Athletes set for big spring

It doesn’t feel like spring.
Anyone who watched Jay County and South Adams high schools play softball for two-and-a-half hours Tuesday evening can attest to that fact. Hopefully the weather warms up sooner rather than later.
But in the meantime, the spring sports schedule doesn’t wait on warm weather.
Most area teams have already opened their seasons. Those that haven’t will do so by Saturday. And some have already showed glimpses for the exciting seasons they could have.

FRHS baseball
The Indians were a solid baseball program, winning back-to-back sectional titles in Aaron Vaughn’s final two seasons as coach. They nearly upset top-ranked Minster in the district championship game in 2007, falling 7-6 after a furious seventh-inning comeback.
Then the program took a turn, with four different coaches in a span of six seasons. Athletes stopped playing, and for a couple of seasons, there was no junior varsity team.
That pattern has changed. The program took a big step in the right direction last season, winning its first Midwest Athletic Conference game in more than three years and playing close games against some of the best teams in the league.
Fort Recovery is off to a 3-1 start, having already surpassed its win total from both the 2010 and ’11 seasons. It has gotten solid pitching and defense thus far, and juniors Blake Boughman and Jacob Muhlenkamp are strong middle-of-the-order hitters.
Many of the players on this season’s squad are multi-year varsity starters who toiled through the hard times over the course of the last three seasons. It’s nice to see them enjoying some early success, and hopefully they will continue that pattern throughout the year.

Individual athletes
Track, golf and tennis have athletes competing both as teams and as individuals, and there are a variety of local athletes who seem primed to do big things this season.
Zane Shreve had the biggest opening day of them all, winning three individual events and contributing to a relay victory for the Jay County boys track team in its wins Tuesday over Blackford and Muncie Southside. He was the sectional runner-up last season in three events — the 110-meter hurdles, 300 hurdles and high jump — and will be one of the leaders for the Patriots this year.
The Fort Recovery track teams have just 13 athletes combined, so the focus this season will be on getting the most out of their individual talents. Elle Sutter is likely the Tribe athlete with the best chance at earning a state berth. She won the 800 run in Tuesday’s first meet, but her best event is the 3,200 run in which she finished fifth in the regional last season.
Twins Hannah and Leah Mitchel of South Adams and Evan Mathias of Jay County have yet to start their seasons, but are also athletes to watch this year. The Mitchels both showed great improvement during the indoor season, each clearing the 37-foot mark to finish third and fifth respectively at the Hoosier State Relays in March. Mathias hopes to build off of the way he played at the close of his sophomore season, during which he finished as the sectional runner-up and led the Patriots to just their second team regional berth in school history.

JCHS girls track
The most consistent squad at any of the three area high schools has been the Jay County girls track team.
The Patriots were sectional runners-up by narrow margins in 2008 and ’09 and have dominated the meet at Muncie Southside in each of the last three seasons. And they finished the 2012 regular season undefeated.
JCHS returns eight athletes who combined to earn 12 regional berths in individual events last season. It also brings back most of the runners who contributed to three regional-qualifying teams, including two that won sectional titles.
The Patriots showed their depth Tuesday against Blackford and Muncie Southside with seven athletes each winning at least one individual event. Ciera Barcus and Sara Lennartz combined to sweep the field events, and Katie Snyder, Malarie Houck, Abigail Johnson, Amber Huelskamp and Andrea Bruggeman added one victory apiece.
Jay County will be the favorite to win another sectional title this season. If the Patriots accomplish that goal, they will be the first spring sports team in school history to win four straight sectional championships.


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