Posted on 04 November 2008 by .
Southmont has totally turned their football season around.
After six games, the Mounties stood 1-5 and seemed destined for another losing
campaign. Now, they have won five in a row and are set to battle
you might like to get behind the scenes with a resurgent football program.
Hoosier Authority was in the locker room last Friday night before the Mounties
semi-final game with Western Boone.
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Posted on 03 November 2008 by .
| 10/29/2008 2:30:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | |||||
Southmont senior captures third-straight Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year honor By John Groth Sports Editor NEW MARKET – Only four days after her cross country season – and career – came to a close, Creasy Clauser misses the long runs already. There are no more early wake-up or mid-afternoon practices up and down Southmont High School’s hilly course. Nor are there any postseason meets to prepare for. Still, the Mounties’ senior and The Paper’s 2008 Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year quietly wishes she’d be spending this week running outside and preparing for the Indiana High School Athletic Association State meet instead of getting ready for girls basketball practice. It’s OK. She’s at peace knowing she finished with her best semistate time and place. “I wasn’t as high as I would have liked to have finished. But I ran my best time on that course and had my best semsitate time,” said Clauser, who placed 28th at this past Saturday’s IHSAA Franklin Central Semistate in 19:32.02. The top 15 individuals advanced to this weekend’s State finals. “I miss it. I already do. I miss running. I run every day and really miss it when I’m not doing it.” In her final season, Clauser captured plenty of honors – dominating the county and the Sagamore Athletic Conference even more than usual. She raced to regular-season Charger Classic and Bloomington Invitational titles and won her third-straight county and second-consecutive conference meets, taking the county title by two minutes and the conference championship by 37 seconds. But once the postseason came around, Clauser’s legs zoomed into another gear. She finished third at the IHSAA South Putnam Sectional (up two spots from last year), and helped the Mounties advance to their seventh-straight regional. Then, Clauser won the IHSAA Ben Davis Regional in 19 minutes flat. She beat her previous Ben Davis Regional and personal-best time by 20 seconds. Keyed by a fast start, Clauser took off ahead of opposing runners early. She, second-year coach Cassandra Hicks and assistant coach Lindsay Carlile developed practice plans and tirelessly worked on those starts all season. So, on her favorite course, Clauser took off, pushing herself off to a record start and holding off Pike’s Lydia Greene. “I wanted to get a personal best or win regionals in a personal best. I didn’t care where the personal best would happen but I figured it would at regionals because that’s my best course,” Clauser said. “It’s mostly flat. I get excited when running there. I like how you can’t really see whole course when you’re running. You can’t really see sections of it. When you see the whole entire course you get really depressed because you know all of that is still in front of you. But when see only little of it, it’s not so bad.” Hicks acknowledged Clauser’s dedication, especially over the summer, led to much of her success. She ran every day throughout the summer and entered the season in great shape, along with some confidence and hunger from her second-place 800-meter finish at the IHSAA Girls State Track and Field finals. “I don’t think her ability to run impressive times came from anything other than hard work and dedication. When you have those two together, it’s a great formula for her success,” Hicks said. “She’s a great listener. She listens to what he coaches advise her to do. She’s also great at communicating the way she’s feeling, the way she expects the workout to go, which she always expects the workout to be challenging and she expects herself to take that challenge on her.” Clauser hopes she left an impact on the team’s younger runners. She was one of only two Mounties’ seniors this year, along with Shelby Detro, and they were only a handful of returning varsity runners back this season. With sophomore Kylie Lippencott joining her at the IHSAA Franklin Central Semistate, Clauser acknowledged that made her season even betterl. Having someone join her made it an extra special treat. They made up running games she learned from her church youth group to have fun with at practice and always tried to find a way to talk during runs. “It really helps to have a friend there running with you. You support each other and cheer each other to run. It’s nice to not have to go by yourself,” she said. “It’s really cool for [Kylie] to have her keep improving on what she did and to know she doesn’t necessarily have to have the whole team there to do well.” As for college,Clauser has narrowed her choices down to two – Purdue and Rose-Hulman. She wants to run and have a rigorous academic workload in college, especially with her planned major of Biomedical Engineering. | ||||||
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Posted on 01 November 2008 by .
Contributing Writer
CRAWFORDSVILLE
– “It would be a huge lift for our program if we could win tonight and help to
develop our program,” said Southmont coach Desson Hannum. “Sure, there has not
been much of a tradition here. But that’s what we are trying to develop.”
Western Boone looked to play the part of a
bad Halloween trickster Oct. 31 in its Class 3A Sectional 21 semifinal at
Southmont. The treat for the host Mounties would be their first winning
season since 2003 and first sectional championship since 1998.
After the former took a 3-0 lead early, the
latter roared back with 19 straight points en route to a 32-11 victory. The
Halloween win earns Southmont (6-5) a road trip next weekend to third-ranked county
rival North Montgomery, a 42-18 semifinal advancer past West Vigo and a 42-19
Week 3 winner at Southmont.
The Mounties are coming together at the
right time. After enduring a five-game losing streak, Southmont has put
together a five-game winning streak and is poised to put itself on the map in
Montgomery County.
The crowd on this night was worked into a
frenzy with all that was laid in front of this young team.
Western Boone (3-8) got the early momentum,
forcing a punt on Southmont’s first possession. Using 10 plays and nearly five
minutes off the clock, Western Boone took a 3-0 lead on a 28-yard
field goal by Jeremy Trent.
The Mounties seemed to relax on their
second drive, however. Controlling the line of scrimmage, the Mounties
rushed nine times for 67 yards in 4:38 to take a 6-3 lead (the extra-point
kick failed) on a six-yard touchdown run by sophomore Micah Hatch.
With Western Boone moving again near
midfield, it was time for the Mounties’ defense to make a
statement. Senior Scott Paris jumped in front of a Jarod Knox pass and
raced 56 yards for a 12-3 lead (the PAT again failed), which is how the first
half ended.
Western Boone was forced to punt on its
opening drive of the second half and, in retrospect, probably wished the ball
had been kicked out of bounds. Junior Lucas Long took the line drive kick,
broke several tackles, and raced 54 yards to the house, lifting Southmont to a
19-3 lead over the Stars following the kick.
Western Boone countered with a quick score
of its own just 2:24 later. Sophomore Josh Debard (18 carries, 104 yards) raced
through the Southmont defense for a 35-yard touchdown, cutting the
lead to 19-11 after a successful two-point conversion.
Then came the turning point.
Western Boone had driven to the Southmont
10-yard line and appeared ready to tie the game when Knox floated a pass to Debard
in the far corner of the end zone. But wait a minute – Southmont trainer Kim
Lighty spotted an illegal man downfield for Western Boone, and so did the
officiating crew.
On a subsequent 4th and goal from the 2,
the Mounties “D” threw Knox for a 10-yard loss. Instead of finding themselves
in a 19-all tie, Southmont had dodged a huge bullet with 8:47 remaining.
The Mounties later were able to pull away
with the help of a fumbled punt by Western Boone. Eric Rhoades recovered the
ball on the Stars’ 37, and two plays later Jordan Burkett dashed eight yards
for a comfortable 25-11 lead.
Hatch added a final score with less than
three minutes to play on a 15-yard run for the final score of 32-11.
With every passing week, this young
Southmont team is gaining confidence and developing into a good team.
“Success breeds confidence – this team is
getting more confident in their abilities,” Hannum said.
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Posted on 01 November 2008 by .
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