by Gary Andrews

The volleyball and football sectionals kick off this week with Southwood hosting the volleyball sectional and Manchester hosting an opening round football sectional game.

For volleyball, Oak Hill will compete against Lewis Cass on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. With Wabash facing North Miami on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m., and Southwood facing Northfield at 7:30 p.m. following the Wabash game. Saturday, starting at 11 a.m., will be Manchester competing against Tuesday’s winner, and the Wabash/North Miami winner taking on the Southwood/Northfield winner at 12:30 p.m. The championship game will be on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m.

Football sectionals begin Friday, Oct. 24 with Wabash playing Manchester at Manchester. Southwood also plays Friday night, at Fremont. Northfield drew a bye for Friday.

By Bill Barrows

Football sectional first round pairings will provide some great match ups for the county teams to prepare for. In 2A Sectional #34, Wabash will travel to Manchester for a rematch of last week’s thriller at Alumni Field. In 1A, Southwood travels to Fremont in Sectional #43. Northfield drew the bye. They will face travel to the winner of Adams Central/South Adams winner in week 2.

Rick Harness and I will lead the broadcast from Manchester High School. We will broadcast beginning at about 6:45 p.m. with the set up of this long time long time county match up, turned in a Sectional rivalry. Remember, two weeks ago, during a TRC match up, these two teams played right down to the wire in a 29-23 Squires victory over the Apaches on Senior Night at Wabash.

Wabash led in that game 23-7 at halftime, only to see Manchester roar back to take the lead. Wabash had a first and goal at the Manchester 8 yard line with a minute left, but could not convert. Expect to see the same this Friday night.

Join Wabash WebTV for exciting action of Indiana High School football every Friday night and on select weeknights for volleyball, swimming, wrestling and baseball in season. If you are at a game or cannot watch it live, an archive of the featured game is available on the website shortly after the completion of the games.

by Gary Andrews

It was senior night and breast cancer awareness night at Wabash Thursday. The Lady Apaches won in a sweep over North Miami Wednesday and it looked as though they would repeat that performance against Eastern on Thursday as they grabbed a 2-0 lead, then survived a Comet comeback to win in five games 25-20, 25-22, 18-25, 20-25, 16-14.

Falling behind 2-0 to start the night Wabash would get a kill from Sydni Mullett and an ace from Jaycee Parrett to score three straight and grab the lead. The two teams would battle back and fourth until Eastern led 11-10 and the Apaches got hot. After a Comet error Mullett would drive home another kill that was followed with two aces from Sarah Ritter as Wabash scored four straight and led 15-11. Eastern would inch their way back and eventually tie the score at 17 before Ritter and Kristin Cromer got busy leading the Apaches to a 8-3 run down the stretch to win game one 25-20.

Eastern would get the good start in game two, grabbing a 6-3 lead and building the lead to 13-8 when Wabash had an answer. With Claire Cromer serving the Lady apaches would score 8 straight points and take the lead at 16-13. During the run Katie Ford had three kills with Ritter getting a kill and Cromer an ace. Wabash would hold the lead until 22-18 when Eastern made a run. The Comets went on a 5-0 run to grab a 23-22 lead before the Apaches derailed the train. Tied at 23 Katie Ford nailed a kill for the lead then Sydni Mullett stuffed a block for the final point as the Apaches won 25-23 and led 2-0.

New this year at Wabash High School, they are introducing Student Athlete of the Month. Head coaches nominate one athlete from their team that exemplifies one of the following:

*Sportsmanship shown in competition

*Something that displays a positive image for Wabash athletics

*Something that displays good character

This award is sponsored by Harvey Hinklemeyer’s. All winners will be given a $10 gift card and will be honored at the end of the year and presented with a special t-shirt.

by Gary Andrews

The Manchester Squire doubles team of Noah Cain and Branden Scott put their 18-1 record up against Plymouth, the top doubles team in North Central Indiana, falling 1-6, 3-6.

The match started out with two close games in which Noah Cain and Branden Scott had opportunities but lost close games. Plymouth jumped out to a 3-0 lead but Manchester didn’t give in. Scott served many quality points and Cain volleyed well at the net as the duo won the fourth game to go 1-3. Plymouth, however, took the next three games.

Despite losing the set 6-1 and the first three games of set two, the Squire duo went toe to toe with Plymouth. Manchester broke through with 3 straight games to tie the set 3-3.

Eventually, Plymouth won the final 3 games of the set to take the match and advance in the tournament. Cain and Scott end their 1 doubles season with an 18-2 record.

by Gary Andrews

It was the tale of two halves Friday at Wabash as the Apaches out scored Manchester 23-7 in the first half before the Squires shut out Wabash in the second half 22-0 for a come from behind 29-23 win over the Apaches.

