Consistency paves the way for Carmel to capture 1st Annual All-Sports Trophy

The HoosierAuthority.com
All-Sports Trophy

By Mike McGraw

Executive Director

We structured the scoring in the 1^st
Annual HoosierAuthority.com All-Sports Trophy competition to reward
schools for consistent performance in all sports. In the end, that is
exactly what won the Carmel Greyhounds the prize in this initial year
of competition.

Carmel
won only one state championship this season (in girls swimming), but
the â�?��?Hounds scored in nearly every event on the way to edging out
Northern Indiana power Valparaiso. The Greyhounds ended the year with a total of 750.895 points, compared with 681.249 for Valpo.

The competition revealed some interesting glimpses into the balance of power in Indiana athletics.

Carmel was one of only four Central Indiana schools in the Top 10, being joined there by Center Grove (third), Hamilton Southeastern (fifth), and Muncie Central (10^th). Northern Indiana also placed four schools in the Top 10 with runner-up Valparaiso, Penn (fourth), Chesterton (eighth), and Northridge (ninth). Southern Indianaâ�?��?�s entries were Bloomington South (fifth) and Jasper (seventh).

Some
of the schools generally considered to be powers did not fare nearly as
well as expected. Ben Davis, for example, finished 20^th, while Merrillville ended up 36^th.

Class
3A Jasper is the highest finisher that is not a Class 4A school. The
highest-finishing 2A school was Heritage Christian (41^st), which barely edged out Oak Hill (43^rd) by just two points. And in Class A, Lafayette Central Catholic was the highest finishing entrant, ending up 58^th.

Final
results from the two smallest classes will undoubtedly add fuel to the
debate over private schools and their dominance in class sports.

In the coming weeks, we will be analyzing the numbers to identify some of the underlying trends in Indiana sports. For a complete listing of the final standings, go to the All-Sports Trophy section and click on FINAL standings.

So what do you think? Share your thoughts in our All-Sports Trophy Feedback forum.