With a pandemic still very much lingering but no longer interrupting our day-to-day activities (at least for now), the sports world got more or less back to normal in 2021, meaning we could focus more on the action that did take place than the events that didn’t. And locally, there was all sorts of news as a result — some of it bad, but most of it breathtakingly good.
The top 10 Johnson County sports stories from a very busy 2021:
1. Still the one
Center Grove’s football team capped off perhaps the greatest two-year run in Indiana high school history when it held off Westfield, 27-21, over Thanksgiving weekend to claim its second straight Class 6A state championship. The Trojans went 14-0 for the second season in a row, with all of its wins before the title game coming by double digits, and ended the year ranked fifth in the nation by USA Today and seventh by MaxPreps.
In December, the Trojans had seven seniors sign to play Division I college football — Caden Curry (Ohio State), Tayven Jackson (Tennessee), James Schott (Michigan State), Kalen Carroll (Cincinnati), Carl Biddings (Louisville), Sam Buras (Ball State) and Shane Bennett (Indiana State). Curry, Jackson and Carroll have all graduated to enroll early and take part in spring practice with their new teams.
2. Two legends lost
The Johnson County sports world lost a pair of larger-than-life figures in 2021. Russ Milligan, who guided Center Grove softball to five state championships and 741 victories in 27 seasons, passed away in February at the age of 56 due to COVID-19 complications. The school’s softball field was renamed in his honor in May.
In April, 19-year-old Chase Smith died after five rounds of a cancer fight that lasted nearly seven years. Smith, a nationally ranked age group swimmer at age 12, had continued to swim while battling the disease, helping lead Indian Creek relay teams to three consecutive state meets before he graduated in 2020.
3. Comeback kids
Senior Sam Slaughter’s par putt on the 18th hole helped finish off an impressive rally by the Center Grove boys golf team, which overtook Guerin Catholic and Carmel in the final round to win their second IHSAA state championship. The Trojans had trailed both the Golden Eagles and Greyhounds coming into the second day and still faced a one-stroke deficit against Guerin before Slaughter outdueled Andrew White on the last hole.
Franklin senior Damon Dickey, an All-State performer, won the IHSAA’s Mental Attitude Award.
4. Going out on top
A pair of Johnson County seniors ended their track and field careers at the head of the class.
Whiteland’s Will Jefferson shook off a disappointing performance in his final cross country state meet the previous fall and dominated the boys 3,200-meter run final, finishing in 8:54.05 to win by a convincing seven and a half seconds.
In the girls meet, Center Grove’s Taylor Jarosinki took home the pole vault title by clearing a school-record height of 13 feet. Jarosinski, who had finished second as a sophomore, had to wait two years to claim her throne after the 2020 season was canceled.
5. Fast times
Center Grove senior Ethan Martin made the final individual race of his high school swim career a good one, finishing the 100-yard freestyle in 44.02 seconds to win the state title in that event. He nearly had company from another Trojan at the top of the podium; two weeks earlier at the girls state meet, freshman Mia Prusiecki was second in 1-meter diving.
Franklin continued its run of recent swim success, with the boys riding runner-up finishes from seniors Cade Oliver and Mac Ratzlaff to a fourth-place showing and the girls placing in the top five for a fourth consecutive year. Oliver followed up his high school career by representing the county at the U.S. Olympic Trials alongside former Grizzly Cub teammate Michael Couet (Franklin grad Carla Gildersleeve also qualified for the trials but couldn’t compete due to a career-ending injury).
6. A diamond flush
When it came to talent on the baseball and softball diamonds last spring, it didn’t get any better than Johnson County. Roncalli sophomore Keagan Rothrock, a Whiteland native, dominated in the pitching circle and led the Royals to a Class 4A state championship in June. For her efforts, Rothrock was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for Indiana softball.
Meanwhile, Franklin sophomore Max Clark — currently rated as the top Major League Baseball draft prospect in the 2023 class — earned the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year honors in baseball.
7. Ch-ch-ch-changes
Longtime Center Grove athletic director Jon Zwitt retired in June after a wildly successful 25-year tenure that began with the Trojans joining the newly formed Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference in 1996 and saw 14 teams and 44 individuals win state championships.
That relationship with the MIC, though, ended on Dec. 13 when Center Grove and Carmel — who are currently attempting to join the Hoosier Crossroads Conference — were unanimously voted out of the league by the six remaining members. The two departing schools are waiting on an upcoming expansion vote by the eight current HCC members.
8. Twice as sweet
Two Johnson County girls basketball teams made semistate runs in 2021. Greenwood Christian, led by do-everything senior Izzy Reed, won their second consecutive Class A regional title. Franklin, meanwhile, rode the contributions of Indiana Junior All-Star Kuryn Brunson and a precocious freshman class to a 22-3 record and its first semistate berth since 1999, winning a Class 4A regional for the first time.
The Grizzly Cubs, currently ranked near the top the state in 4A, appear poised to make a similar run this winter.
9. Going swimmingly
In July, Center Grove opened the doors to its sparkling new $20-plus million natatorium, which features a 10-lane, 50-meter Olympic pool with more bells and whistles than most Division I colleges can offer. The Trojans hosted the Johnson County meet two weeks ago and are set to host the girls sectional in February. With the addition of that facility to the one already at Franklin, the county becomes one of few in the state with 50-meter pools at more than one school.
10. Two for No. 2
A pair of Center Grove wrestlers, Hayden Watson and Drake Buchanan, made it to the championship matches in their respective weight classes at the state finals, finishing as the runners-up at 145 and 182 pounds, respectively. Watson lost a 9-5 decision to Zionsville’s Logan Wagner, while Buchanan was defeated by Gabriel Sollars of Evansville Mater Dei, 9-4. Now seniors, Watson and Buchanan are currently ranked No. 1 in the state in those same weight classes.
