Coming off identical 7-3 marks in their dual meets, the Indian River High School boys’ and girls’ swim teams have veteran coaches Colin Crandell and Donna Smith back leading the charges with several key returnees. However, maybe more importantly, there are a lot of fresh faces to help restock the cupboards for the present and future of the Indians’ programs.

Crandell has been walking the decks of the pool for 16 seasons now, and has expressed excitement with all the new talent that has joined the boys’ team for the 2025-2026 season.

“We have eight new swimmers to the team who have never competed before,” disclosed Crandell. “All show promise, but they are young, and will need time to develop.

“I’m looking to lay down a foundation this season that will last for the next four years. With half the team being freshmen, the goal is simple — to develop. As always, I expect my upperclassmen to set the culture and model success, which includes trying to make state cuts and reaching individual goals in their races. It’s more about each of them reaching small obtainable goals and building step-by-step from those marks.”

Back for the Indians this season are seniors Landon Arauz and Andres Lucenti, juniors Caiden Clark and Harrison Benner, and sophomore John Lovellette.

Newcomers on the roster as of this writing include senior Braden Jones, juniors Dade Kappes and David Miller, and freshmen Mark Cappo, Aiden Crooks, Logan Deane, Gonzalo Lagos-Magnere, Fisher Lints, Calvin Nuttle, Colby Sneaker and Ethan Thompson.

“Every match for us is key this season,” said Crandell. “We are very young and new, so each meet is an opportunity for growth and learning.”

The Indians are already off on the right foot for this campaign with a pair of wins against Milford (102-52) on Friday, Dec. 5, and Dover (99-52) on Monday, Dec. 8.

Against the Bucs, the Indians swept all but one match — the 100 breaststroke — while winning all three relays —- 200 medley (1:57.44), 200 free (1:39.88), and 400 free 4:36.94 — in the meet.

Double-winners in individual events featured Lovellette – 200 IM (2:34.56) and 100 back (1:05.49), Clark – 50 free (24.34) and 100 butterfly (1:05.07), and Arauz -200 free (2:19.34) and 100 free (56.00). Lucenti picked up an individual win of his own in the 500 free with his time of 6:31.03.

Against the Senators, the Indians won 8-of-11 events with the 200 medley (2:21.14) and 400 free (3:47.95) relay teams amongst the winners.

Arauz picked up a pair of individual wins in the 200 free (2:14.45) and 50 free (24.78), while Clark was a two-time winner in the 200 IM (2:34.26) and 100 free (54.43). Benner was victorious in the 500 free (7:14.28), and Lovellette added a win in the 100 back (1:05.22).

The IR girls will once again be coached by Smith, who was the original girls’ coach when the program started back in 2009-10. She coached the team through the 2013-14 season before stepping away for a couple seasons. She rejoined the staff following her retirement from elementary teaching back in 2018, which makes this her eighth year back — second as its head coach during this tenure — and 13th overall with the team.

Smith and the Indians have a great group of returnees as well as some exciting newcomers that should provide more competition and depth for the roster.

Returning seniors for IR include Kassidy Berhorner (distance freestyle in the 200 and 500 free), Natalie Moran (backstroke, IM, freestyle), Leila Hernandez (sprint freestyle), and Jewelian Griffith (breaststroke events).

Juniors back in the fold features multi-time school record holder and state level finalist in the 100 butterfly and 100 back last year Macyn Hockman, Emily Davis, Maddie Moore, and Harper Stanley, who will all provide the necessary depth the team needs for success.

Sophomores Grace Clark, Lucille Feathers, Ellie Walls, and True Jaeger are back, and according to Smith, “All swam well at conferences and/or states last season, and I look forward to their improvements this season.”

Some key newcomers for the green-and-gold this season include freshmen Grace Barthelmess, Harper McDavid, Libby Greene, Sophie Dawson, Bethany Erazo, Payton Geier and Kaitlyn Turak.

