The Oakwood Times September Monthly

Sports Oakwood TImes
Golf looks to
improve
By Kiara Petticrew
The Oakwood Comets golf team places 9th out of 14
teams at the Paris Invite Sept. 16, 2017. Senior Cameron
Wise led the team. Wise feels uncertain moving forward
this season but still looks forward positively.
“Well losing four seniors, I thought it would be difficult.
But this year is basically just getting the younger ones ready
for the future,” said Wise.
Mr. Hicks also took initiative and had the team go out
and play every Monday over the summer to prepare for the
season. Senior Kamden Howard believes this was beneficial
for the growth of the team.
“I feel pretty good, the team is definitely improving from
the beginning of the season and we still have a long way to
go,” said Howard.
He says the course was difficult and the team was a little
nervous, however the team is improving and are happy
with the way things are going.
The improvement has given Howard more motivation
and a new personal goal for this season. Howard would like
to go sub 42, which means he wants to shoot under 42 as
his personal score.
The team hopes to improve their record and do exceptionally
well on the upcoming IHSA regional at Urbana
Country Club on October 3rd.
Howard and Wise are looking forward to the meet and
have a team goal in mind.
“We want to qualify for sectionals,” says Wise. “We’ve
been focusing a lot on putting and chipping.”
Kamden has also been working hard at practices.
“We have been practicing a lot harder than usual to prepare
for regionals. We really want to do well,” Howard says.
The team remains focused and feels positive about the
upcoming events.
Undefeated in the conference
By Kelsey Blackford
Although the Oakwood Salt Fork soccer team had a rough start to the season with an eight loss streak, they
reached a turning point in the season that led to their undefeated record in the Vermilion Valley Conference.
A small change in the lineup has had a lasting impact on OSF’s 5-0 VVC record.
“As soon as we switched our formation back for the game against Judah Christian, it was almost like we turned
into a completely different team,” explained Senior Josh Coburn.
OSF managed to score five goals against Judah Christian. Before this game, they had only scored one goal collectively.
Senior Jaydon Rose had a very similar view on how the team got moving in the right direction.
“I feel like the formation change really helped to turn things around,” said Rose.
Although the start of the season didn’t look promising, OSF has stuck together as a team to improve as they move
forward.
“We had a pretty rough start and started off slow,” contributed Salt Fork Junior Dawson Rogers, “Towards the
middle of the season coach changed up the lineup, and we started to play much better and started to work well
together.”
Moving forward, OSF is excited for the rest of the season and hopes to continue the VVC winning streak.
“We don’t have a very good overall record (6-11) but we are undefeated in the conference,” said Rogers, “I’m very
happy with how the team is playing as of now.”
An Oakwood High senior, Garrett Lashuay, is also pleased and excited to see what OSF will be able to accomplish
as the season draws closer and closer to the end.
“I know we can win conference if we beat Bismarck and Hoopeston again,” concluded Lashuay.
OHS is joined by SFS this season
Autumn Laski and Andy Hohn pictured midrace. (Photos taken by Katelyn Blankenship)
Joie Sollers takes a stroke at golf invitational. (Photo taken
by Haley Ward)
By Emily Simonich
For the 2017 season, the cross country team is trying
out something new - both Salt Fork and Oakwood runners
will be combined to form one team. Oakwood and Salt Fork
have consolidated in other sports in the past for soccer, but
this is a first for cross country.
The team got a head start this summer to prepare for
the season.
Practices were held on Tuesdays and Thursdays in July
to help get the team ready. The runners had a short break
at the start of August that lasted until school resumed.
Currently, the team is running six days a week in addition to
their meets and practices.
The team has competed in several races this year, and
have more planned in the future. Both the girls’ and boys’
cross country teams are looking to improve their performance
from last year, trying to decrease each runner’s individual
time for every meet they have. The team is hoping to
qualify for sectionals.
Although it is still early in the season, the team has made
many improvements and some runners have even set new
personal records. Junior Cameron Helka led the team at the
North Vermillion Invite ending in 3rd place.
Another junior, Bryce Jones, is also optimistic about an
upcoming race for the Spartan Classic on September 23rd.
“Everyone is working hard and times are dropping” says
Jones. “I’m expecting to see a lot of season PR’s, it’s a fast
course. I think we will do fairly well.”
September 29, 2017
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