The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Sports Wednesday, September 4, 2019 B- 3 PREVIEW Continued from page 1 SPORTS BRIEFS Kiwanis golf scramble set for September 7 The annual Petersburg Kiwanis Golf Scramble will take place on Sat- urday, Sept. 7 at Prides Creek Golf Course. The scramble, which starts at 9 a.m., is the Pe- tersburg Kiwanis' top fundraiser for its Chil- dren's Christmas Pro- gram that provides un- derprivileged children in Pike County with gifts during the holiday. Registration is open at the golf course and costs $40 per person or $160 for a team. Can't make the event and still want to help? Sponsor a hole for $100. Make checks payable to Kiwanis and mail to: Dustin Schnarr at P.O. Box 14, Petersburg, IN 47567. For any questions, call Schnarr at 812-295 -8183 or Prides Creek Golf Course at 812-354-3059. Registration is now open for the Join the Herd 5K The inaugural Join the Heard 5K Walk and Run is set for Saturday, Sept. 28. There is a $20 entry fee that includes a buffalo hat. T-shirts are also available for $10, but must be preor- dered by Friday, Sept. 20. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Buf- falo Trace Festival on Sept. 27 and 28. Prizes will be awarded to the first, second and third-place male and fe- male finishers. Registration begins at 8 a.m. the morning of the race, with a 9 a.m. start time. Participants should line up at the Pe - tersburg Police Station on 4th Street. Refreshments will be available after the race and a group photo will be taken. To register, contact Jan- et Graff at 812-354-3001 or janet.graff@amber- manorhc.com. Registration open for Buffalo Trace softball tourney Registration is open for the co-ed slow-pitch soft- ball tournament that will take place during the Buf- falo Trace Festival. The tournament will take place on Friday, Sept. 29 and Saturday, Sept. 30 at the Petersburg Little League Field. It costs $200 per team, with up to 13 individuals on each squad. The regis- tration deadline is Tues- day, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. The tournament is pre- sented by the Petersburg Little League and Discov- er Downtown Petersburg, Inc. For more information and to sign up, contact Jo- seph O'Brien at 812-486 - 7017. Petersburg Little League sets annual election meeting Petersburg Little League will host its an- nual board elections and public feedback meeting at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6. Anyone interested in becoming a board mem- ber is asked to attend. Anyone interested in an officer position is also en- couraged to attend. All officers are elected each year. If you have any ques- tions call Joseph O'Brien at 812-486 -7107. Newton's Custom Butchering - Retail Meat Frozen & Fresh Sylvia Raber - Chris & Naomi Raber Weekly & Monthly Specials Deer Get your own meat back! Pork • Beef • Turkey • Chicken Deboned Meat Only Bring it in! Fresh • Frozen Meats • Bakery Summer Sausage • Jerky 6396 E. Old US Highway 50, Montgomery, IN 47558 Mon.-Fri. 7am-5pm • Sat. 8am-1pm 812-486-3227 Charger runners continue to make strides Senior Nate Woolery sets tone for team By Dennis Marshall Press-Dispatch Sports Editor sports@pressdispatch.net The Pike Central boys' cross country season got underway with solid show- ing at two competitive invi- tationals this past week. The Chargers started the week with a fifth-place fin- ish at the Southridge Invita- tional on Tuesday, Aug. 27. Heritage Hills won the event with 40 points. The Patriots were followed by Perry Central (53), South- ridge (84) and Tecumseh (118). Southridge's Dylan Bland finished in first place in 17 minutes and 53 sec- onds. "We talked a lot in the huddle today with both teams about the start of our journey," Pike Central head coach Josh Roach said. "Each season is a journey and this was a good start to it. There are going to be bat- tles on both good days and bad days. These will lead us towards the end destination if we stay consistent and keep the right mindset." Nate Woolery had a great start to his senior year with a fourth-place individual fin- ish. Woolery finished the course in just 18:21. "He ran a race that was very smart and true to his strengths," Roach said. "He came out of the first half- mile around 20th pace. He