomington North 120, Silver Creek 206, Martinsville 215, Bloomfield 242, Monrovia 252, Northview 275, Brown County 295, Indian Creek 315, Clay City 336, Southmont 350.
Top 20 — Kate Raphael (BN) 19:54.1, Nikki Thiede (THS) 19:58.6, Maddy Roach (LC) 20:07.0, Alex Warzyniak (BS) 20:27.7, Alexis Lewandowski (BS) 20:30.8, Brittany Sharp (SC) 20:34.7, Alli Workman (Bloom) 20:34.7, Briana Leonard (W) 20:41.9, Taylor Rogers (W) 20:41.9, Shelby Wilson (W) 20:49.9.
Veronica Fickel (BS) 20:59.4, Rose Guingrich (BC) 21:00.1, Karli Koning (W) 21:01.5, Katie Schmidt (THS) 21:02.7, Lainey Derheimer (BS) 21:04.8, Devon Leahy (W) 21:07.8, Shannon Webb (W) 21:10.2, Isabel Roberts-Hamilton (BN) 21:11.4, Lauren Schweizer (W) 21:30.9, Ali Burt (BS) 21:34.6.
Terre Haute South — 2. Thiede 19:58.6, 14. Schmidt 21:02.7, 23. Rachel Stephens 21:39.2, 41. Kerstin Peterson 22:19.9, 53. Nicole Howe 22:56.1, 55. Aydee Dalina 22:56.5, 56. Sami Holmes 22:57.4.
Bloomfield — 7. Workman 20:34.7, 97. Shelby Patton 25:02.3, 111. Bridget Buka 25:27.6, 129. Bethany Stewart 26:12.1, 137. Shayla Wikle 26:41.4, 142. Mariah Long 26:48.6, 147. Kristin Hall 27:08.5.
Northview — 60. Hannah Zadii 23:06.1, 61. Ashley Kidwell 23:08.0, 63. Emily Conrad 23:17.2, 135. Leanna Knight 26:39.2, 157. Eileen Stinnett 27:57.6, 163. Maegan Pillman 28:27.2, 171. Carrie Drugger 29:30.3.
Clay City — 49. Kelsey Wright 22:44.0, 132. Ashley Reach 26:29.1, 159. Kayla Sinders 27:59.5, 162. Kiersten Mann 28:17.1, 168. Tiara Skaggs 28:54.8, 187. Krista Sinders 33.43.0.
BOYS
Team scores — Lawrence Central 44, Terre Haute South 52, Bloomington South 57, Bloomington North 147, Indian Creek 191, Silver Creek 192, Brown County 222, Edgewood 224, Martinsville 243, Northview 267, Lighthouse Christian 320, Pike Central 342, Southmont 352, Crawford County 400, Bloomfield 403, Clay City 418, Monrovia 442.
Top 20 — Jackson Bertoli (THS) 16:03.7, Cole Hester (LC) 16:13.7, Matt Dorsey 16:14.8, Kyle Burks (BS) 16:17.5, Chandler Ball (LC) 16:29.6, Jordan Huntoon (BS) 16:36.6, Logan Hambrock (THS) 16:45.6, Jake Johnson (IC) 16:48.5, Nic Yocom (Nv) 16:52.2, Anthony Williams (BS) 16:53.3.
Darin Lawrence (LC) 17:03.6, Michael Mest (E) 17:08.3, Riley Stohler (THS) 17:09.3, Spencer Danielson (THS) 17:10.3, Aaron Tincher (M) 17:19.8, Xavier Martinez (BS) 17:22.0, Devon Fuson (THS) 17:24.5, Griffin Tichenor (BN) 17:24.9, Andrew Carmin (BN) 17:31.7, Cain Parker (PC) 17:36.1.
Terre Haute South — 1. Bertoli 16:03.7, 7. Hambrock 16:45.6, 13. Stohler 17:09.3, 14. Danielson 17:10.3, 17. D.Fuson 17:24.5, 26. Jerad Fuson 17:47.6, 29. Isaac Wonderlin 17:50.6.
Northview — 9. Yocom 16:52.2, 64. Cam Trout 18:56.7, 82. Travis Bell 19:33.2, 87. Ian Heffner 19:40.7, 123. Skylar Aguilar 20:47.4, 138. Devon McCollum 21:12.5, 145. Christian Herron 21:20.0.
Bloomfield — 73. Parker Ramsey 19:18.6, 107. Jared Bond 20:13.1, 114. Brad Kirkley 20:32.8, 140. Clayton Burch 21:13.0, 175. Spencer Warren 22:48.3, 192. J.J. Kingsley 26:06.9.
