Published: October 06, 2008 11:27 pm            

Ramblin' Reck: Valley prep golfers take their final swings of season

TERRE HAUTE — Weekend action marked the windup of competitive golf on two fronts for players in the area.

Terre Haute North freshman Rachel Welker and Terre Haute South junior Sloane Engle qualified as individuals for the high school girls state finals played at The Legends of Indiana.

Neither played well enough Friday to advance to the final round but had a good experience and rate mention for making it to the finals.

Of all the teams and hundreds of players who began the season in August, only 21 teams and 23 individuals made it to the state.

Welker was only the second girl from North to go to the finals and Engle was only the third player from South to do it — along with one team that qualified.

And the two girls made it from one of the toughest regionals in the state, the one played at Foxcliff at Martinsville.

Three of the top seven teams in the final totals came from that site including two of the top five (Columbus North and Martinsville).

It also inclucded three of the top individuals including Breanna Patz of Avon, who took third and won the mental attitude award.

Great job.

Sixty men from six courses in the area competed in the Interclub Championship at Hulman Links on Sunday and the host team took team honors led by medalist Chris Cassell, who shot 68.

Players said the course was in its usual good shape and that the greens were hard and fast.

Ryan Klopfenstein and his staff again put on a good event just as they and the Rea Park staff have all season, particularly in the Terre Haute Golf Association events.

Two events left on the docket are the Geneva Hills two-man best-ball event Saturday and Sunday and a Nov. 2 backward scramble at Hulman Links.

• • •

• Terry has mark — We mentioned last week that with Gary Witham no longer coaching high school baseball that either Kyle Kraemer at Terre Haute South or Steve DeGroote of West Vigo might hold that mark now in baseball.

Not so.

Tim Terry has been the coach at South Vermillion since 1982 and has coached other sports in that time; he still coaches girls basketball and baseball.

He coached one year at Turkey Run before going to South Vermillion in 1980 as an assistant under Don Shearer. Some of the other baseball coaches at that time were Witham, Don Jennings at Terre Haute North, Dick Ballinger at West Vigo and Bob Mirkovich at Sullivan.

And Terry still plays the game. His team won a Senior Baseball League title.

While on the topic, our best goes to Witham who coached Brazil and Northview teams for more than 30 years, starting in 1978. He won 581 games and lots of tournaments in that time.

Nice job, Gary.

• • •

• All winners — The high school football season is drawing to a close in Indiana and Illinois and there are no winless Indiana teams in the Wabash Valley going into the state tournament.

Sullivan bested Brown County in a game that apparently took some time to play and will go for two in a row Friday against South Vermillion.

Casey in Illinois and Rockville and Linton in Indiana remained unbeaten and meet conference opponents this week.

Rockville faces Riverton Parke in a Senior Night game and Linton is at Union in a matchup of long-time rivals. The Bulldogs beat Eastern 21-6 last week to go to 5-2 for the season.

Casey is ranked No. 1 in the Illinois Class 2A poll and faces Oblong in a Saturday afternoon game.

Another unbeaten team just outside the area is North Putnam, 7-0 after beating Monrovia. Greg Barrett is the first-year coach.

Coaches and players in Indiana will be hoping for good pairings tonight as the draw is made for the state tournament; it is a tournament and not playoffs since all teams are in the field. That’s what someone told me once and it seems logical.

• • •

• Condolences — Our thoughts and prayers go to the families and friends of two men in the sports world who died last week.

One was Kent Walls, who died at 56 of cancer. He worked in radio for many years and was a huge fan of racing and college basketball, especially the Butler Bulldogs.

Cyril Birge died at 92 in Jasper. He was one of the officials for the Milan-Muncie Central game that changed Indiana high school basketball in 1954 and officiated lots of college games including those matching Indiana State and Evansville.

• • •

• Tom-Cattin’ It — Teams clinched Western Indiana Conference soccer titles last week.

Northview is the undisputed champ in girls soccer and had a chance to share the boys title if Brown County failed to beat Edgewood on Monday. Brown County defeated West Vigo to clinch a share of the championship.

• Former Northview standout golfer Jared Freeman played in the Interclub. He recently began a tour of duty with the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

And former ISU baseball player Mitch Stetter did a nice job in his brief but key relief appearances with Milwaukee against Philadelphia.



Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by email at tm_reck@yahoo. com or by mail at 4284 South 5th Street, Apt. 3, Terre Haute, IN 47802.

        

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