doesn't get sucked into the race within the first 400 me- ters. He stays with his game plan. By time he got to the one mile mark, he was al- ready up to 15th place. We lost sight of him for about three minutes on a part of the course that is more diffi- cult to get back to as coach. By the time we regained site of him, he had already worked his way up to fifth- place." Woolery stayed in fifth- place until the final 100 me- ters, where he made one last push by striding out and claimed fourth-place by three seconds. "It is very hard as a run- ner to be over a mile in and really feeling it and having another runner go by you and looking strong," Roach said. "Nate uses that to his advantage well. This is something we really preach as we feel it gives us all the greatest chance to race our best." There were 44 runners who took part in the race. The Chargers also had A J Hill place 24th, Trent Zim- merman finish 25th, Ethan Gorby place 33rd, Dallas Reutepohler finish 35th, Noah Russell place 37th and Sam Thiesing finish 38th. Russell's time of 22:53 was a personal record. "Dallas Reutepohler got his first meet under his belt and looked very strong at the end," Roach said. "Most of our boys beat their time at this race last year. We re- ally feel as our team gets to full health, we will make a push toward the team goals that we have and tonight was just the first step in that direction." Pike Central finished with a score of 125. The Chargers also had some bright spots at the much larger Dennis Bays Warrior Invitational at An- gel Mounds on Saturday, Aug. 31. The Chargers fin- ished 17th out of 21 teams in the race that featured near- ly 250 racers. Evansville North's Dean Schmidt finished the race first with a time of 16:41.49 and New Albany finished first as a team with 108 points. They were followed by Evansville Memorial (116), Tell City (124), Cas- tle (127), South Knox (143), Gibson Southern (162), Evansville North (180), Barr-Reeve (206), F.J. Re- itz (210), Vincennes Lincoln (248), Washington (320), Evansville Mater Dei (331), Evansville Harrison (381), Mount Vernon (393) and White River Valley (413). Pike Central' score of 465 was good enough to finish ahead of Loogootee (535), Evansville Bosse (541), North Posey (551) and Evansville Christian (628). Woolery was Pike Cen- tral's top finisher. He placed 32nd with a time of 18:21.67. "Nate went out with a plan and executed it well," Roach said. "A fter finishing he said he felt like he should have run harder because he felt like he still had energy left in the tank. He ran fast- er than his Thursday time and felt like he had more en- ergy afterward. That shows already that he is improv- ing in fitness. We feel like he will continue to move up as the year goes on." Peyton Chanley had a good showing is his first-ev- er cross country meet. He finished 114th with a time of 21:04.14. "He never ran in middle school so it was nice to see him not get overwhelmed with the big race and run strong the whole time," Roach said. Gorby, Reutepohler and Theising all improved on their times from Thursday. Corby finished 144th with a time of 22:08.06, Re- utepohler was 145th with a time of 22:08.73 and Theis- ing was 177th with a time of 23:28.09. Hill had been battling a sickness late in the week and that attributed to his slower time. He fin- ished 190th with a time of 24:18.17. "Because this race was a late add to the schedule af- ter an earlier rain-out, we had some athletes out due to Labor Day plans," Roach said. "Ijaa Chambers and Lane Potts are still recov- ering from injuries before they run their first race." The Chargers have a busy week ahead. Pike Cen- tral hosted North Knox on Tuesday, Sept. 3. The team will compete in the Alan Hopewell Class In- vitational at Gibson South- ern on Thursday, Sept. 5 and the Columbus North Classic on Saturday, Sept. 7. Pike Central will also host a four-way home meet with South Knox, North Daviess and Washington Catholic at Prides Creek Golf Course on Tuesday, Sept. 10. WIN Continued from page 1 Sallee completed the race at 39th (29:19). Heritage Hills' Katie Win- kler won the race with a time of 21:26. Pike Central also compet- ed and finished 11th at the 15 -team Dennis Bays War- rior Invitational on Saturday, Aug. 31, at Angel