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BY TRAVIS DAVID

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CROSS COUNTRY

The North Central, Shakamak and Sullivan cross country teams competed at the State Preview Meet held at LaVern Gibson Championship Course on Saturday morning. 

In the Class 1-3A portion of the meet, the Shakamak boys came away with the best finish of the day. The Lakers placed fifth in the field of 15 complete teams. Sullivan placed 12th while North Central only had a pair of runners and did not qualify in the team standings.

Shakamak senior Rayden Rehmel narrowly missed a Top-10 finish, placing 12th in the field of 145 runners. The Lakers’ top runner covered the sectional and state finals course with a time of 18 minutes, 21.5 seconds.

Freshman teammate Leo Miller was not far behind, placing 16th with a time of 18:29 while sophomore Aidan Barber also finished with a time in the 18’s, placing 22nd overall in 18:48.5.

Rounding out the scoring for the Lakers was junior Jaden Johnson (49) and sophomore Jalen Johnson (63).

Sullivan was paced by freshman Isaac Spurgeon’s 31st-place finish. Spurgeon crossed the finish line in a time of 19:13.5.

Sophomore Nick Brooks, who captured his first career individual win on Thursday, placed 44th with a time of 19:56.8, improving on his time from his home course.

Jeremey Shipley (77), Carter Goodson (99) and Logan Chastain (117) rounded out the scoring for the Arrows.

Chris Wallace (143) and Zander Merritt (145) ran for the Thunderbirds.

In the girls meet, Sullivan placed 8th in the field of 12 complete teams while the Lady Lakers placed 10th.

Lady Laker senior Elayni Stone was the top local finisher, placing 20th in the field of 105 runners. The senior covered the course with a time of 23:07.

Sullivan was led by Leily Kern with a finish of 29th. The freshman crossed the finish line with a time of 23:48.6 while sophomore Emmarie Earley and freshman Jillian Page were second and third on the team. Earley was 37th overall with a time of 24:25.7 and Page was 46th in 25:13.8.

Senior Gaige Goodman was just three spots behind Page in a time of 25:29.9 while Kate Alsman rounded out the Arrows’ scoring with a 56th-place effort, finishing with a time of 26:17.6

Isla Kaufman — a regional qualifier from last season — finished second for the Lakers. The sophomore placed 35th overall with a time of 24:10.3.

Freshman Lainey Kennett was the third Laker to cross the finish line and 58th overall with a time of 26:20.4 while Addie Paulin (93) and Sierra Miller (96) rounded out the scoring for Shakamak.

VOLLEYBALL

SHAKAMAK 3, White River Valley 0: The Lady Lakers improved to 6-2 overall and remained undefeated in Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference play Friday night with a 25-20, 25-19, 25-15 win over White River Valley.

Despite the win, head coach Emeral Goff felt like her team didn’t have their best effort.

“It was nice to keep our conference hot streak alive, but I think we played off tonight,” Goff said of the performance. “We gave up way too many points on hitting errors as well as it seemed like our defense moved slow with no communication.

“But on a positive note, I thought we did a great job serving and I liked seeing our middles getting more involved in our offense.”

Middle hitters Ayanna Clark (7) and Jaedyn Boram (5) combined for 12 kills in the match while the powerful outside swinger of Brylee Faulk put away seven shots.

Madalyn Kennett served up a team-best four aces, while Ava McCrary (3) and Boram (2) combined for five aces.

Freshman Peton Gambill led the team with 11 digs with McCrary (7) and Jama Ewers (6) combining for 13 digs.

Ewers and Boram both passed out nine assists.

Indian Creek 3, Sullivan 2: The Lady Arrows hit the road for a long bus trip to Indian Creek and came away with a tough 24-26, 26-24, 19-25, 25-12, 15-9 loss to their Western Indiana Conference rivals.

The loss dropped Sullivan to 6-4 overall and 0-2 in league play.

‘It was a hard fought match and we just came up a little short,” first-year Lady Arrows’ coach Cassidy Clothier said. “But I am proud of the fight our girls showed.”

Jacie Wilson put away a season-high 21 shots to lead the offensive attack while Destiny Gaines (6), Izzie Jenkins (4) and Isabelle Harris (3) combined for 13 kills in the loss.

Sophomore Rachel Eslinger handed out 31 assists to go along with 16 digs and three kills.

Kensley Wiltermood prevented a team-best 21 shots from hitting the floor, while Jaylen McCammon (15), Jenkins (15), Gaines (10) and Avari Kelley (9) accounted for 49 digs.

Wilson and McCammon both served up a trio of aces.

Sullivan’s arduous stretch of matches continued Monday night, playing host to Class 4A power Terre Haute North.

At Robinson Invite: North Knox picked up one win in three matches while North Central dropped all three matches of the tournament.

North Knox opened play with a close 25-23, 25-22 win over Casey (Ill.) before falling to the hosts in straight sets and Oblong (Ill.) in the finale. 

North Central dropped a 25-7, 25-15 match to Lawrenceville(Ill) and a 25-15, 25-21 decision to Oblong (Ill.) in pool play before losing to Marshall (Ill.) in the crossover match. The Ladybirds head into the new week with a 1-9 record overall.

No other information was provided by either local team.

Thank you to McKinley Seamless Guttering for the sponsorship of this article