Clay City — 68. Parker Ames 19:05.5, 98. Michael Brooks 20:04.2, 131. Paiden Myers 20:57.8, 161. Evan Rogers 22:14.4, 190. Josh Miller 25:41.0, 195. Jordan Prindiville 29:41.8.
Next — Both South squads will compete next Saturday in the Purdue University Invitational at West Lafayette. Northview’s boys and girls will take on Shakamak, Brown County and Owen Valley at Owen Valley on Tuesday.
High School
Bertoli wins season-opening high school meet at LaVern Gibson
- High School
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Softball sectionals up for grabs
All three Vigo County high schools and Northview appear to have a realistic chance of winning sectional championships in softball this week.
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West Vigo softball holds off nemesis Edgewood in softball sectional
Ice cream was enough of a reward Monday night after the West Vigo Vikings beat eight-time defending champion Edgewood 6-2 in extra innings in the opening game of the Class 3A softball sectional at Edgewood High School. But that’s not what Vikings want.
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Terre Haute South, Northview vie for tennis regional title
Terre Haute South and Northview take respective records of 10-5 and 11-5 into the Greencastle Regional today.
Coach Bill Blankenbaker’s Braves will play Seeger at 4:30 p.m., while coach Emily Goff’s Knights will take on Crawfordsville about 6 p.m. -
Terre Haute North offense unable to get going in loss to Mooresville
Jack Kirchner chose to give credit Monday night to Mooresville pitcher Taylor Chitwood, not to the Greg Maddux-size strike zone she seemed to enjoy.
But if there were no excuses forthcoming from Kirchner and his Terre Haute North High School softball team, it wouldn’t have been hard to find a spectator or two to come up with extenuating circumstances about the Patriots’ 4-1 loss at the Class 4A Martinsville Sectional. -
Terre Haute North looking strong going into girls track regional
Terre Haute North might need an off night for anyone to catch them in the girls track regional at Evansville Central.
The Patriots are as well-rounded as they’ve ever been, and two relay teams are state contenders with times ranking No. 2 in Indiana among times recorded all spring.
Terre Haute South, Northview and Sullivan have athletes among the contenders in multiple events as well. -
PREP ROUNDUP: Shakamak's Green hits two homers in win over West Vigo
Shakamak improved to 22-3 on the season behind a complete-game effort from Brett Yeryar, and Patrick Green hit two solo home runs in a high school baseball game Monday.
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Vikings win in extra innings at Rockville
West Vigo scored six runs in its first two innings Saturday, then needed a ninth-inning single by Lucas Fagg to escape with a 7-6 extra-inning win in nonconference high school baseball at Rockville.
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TH South beats Northview in Big Four makeup baseball game
Terre Haute South wrapped up a share of the MIC baseball title and finished up the Big Four Classic with an 8-1 victory over Northview in less than 24 hours on Saturday morning.
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Olds pitches South to share of MIC baseball title
Friday night, winning the second game 5-0 and earning a share of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference high school baseball title.
Damon Olds was dominant on the mound for the Braves, striking out 14 and walking just one while pitching a three-hit shutout. -
South wins first half of doubleheader against Lawrence North
Host Terre Haute South kept its Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference high school baseball title hopes alive — and clinched no worse than second place in the process — by downing Lawrence North 4-1 in the first game of a doubleheader Friday night.
The second game, which started after Senior Night festivities between games, ended past the Tribune-Star deadline. -
PREP ROUNDUP: Calleja pitches West Vigo past South Vermillion
Brandon Calleja had 13 strikeouts to lead West Vigo to a 5-1 victory against South Vermillion in high school baseball Friday.
Brandon Behringer went 2 for 4 with two RBI for the Vikings, who secured second place in the Western Indiana Conference.
Kaden Lawson had double for South Vermillion (15-7), which finished 4-2 in the WIC. -
Seibert returns from injury to win three events as Braves win sectional crown
His baseball equivalent might be Rick Sutcliffe of the 1984 Chicago Cubs.
When Tyler Seibert returned to the Terre Haute South track and field lineup Thursday for sectional action at Terre Haute North, it was like the midseason trade the Cubs made for Sutcliffe that earned them a playoff spot. -
South switches up lineup to defeat North in tennis sectional
Terre Haute South coach Bill Blankenbaker said two weeks ago that he would change the Braves’ lineup after the 3-2 dual-meet loss to Terre Haute North.
