by Emily Armentrout

emily@thepaperofwabash.com

Austin Andrews, a senior at Northfield High School, was recently invited to participate in the Down Under Sports Tournaments hosted in Australia. Andrews will be participating on the East Conference Team this summer. Andrews will represent Indiana Track and Field. Leaving July 5, Andrews will be gone for a week, participating in the tournaments and taking in some of the country’s tourist sites.

“Mom told me about the letter and I thought it would be a cool experience,” Austin told The Paper.

“I was really excited for him. I wasn’t sure if it was real at first,” Austin’s mother, Krstyl, told The Paper.

“There were only 18 kids chosen in the state of Indiana,” added Austin’s father, Charlie. “I think it’s tremendous. Not everyone gets that opportunity. It’s a good step into adulthood.”

Andrews will be running cross-country at Indiana University Kokomo, and also participating in their track club. He wants to study pharmacy or psychology while at IUK.

Currently, Andrews is looking for sponsorship for this trip. The family will be selling t-shirts but you can also help Austin on his way by donating online or purchasing a t-shirt.

You can donate online by going to downundersports.com.
 

by Gary Andrews

The Wabash boys’ basketball team traveled to Madison Grant Saturday, losing a close one 47-42 to the Argylls. Madison Grant had a 10-8 lead after one and 23-22 at the half before the Apaches would take the lead.

Wabash out scored the Argylls 14-12 in the third quarter for a 26-25 lead with a quarter to go, but fell behind early in the fourth before closing the gap to 44-40 with 1:29 left, but fell short 47-42.

Leading Wabash was Cody King with 17 points. Christian Hall added 10, Marcus Jones 6, Owen Yeadon 3, Chase Dirig 3, Brodie Hough 2, Juwan Carter 1.

By Bill Barrows

After the Thanksgiving Holiday, this is the first full week of high school boys and girls basketball.

There are games every day this week. They are as follows:

On Monday, Lewis Cass travels to meet the Lady Squires of Manchester and the Lady Knights of Southwood host Madison/Grant. Tuesday, the Lady Norse of Northfield entertain Maconaquah. On Wednesday, the Lady Apaches of Wabash travel to Alexandria. Thursday evening, the Lady Squires host Caston.

On Friday, the Northfield boys travel to Tipton, Wabash entertains Eastern and Southwood travels to Huntington North. The Wabash WebTV gang will be at Manchester to bring you the game between Wawasee and the Squires. The Harness brothers, Rick & Tim will bring you all of the action. Air time should be around 7:30pm.

Saturday begins bright and early from Northfield with the Wabash County Wrestling meet at 9am on Wabash WebTV. Watch all of your favorite wrestlers all day long.

Saturday evening the Northfield boys will travel to Caston for more basketball action. The Lady Apaches will travel to Tipp Valley, the Lady Knights travel to Rochester and the Lady Squires host the Lady Norse in TRC action.

Join WebTV for high school basketball action all season long, with special events in wrestling, swimming and baseball also on the schedule. If you can’t be there or can’t watch live, each broadcast is archived and is on the Wabash WebTV website so you can watch it later.

by Gary Andrews

The Southwood boys’ basketball team played the lone game for the county Friday, traveling to Logansport to take on the 4A Berries. The powerful Berries were too much for the young Knights as they topped Southwood 95-65.

For the Knights, Alex Harmon had 17 points, 3 blocks and 5 rebounds. Matt Nose had 15 points and 2 steals. Carson Blair had 10 points, 3 rebounds,  3 assists and 3 steals. Clay Hinrichsen had 13 points and 4 rebounds. Robbie Cole had 4 points, 3 assists and 6 rebounds. Brandin Frazier had 3 assists and 2 rebounds. Noah Kirk had 3 assists. Nathan Hollars had 5 assists.

by Gary Andrews

The Southwood and Northfield boys’ basketball teams got back to the old days of tipping off the night before Thanksgiving Wednesday before a packed house at Northfield. The night got started with the junior varsity game going triple overtime with the Knights prevailing 61-55.

In the varsity game the Norse struck quick on a Tanner Wilcox bucket that was quickly answered with a bucket from Alex Harmon. The lead would go back and forth with Cody Holmes and Carson Blair trading buckets as the Norse led 8-5 when the Knights made a run. Harmon would connect on a jumper that started a 9-0 run by the Knights as Southwood led 14-8. During the run Brandin Frazier had two buckets with Matt Nose chipping in a deuce. Tanner Wilcox would stop the run with a two before Harmon ended the quarter with a three and the Knights led 17-10.

Southwood would quickly open their lead to 22-11 on a Carson Blair two and a three before two Adam Roser free throws. The Knights then got two buckets from Noah Kirk to lead 26-14 when Noah Shear connected and was followed by a Tanner Wilcox free throw to make it 26-17, but again the Knights answered with a late bucket, this time from Clay Hinrichsen to lead 28-17 at the half.

