Steve T. Gorches: Region runners set up for big day

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Updated: November 29, 2011 8:30AM

Welcome to late October, the most wonderful time of the year.

Or at least the most wonderful time of the high school athletic season. At least the fall season.

Sectional football brings excitement, especially if you’re a fan of Crown Point, Valparaiso, Merrillville, Chesterton, Griffith, Morton, East Chicago, Hammond, North Newton, River Forest, Rensselaer, Wheeler and Hobart, all of whom will try to advance one step closer to a trophy tonight.

The Crown Point boys soccer team is going for its first state title on Saturday, which would be the second straight Northwest Indiana crown after Lake Central won last year.

Don’t forget about volleyball semistates, though it’s easy to forget when they’re so far away.

Nice job IHSAA in assigning those four sites. How’s it logical that in the Class 4A semistate, Munster — a school on the Illinois border — travels to Huntington North, which isn’t very far from the Ohio border?

Another case of illogical IHSAA decision-making aside, having four region squads just two wins away from the state final is a little surprising. It’s a breath of fresh air for NWI volleyball, which hasn’t had much success since the class system began in 1997 — except for Marquette in Class 1A.

Coincidentally, that’s the class in which I think the region has the best chance at advancing.

Munster has a tough task in 4A with nationally-ranked Penn on the other side of the bracket.

Andrean has to get past 3A nemesis South Bend St. Joseph’s in its semifinal match. If the 59ers can handle that team, which has ended their season in the past, next up will likely be perennial power Yorktown.

In 2A Wheeler’s road doesn’t look too formidable on paper, but Wapahani will be a tough test, and Southwood won’t be easy in the final if the Bearcats reach it.

But Washington Township has been getting closer to succeeding at this point of the season. The Senators have won four straight sectional titles, and just won their first regional crown after losing in the regional final the last two years (before last season the IHSAA format changed from a four-team regional to one match, winner-take-all). And with it being coach Scott Campbell’s last season, why not send him out in style?

And then there’s cross country.

Finally, the state finals are here and we get to see if the preseason hype about the Valparaiso boys is real. I still remember other coaches raving about the Vikings and their depth. One Duneland Conference coach said the Vikings “could be the best team the region has ever seen.”

For that to be true, Saturday has to be a memorable, historic day. As in, they would need to challenge for the title at the very least. There have been multiple local boys cross country state champs — the last coming in 2000 from, of course, Valparaiso. The Vikings have five state titles and have the depth and potential for No. 6.

But the biggest story on the boys side this Saturday might be Hobart making its first appearance in 39 years.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Hobart coach Ty Artherhults said. “I have a young group of guys who want to be good.”

He admits getting fan support is a challenge at a school that may be more excited about the football team winning a sectional game than the cross country team.

“It’s not the most popular sport at Hobart,” Artherhults said. “We have to one-up the football team.”

The Brickies don’t have much of a shot at winning their first cross country state title since 1961, but just making it there bodes well for the future of a youthful, talented squad that should make trips to Terre Haute more frequently in the near future. Hopefully that can sway some Hobart students and fans into paying attention.

And then there’s Wheeler’s Kyle Nurse, who is making his first state finals trip after finishing 14th at semistate.

“My goals are always realistic — I wanted to be in the 15:50s and get to state and I got both,” he said.

Nurse joins Morgan Township’s Alec Kostelnik, Highland’s Jake Baranowski and Lowell’s Kyle Eller as individuals looking to bring home some hardware.

On the girls side, it will be interesting to see if Griffith’s Taylor Austin and Andrean’s Becca Conley can stay together on the course for the fourth time in five races. It’s Conley’s first trip to state while Austin will be trying to make up for a disappointing state trip as a freshman (35th).

But the girl with the best chance at posting the best NWI effort could be LaPorte sophomore Elena Lancioni, who is making her second straight trip to state finals. She was third at semistate, has consistently finished ahead of tough Duneland Conference competition and will be looking to improve upon her 28th-place finish at state last season.

It could be a very good day for region runners in Terre Haute.