Lily Baker
As 4×800-meter relay and open 800 runners, Lily Baker and Julie Klaus didn’t get many chances to run the 1,600 for Columbus North this track season.
But on Saturday night, the Bull Dog juniors took advantage of an opportunity to run the metric mile in the Midwest Distance Showcase in Peoria, Illinois, and they made the most of it.
Baker, who had finished sixth in the 800 at the Indiana state meet earlier this month, won the race in 4 minutes, 57.23 seconds. It was her first time breaking the 5-minute barrier.
“That was exciting,” Baker said. “We drove four hours in the car, and I was a little scared that my legs were going to be tired because the race was at 8 o’clock at night, so I was a little bit nervous after a full day of doing stuff and the four-hour drive that I wasn’t going to be able to do it.”
Klaus finished third in 5:14.86.
Klaus and Baker both ran on North’s state runner-up and school record-setting 4×800 relay team earlier this month. Klaus finished 12th in the 800 at state.
Bull Dogs earn All-State honors
Several members of the Columbus North girls tennis team have earned All-State honors from the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Assocation.
Ashlie Wilson
Kathryn Wilson
Senior Ashlie Wilson and freshman Kathryn Wilson are on the All-State First Team Singles. Freshman Aya Saad made honorable mention singles and freshman Annabelle Sun/senior Sydney Cooper and seniors Tiffany Fu/Leah George made honorable mention doubles.
Jennings County senior Reagan Brown also made honorable mention singles.
Ashlie Wilson, Kathryn Wilson, Saad and Brown all made All-District 8 Singles, and Fu/George and Sun/Cooper made All-District Doubles. North’s Kendal Hammel is the District 8 Coach of the Year.
Meanwhile, Fu and Trinity Lutheran senior Sarah Lemming have been named Academic All-State. North and Jennings County were named Academic All-State Team winners.
Trueblood to coach East girls swimmers
Doug Trueblood, who has coached the Columbus East boys swimmers the past two years, has assumed the role as head girls coach, as well.
Trueblood replaces Jill Arnholt, who has led the girls team over two stints for most of the past three decades. She retired after leading the Olympian girls to a third-place finish in this year’s Columbus North Sectional.
“Many of the state’s leading swim programs have one coach for both programs,” East athletics director Pete Huse said. “That type of structure/dynamics was the driving force to turning over the girls program to coach Trueblood. Coach Trueblood has been the boys coach for the past two seasons, where his program finished as conference runner-up both seasons and sent swimmers to the IHSAA state meet each year under his watch. Many school swim records have been broken since coach Trueblood took over the boys program. I look forward to watching coach Trueblood combine the boys and girls programs at East into one program and see coach Trueblood build on the strong foundation that Jill Arnholt established during her tenure at East.”
Fu, Brown play on winning Cup team
Two local seniors played on the winning South team in Sunday’s Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association North-South Senior Tennis All-Star Cup in Pendleton.
Columbus North’s Tiffany Fu and Jennings County’s Reagan Brown each lost a singles match and two doubles matches. The South was able to pull out a 31-29 victory.
O’s Panthers make All-HHC baseball
Sophomore Blake Borkhardt from the regional champion Columbus East baseball team has been selected to the All-Hoosier Hills Conference first team. He is joined by Jennings County seniors Jacob Vogel, Carson McNulty and Logan McIntosh.
East seniors Ethan Ianni and Will Rieckers and Jennings sophomore Cole Sigler earned honorable mention honors.
Rutan selected North softball MVP
Junior Maddi Rutan has been named MVP of the Columbus North softball team.
Junior Kirsten Danford won the Bull Dog Award, and senior Taylor Hadley was named Most Improved. Junior Bailey King won the Clutch Award, and sophomore Kelsey Lovelace won the Coach’s Award.
Cougars hire basketball coaches
Jason Hacker and Kristen Hicks have been named boys and girls basketball coaches at South Decatur.
Hacker, a Jennings County native who currently lives in the Center Grove area, has coached mostly travel team basketball. He replaces Kendall Wildey, who retired after leading the Cougars the past five years, including a 13-11 season last winter.
“I coached some of the players that have come through South Decatur the past few years, and I’m good friends with Kendall,” Hacker said. “He recommended I apply for the job, so I did.”
Hicks replaces Tyler Johnson, who is moving down to coach the eighth-grade girls at the middle school after coaching the varsity girls the past two seasons.
Locals to play in All-Star Classic
Three area girls basketball players are slated to compete in the 2022 Indiana Class Basketball All-Star Classic Saturday at Anderson University.
Recent Columbus East graduate and Indiana Wesleyan signee Koryn Greiwe will play on the Graduating Senior Girls Game at 10 a.m. Juliann Woodard, who will be a junior at Jennings County, will play in the Future Girls Game at 1 p.m. Bailey Tabeling, who will be a senior at Trinity Lutheran, will play in the Current Junior Games beginning at 3:30 p.m.
Ted Schultz is sports editor for The Republic. He can be reached at [email protected] or 812-379-5628.
