When this past week began, the Brickies were traveling full speed ahead into postseason play ... softball & baseball heading into the Sectional, girls, boys and unified track & field were entering the Regional round ... you knew it was going to be EXCITING! I'd rather not give too much away here in the intro ... let's just say that the week lived up to the HYPE as Hobart MADE SOME NOISE in the IHSAA Tournament Series!! When the dust settled by week's end, there were still plenty of PROUD BRICKIES standing and one group even made the wall y'all!

A major purpose of high school sports ... education-based athletics ... is to learn life lessons. Probably one of the most critical ones is to sacrifice individual needs in order to do what's best for the team. We all do this in one way or the other on a daily basis - with our families, with our careers, etc. With it being Memorial Day Weekend, let us not forget the sacrifices made by so many for the greater good of this wonderful country we get to call home. Please be thankful for the freedoms we have ... they didn't come free.

Now let's close down the barbeque ... it's time for BricksCenter!

It was SECTIONAL WEEK, which meant "GO TIME" for the Brickies over at Chesterton High School, which served as host for IHSAA Class 4A Sectional 2. Our girls were looking to make some noise in the BIG dance and hopefully put a picture up on the wall y'all!

On Tuesday night, the Brickies faced Valparaiso in 1st round action. This was the first meeting of the two teams this year ... the winner would face Portage, who drew a first-round bye, on Thursday. Early on, our girls were literally PUTTIN' ON THE HITS and plated 7 FIRST INNING RUNS! WOW!! Then the Brickies added ANOTHER 10 RUNS - HOLY SCHNIKES - over the next 3 innings and ran away from the Vikings for a DOMINANT 17-3 VICTORY!! Hobart pounded out 15 hits including HOMERUNS by sophomore Riley Weber and freshman Jaycee Snedecor! Freshman Kylie Bulatovich scored 4 runs, junior Ladan Weinman had 3 RBIs, and 4 other Brickies finished with 2 RBIs (Weber, Snedecor, senior Morgan Ellenberger & junior Taylor Lopez) to help secure a spot in the Sectional semifinals!!

Thursday, Hobart was back at Chesterton to square off with Portage in the IHSAA Sectional semifinals. Way back on April 6th, the Brickies defeated the Indians 19-12 in a total slugfest. The start of Thursday's game was a bit different as neither team plated any runs through the first few innings. In the 3rd, the Brickies scored 3 to take the lead only to see Portage rally for 2 in the top of the 4th. After that ... it was ALL BRICKIES!! Our girls scored 2 runs in the bottom half of the 4th to take a 5-2 advantage and then scored 2 more on a 2-RUN BLAST INTO THE NIGHT SKY by senior Keirys Click ( ... not sure it's even landed yet) in the 5th!! Hobart even added one more for good measure in the 6th and WON 8-2!!! Click and Bulatovich each totalled 3 hits and junior Emili Knestrict had 2 hits in the semifinal win! Seniors Ella Hornak & Morgan Ellenberger combined for 9 strikeouts & just 1 walk in the circle while only surrendering 2 runs!

On Friday ... it was Hobart vs Lowell for all the marbles. During the regular season, these teams split their 2-game series in conference play with each winning at home, which meant that the championship tilt would be close. Through 4 innings, play was INTENSE and the scoreboard still showed all zeros. With 2 on and 2 out in the bottom of the 5th, freshman Nora Hornak dropped a single into shallow centerfield to score Click and give Hobart a 1-0 lead!! The Red Devils rallied to move in front 2-1 on a 2-run blast in the 6th. In the bottom half of the inning, Snedecor led off with a double! The Bricks were able to load the bases with 2 out and Weber stepping to the plate. Riley drew a walk to tie the game at 2-2!! Nora was up next and she was able to advance to first safely on a dropped 3rd strike that scored the GO-AHEAD RUN to put our girls back on top 3-2!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!! Ellenberger returned to the circle in the 7th and when Nora Hornak fielded a ground ball & threw it to Lopez at first for the final out - it was TIME TO CELEBRATE because the Brickies were SECTIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! WHAT A GAME!!! Click, Hornak & Snedecor were the only 3 Brickies to record a hit, but Hobart had plenty of base-runners after drawing 10 walks! Click also scored twice and stole 3 bases on the night! Ellenberger & Ella Hornak combined to strike out 6 with only 3 walks in the win!

