By Tom Reck
The weather was nearly perfect for a busy weekend. Recapping:
It began Friday night, covering the South Vermillion-Brown County football game that had one of the longest first quarters of the night, possibly the season.
The Wildcats are playing well and are 4-0 for the second straight season and 2-0 in the Western Indiana Conference for the first time in a long, long while. They play West Vigo this week and it’s a big game for both teams.
Saturday was devoted to getting golf results in Hendricks and Vermillion counties. First up was the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference girls championship; Carmel won for the 13th time in 14 tournaments with the pin placements being tough for all the players.
Terre Haute North and South finished fourth and fifth, respectively, to begin a busy month of tournament golf. Both will be in the sectional at Forest Park on Saturday and both figure to be in the regional the following week at Martinsville.
Some of the individuals could be in the state finals.
Making the scenic trip — by way of Indiana 36 — to Clinton, we got the results of the first round of the Spaghetti Open. Thirteen golfers were under par, setting the stage for a great finish.
We watched the final 11 holes played by the feature fivesome made up of four veterans — Dusty Jovanovich, Chris Cassell, Jeremy Roehm and Scott Hess — and South Vermillion teenager Brandon Bekkering. They all made their share of great shots.
Jovanovich and Cassell were tied after 15 holes and Jovanovich basically won his fourth championship with a birdie on No. 16 to go up by two shots.
Cassell cut the lead to one on 17 but Jovanovich settled it with another birdie on 18 as he finished with 16 birdies in two days and a 13-under-par record 131 score.
Cassell did everything but win as he lost another close decision in a tournament this year. He shot 133.
Their play reminded me of the final match in the Women’s City this summer when Rachael Pruett and Cara Stuckey played great and Pruett won on the final hole.
It was a nice weekend and, hopefully, the weather will be just as nice this weekend for the girls sectional and the first round of the WTHI Men’s City Tournament.
• Tom-Cattin’ It — The Sporting News has released its annual list of the top 100 players in the National Football League.
Peyton Manning of the Colts is No. 1 followed by Tom Brady of New England, Adrian Peterson of Minnesota, Larry Fitzgerald of Arizona and LaDainian Tomlinson of San Diego. Other Colts in the top 100 are Dwight Feeney at 13, Jeff Saturday at 37, Bob Sanders at 44, Reggie Wayne at 49 and Dallas Clark at 100.
In case you missed it, Purdue lost to Oregon by two points at Oregon. The Boilermakers should rebound against Northern Illinois.
• Indiana University has its second commitment in men’s basketball with 6-foot-4 guard Victor Cladipo, who attends DeMatha High School in Washington, D.C., saying he will sign with the Hoosiers.
Daniel Turner of Mount Vernon says he will go to Wisconsin-Green Bay. The 6-5 guard averaged 13 points and 11 rebounds as a junior.
• Mark Litz is the new pro at the IU Golf Course. He formerly was at Cascade in Bloomington.
• The Evansville Otters ended the baseball season with a 13-game losing streak and a 28-66 record.
Crowds were good for racing at Ellis Park in Evansville-Henderson, Ky., with the average daily handle being $1,666.952 for 28 dates compared to $2,005.897 for 39 dates in 2008.
Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by email at tm_reck@yahoo.com or by mail at 4284 South 5th Street, Apt. 3, Terre Haute, IN 47802.
