Beck, Hisey both verbally commit to Wabash College BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Declan Gard Brant Beck Mason Hisey Layne Horn Clarence Garrett Braddock Behling Seniors on the Rochester boys wrestling team showed off a career’s worth of excellence in a 74-6 win over visiting Triton at the RHS gym Thursday. The non-seniors also showed their su

Wilson leads with 19, Hunter adds 10 BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Aubrey Wilson Brailyn Hunter KOKOMO — The Taylor girls basketball team scored the first basket against visiting Rochester Wednesday. Don’t call what happened next a comeback. The Lady Zs bombed away after that 2-0 deficit, hitting nine 3-pointers as part of a 43-1 run as they routed the Lady Titans 54-16 on their senior night. Aub

Zebras’ Wachtmann wins 200 IM, 100 breaststroke in boys loss to Lions BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Audrey Widman Jenna Seuferer Swimming Audrey Widman won the 200 individual medley, and Jenna Seuferer won the 100 breaststroke as the Rochester girls swimming team beat visiting Bremen 73-59 at the Rochester Middle School pool Tuesday. Rochester also won the 200 freestyle relay unopposed. Rochester’s t

Miller takes 5th in girls 50 free; Wachtmann finishes 2nd in boys 500 free BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Swimming The Rochester girls swimming team scored 131 points and finished fourth out of six teams at the Three Rivers Conference meet at Maconaquah Saturday. Meanwhile, the Rochester boys scored 120 points and finished fifth. In the girls meet, the highest finishing Rochester swimmer in an individual event was senior Aubrey Miller, who took fifth in the 50 freestyl

Kiser leads Rochester with 16; Harness has 18 for Comets BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Jack Reffett The Rochester boys basketball team’s rollercoaster ride of a season continues. First, there was the double-overtime win at Twin Lakes in which they trailed by eight points in the fourth quarter, got a Jonas Kiser buzzer beater to send it to overtime before winning in double overtime. Then, there was a loss at Lewis Cass in which they led by eight in the fourth quarter b

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Aubrey WIlson The Rochester girls basketball team fought off Lewis Cass’ first run, but they could not fight off the second. Aubrey Wilson scored a game-high 12 points while Brailyn Hunter had seven and Jadyn Field had six points and six rebounds, but Lewis Cass scored the last five points of the game to beat the host Lady Zs 34-30 at the RHS gym Saturday. Lewis Cass trailed by six at halftime but opened the second half on a 16-2 run to l

GIRLS Tippecanoe Valley 44, North Miami 26 Caston 53, Bethany Christian 25 Oregon-Davis 55, Argos 32 Culver 39, Triton 30 BOYS Lewis Cass 49, Rochester 45 Jimtown 51, Tippecanoe Valley 43 Argos 53, Oregon-Davis 40 Triton 39, Culver 30 DeMotte Christian 50, Pioneer 33 Winamac 56, North Judson 19 Three Rivers Conference girls (none) Three Rivers Conference boys Lewis Cass 49, Rochester 45 Peru 78, Maconaquah 71 Southwood 65, Whitko 27 Manchester 49, Wabash 41 Tipton 50, Northwe

Cotner-Graves hits go-ahead trey with 42 seconds left, Lutane adds clinching FTs BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Jonas Kiser WALTON — The game situations came full circle for the Rochester boys basketball team in a six-day span. They trailed Twin Lakes by eight points in the fourth quarter but came back to win Jan. 10. They led host Lewis Cass by eight points in the fourth quarter Friday but saw the Kings stun them with a game-closing 13-1 run to beat them 49-45. The ra

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Brailyn Hunter Brailyn Hunter hit five 3-pointers and scored 19 points, and Jadyn Field added nine, all in the first half, as the Rochester girls basketball team routed host Logansport 53-22 at the Berry Bowl Wednesday. Adalyn Gonzalez and Aubrey Wilson added seven each for the Lady Zs, who snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 8-9. Maeda Bradbury led Logansport with 10 points. The Lady Berries, who were playing the second game

Whetstone wins 50 free, 100 fly, but Zebra boys prevail BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Growing depth, the Tippecanoe Valley girls swimming team won 10 of 11 contested events and went on to defeat host Rochester 104-56 at the Rochester Middle School pool Monday. Meanwhile, the Rochester boys swimming team earned a 62-53 win despite Valley winning more events (six) than it did (five). But a deeper Rochester team got their second win of the season by scoring 33 points in

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC MONTICELLO — Like a lot of northerners in January, the Rochester boys basketball team went to “Miami” Saturday. Except the Zebras did not go to the city in south Florida. They went to a play that coach Luke Smith said they practice often for perhaps the game’s biggest basket in a 71-62 win in two overtimes over host Twin Lakes. Jonas Kiser scored 21 points, including the game-tying basket on the aforementioned “Miami” with one second left

Gonzalez leads with 8, J. Field, Hunter add 7 each BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Brailyn Hunter SOUTH WHITLEY — Adalyn Gonzalez scored eight points, and Jadyn Field and Brailyn Hunter added seven each for the visiting Rochester girls basketball team in a 51-29 loss to Class 2A, No. 2 Whitko Saturday. Rochester trailed 24-20 at halftime but managed only three field goals in the second half. Meanwhile, Whitko forced 29 Rochester turnovers with their pressure defense. Ro