HOBART BRICKIES ARE 2024 IHSAA CLASS 4A SECTIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to Coach Moss, his fantastic staff and all of our girls for bringing home Hobart's first Sectional title since 2016!! One of the coolest things about this group is that we had different heroes step up and make plays each night - freshman, sophomore, junior, senior ... made no difference - our girls were collectively LOCKED IN and played with ONE HEARTBEAT!! AMAZING!!

On Tuesday, the Brickies will HOST the 2024 IHSAA Class 4A Regional starting at 5pm. Our girls will face Lake Central ... ranked #29 nationally and the #1 team in Indiana with a record of 31-1. DON'T STOP NOW GIRLS - WE BELIEVE IN YOU!!!

#GOBRICKSGO

The IHSAA Regional for track & field is one of the most exciting events of the spring ... individuals who place in the top 3 automatically advance to the STATE FINALS next weekend. Individuals (or relays) placing outside the top 3 in an event may receive a "call back" to STATE if they surpass the "state standard" or have one of the top 3 marks to not receive an automatic bid. Make sense??? Well, it does to track people :)

Girls

Competing in 7 of the 16 events at the Regional, the Brickies tied for 10th place out of the 25 teams represented on Tuesday night at Portage High School. Junior PHENOM Taylor Pope launched a discus 118'9" into the wind and punched her ticket to STATE with a 2nd place finish!! She also threw well in the shot put and placed 5th overall!! Taylor threw the shot put at the 2023 IHSAA State Finals and will now get to throw the disc in 2024! WOW! Senior SENSATION Cailey Weber ... competing at the Regional for the 4th straight year ... sprinted her way to 3rd place in the 300m Hurdles and will join Taylor at Indiana University as a STATE QUALIFIER!! This will be Cailey's first trip to the IHSAA State Finals after near-misses at both the 2022 & 2023 regionals. What a way to close out a high school career!! SUPER sophomores Aalliah Otero (400m Dash) and Cassie Cohen (1600m Run) ran extremely well at the regional ... both earning top 8 finishes in their respective events!! The girls 4x800m Relay team consisting of sophomores Audrey Turley & Mariana Carmona, junior Annabelle Mauries and freshman Grace Meagher ran a GREAT time to place 15th overall! To close out the night, Weber, Cohen & Otero competed in a 2nd event at Portage on Tuesday - the 4x400m Relay - and finished 14th with sophomore Zaria Gildon being the 4th member of the team.

Overall, it was a GREAT NIGHT TO BE A BRICKIE watching our girls compete with the best in NWI and SHINE BRIGHT!!

Here are the results from our girls regional qualifiers:

Discus - junior Taylor Pope - 2nd (STATE QUALIFIER), sophomore Breanna Zon - 12th

Shot Put - Pope - 5th

3200m Relay - sophomores Audrey Turley & Mariana Carmona, junior Annabelle Mauries & freshman Grace Meagher - 15th

1600m Run - sophomore Cassie Cohen - 4th

400m Dash - sophomore Aalliah Otero - 7th

300m Hurdles - senior Cailey Weber - 3rd (STATE QUALIFIER)

1600m Relay - Weber, Cohen, Otero & sophomore Zaria Gildon - 14th

Boys

Competing in 8 of 16 events at the Regional, Hobart placed an impressive 7th out of the 26 schools represented on Thursday night at Valparaiso High School! Against the best of the best in the "219", OUR BOYS SHINED! Junior Willy "The Jet" Shearer STOLE THE SHOW with his ELECTRIC performances in both the 100m & 400m dashes! The Jet ran LIFETIME BEST times and WON BOTH EVENTS!! UNBELIEVABLE!!! He even closed out the night running the anchor leg on our 1600m relay team (along with seniors Owen Stankich, Anthony Hnilo & Jack Cruz) that ALSO ran a season best time!! THAT BOY IS FAST!!! Season/Lifetime best performances were actually "the norm" on Thursday as ALL of our boys were FANTASTIC! Junior Kael Schlosser leaped to a personal best in the long jump of 21'10" - barely missing a state qualifying mark and finishing in 4th overall ... Hnilo tied his personal best in the high jump after clearing 6'2" and placing 5th ... Stankich raced to 8th place in the 800m run with a personal best time of 2:00.44 ... and senior Quentin Stengel led off the 3200m Relay in a personal best split of 2:01!! Our boys represented us extremely well on Da Region's biggest stage and will now get to cheer on The Jet as he races to Bloomington in 2 events!

