Blackford High School - Reflections Yearbook (Hartford City, IN)

Page 97 text:

CROSS COUNTRY TEAM: (Bottom Row) Mark Trees, Fred Cameroa Mike Baughey, Tom Thiery, Greg Osborn; (Row 2) Ron Denney, Kevin Morgan, Junior Townsend, Joachim Harimann, Brian Cain, Gary Irwin; (Row 3) Coach Chris Coy, lack Turner, Mike Williams, Scott Emshwiller, Don Mitchell, Rick Shrock, Chris Schwarzkopf, Greg Fanning. OPP Bluffton Delta Opener Huntington North Tipton-Elwood Jay Counry-Vorkt Ft. Wayne South Invitationa. Alexandria Manchester Inv. (Fresh, Soph Manchester Inv. (Jr., Sr.) Wayne NSouth Adams S cic ; . V BlacVforcf Invitationaf Sectional Tipton Invitational Regional II i Harrier Kevin Morgan nears finish line during two- and-one-half mile ]V run in Blackford Invitational. Kevin finished fifth. Receiving encouragement from Coach Coy, Mike Williams helps BHS to fifth place in Blackford Invita- tional. Cross Countr 93

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Mentally preparing for Blackford Invitational, Don Mitchell and Mike Baughey receive last-minute instructions from Coach Coy. Out-of-breath and exhausted, BHS runners Junior Townsend and Greg Osborn check in after run- ning the course at the CIC meet. young Xoyimn ' won th in Sectional Coach Chris Coy ' s harriers didn ' t let their underclass status stump them. In fact, the runners ' year was so successful that they compiled a dual and triangu- lar meet record of 8-1 and an overall point record of 81-30. Coach Coy summed up the high- lights of his cross country season in these words: It was a phenomenal suc- cess in that we got fourth out of 24 teams in the Sectional and qualified for the Regional. The team ran exception- ally well for being so young. Leadership on the basically young team came from seniors Kevin Morgan and Jack Turner. Both Morgan and lurner, along with Gregg Osborn, freshman, Junior Townsend, junior, and Gary Irwin and Don Mitchell, soph- omores, broke the 13:00-minute mark in the 2V2-mile-run. Freshman Scott Emshwiller and junior Mike Baughey were also recognized for successful running achievement throughout the cross country season. A special award in the form of a Most Valuable Runner trophy went to Jack Turner and Kevin Morgan at the annual Fall Athletic banquet in November. Mike Baughey received the Most Im- proved award. 92 Cross Country

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Determining what to do next to preserve their victo- ry. Coach Ion Stroup instructs his players at a break. Score: Bruins 79, Eastbrook 72. Bruins ' SO-SO start caused 500 year Returning three lettermen from last year ' s 20-5 squad, the roundballers stumbled at the start and never quite got on track, finishing the season 11-11. The season started below normal when the opening game was lost to Ad- ams Central, the Flying Jets ending a seven-year losing streak to the Bruins. Bad luck continued to prevail, as the team was 1-7 going into the January Grant County Tourney. In the tourney, Mississinewa fell to the scrappy Bruins, but Stroup ' s men, who had drawn the bye, lost for the second time to Madi- son-Grant in the finals. Four out of the first five games were dropped by a total of only eight points. Rarely were the Bruins blown off the court, even though there was a rash of injuries among other disturbing situa- 94 Varsity Basketball tions. Sectional time rolled around Bruin- land again, as Blackford hosted a four- team field. The Bruins drew Eastbrook the first round, and Delta ended up with rival Wes-Del. The Bruins were fa- vorites to win the four-team tourney, and beat Eastbrook 79-72 in the first game. Wes-Del squeaked past Delta, setting the stage for the Saturday night finals. At halftime it seemed that the Bruins were on their way to their sev- enth Sectional crown under Coach Stroup, but the Warriors came on strong to take their first title in the school ' s history, 65-58. Thus ended the five Bruin seniors ' high school career, and the stage for revenge was set for the upcoming year.