Holloway, L. Horn, Beck, Gard go 3-0 on day BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Boys wrestling Grant Holloway The Rochester boys wrestling team went 1-2 and finished fourth out of 12 teams at the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association Class 1A Team State Duals at Franklin Community High School Saturday. Rochester, who received a bye into the quarterfinals, began their day with a 48-30 win over Northfield. They then lost to North Miami 41-28 in the semifinals and

Peppler also wins individual title; McKee, Enyart also advance to state BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Laine Peppler Makenna McKee Elise Enyart Girls wrestling Laine Peppler won the title at 170 pounds at the Kokomo regional, and teammates Makenna McKee (130) and Elise Enyart (145) also advanced to state as the Rochester girls wrestling team won the team title Saturday. Rochester finished with 79 points. Runn

Coleman adds season-high 14, Kiser adds 12 BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC On a night in which Rochester pushed up the start time of their home boys basketball game against Whitko by 45 minutes to accommodate Indiana University football fans who wanted to see their team play Oregon in the Peach Bowl, the Zebras showed off the same relentless teamwork and competitive spirit that Curt Cignetti’s crew did at the RHS gym Friday. Brady Coleman hit three 3-pointers and scored

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Jadyn Field The Rochester girls basketball team built a nine-point halftime lead against visiting Plymouth at the RHS gym Wednesday. Plymouth came back to tie it. Rochester built another six-point lead, but the relentless Lady Pilgrims came back again behind seven combined 3-pointers from Olivia Warner and Chloe Horton to beat the Lady Zs 40-36. Warner hit four 3-pointers – one in each quarter – and scored a game-high 13 points. Horton ad

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Boys basketball The start time of the Whitko-Rochester boys basketball game at the RHS gym Friday has been moved up by 45 minutes. The JV game will now begin at 5:30 p.m. The varsity game will start at 7 p.m. The Peach Bowl football game between Oregon and Indiana in Atlanta will start at 7:30 p.m. John Harrell, a Bloomington-based sportswriter who keeps websites with all scheduled girls and boys basketball games statewide, reported on hi

Miller wins 100, 200 free; Wachtmann, Hamilton, Nicholson also win 4 blue ribbons each BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Rochester’s Riplee Snyder Culver’s Mitch Ramski The Rochester girls and boys swimming teams returned from their typically laborious Winter Break practice schedules to defeat Culver and South Central (Union Mills) at the Rochester Middle School pool Tuesday. Rochester scored 100 points while Culver and South

Brown returns as boys soccer coach; Backus, Atkinson also hired BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC On the same night that the Plymouth School Board approved his father Ron as their new football coach, Isaac Shaffer was officially hired as the new football coach at Rochester Tuesday. Isaac Shaffer will replace Ron Shaffer as coach. Isaac Shaffer had been an assistant coach on his father’s staff since 2021. He was the defensive coordinator this past fall, when the Zebras rec

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Jack Reffett Rochester boys basketball coach Luke Smith thought his team “played their butts off” against visiting Bremen at the RHS gym Saturday. It’s just that being a Lion tamer requires better shooting. Jack Reffett and Jonas Kiser scored 11 points each, but the Zebras fell to the undefeated Lions 55-42. Mitchell Clark and Liam Spence added five points each, and Brady Coleman and Carson Paulik had four points each. Bremen jumped out t

First round: 33 turnovers doom Rochester in loss to Kouts BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Aubrey Wilson Consolation: Rochester 41, Clinton Prairie 14 FRANKFORT — Some extra shooting work that Rochester girls basketball player Aubrey Wilson did with assistant coach Colt Meadows paid off in the consolation game of the Small School Classic at Clinton Prairie High School Friday. Wilson hit six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 22 points as the Lady Zs rolled to a 41-14 win

Kiser scores 22, Paulik adds 13 for Zebras BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC AKRON — Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball coach Eli Henson set a goal for his players to hold Rochester’s Jonas Kiser under 15 points Saturday. They did not meet their goal, but because of Jude Kammerer and Hudson Shepherd, they did not have to in order to win. Kammerer scored 16 points, and Shepherd came off the bench to score 13 to lead Valley to a 56-48 win over the Zebras at Rita Price Simpso

Hunter leads Lady Zs with 11, J. Field grabs 14 rebounds BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Sadie Popejoy Lyla Bowers Like Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens, Tony Stesiak is a 300-game winner, and he would appear to have retained his best fastball. Sadie Popejoy scored 15 points, including two crucial free throws with 15.3 seconds left, to lead the Winamac girls basketball team to a 45-41 win over Roche

T. Horn, L. Horn, Beck, Shotts win individual titles BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC The Rochester boys wrestling team poses with the trophy after winning the Rochester John McKee Memorial Invitational Saturday. Rochester scored 258 points. Runner-up North Miami had 247.5. The Rochester boys wrestling team held off North Miami at the Rochester John McKee Memorial Invitational at the RHS gym Saturday. Will there be a rematch at Team State Duals? Rochester won their annua