Here are the results from our boys regional qualifiers:

High Jump - senior Anthony Hnilo - 5th

Long Jump - junior Kael Schlosser - 4th, freshman Nathan Sobczynski - 16th

Pole Vault - Sobczynski - 8th

3200m Relay - seniors Quentin Stengel & Owen Stankich, junior Felix Lopez and sophomore Durgon Click - 16th

100m Dash - junior Willy Shearer - 1st (STATE QUALIFIER)

400m Dash - Shearer - 1st (STATE QUALIFIER)

800m Run - Stankich - 8th

1600m Relay - Shearer, Stankich, Hnilo and senior Jack Cruz - 9th

The IHSAA STATE FINALS will take place next Friday (Girls) & Saturday (Boys) ... May 31st & June 1st ... at Indiana University's Robert C. Haugh Track & Field Complex. Cailey Weber, Taylor Pope and Willy "The Jet" Shearer will be wearing the Purple & Gold with PRIDE on the campus @ IU. GOOD LUCK to our STATE QUALIFIERS!! LET'S GOOOOOOOOO!!!

#RUNNINDOWNADREAM

The IHSAA Post-Season is upon us! Well ... it is after the Brickies wrapped up the NCC regular season with a Monday night matchup with Lowell. Due to predicted weather, the game was moved to Purdue Northwest in Hammond where it was a B-E-A-UTIFUL night for a baseball game! Sophomore Zach Terek was LIGHTS OUT on the bump for Hobart and the Brickie offense was in HIGH GEAR as our boys tallied 13 runs over just 6 innings and CRUISED to a 13-3 VICTORY to finish the regular season with a record of 15-10!!

Munster High School was once again the host site for the 2024 Baseball Sectional.

On Wednesday night, the Brickies faced East Chicago Central in first round action. With laser focus, our boys wasted little time taking control ... scoring 12 runs in the first inning of play ... and won an easy one 24-0 over the Cardinals.

Saturday, Hobart was back at Munster for an IHSAA Sectional Semifinal against Hammond Central ... a rematch from a year ago. The Wolves drew first blood .. I mean, they scored first ... with 2 runs in the opening inning. The Brickies responded with 2 of our own in the top half of the 2nd to tie it up!! In the 3rd inning, our boys EXPLODED for 12 runs to BLOW THE GAME WIDE OPEN with a 14-2 advantage! WOW!! Each team would go on to add one more run, but after the impressive 3rd inning, the Bricks CRUISED the rest of the way for an easy 15-3 VICTORY!!!

For the 2nd year in a row, the Brickies will face Lake Central for the IHSAA SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP on Monday! The game will be played at Munster High School with the first pitch scheduled to be thrown at 11am!! DON'T STOP NOW BOYS!!!

On Saturday morning, the Brickies made the long trek to Kokomo High School for the IHSAA Regional! With only 2 regionals in Indiana, Hobart was one of just 24 teams still competing for a chance to advance to the state finals. A top 6 finish as a team would punch our ticket and after finishing 11th a year ago ... the Bricks were EXCITED and READY for another shot at the State Finals!

Starting with the field events, senior James Landrum (8th), junior Jackson Butler (7th) and senior Braden Paulson (7th) each found success in the long jump! Junior Summer Luttrell leaped her way to a PERSONAL BEST in the sand!! In the shot put, senior Aidan Olague finished 5th in flight #1 and classmate Marcus Fernandez LAUNCHED a new PERSONAL BEST throw to finish 1st in his section!! Freshman Clark Otero also threw a new PERSONAL BEST to WIN in his section!!

In the running events, BOTH the girls (seniors Brianna Candiano & Margo Paige and freshman Layla Henley & Brooke Hawkins) and boys (seniors Mason Jackson-Solomon & Andrew Navarro and juniors Malcolm Manuel & Jackson Butler) 4x100m relay teams WON their section of the race to score some BIGTIME points for the Brickies!! Senior Jacob Ramirez was MAGNIFICENT in the 400 in placing 2nd overall!! Sophomore Olivia McIntire and junior Malcolm Manuel were also FANTASTIC in running the oval and finished with LIFETIME BESTS! In the 100, Jackson-Solomon and Navarro were SPECTACULAR ... sophomore Colton Galliher raced to 6th place in his heat and freshman newcomer Layla Henley ran a new PERSONAL BEST time to finish 3rd in hers!!

On a B-E-A-UTIFUL day in Kokomo, our Brickies SHINED! In fact, our kids shined so bright that they FINISHED 4th as a team and ADVANCED TO THE STATE FINALS!!! This group has done the unthinkable! A 2023 Sectional Championship and a 2024 berth in the IHSAA State Championship Meet!! Elkhart was the Regional Champion and Westfield, Valparaiso, McCutcheon & FW Homestead completed the group of 6 advancing schools ... ALONG WITH THE BRICKIES!!!