Mounds. South Knox won the event with 92 points. They were followed by Evansville Memorial (105), Mount Vernon (106), Barr-Reeve (115), Princeton (155), Gib- son Southern (172), F.J Reitz (176), Castle (188), Tell City (201) and Evansville North (224). Pike Central (239) fin- ished ahead of Boonville (318), White River Valley (329), Evansville Mater Dei (349) and Evansville Harri- son (403). Evansville Memorial's Clare Vogel won first place with a time of 19:50.49 and a field of 150 runners. Stone was the Chargers' top performer. She finished 30th with a time of 22:58.26. Teague was 38th in 23:18.26. Meyer finished 61st (25:06.57), Kennedy Willis was 67th (25:14.95), John- son was 70th (25:29.29), An- derson was 71st (25:31.30), Shelby Vaughn was 72nd (25:34.34), Lexie Neese was 99th (27:03.69) and Sallee was 113th (29:01.38). "The girls went out and performed well," Roach said. "All of our girls that ran Tuesday, got better times today. Our two soc- cer girls went out and set a good base for their seasons in their first run this year as well." Roach said the team was missing a couple athletes who would have helped the Chargers. "Libby [Stone] and Quin- lan [Teague} ran very well at the front of the pack," he said. "They continue to set the bar for our team and will push up even closer to the front as the year goes on." Meyer, Willis, Johnson, Anderson and Vaughn were all close together in the team's next pack. "They raced well and we look forward to seeing that group push each other in fu- ture races to get us to our best," Roach said. "Morgan Anderson has had a great start to her season with two big improvements over her times from last year. Lexie Neese followed that pack in her first-ever cross country race. She was strong with that pack for the first two- thirds of the race, show- ing that with a little more training she can push with them as well. Morgan Sallee rounded out the team as she is also improving her times from last year." The Chargers have a busy week ahead. Pike Central hosted North Knox on Tues- day, Sept. 3. The team will compete in the Alan Hopewell Class In- vitational at Gibson South- ern on Thursday, Sept. 5 and the Columbus North Classic on Saturday, Sept. 7. Pike Central will also host a four-way home meet with South Knox, North Daviess and Washington Catholic at Prides Creek Golf Course on Tuesday, Sept. 10. PC volleyball struggles to find consistency, finishes 1-2 at Vincennes tournament By Dennis Marshall Press-Dispatch Sports Editor sports@pressdispatch.net It wasn't exactly what Pike Central head coach Brandi Chestnut wanted to see from her team in the Screen Print- ing Plus Tournament on Sat- urday, Aug. 31 at Vincennes Lincoln High School. The Chargers volleyball team suffered a 25 -16, 25 -16 loss to North Knox (1-3) to open the tournament. Pike Central (2-5) came back and defeated Flora (Ill.) 25 -17, 25 -20 in the second round before losing to Mount Car- mel (Ill.) 25 -22, 25 -12 in their third and final match. "I feel that we could have beaten North Knox and Mount Carmel," Chestnut said. "We are coming along. We have a few girls that this is their first year of playing varsity, so the transition to a little faster pace, hard- er-hitting and more strate- gic play is sometimes a bit to handle, but they are com- ing along. We played three teams that we do not see in the regular season at all. It gives us a chance to work on new things like jump serv- ing to get the girls comfort- able with doing it more of- ten. It is always nice to play teams you don't see often, rather than playing the same teams over and over again." Chestnut said Pike Cen- tral was playing North Knox close in the first set until the Warriors went on a run. She also said she was happy with how the team found some holes in Warriors' defense. "But North Knox was an attacking team," she said. "We were unable to adjust to their off-speed attacks" Kenzie Powell led the Chargers with five assists, three kills and three digs. Pike Central's other con- tributors were Aubrey Keep- es with two kills, two assists and one dig; Erika Vinnedge with two kills; Karsyn Pipes with three digs and a kill; Addie Johnson with sev- en digs and a kill; Ashlyn Shoultz with two digs and a kill; Lily Frederick-Rice with an ace; Aubrey