Carson Blair got things going to start the third with a bomb from behind the arch to open a 31-17 lead for the Knights before two straight Adam Roser three’s got the game back to 8 at 31-23. Matt Nose would then convert an old fashion three and was followed by a Robbie Cole three and two Nose free throws to give Southwood their largest lead of the night at 39-23. Alex Harmon would sandwich a bucket between buckets from Jarred Short and Austin Burns as Southwood led 41-27 after three.

by Gary Andrews

The Manchester boys’ and girls’ basketball teams took the trip south on State Road 13 to Oak Hill Saturday to play in a quadruple marathon with the Golden Eagles.

The girls’ junior varsity game was up first at 3 p.m. with Manchester leading 16-10 at the half. Oak Hill had the Manchester lead cut to 2 points several times, but an intentional foul with 4.7 remaining on Oak Hill sealed the Manchester 32-29 win.

Leading Manchester was Rachel Cave with 10 points. Bethany Collett added 9, Sydney Day 8, Kiera Stacy 5.

The boys’ junior varsity kicked off game two. The Squires jumped out to an early lead with Oak Hill coming back to lead the first quarter 9-8.  Oak Hill led 21-19 at the half.

Oak Hill built their lead to 10 points in the fourth before the Squires made a run, cutting it to 4 before the Eagles pulled away for the 46-37 win,

Leading Manchester was Kane Gable with 15 points. Levi Hicks added 8, Bailey Ness 6, Jake Schannep 2, Adam Byers 2, Keelan Norwood 2, Heath Dierks 2.

Game three was the girls’ varsity game with the Lady Squires coming in riding a two game win streak, while Oak Hill fell in their last game to Southwood.

Oak Hill jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead before  Rae Bedke hit to make it 4-2. Oak Hill increased their lead to 9-2 when Drew Thompson ended the quarter with a three to make it 9-5.

Manchester got the first bucket of the second quarter from Tiffany Johnson and trailed 11-9 after a Ellie Milam bucket.  Oak Hill would score the next 4, but the Squires responded with two buckets from Celina Carter to make it 15-13. The Lady Eagles scored the final 4 points of the quarter and led Manchester 19-13 at the half.

by Gary Andrews

Not only did the Wabash Lady Apache basketball team open their 2014-15 season with an impressive 60-44 win over Mississinewa Friday; they got to be part of history as senior Claire Cromer went off for 42 points to set the Wabash single game scoring record.

The Lady Apaches dominated right from the start, jumping out to an 11-0 lead and leading 14-4 after the end of the quarter. Claire Cromer had all 14 points for Wabash.

Mississinewa would cut the Wabash lead to 16-10 early in the second quarter before Shelby Stone buried two shots from behind the arch to build the lead to 22-10. The Indians again cut the lead to single digits before Cromer drained back-to-back three’s, then hit four straight free throws to increase the lead to 31-18. At 31-22 Cromer would hit a shot before the buzzer as Wabash led 33-22 at the half.

Kristin Cromer and Sarah Puckett would get in on the scoring action in the third while Claire Cromer kept rolling as the Lady Apaches built their lead to 45-25 before leading 45-26 after three.

Claire Cromer would hit a three to get the Wabash scoring going in the fourth as sister Kristin hit two free throws as Wabash rolled to a 60-44 win.

Claire Cromer led the way with 42 points. Shelby Stone and Kristin Cromer added 6 points each, Sarah Puckett 4, Katie McCauley 2.

By Bill Barrows

Periodically, I have the privilege to witness heartwarming and amazing things that happen in the course of my daily activities in youth sports at the Wabash County YMCA. This week, I watched as a young man took a huge step forward on a long road back to regaining his health.

Jace Randel’s parents, Jason and Amanda, registered him to play 4th & 5th grade tackle football in August. Jace expected to play with a number of his classmates on the Cowboys team this fall while learning some life lessons along the way. He had no idea the roller coaster ride he had in front of him.

”On Aug. 20 (ironically, the same day as the first football practice) Jace began not feeling well. I took him in to his pediatrician after a few days of stomach pain.  He ordered blood work, just to be sure it wasn’t an appendicitis.  The blood work came back abnormal,” explained Amanda.

After consulting with their pediatrician, the Randels prepared for a trip to Riley Hospital.

“The Pediatrician explained to us that Jace's blood work had come back abnormal, and after consulting with a few Riley Oncologists, they thought Jace had leukemia.” Amanda continued, “We were being sent to Riley to run more blood work and prepare him for a bone marrow biopsy.” Jason & Amanda told their son what this meant; Jace was crushed.

“I told him that we were NOT putting our faith and trust into one test.  We would be putting our faith in God who, we KNEW, could do anything!!” She explained, “What a calming affect that can have on a person, to know WHO is in control and WHO is all powerful,”

The blood work at Riley came back inconclusive. Jace received a platelets transfusion in order to perform the biopsy to prevent excessive bleeding. He had an allergic reaction to the platelet transfusion.  Instantly, he began to break out in hives and his throat started swelling.  After giving him large doses of Benadryl, he was finally able to sleep. The biopsy came back negative. Several other tests were run, for conditions such as; mono, autoimmune markers, and vitamin deficiencies, and all came back normal. Normal was a relative term. Jace wasn’t getting any worse, but was also wasn’t getting any better either.