BricksCenter
DaDaDa DaDaDa
May 26, 2019
21 Sports ... 1 Team ... WE ARE HOBART!
Part of high school sports ... education based athletics ... is learning life lessons. Probably one of the most critical ones is to sacrifice individual needs in order to do what's best for the team. We all do this in one way or the other on a daily basis - with our families, with our careers, etc. With it being Memorial Day Weekend, let us not forget the sacrifices made by so many for the greater good of this wonderful country we get to call home. Please be thankful for the freedoms we have ... they didn't come free.
Now let's close down the barbeque ... it's time for BricksCenter!
Right now ... check out some Spring Sports Highlights!
Track & Field
Girls
Competing in 9 of the 16 events at the Regional, the Lady Brickies tied for 14th place out of the 34 teams represented on Tuesday night at Portage High School. Almost EVERY Hobart athlete performed near or above their season/lifetime best on a cold and windy night in Porter County. Junior Addison Metts was FANTASTIC competing in both hurdles and 2 relays ... narrowly missing out on a trip to Bloomington in the 100m hurdles after placing 5th. Senior Olexia Brookshire finished her decorated Hobart career 1 meet short of a return trip to the state finals placing 16th in the 100m dash and providing strong legs on both the 400 and 1600m relay teams. Freshman PHENOMS Sydney Belk (distance) and Dominique Clemons (sprints) both got a taste of being on the doorstep to greatness ... an experience that should prove meaningful as they continue their bright futures! The HIGHLIGHT of the night came from senior ELENA POLIZOTTO as she cleared 10'10" in the pole vault competition to place 2nd and advance to the STATE FINALS!! This is the 2nd consecutive trip to Bloomington for our school record holder after placing 20th overall last season! Elena will be leaving Thursday night after graduation so she can get some practice in at IU's Robert C. Haugh Track & Field Complex before competing on Saturday, June 1st!
Here are the results from our girls regional qualifiers:
3200m Relay - junior Lauren Romeo, junior Abby Haluska, sophomore Lilly Butler and freshman Sydney Belk - 12th
100m Dash - senior Olexia Brookshire - 16th
100m Hurdles - junior Addison Metts - 5th
400m Relay - junior Addison Metts, freshman Ja'Diah Belk, sophomore Anisha Lewis and senior Olexia Brookshire - 9th
400m Dash - freshman Dominique Clemons - 14th
300m Hurdles - junior Addison Metts - 9th
3200m Run - freshman Sydney Belk - 16th
1600m Relay - sophomore Anisha Lewis, freshman Dominique Clemons, junior Addison Metts and senior Olexia Brookshire - 4th
Pole Vault - senior Elena Polizotto - 2nd = STATE QUALIFIER
Boys
Competing in 6 of the 16 events at the Regional, Hobart placed 16th out of the 31 schools represented on Thursday night at Valparaiso High School. Against the best of the best in the 219, OUR BOYS SHINED! Season best performances were on display for this Band 'O Brickies as the 3200m Relay team dropped considerable time from their sectional showing last week and Bruce Leipart raced to a lifetime best in the mile with a time of 4:38.86! Senior Devante Clemons closed out his Hobart career in style with a STELLAR race in the 400m Dash ... finishing 2 spots away from an automatic state birth in 5th place and barely missing a call-back by a fraction of a second! Devante also ran a RIDICULOUS anchor leg on the 1600m relay team to help them achieve a season-best mark! Much like the girls team, the HIGHLIGHT of the night came from the pole vault competition where sophomore Riley Johnston cleared 15'0" to take 1st PLACE and become a REGIONAL CHAMPION! This will be Riley's 2nd consecutive trip to Bloomington as well after finishing in 13th place a year ago. Currently, Riley's 15'0" vault ranks him 4th in the entire state of Indiana ... which means next Friday should be EXCITING!