With 9:26 to go in the first quarter Chase Dirig would hook up with his brother Grant on a 38-yard scoring strike to take a 6-0 lead and later got a 35-yard field goal from Owen Yeadon to lead 9-0 after the first quarter.

The Squires would close the gap early in the second when Evan Milam scored from 4yds out with 10:27 to play, making it 9-7, but the Apaches responded with two more scores for their first half lead. Chase Dirig scored on a 10yd run, then connected with Trevor Vest on a 25-yard pass play to give the Apaches a 23-7 halftime lead.

Both defenses would dominate the third quarter with Manchester getting the lone score of the quarter when Jacob Casper scored from 23 yards out with 40 seconds left in the quarter and with a two point conversion Wabash still led 23-15 with one quarter to go.

With 9:23 left in the game Lucas Schilling would race 14yds to pay dirt, then hit Milam for a two-point conversion to tie the game at 23. A Wabash turn over kept the Squire momentum going as Lucas Schilling then found Bailey Ness form 20 yards out with a blocked extra point giving Manchester a 29-23 lead which would end up being the final score.

For Manchester Lucas Schilling was 17 of 32 for 215 yards, one touchdown. Jacob Casper rushed 10 times for 67 yards, one touchdown. Lucas Schilling added 9 for 54 yards, one touchdown, Evan Milam 7 for 26 yards, one touchdown. Evan Milam had 6 receptions for 70 yards. Bailey Ness added 4 for 62 yards, one touchdown, Daniel Griese 4 for 4 for 51 yards, Keelan Norwood 2 for 28 yards, Jacob Casper 1 for 4 yards.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness and Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The Northfield junior high volleyball teams are excited to announce that they will be holding a bake sale as well as a silent auction on Friday, Oct. 17 at the last home varsity football game against North Manchester.

The teams will be set up around 6 p.m., just through the entrance to the game. Half of the funds raised will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, based in Indianapolis, and the other half will be donated to Hands of Hope, which gives safe shelter to victims of domestic violence in both Wabash and Grant counties. Pink and purple ribbons will be for sale at the table along with some other fun things.

“The teams are very excited to be doing this for both of these great causes. The 8th grade coach, Leslie Stauffer, and I know what it’s like to help raise funds/awareness for victims of domestic violence because we were both active members of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority and our philanthropy helped raise awareness for women and children of domestic violence situations. We, and a lot of the girls, have known someone who has also been a Breast Cancer victim. Since October is both Breast Cancer Awareness and Domestic Violence Awareness month, we thought that this bake sale and silent auction would be a great way to contribute to each of these causes. Because we were able to get enough donations from local businesses in Wabash, we now have two silent auction baskets up for grabs! We hope to see many of you at the game. Don’t forget to stop by the bake sale table to grab some yummy treats,” said Brooke Griffey, 7th grade volleyball coach at Northfield High School.

by Gary Andrews

All four county schools will be represented in next Saturday’s cross-country regionals as several teams and individuals had a great day at the sectional. Northfield, Wabash and Southwood were at the Marion sectional while Manchester was at Culver.

In each race the top five teams advance to the regional plus the top ten runners who were not on a qualifying team.

At Marion the day got started with the girls race with Northfield’s Jenna Halderman winning the race in 18:38.5 to lead the Lady Norse to a third place team finish.  Brittany Sloan placed 7th,  Karla Singer 11th,  Jacklyn Peas 18th,  Natasha Leland 20th, Olivia Thompson 23rd, Attie Schuler 43rd.

Southwood was fourth behind a 10th place finish from Emily Lehner.  Ellie White was 24th,  Haley Heath 27th,  Kassidy Atwood  39th, Taylor Heath 47th,  Brooke Elliott 52nd,  Emma Peebles.

Wabash had an incomplete team with  Carli Henderson leading the way in 49th.  Chelsea Archer was 55th, Courtney Davis 60th,  Angela Davis 67th.

At Culver in the girls race if anyone ever wondered how important the sixth and seventh runners are they found out as Manchester tied Tippecanoe Valley for the fifth and final qualifying spot and winning the spot because Squire sixth runner Sophia Reifeltshammer beat Valley’s sixth runner by seven spots.

Leading Manchester was Clara Burdette in 22nd place. Kaitlyn Blum was 29th, Emily Lynn 30th, Natasha Niccum 32nd, Alexis Vernon 41st, Sophia Reifeltshammer 42nd, Alexis Wagoner 52nd.