The Patriots knew it was coming, but they couldn’t do anything to stop it. -
PREP ROUNDUP: North slips past Northview in eight-inning baseball game
Colton Pittman drew a bases-loaded walk to score Zach Milam with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning as host Terre Haute North edged Northview 8-7 in high school baseball Thursday at Jennings Field.
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PREP ROUNDUP: North and South to face off for tennis sectional title
The winner of the Terre Haute sectional for girls high school tennis will come down to Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South.
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Terre Haute North gets 10 event victories to claim 12th straight sectional crown
Terre Haute North won 10 events Tuesday night while winning the Indiana High School Athletic Association girls track and field section at South Putnam High School for the 12th straight year.
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North, South to meet in first round of baseball sectional
The Indiana High School Athletic Association announced pairings for the baseball state tournament Tuesday and the draw offered up a Vigo County battle in the opening game.
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PREP ROUNDUP: West Vigo softball clinches share of WIC title
West Vigo clinched at least a share of the Western Indiana Conference softball title with a 6-4 victory over Edgewood on Tuesday.
Jacy McClain and Bailee Waters had RBI singles in the fourth inning to break the game open for the Vikings. -
Track sectional titles on the line
Expect one heck of a high school dual track meet Thursday night when Wabash Valley boys visit Terre Haute North for sectional action.
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Prep report: Patriots, Braves favored to advance from tennis sectional 1st round
Persons attending this week’s girls tennis sectional championship match at Terre Haute North might want to pack a lunch.
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Local ADs happy to see spring come to a close
Brian Mancuso is the most experienced of the high school athletic directors in Vigo County — and that’s a very relative term — but even he wasn’t quite ready for the headaches that have accompanied spring sports the last few weeks thanks to rain, rain and more rain.
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South baseball remains in first-place tie with Center Grove
Heading into Saturday’s Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference baseball doubleheader against Center Grove, coach Kyle Kraemer of Terre Haute South wasn’t completely optimistic.
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Kehrt Award goes to Emily Bell, Lee Davis
Emily Bell of Terre Haute South and Lee Davis of Terre Haute North are the 2013 recipients of the Willard M. Kehrt Mental Attitude Award.
Bell and Davis were nominated by their schools and chosen in a vote by the Kehrt Award panel. Both will be recognized at awards assemblies later in the month at the schools.
Bell played varsity basketball four years at South and is competing in track this season, running the 800 and two relays. “I wanted something to do my senior year,” Bell said.
She plans to attend DePauw University and play basketball. DePauw is the reigning NCAA Division III champ in women's basketball.
Bell tore an AÇL playing in a basketball tournament the summer after her sophomore season. She missed most of her junior season but came back to play her senior year and was second leading scorer and leading rebounder her final season.
Bell also was leading rebounder her sophomore year. -
South softball's power display earns Braves share of MIC
The fun that the Terre Haute South high school softball team had Saturday — including those five home runs — was all the result of the hard work the Braves had put in before the game, coach Dwayne Stout said after the game.
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Pirtle takes medalist, leads Sullivan to WIC title
Sullivan took team and individual honors in the Western Indiana Conference boys high school golf championships played Saturday at Idle Creek.
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Prep roundup: Patriots drop doubleheader to Carmel baseball
Host Terre Haute North saw its Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference baseball championship hopes suffer what was probably a fatal blow on Saturday as the Patriots lost a doubleheader to Carmel by scores of 8-7 and 11-8.
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Timely hits: After slow start, Terre Haute North rallies to beat Mooresville
No-hit through three innings, Terre Haute North’s bats came alive — especially Sam Wolf’s — just in time to rally for a 4-2 home victory over Mooresville in high school baseball Friday evening at Jennings Field.
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Linton’s Weber to coach at BNL
Bedford North Lawrence High School has announced that Steve Weber will be the Stars’ head coach for the 2013 season.
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Freshman group adds to Big Four teams' baseball tradition
The Terre Haute North-Terre Haute South high school baseball series wasn’t an inning old last week before T.J. Collett of the Patriots lashed a run-scoring single.
That hit helped the Patriots take a 2-0 lead, but in the top of the second inning a three-run double by Justin Jenkins sparked the visiting Braves to a four-run inning.
North tied the score in the bottom of the second inning, Collett driving in another run. And just before rain caused the game to be suspended, South called Logan Ames in from its bullpen for some solid pitching.
Not bad for a trio of freshmen. And the weekend hadn’t even started yet. -
Pairings drawn for high school softball sectionals
The IHSAA announced Thursday its pairings for the 2013 sectional softball tournament slated for May 20-25.
Regionals will take place May 28. - More High School Headlines
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