“I look forward to seeing which even Grace excels in as she comes to us with plenty of experience from her years swimming with the Sea Colony Sharks,” Smith said. “There’s no rush or pressure on Grace as a freshman, but maybe she will go after her older sister’s (IR grad Emma Barthelmess) records in the free and breaststroke events.

“Harper and Libby also bring SC Shark experience with them to the pool, so I have confidence they can handle the high school events very well. Sophie, Bethany, Payton, and Kaitlyn are swimmers who caught our eye at tryouts, and we look forward to seeing how they progress in the water with stroke technique and speed.”

As far as key matches on the scheduled this season, Smith — like Crandell — feels that every meet is important for the growth of their team.

“We believe every swim meet in our dual season is important for our team to grow and learn as a competitor,” confirmed Smith. “But some close meets will be Dec. 15 at Caesar Rodney, at Lake Forest on Jan. 16, home meets against Sussex Tech on Jan. 23 and Sussex Central on Jan. 26, and the last meet on Jan. 29 at Polytech.”

The numbers on the roster are equal to last season, but the quality of the depth is what has Smith excited thanks to the experience that the girls have swimming outside of the school’s program.

“Our depth is greater this season than last,” Smith said. “With our new ‘Super Seven’ freshmen, we have to work on stroke technique development and building speed. Our pool space is extremely tight, which limits the types of workouts we can create. We do the best with the space we have, often creating a dryland ‘Lane 6’ to strengthen swimmers. So, all that considered, It would be fantastic to maintain the 7-3 (record) season like last year or improve upon that. I look forward to many more personal best times from our swimmers along with some new team records being set in 2026.

“I’d like to take a moment to say thank you to Sea Colony’s Freeman Fitness Center and Sussex Academy Aquatic Center for working with us, and allowing us to buy pool space this season. Thank you to our Athletic Director Todd Fuhrmann for his athletic department leadership and support this season.”

Like the boys, the girls got things going already this season.

Against Milford, the Indians won the meet 124-24 with Behornar and Hockman each earning double wins. Behornar won the 200 free (2:27.46) and 500 free (7:00.03), while Hockman took the 100 free (59.14) and 100 back (1:05.48).

Hernandez won the 50 free with her time of 28.63, and Griffith touched the wall first in the 100 breast at 1:27.15. McDavid picked up her first individual varsity win with a 1:24.50 in the 100 butterfly.

The Indians won all three relay events as well with Hockman, Clark, McDavid, and Hernandez winning the 200 medley (2:15.97). Moore, Clark, Moran, and Hernandez combined for the 200 free relay win (no time disclosed), while four freshmen — McDavid, Greene, Dawson, and Turak – combined for the 400 free relay victory in 5:23.41.

No results were available as of press time for the meet against Dover.

Saline’s juried, nationally ranked spring craft show will now to be open to youth participants, who may enter submissions from now through Jan. 16 to be a part of the March 7, 2026 show.

“We’ve had youth inquire in the past about participating in the show, but we were hesitant because we are a juried event and only accept 250 crafters in November and 150 in the Spring,” Community Education Director Brian Puffer said. “Our Spring Show is more geared toward families, with children’s activities in the cafeteria, so we felt it would be a great opportunity to invite students in grades 6–12 to apply to be part of the show.”

Any artist under 18 is welcome to submit creations, and those accepted will have entry fees waived.

“The young artists—who will gain experience in presenting, pricing, and selling their artwork to the public at the Saline Craft Show—will keep 100% of their sale,” Puffer said. “All artwork must be created entirely by the youth artist, with no adult assistance.”

Photo Credit: Seifried Portrait Design.
First Row: Evelyn Folkerts (Manager), Maya Earhart, Kennedy Murphy, Nani Rosario, Avery Kurt, Geminnie Lopez, Marial Parish, Alexis Sundeen, Elin Sheppmann, Francesca Martin, Hayden Olson, Corinn Wells, Paige Hartwig.
2nd Row: Kate Hagan, Halyn Haycraft, Lauren Bettin, Harper Artz, Kynlee Beemer, Madison Sokolaski, Joslyn Meyer, Aspen Wickert, Alexis Haycraft, Kylie Flanagan, Carly Gustafson, Taylor Truesdell

Back Row: Josh Meyer, Aaron Haycraft, Ryan Parish, Greg Ingvoldstad, Madelyn Leqve

FAIRMONT – Last season was a year of firsts for Fairmont High School girls hockey during the 2024-2025 winter season.

