Area News And Notes
By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews
WARSAW – Catching up on some news and notes from area sports for the month of July.
Boiler Juniors Finish Second At AAU Nationals
After a monster 2019 campaign, the Boiler Juniors club volleyball program continued its excellence in 2020 with a runner-up finish at the AAU National tournament. The 12U volleyball club, coached in part by Warsaw Community High School head coach Chandra Hepler and captained by Chandra’s daughter, Ellie, the team went 9-2 in Orlando against premier clubs from around the country.
Reaching the championship after a three-set win over Winter Park Volleyball Academy (Fla.), the defending 2019 AAU National Champions ran out of luck in the final against Tribe 12 Elite Altone (Fla.), 25-18, 22-25, 15-10.
Ellie, who is the only local on the roster comprised of players largely from the Lafayette and Indianapolis communities, has had quite a run with the program. In three years, the Boiler Juniors have finished third, first and now second at the AAU National Championships.
Golf Still In Full Swing
Several golf tournaments were held around the state involving area players.
On July 13-15 at Plum Creek in Carmel, seven area players were among the leaderboard at the three-day State Junior Championship as part of the Howard Bailey Junior Tour. Mallory Russell of Evansville won the championship with a two-over 218. Locally, Madison Keil of LaGrange had the top area score with a 237 for 18th. Nappanee’s Cybil Stillson (T-25, 242), Goshen’s Braedyn O’Dell (T-41, 251), Nappanee’s Breanna Goss ((T-41, 251) and Goshen’s Kirsten Schrock (T-50, 252) were all among the top 50. Belle Brunner of Syracuse and Ashley Brewster of Middlebury were also in the tournament.
Goss would win her age division on July 17 at the Bailey Tour stop at Blackthorn, shooting a 76 to win the girls 16-19 group.
At Meadow Valley on July 22, four locals were group leaders. Riley Kitson tied Madison Hahn with a 94 to top the girls 14-15 group while Sophie Richmond shot a 46 to take the girls 12-13 group. Abby Slabaugh fired a 78 to win the college women’s leaderboard and former NorthWood classmate Sean Hogan carded an 82 in the college men’s grid.
A day later at the Indiana PGA Women’s Open at Rock Hollow in Peru, Julia Potter-Bobb, a Penn grad, shot a two-under 142 to run away with the title. O’Dell was 29th with a 161, then came five NorthWood program connections in Summer Stillson (162), Cybil Stillson (163), Linnzie Richner (164), Goss (192) and Schrock (199).
This past weekend at the Masters Tour Championship at Delaware Country Club in Muncie, Connor McNeely Macy Beeson, both of Noblesville, shot a 70 and 73, respectively, to win the tournaments. Locally, the top girls score in the field was Brewster’s 82 with Goss three shots back. On the boys side, North Manchester’s Owen Kruschwitz shot a 79 as the only area player in the field.
Diamond Dishes
The Attack 12U club team hoisted another trophy this past weekend after taking the title at the Mound Baseball Tourney held at Center Grove Little League in Greenwood.
The Attack, now 24-4 on the travel season, went 5-0 in its most recent foray. The team were plus-19 in its four wins leading up to the championship, then ten-runned the Indiana Twins, 15-5, in the championship. The Attack scored five runs in the first, then tacked on solo runs in the second and third to keep the pressure on.
In the title win over the Twins, Quinton Brock had three hits and scored three runs. Luke Mann, Brandt Martin and Drew Bingamon all had a pair of RBI, and Carson Paulik was solid on the hill, working a complete game, allowing five hits and striking out eight.
Also going on in the Hoosier State, the Town & Country baseball and softball tournaments got underway this past weekend.
The softball tournament at Denver saw Fairfield knock off Tippecanoe Valley to earn the top seed heading into the regional round.
In the 10U baseball bracket, the Plymouth Red team beat NorthWood to claim honors at Plymouth. Fairfield, by way of knocking off Plymouth White in the quarters, join Plymouth and NorthWood in advancing to the regional.
In the 12U baseball bracket, North Miami reigned as champions on its home field after beating Delphi. Tippecanoe Valley advances as the third team after beating Pierceton to make the final four teams.