Here are the results from our boys regional qualifiers:
3200m Relay - senior Lucas VanWijngaarden, sophomore Julian Ruiz and juniors Bryan Cherry and Tyler Davis - 7th
1600m Run - sophomore Bruce Leipart - 8th
400m Dash - senior Devante Clemons - 5th
1600m Relay - senior Devante Clemons, junior Matt Hylek and sophomores Bruce Leipart and Julian Ruiz - 13th
High Jump - sophomore Zach Vode - 11th, senior Zach Romano - 14th
Pole Vault - sophomore Riley Johnston - 1st place - REGIONAL CHAMPION/STATE QUALIFIER
#STATEBOUND
Photos courtesy of nwindianalife.com
Photos courtesy of Coach Don Rogers and Donna Seeley
Softball
Wednesday night, the Lady Brickies faced Michigan City in the sectional semi-finals. This was the first meeting of the two teams this year thanks to the non-stop precipitation that continued to wash out playing conditions after multiple attempts at a reschedule. Anyway ... THIS one was for a shot at the 'ship - CHAMPIONSHIP that is and Hobart would NOT BE DENIED! The Lady Brickies were PUTTIN' ON THE HITS early with 3 runs in the top of the 1st! Michigan City responded with 1 of their own in the bottom half and the 1st inning ended in a 3-1 Brickies lead. Neither team scored in the 2nd, but Hobart got it going again in the 3rd with 3 more runs to extend the lead to a commanding 6-1 difference! Sophomore Saylem Smith was DOMINANT on the mound in only surrendering 2 hits ALL NIGHT! Hobart continued to pour it on with 3 runs in the 6th and 4 more in the top half of the 7th as everyone got in on the action - including senior Aubrey Butterfield registering her 1st career hit! In the end, Hobart CLOBBERED the Lady Wolves 13-1 to advance to the Sectional FINALS!!
Thursday night, Hobart faced the host Chesterton Lady Trojans for all the marbles. Chesterton defeated the Lady Brickies 12-1 in the 1st game of the season for both teams WAY BACK on Tuesday, March 26th. Thursday ... the Lady Brickies were certainly looking for some payback AND a sectional championship! Chesterton opened up the scoring with a run in the bottom of the 1st and still led 1-0 after a scoreless 2nd inning of play. In the 3rd, Hobart again failed to get anyone across the plate and Chesterton took advantage. With 2 out and 2 on, the Lady Trojans slapped a double down the 3rd base line that scored both runners and extended their lead to 3-0. The hit and subsequent runs undoubtedly took some wind out of the Lady Brickies sails after battling to keep the game within striking distance. The Lady Trojans would tack on 2 more in the frame for a 5-0 lead after 3 innings. With some gas left in the tank, Hobart challenged in both the 4th and 5th, but just couldn't quite get the hit we needed at the right time to gain some much needed momentum as Chesterton's Division 1 pitcher kept the Lady Brickies off-balance all night. The Lady Trojans would go on to win 10-0 in 5 innings to claim the sectional crown and Hobart would have to settle for runner-up.
The girls finished 8-14 this spring after battling the weather and injury bugs for the entire season. EVERY SINGLE GIRL that played made a positive impact in one way or another and they all represented HHS extremely well! I realize that next year is a long way away, but with only 2 seniors graduating, the future looks so bright for these young ladies that they need some SHADES! Sophomores Saylem Smith and Hannah Camarena were near the top statistically all season in NWI in multiple categories ... with both returning along with some exciting pieces around them in the freshman, sophomore and junior classes ... the 2020 season will be fun!!
#WEGOTNEXT
Some more photos courtesy of nwindianalife.com
Baseball
On Friday, Hobart entered one of the TOUGHEST sectionals in northern Indiana with #1-ranked Crown Point playing the role of host and area top 10 teams Valparaiso, Portage and Chesterton also participating. The Friday night semi-final featured Hobart and Portage for a shot at playing in the 'SHIP on Monday. Back on April 20th, Portage handed the Brickies a lopsided 11-1 loss. Can you say "payback"? I can ... PAYBACK!
Portage was able to get a run across in the top of the 1st after a walk, stolen base and a single brought the runner home. Believe it or not, that was the ONLY RUN the Indians would score the ENTIRE GAME. Junior pitcher Tyler Schultz was absolutely AMAZING going the distance and only surrendering 3 hits and the 1 earned run! Also, as the Beatles might say, "He got by with a little help from his friends". The Brickies backed him up in the field with some TREMENDOUS D-D-D-DEFENSE! In the 4th, senior right-fielder Tyler Anderson fielded the ball with a Portage runner rounding 3rd heading for home. Anderson threw a LASER to sophomore catcher Jayden Deel who tagged the runner to end the threat! In the 7th, again with Portage threatening to extend the lead, junior 1st baseman Jack Huber fielded a ground ball with an Indian runner on 3rd looking to score. Instead of turning and running to tag the base, Huber ran toward the runner coming towards him ... tagged him out, keeping the entire play in front of him ... and held the would-be scorer on 3rd! It was TERRIFIC!!
Unfortunately, despite such a great effort on the defensive side of the ball, Hobart just couldn't get anything going on offense ... Jobu was unable to "wake up the bats" as the Brickies could only register 3 hits on the night. Hobart threatened twice, but the Portage pitcher was lights out and ultimately the Brickies lost an absolute heart-breaker 1-0 to end their season.
