Sports Round-Up by Paul Beitler

Boys’ tennis sectional pairings set
The Bluffton Tigers are scheduled to play in the first round of the Norwell IHSAA boys’ tennis sectional on Thursday, while the host Norwell Knights drew a semifinal bye in the pairings that were drawn Monday night by the IHSAA.
Bluffton will meet Huntington North at 4:30 p.m., while Bellmont and South Adams will square off concurrently in the other match.
The winner of the Bluffton-Huntington North match will advance to play Norwell (12-4) at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The Knights are the defending champions.
The other semifinal match will pit Adams Central (12-4) against either Bellmont or South Adams on Friday at 4:30.
Semifinal winners are slated to collide in the championship match on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Baker leads Norwell jayvees over EN
Grant Baker ran for two touchdowns and threw for another to lead the Norwell junior varsity football team to a 41-0 victory over the visiting East Noble Knights on Monday.
Baker had touchdown runs of 20 and 8 yards and connected with Austin Dettmer on a 46-yard TD pass.
Robbie Ritter also had touchdown runs of 11 and 56 yards and added a two-point conversion.
Andrew Brinson scored on a 60-yard run and Kaleb Ahrens kicked two extra points.
The offensive line of Drew Giltner, Cam Dohrman, Brian Bigelow, Blake Wyatt and Jordan Retherford was credited with an outstanding performance.
On defense, Ahrens also had an interception. Giltner also had two tackles for loss, Ritter one tackle for loss and Max Morgan added a fumble recovery.

Homestead girls shut out Knights
The Homestead Spartans blanked Norwell 8-0 in Northeast Hoosier Conference girls’ soccer action Monday at Fort Wayne.
Homestead improved to 7-0-1, while the Knights fell to 3-8-2 for the season.
Kelsey Wendlandt netted two first-half goals for the Spartans. Brie Herbst scored the winning goal, while Alexis Stine, Ari Nelson, Teresa Busse, Ashley Steiner and Emily Bley each scored one goal. Megan Romelfanger recorded the shutout in goal for Homestead.

Bluffton MS runners record
some positives on gloomy day
Under rainy conditions, the Bluffton Middle School boys’ and girls’ cross country teams each defeated Hartford City on Monday at Bluffton.
The Bluffton girls won 23-34 and the boys won 19-40. However against Crestview, the girls lost 15-75 and the boys lost 19-46. Crestview beat Hartford City’s girls 15-65 and boys 15-55.
Individually for the Bluffton girls in the 3,000-meter race, Ashley Smith (14:19), Brynn Yonker (14:43), Morgan Huffman (14:45), Krysten Mossburg (14:52), Danielle Lambert (17:42) and Chelsea Dove (19:46) had personal-best times. Haley Craig finished in 17:39 and Ashley Devine in 23:45.
For the Bluffton boys, Jared Reckard finished in 11:50 and Chance Anderson in 12:52. Personal bests were recorded by Kevin Moser (13:05), Tad Makowski (13:13) and Keaton Redick (15:31). Eli Kitt finished in 13:06, Colton Anderson 13:39, Kobie Lucabaugh 15:21 and Gavin Michelbrink 19:35.

8th-grade Tigers spike Crestview
The 8th-grade Bluffton volleyball team pulled out a victory over Crestview on Monday at Bluffton, winning in three games 14-25, 25-22, 15-14.
Crestview beat the 7th-grade Tigers 25-14, 25-19.
Lauren Stauffer had two kills and three aces for the 8th-grade Tigers. Kennedy Johnson had two kills and one ace. Siera Gregg had one kill and two aces. Emma Thompson, Ashton Perry and Erin McKinley each had one kill.