County match-ups proceeded without interruption in the fall, but winter sports weren’t quite as lucky.
Due to COVID-19 impacts — Crawfordsville’s girls’ basketball team played just two Sagamore Conference games and while they battled Southmont to a 43-37 overtime loss in the Sugar Creek Classic final, they did not play a game that counted toward the Montgomery County Chase.
Southmont defeated North Montgomery 55-29 in the only county match-up this winter in girls’ basketball.
County championships were handed out in both boys and girls swimming and wrestling, but not without their own COVID-19 limitations. Crawfordsville’s boys’ swimming and diving team won its seventh-straight county title in dominating fashion, but had just 50% of its roster at the mid-December meet. Southmont repeated as the girls’ county champion, fending off North Montgomery 276-250.
Both Crawfordsville and North Montgomery’s wrestling teams struggled to field a full team throughout the year, and Southmont’s depth led the Mounties to a second-straight county title. The Mounties also won the gymnastics county championship.
In boys’ basketball, Crawfordsville earned redemption from the 2019-20 season, by defeating Southmont 71-49 and North Montgomery 74-33 to claim the title.
The Mounties have extended their lead to 36-30 over Crawfordsville in the 6th-Annual County Chase standings. North Montgomery is third with 12 points, having only scored points in four sports (girls soccer, girls swimming, football, and wrestling) this school year. Southmont is looking to draw even with North Montgomery by securing a third-straight county chase this spring.
After a missed 2020 spring, things are a bit unpredictable heading into the return of spring sports next week, but if history repeats itself, the Mounties will have little trouble holding on to the title.
In 2019 Southmont won county championships in boys golf and softball — two sports they’ll once again be favored in this spring.
North Montgomery has dominated the county track and field scene in recent years, winning sixth-straight boys’ titles and five-straight on the girls’ side. Never count the returning champion out even if the amount of returning athletes is uncertain.
In girls’ tennis, Southmont was poised to take over the county in 2020. With each county team returning at least two starters from 2019 — this might be the most competitive spring sport amongst the three county schools.
If Crawfordsville wants to win its first County Chase this spring — the Athenians will have to climb to the top in both boys and girls track and field, surprise some folks on the golf course and softball diamond — and trust the ole Athenian Nation to come through with a couple of county sweeps in baseball.