The Brickies faced some adversity this spring ... and not just because of the weather ... but still put together a really nice year, playing some of the very best around VERY WELL to finish 14-13 overall. The lessons learned by this group of youngsters will serve them well next season as Hobart returns a number of key players in the field and on the mound. The seniors, Ryan Earp, Tyler Anderson, Zach Guthrie, Lane Ondo and Tyler Hunter will no doubt be missed, but the contributions they made to continue developing this program and keep it headed in the right direction will not be soon forgotten.
THANK YOU boys for representing Hobart so well! We are very proud of you!
#GOTHEDISTANCE
Girls Tennis
1st round action took place on Tuesday afternoon with the Lady Brickies squaring off against the Whiting Oilers who won the East Chicago Sectional last week. It was cold ... it was windy ... it WAS AWESOME! Hobart picked up right where they left off last week as the girls continued to PLAY WELL! After 90 minutes, it was over with the Lady Brickies advancing to the FINALS with a 4-1 victory! Hobart earned wins at #1 (sophomore Addison Kasch), #3 singles (freshman Emma Novak), #1 doubles (sophomores Ruthie Sutliff and Katrina Hansen) and #2 doubles (senior Amanda Cicillian and sophomore Giovanna Equivel).
On Wednesday night, the girls made the trek back to Highland for the REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP against state #4-ranked Munster. Earlier this spring, the Mustangs shut-out Hobart 5-0 with the Lady Brickies only picking up a few points total. This time, the final score ended the same with Hobart bowing out of the state tournament with a 5-0 loss ... but the improvement shown by the Lady Brickies was clearly evident as they challenged Munster with everything they had! It was a great effort overall against the very best team in northern Indiana.
This unfortunately closes the book on another great season of girls tennis in H-town ... one that started slow, gained momentum as the girls improved week-in and week-out, included another SECTIONAL TITLE, and ended in the IHSAA REGIONAL FINALS! These ladies did a fantastic job representing BRICKIE PRIDE as they came together at just the right time to deliver a championship! ... and with only 1 senior departing, could next year be a 3-peat???
CONGRATULATIONS to Coach Davis, Coach Walsh and all of the Lady Brickies who WORKED WORKED WORKED so hard all year ... we are very proud of you and all you accomplished!
#TITLETOWN
Check out what The TIMES had to say about the Lady Brickies!
Boys Golf
Tuesday, Hobart traveled to Wicker Park for the Northwest Crossroads Conference Championship meet. It rained the night before and the morning of, which delayed the start a few hours. Once they started, they PLAYED THROUGH! The first two golfers to complete their round were juniors Nathan Schammert and DJ Lipke ... and what PHENOMENAL rounds under those conditions! Schammert shot an 84 followed closely by Lipke's 87 - BOTH good enough for ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS!! Overall, the Brickies shot 374 as a team ... their BEST 18-hole score of the season ... and finished 6th barely missing 5th place by 3 strokes.
On Thursday, Hobart hosted Wheeler for SENIOR NIGHT ... honoring lone senior Jacob #BRICKVode prior to beginning play. Whatever mojo Schammert and Lipke started on Tuesday at Wicker Park carried over BIGTIME to the course at River Pointe as the Brickies shot a SEASON LOW SCORE and BURIED the Bearcats under a mountain of strokes winning 180-264!!! Hobart put all 5 varsity golfers under 50 for the 1st time all season - which would probably be good enough to win the caddy tournament at Bushwood CC :)
Here are the scores from Thursday:
Junior Nathan Schammert - 40
Junior DJ Lipke - 46
Junior Sabian Lievers - 47
Freshman Trevor Schammert - 47
Junior Jayden Wibel - 47
Hobart now has a few days to swing the wrenches and work on their short game before sectional play begins next Friday, May 31st at Forest Park in Valparaiso.
DON'T STOP NOW BOYS!
#BETHEBALL
Unified Track & Field
It was a beautiful day for some racing and a great chance for these athletes and partners to come together one more time before we all leave for summer vacation.
#WEAREHOBART
Photos courtesy of Kriste Bell
Sports Schedule This Week
No Events Scheduled - HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!
Tuesday
No Events Scheduled - PHYSICALS from 3-6 in the GYM!
Wednesday
No Events Scheduled
Thursday
No Events Scheduled - GRADUATION!
Friday
Boys Golf @ IHSAA SECTIONAL (Forest Park in Valparaiso)
Riley Johnston @ BOYS TRACK STATE FINALS (Indiana University)
Saturday
Elena Polizotto @ GIRLS TRACK STATE FINALS (Indiana University)