With the end of the school year basically here, that means that our area sports teams are winding down their sports seasons. That also means another full year of high school sports in Montgomery County is almost sadly over. It’s been another fantastic season for our area sports teams with countless records broken, state finals appearances, and some deep post-season runs.
With all of that being said, there’s still one more county title out there for grabs. This Thursday we’ll crown a county champion on the golf course when Crawfordsville, North Montgomery and Southmont meet up at the Crawfordsville Country Club. Once again this season the county golf title will mean a little more than usual. We still have a thrilling conclusion to this year’s county chase to decided who will hold the trophy for the 2023-24 school year.
The current Chase Standings see the defending champion Athenians with 51 total points. Right behind them in second place with 49 are the Southmont Mounties who are looking to re-claim the Chase Trophy for what would be a fourth time in the last five years. Let’s play out a couple of different scenarios to see whether the Mounties or Athenians would walk away with the title.
In a county meet, the county champion receives four points for first place, while the second place team receives two points and third none. If you’re doing some quick math, you can see how things could get very very interesting.
Let’s get the easy one out of the way first. If Crawfordsville takes home the county golf title, Cville would defend the Chase Trophy easily. If the Mounties walk away with the county golf title, they will take the Chase Trophy back home with them for another school year. Now while the Chargers can’t bring home the Chase Title, they can certainly have a very big say in who does. The Chargers are playing phenomenal golf this season and are riding high after claiming their first SAC title in school history with a seaosn best 322. If the Chargers take home the county golf title and the Mounties place second, then (yes you did the math correctly) we would have a tie with both Cville and South having 51 total points.
How on earth are we going to break a tie you might ask? After consulting with our three athletic directors about this near impossible scenario that was never even thought of when the Chase started eight years ago, we’ve come to what I believe is a fair and easy solution. If we have tie, then the County Chase Trophy would go to the team with the most county titles throughout the course of the school year. If that’s the case then drumroll please....... Crawfordsville would retain the trophy as they have 10 county titles this year and the Mounties as it stands have eight. The Chargers golf title would be their second.
So there it is all laid out for everyone. I really hope that I explained well enough. For the second straight year the final county matchup of the year will determine who takes home the Chase Title. You couldn’t have written a better script than this and this sports editor is all here for it.
In all seriousness, I really am excited about how things will play out on Thursday. The Chase Trophy has brought out so many great storylines and in my opinion, brought out the very best in every single one of our student athletes here in Montgomery County. I really do enjoy all the conversations I have with parents, coaches, and even athletes when they ask me “what’s the Chase looking like,”?
Lastly I just want to say thank you again to all of our amazing athletes here in the county who make my job worth it every step of the way, all of the parents who put in countless hours for their kids to enjoy this magical thing we call high school sports. And of course I couldn’t do my job without the work of our three awesome athletic directors in Bryce Barton, Matt Merica, and Aaron Charles.
I’ll be at Cville baseball on Wednesday as we’ll have all 3 baseball sectionals covered. To everyone who is still playing, I wish you the best of luck and I’m looking forward to the thrilling conclusion on Thursday as we crown another county champion and award the County Chase Trophy.
Codey Emerson is the sports editor of the Journal Review and can be reached at 765-362-1200 ext. 175 or at codey@jrpress.com