BRICKIE PRIDE WAS BEAMING on Saturday in Kokomo ... our kids even got a compliment when they stopped for dinner on the ride home! This BAND O BRICKIES represents us in the best way possible ... giving their BEST EFFORT and doing it with CHARACTER, CLASS & COMPASSION for others! SO PROUD OF THEM!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to Coach Keefe, Coach Bell, Coach Butler and to ALL of our Brickies for such an OUTSTANDING year!! The final stop for Unified Track in the 2024 season will be on Saturday, June 1st at the campus of Indiana University. The State Finals are scheduled to start at 10am CT. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!

#CHAMPIONSTOGETHER

After an UNDEFEATED run through the team sectional last week, Brickie junior Natalie Crowley played in the IHSAA Individual sectional finals on Thursday over at LaPorte High School. Her opponent was Sophia Heaton from Kouts. Heaton gained an early advantage, but Natalie BATTLED & played even over the final games of the first set only to lose a tough one 3-6. In the second set, BOTH girls played their hearts out ... giving it everything they had! Natalie FOUGHT HARD throughout, but unfortunately lost the second set 4-6 to bow out of the state tournament one game shy of the individual regional.

Natalie had a GREAT junior campaign playing in the tough #1 singles spot for the Brickies ... advancing all the way to the Individual Sectional Finals! Not too shabby considering she also ran track this spring - WOW!

GREAT JOB NATALIE! WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU!!

#SERVINGNOTICE

You would think that finally getting some nice weather in the "219" would help our scores drop ... and you'd be right! It was CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK for the Brickies as our boys took part in the Northwest Crossroads Conference championship meet.

Tuesday morning, Hobart traveled to Scherwood Golf Course in Schererville for the Northwest Crossroads Conference Championship meet. It was a beautiful morning for swinging the wrenches and the Brickies took full advantage of it! Senior Parker Glass was basically throwing darts on the front 9 and shot a LIFETIME BEST(40)! He followed it up with a 43 on the back to finish with an 83, which earned him 2nd Team ALL CONFERENCE HONORS!!! Classmate Ben Eberle, playing with a bad finger, still traversed the course with an 88 ... 4 strokes better than a year ago ... and finished in the top 20! Fellow seniors Nate Becerra & Tommy Snemis rounded out the scorers for our team that shot a collective 374 ... a 7-stroke improvement from last year and a SEASON BEST for 18 holes!! INCREDIBLE!! Overall, Munster won the team title and the Bricks tied for 6th with Highland.

Hobart now has a week of practice to WORK WORK WORK on their short game before IHSAA Sectional play begins next Friday, May 31st, at Forest Park in Valparaiso. LET'S GO BRICKS!!

#BETHEBALL

#NANANANANANANANANA

Hobart graduates Riley ('21) & Cody ('23) Johnston recently competed at the NCAA Division 1 Track & Field Regionals this past week and SHINED BRIGHT! Riley, a junior vaulter at Indiana University, was a competitor in the NCAA East Regional held in Kentucky and cleared a height of 5.22m (~17'1"), which was a new PERSONAL BEST in competition!! Cody, a freshman at the University of Illinois, was competing in the NCAA West Regional held in Arkansas, vaulted over a height of 5.42m (~17'8"), and qualified for a spot in the 2024 NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Track and Field CHAMPIONSHIPS!! Cody will now head for Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon to compete against the best vaulters in the nation! The 2024 NCAA outdoor track and field championships are from Wednesday, June 5 through Saturday, June 8.

GREAT JOB GUYS and GOOD LUCK to Cody at the NCAA Championship Meet!

#ALLMYLIFE#BRICKIEPRIDE

Happy Memorial Day!

Baseball vs. Lake Central @ IHSAA SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (Hosted by Munster High School)

Tuesday

Softball vs. Lake Central @ IHSAA REGIONAL (Hosted by Hobart High School)

Sport Physical Night

Wednesday

Senior Honors Convo

Thursday

No Events Scheduled

Friday

Taylor Pope & Cailey Weber @ IHSAA TRACK STATE FINALS (Indiana University Bloomington)

Saturday

Unified Track & Field @ IHSAA STATE FINALS (Indiana University Bloomington)

Willy "The Jet" Shearer @ IHSAA TRACK STATE FINALS (Indiana University Bloomington)