Track teams compete in county meet

by Marcus Wirth

The Jac-Cen-Del boys and girls varsity track team both placed third in the Ripley County Invitational at Batesville on May 9. Mike Comer and Tucker Brown placed third in the discus and shot put for the boys. Coty Horn was sixth in both the high jump and long jump, and Donald Chadwell placed sixth in the high hurdles and low hurdles. Eric Gloyd was fourth in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Mike Tunny was fifth in the 400 and Craig Hill was sixth in the half-mile. Kyle Horan was fourth in the mile, and Justin Eaton was fifth in the two mile. The Eagles' mile relay team placed third, and the two-mile relay team finished second.

For the girls' portion of the meet Casey Gerwe and Terri Schuck placed first in the discus and shot put. Gerwe also placed fourth in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Paige Thomas was sixth in the long jump. Deidre Hellmich was fourth in the high hurdles and Kayla Bradley was fifth in the low hurdles. Kelly Wagner was third in the 400 and Amber Lunsford was fourth in the half mile. Alisha Lord won the mile and placed third in the two mile. The Lady Eagles' two-mile relay team placed second.

Raiders win against Southwestern

by Mark Downard

South Ripley defeated Southwestern 13-2 in five innings on Friday, May 13 to stay on top of the ORVC standings and run the Raider record to 12-7 overall, 8-1 in the conference.

Southwestern took an early lead after one inning on a leadoff single, a bunt, a fielder's choice, and a sacrifice. For the Raiders, Josh Cumberworth started the bottom of the second inning with a single. Cory Yeomans reached on an error and Israel Burkett was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Jacob Lemon singled to drive in a run to tie the game and keep the bases loaded. Russ Steinhauer then pulled a single to right to drive in 2 runs. When Lemon scored on an error the score stood at 4-1 Raiders.

In the third the Raiders scored nine runs to extend the lead to 13-1. Tyler Ester led off the inning with a walk and Cumberworth followed with a home run. Many hits and runs followed in the inning. Southwestern scored once in the fifth to make the final 13-2.

Ester pitched all five innings recording six strikeouts. Hitting leaders included Cumberworth going 3-3 with a home run, 3 RBI's, Israel Burkett was 2-2 with a triple, Steinhauer was 2-3 with 2 RBI's, Mike Matthews went 2-3, and Lemon was also 2-3.

Eagles' defeat Cougars at home

by Marcus Wirth

On May 11, the Jac-Cen-Del varsity softball team came from behind to defeat the South Decatur Lady Cougars at Jac-Cen-Del. It didn't look good in the beginning when the Cougars batted around in the first inning and scored four runs. The Eagles managed to pick up a run in the third and added four more in the fourth to take the lead, but only for a moment, when South Decatur got a run in the fifth to tie it at five. The Lady Eagles then took the lead scoring two runs in their half of the fifth inning.

Jac-Cen-Del put six runs on the board in the sixth inning for a final score of 13-5. Abby Lauber was the winning pitcher, throwing a complete game giving up five runs and striking out five Cougar hitters. Alisha Lord was 3-5 with three runs scored, and Kiersten Young was 2-4 with a triple, two runs scored, and three RBI's. Abby Morehead was also 3-5 with two runs and an RBI. The win improves the Lady Eagles' record to 10-6 on the season.