Dawson with four digs and an assist; Emma Russell with two digs and Lily Willis, Neely Cor- rell and Shelby Ridao with one dig each. The Chargers found suc- cess with some new attacks in route to their 2-0 win over the Wolves (1-1). "We were able to try some new things like jump serv- ing, which the girls have been doing in practice but not so much in a game," Chestnut said. "Flora had some tall blockers, but we were able to adjust, find some holes to tip to, but al- so hit around." Dawson displayed a real- ly good jump serve that re- sulted in an ace in the first set. The Chargers had 11 to- tal aces after having just one in their first match against the Warriors. Dawson finished with two aces, three digs, an as- sist and a kill. Powell had 12 assists, five kills, five digs and an ace; Keepes had six kills and two aces; Wil- lis had three kills and three digs; Shoultz had three ac- es, two kills, an assist and a dig; Fredrick-Rice had two kills, an assist and an ace; Vinnedge had two kills and an assist; Russell had two kills, an assist and two digs; Pipes had two aces, two digs and one assist; Johnson had six digs and an assist and Morrell had a dig. Pike Central and Mount Carmel (4-2) played pretty evenly in the first set, until exhaustion appeared to set in for the Chargers during the second set. "Our first set, I was pleased with our play," Chestnut said. "We were aggressive, making blocks, digging up and hard hit balls, but in the second set, I feel the fatigue from the day and the long breaks be- tween the matches worked against us." Keepes and Powell each had another impressive game, Keepes with eight digs, eight assists and six kills and Powell with 10 digs, two kills and an ace. Pike Central's other con- tributors were Vinnedge with three kills; Pipes with seven digs and one kill; Johnson with five digs, two assists and two aces; Daw- son with a kill and an assist; Frederick-Rice with an ace and Willis with a dig. Chestnut said Keep- es made some really great plays and got a few blocks; Powell made some great plays as well, finding the hole on the sidelines to get the point; Vinnedge had some great blocks and Daw- son had some great jump serves, some good attacks and some blocks. "We were more aggres- sive as a whole during our tournament play," she said. "We made some great plays after being blocked and get- ting the ball back in play, but we still lack being able to ad- just our defense to the oppo- nents' off-speed hitting." The Chargers hosted For- est Park (2-5) on Tuesday, Sept. 3. Pike Central will also host F.J. Reitz (2-4) on Thursday, Sept. 5 and travel to Shoals (3-5) on Friday, Sept. 6. "We have three games this week, and I expect three wins," Chestnut concluded. Pike Central senior Audrey Keepes goes up for a kill against Washington earlier this season. terback's launch point throughout the game. "We are going to air it out," Stephens said. "We're not going to try to run it too many times and play into their strengths. We're just not going to do it. Defen- sively, we have some good concepts that should get us in the best situation for suc- cess against them." Heritage Hills won 36 - 0 at Mount Vernon (1-1) in its opener, and followed that up with a 42-6 victory at Tell City (1-1) this past week. The Patriots have had a balanced attack on offense so far this season. Quarter- back Cole Sigler has com- pleted 8 -of-15 pass attempts for 207 yards with three touchdowns and no inter- ceptions. He's also rushed 11 times for 103 yards and two touchdowns. Heritage Hills has eight players who have recorded at least one rushing attempt this sea- son. Jacob Wetzel leads the team with 123 yards on 18 rushes and one touchdown. Phoenix Rodgers has 15 carries for 93 yards and two touchdowns, and Ow- en Schaad and Noah Mun- dy have also each rushed for a score. Kaden Feldpausch is the team's leading receiv- er with three receptions for 81 yards and a touch- down. Mundy has caught three passes for 62 yards. Gavin Vaal has one catch for 38 yards and a touch- down and Wetzel has one catch for 26 yards and a touchdown. Rodgers and Wetzel also lead the Patri- ots defense with 15 and 14 tackles, respectively. Sigler has pulled down two inter- ceptions on defense and Trenton Hill has one inter- ception.