On top of bringing in Aaron Haycraft as the team’s new head coach, the Cardinals had their best season in over five years. Fairmont’s 15-11-1 record was the first time the program has seen an above .500 win total since the 2015-2016 campaign.

Now, with the return of multiple key pieces from last season’s roster, coach Haycraft believes this year’s Cardinals team can soar onto even bigger heights this coming winter.

“I love this team,” coach Haycraft said. “This team is a really tight-knit group of girls, and they love to compete and play hockey. It’s a fun group to be around, and it makes my job extremely easy coming to the rink every day. They really enjoy playing hockey together.”

The reason for this belief stems from the return of so many players from last season’s roster. Coach Haycraft and the rest of his coaching staff have the pleasure of bringing back 13 individuals with prior varsity experience: eight sophomores, four juniors, and one ninth-grader.

Coach Haycraft hopes that last season’s varsity tenure will help develop some of these athletes. While the group is still relatively young as a collective, one season under their belts at the varsity level can only help.

“We are returning those eight sophomores, four juniors, and our ninth-grader, but at the same time, all of those girls have a year of varsity experience underneath them,” Aaron Haycraft said. “They all played last year. While we are still a young team, we are far more experienced than we were last year.”

The Cardinals’ style of play will be similar to last season, emphasizing defense and puck possession to limit the opponents’ shots on goal.

Outside of goalkeeper Alexis Sundeen coming back to this season’s roster, Aaron Haycraft returns all four starting defenders from last year – Harper Artz, Kynlee Beemer, Kennedy Murphy, Avery Kurt – giving the Cardinals plenty of experience in their backline.

The consistency on the defensive side of the ice gives the rest of Fairmont’s forwards confidence to skate fast, always look for chances at the net, and control the puck in the offensive zone.

Luckily for coach Haycraft, the Cardinals are set to return their top four goal scorers in Alexis Haycraft, Lauren Bettin, Mariel Parish, and Halyn Haycraft. This same line helped last year’s Fairmont team average three goals per game over 27 contests.

“We have an exceptional goalie in Alexis Sundeen,” coach Haycraft said. “We rely on her for a lot of our success. That creates a lot of confidence with our other players to go out and play aggressively and fast, and not worry about making mistakes because they know they have that backdrop behind us.”

One thing coach Haycraft and his staff did this season was increase the strength of schedule for his team. Going to play a handful of teams who are traditionally strong in the sport, such as Mankato West-Loyola-St. Clair, Simley and Prior Lake, can not only increase the team’s Quality Results Formula (QRF) but prepare Fairmont for the tough competition found in the section.

“We made the decision to increase the difficulty of our schedule by finding teams that play really fast and physical,” coach Haycraft said. “When you get out of southern Minnesota, the game is extremely physical, and I’ve always said, ‘You can’t learn to play fast unless you are forced to play fast.’ By playing that faster competition, that will increase our read and react time.”

A shooting at Paradise Coast Sports Complex in Naples sent one person to the hospital and led to an arrest. The incident occurred around 10:30 a.m. on Friday during a youth football tournament.

According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, James Raynard was taken to the hospital and William Wharton was taken into custody.

Viewer video shows the aftermath of the shooting on Friday.

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO

Dajsha Herndon, a mother of a youth football player, expressed her thoughts on the violence.

“It really doesn’t matter what’s it about, because I don’t think you should ever result in violence for anything,” said Herndon.

Herndon’s 12-year-old son traveled from Washington, D.C., to participate in the tournament.

“It’s actually a little scary. And on top of that, I just feel like it’s a game of football,” said Herndon.

The motive behind the shooting remains unclear. Despite the incident, Herndon believes the tournament’s overall safety is not compromised.

“Do I fear for safety? No, within the complex No, because I feel like it’s super, super secure,” said Herndon.

