BricksCenter

#21sports1team

With every ending, there is a new beginning ... and in the same week that we officially closed the book on our winter sports season, another was opened for spring! The Brickie cagers entered MARCH MADNESS Indiana style with a sectional quarterfinal match-up against Portage, and boys & girls track were OFF AND RUNNING (it's mostly what they do) in their 1st indoor meet of the spring season!!

In case you missed it, legendary Duke University men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski ... better known as Coach K ... coached his final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium over the weekend. In honor of Coach K and his truly remarkable career (1196 wins, 12 Final Fours, 5 NCAA Championships, 3 gold medals), I'd like to open this edition of BricksCenter with one of my favorite Coach K quotes on adversity:

"There are always those times when you're going to be down. It's how you step through it that makes you the person you are."

Great advice from a great teacher & coach!

College Basketball's MARCH MADNESS begins in a little over a week ... BricksCenter begins now!

Basketball

On Tuesday, the 112th Annual IHSAA Boys Basketball State Tournament began. For the 2nd time in 4 years, Portage High School served as host for Class 4A Sectional #2. The Brickies drew the Indians in game #1 for the 3rd consecutive year. Back on December 7th, Portage defeated our boys 64-31. Of course, this is MARCH MADNESS and ANYTHING can happen in the rematch!!

The Indians, who finished the regular season with a record of 15-8, seemingly hit every shot they took and jumped out to an early 13-0 lead that ballooned to 23-4 after 8 minutes of play. Our boys entered the contest having won 2 of their last 3 and looked to steal back the momentum in the 2nd quarter! Hobart fought hard to get something going, but every time we appeared to be on the brink of a rally, Portage had an answer. At halftime, the margin was 40-13. Apparently playing on their home floor gave the host Indians some added confidence as they continued to pour it on in the 2nd half while the Brickies just could not get anything going. It seemed as if a lid was on the Hobart basket as the boys in purple connected on only 25% of their attempts for the game. Despite a great effort, the scoreboard showed 70-28 when the final buzzer sounded.

It was a disappointing end ... they all are when you lace them up for the last time. The final score from Tuesday doesn't take anything away from how hard our boys WORK WORK WORKed this winter and how much improvement they showed over the final month of the season. They say it's the journey that counts, not the destination ... I would have to agree. This team STAYED THE COURSE and KEPT PLAYING ... NEVER GIVING UP until the final buzzer sounded.

Senior Miki Djankovich was the lone Brickie to reach double figures, finishing with 12 points in his final game for H-town.

#LASTDANCE

Track & Field

After a few weeks of snowmageddon, it was nice to feel the warmth of spring a couple days last week. For the Hobart track & field athletes, the SPRING season is already here! They've been practicing for 3 WEEKS ... mostly indoors ... and were IN ACTION Friday night at Purdue University in West Lafayette for a Hoosier State Relays Qualifier in historic Lambert Fieldhouse ... LET'S GO!!

The Bricks were so hot they were BOILING down at Purdue! One fan favorite in particular was junior vaulter Cody Johnston. Cody, who placed 3rd in the pole vault at last year's IHSAA State Finals, SOARED past the competition on Friday night! With the help of the entire crowd cheering, he cleared a height of 16'0" to WIN the event!! Cody is currently rated #1 in the qualifying standings for the HSR Finals at Indiana University on March 26th!! Classmate Gavin Miller also SHINED to a 5th place finish in the high jump after clearing 5'10"! Sophomore Ryan Mattel WON his heat of the 800m run in 2:11.28 and placed 12th overall out of 74 competitors and senior Joe Meagher placed 11th out of 66 runners in the 1600! On the girls side of things, it was sophomore Cailey Weber who ran well in the prelims of the 55m Hurdles, qualified for the finals and finished 6th out of 26 competitors overall!!

Here are some other results from Purdue:

55m Hurdles

sophomore Cailey Weber (9.66)

senior Jaylin Youngberg (10.15)

200m Dash

seniors Dominique Clemons (28.38) & Ja'Diah Belk (30.28)

800m Run

sophomore Kylee King (2:57.77)

1600m Run

sophomore Addy Black (7:14.07)

High Jump

junior Daeges Morgan (4'6")

senior Jaylin Youngberg (4'4")

How about the boys?

55m Hurdles

senior Jaden Camacho (9.38)

55m Dash

juniors Gavin Miller (7.29) & Pedro Villar (7.81)

400m Dash

senior Dakota Vanderberg (57.99)

800m Run

sophomore Ryan Mattel (2:11.28)

1600m Run

senior Joe Meagher (4:57.33)

sophomores Owen Stankich (5:07.12) & Vinny Gutierrez (5:30.44)

High Jump

junior Gavin Miller (5'10")

Pole Vault

junior Cody Johnston (16'0")

No team scores were kept as this was simply an opportunity for athletes to qualify individually for the Hoosier State Relays Finals in Bloomington on March 26th ... but what a start for our boys and girls tracksters! They will be back on the track next Saturday over at Portage High School with another shot to qualify for the finals!!

#SPECTRACKULAR

Spring Sports are HERE!

Now that the winter sports season has officially come to an end ... and it was FANTASTIC ... it's time to move back outside for some spring sports action! Ok ... ok, with temps expected to be in the 30s next week - including an 80% chance of snow on Monday - I guess we'll get comfortable in the fieldhouse until further notice :)

GOOD LUCK to our spring sports as they get started on what will undoubtedly be an exciting few months!

#BRICKIEUP