The Paradise Coast Sports Complex has not commented on the shooting, stating only that it is an ongoing matter. The tournament is scheduled to continue until 5 p.m. on Friday, with more games planned for Saturday.

Nicholas Karsen is a Digital Specialist and has been with WINK News since May 2023.

Freshman used to not be able to play college basketball. Not at the varsity level at least. The verdict was that freshmen just weren’t ready to compete. 

The rule was changed ahead of the 1973 season, but if you look at some of head coach Teri Moren’s lineups over her first 11 seasons at Indiana, you might think the rule never passed. 

Moren’s teams were known for their veterans once she rebuilt Indiana into a perennial tournament team, not the freshman. At least not in the starting lineup. There have been exceptions, players like Yarden Garzon did it a few seasons ago. 

Freshman starting just hasn’t been the norm in Bloomington, but now, 52 years after the rule was changed, Indiana found themselves starting two freshmen against the University of Louisiana Monroe.

Down to nine players due to injury. Coming off their worst performance of the year. Somebody had to step up. 

On Thursday night, it was the freshmen’s turn as Indiana would rout ULM 98-54 to move to 9-2 on the year.

Nevaeh Caffey had started every game this season due to her relentless defensive energy. She had even been compared to former Hoosier Nicole Cardaño-Hillary, a former Big Ten All-Defensive team member, by Moren earlier this season. 

Caffey was joined in the starting five by highly touted freshman and 2025 Indiana Miss Basketball Maya Makalusky. Makalusky came off the bench in Indiana’s first 10 contests behind Valentyna Kadlecova but got her first starting nod from Moren against the Warhawks.

“(After) the game at Illinois, we needed to do something to mix it up a little bit,” Moren said about the decision. “She deserved to have an opportunity to be in the lineup tonight because she talks, she has a great energy level.”

The decision paid off for Moren and the Hoosiers as Makalusky had her best game of her young career.

Makalusky set a new high in points, 22, on 6-for-10 shooting from downtown in addition to a pair of steals. The highlight of the night was a circus-shot 3-pointer as Makalusky fell out of bounds from the wing.

Moren’s favorite highlight? Makalusky opening the game with a charge. 

Makalusky felt good about her performance but is making sure to not let complacency creep in.

“It definitely feels great for your hard work to pay off, but the job’s not done,” Makalusky said. “I got to continue to maintain that role and do what I need to do to stay on the court.”

For Caffey, she delivered yet another good defensive performance with two steals while adding in six points but was limited by foul trouble at times.

“Nevaeh has to stay out of foul trouble for us,” Moren said. “Nevaeh has played well for us. She just has to be better and more sound defensively.”

It was a display that encapsulates the potential that a young Indiana team has and how good they could be when firing on all cylinders. 

The youth movement combined with the veterans Shay Ciezki and Lenée Beaumont who added 31 and 18 points, respectively, has the Hoosiers back on the upturn after an ugly performance against Illinois to open conference play. 

The trio of Ciezki, Makalusky and Beaumont outscored ULM as a team 71-54 which helped the Hoosiers in their best offensive night of the regular season, topping their 95-point performance against Iowa State. 

All of this without star center Zania Socka-Nguemen, as she continues to be labeled as “week to week,” Moren said. Despite ditching the scooter, she is still in a walking boot as she continues to work back from her injury.

Socka-Ngueman wasn’t the only player absent as Jerni Kiaku missed with the flu and Faith Wiseman missed due to a collision in practice. The Hoosiers especially missed Wiseman and Socka-Ngueman inside as ULM outrebounded Indiana 37-33 while grabbing 19 offensive rebounds to Indiana’s one. 

Despite the rebounding woes, it was a necessary bounce back win for the Hoosiers and it shows a payoff for Moren’s youth movement in the rebuild in Bloomington. 

For decades there was a belief that freshmen weren’t ready to compete at the highest level and at times under Moren, this belief rained true. 

But on a night where the Hoosiers needed a spark, two freshmen stepped up and brought the energy that Indiana needed. 

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