Wilson’s 3 third-quarter treys spark 16-0 Tiger run BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Liam Spence KOKOMO — Facing a Northwestern team determined to crash the offensive boards on one end and protect the paint at the other, the visiting Rochester boys basketball team lost their Three Rivers Conference opener Friday. Braidyn Wilson scored a game-high 18 points, including a 12-point load that included three 3-pointers to start the second half, and Colin Cook added 16 for the

Gerald, Howard, Doran, MacLain, McKee, Enyart, Peppler all prevail BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Madelyn MacLain Lilly Gerald Kyra Doran Girls wrestling The Rochester girls wrestling team scored 208.5 points to win the inaugural Three Rivers Conference tournament at the RHS gym Friday. Northfield was second in the seven-team field with 151 points. Rochester fielded a squad of 10 wrestlers, the most of any

GIRLS Culver 61, South Bend Career Academy 13 BOYS Northwestern 51, Rochester 37 Tippecanoe Valley 59, Peru 56 Bremen 50, Caston 32 Argos 66, Pioneer 60 North Miami 45, Culver 38 Triton 54, Winamac 32 Three Rivers Conference girls Southwood 49, Manchester 36 Three Rivers Conference boys Northwestern 51, Rochester 37 Lewis Cass 55, Whitko 52 (OT) Southwood 58, Manchester 50 Wabash 44, Northfield 21 Tippecanoe Valley 59, Peru 56 (nonconference) Hoosier North girls Culver 61, So

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Girls basketball The Rochester girls basketball team will play Kouts in the first round of the Small School Classic at Clinton Prairie High School at 12:30 p.m. Jan. 2. The loser will play in the consolation game at 4:30 p.m. The winner will play in the championship game at 6:30 p.m. Kouts is 9-3 and ranked No. 8 in Class 1A. Clinton Prairie and North White are the other teams in the field. This is the third year of the tournament. Roches

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Jadyn Field Aubrey WIlson The Rochester girls basketball team won against visiting Northwestern at the RHS gym Thursday. Getting the players or coaches to feel good about the win is another matter. Brailyn Hunter and Jadyn Field scored 13 points apiece, and the Lady Zs held Northwestern scoreless for over a 10-minute span in the second half in a 46-19 win. “It was a

McKee, Enyart, Peppler win weight class titles BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Girls wrestling Makenna McKee The Rochester girls wrestling team scored 158 points and finished third out of 27 teams at the Lakeland Invitational Saturday. Weight class champions included Makenna McKee (130), Elise Enyart (145) and Laine Peppler (170).  McKee won all three of her matches by fall and capped her day with a fall in 4:52 over Wawasee’s Keira Bechtold in the final.  Enyart won al

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Brant Beck Layne Horn Kale Shotts The Rochester boys wrestling team went 2-3 and finished fourth out of 16 teams at the Chris Traicoff Memorial Duals at Calumet New Tech High School in Gary Saturday. Rochester began by beating Calumet 69-12 and Lowell 42-37 to win their pool.  Rochester then lost to Hanover Central 52-23, to Fishers 39-32 and to Portage 51-25 in the pl

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Rochester senior Carson Paulik signed with Taylor University to continue his academic and baseball careers Thursday. Front, from left – Larry Baldwin, Carson’s grandfather; Lauri Paulik, Carson’s mother; Carson; Jeff Paulik, Carson’s father; Bev Baldwin, Carson’s grandmother. Back – Jay Carbiener, Carson’s brother-in-law; Bea Carbiener, Carson’s sister; Markis Smiley; Adrian Paulik, Carson’s sister. Celebrating with everybody from his gra

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Jonas Kiser R.J. Clem scored 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, and Logan Lange scored all 10 of his points in the second half as the Logansport boys basketball team rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat Rochester 54-46 at the RHS gym Wednesday. The loss spoiled a 24-point, 11-rebound effort from Rochester senior forward Jonas Kiser. The 24 points were a career high. He scored all eight of Rochester’s points in the fourth quarter. But t

Bowers, Hunter score 13, J. Field adds 10 BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Brailyn Hunter Lyla Bowers WABASH — Despite the graduation losses of Ella McCarter, Rylee Clevenger and Audrey Bolinger, the Rochester girls basketball team has increased their scoring average from last year to this year from 40.0 to 41.4. But that is not what has troubled Lady Z coach Joel Burrus. Rather, it has been their

Spence, Casper key 14-4 Zebra bench scoring edge BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Jonas Kiser NORTH JUDSON — Rochester boys basketball coach Luke Smith was looking to see how his team would respond after a loss to Winamac last week. In practice this week, he added a 2-3 zone defense in addition to their switching man-to-man. He also wanted better rebounding. He got the results for which he was hoping against host North Judson at The Nest Friday. Jonas Kiser scored nine o

GIRLS Culver Academy 48, Culver 34 BOYS Rochester 65, North Judson 55 Brownsburg 66, Tippecanoe Valley 39 Caston 63, Carroll (Flora) 52 Winamac 57, Argos 23 Triton 68, Pioneer 35 Three Rivers Conference girls Northfield 57, Southwood 45 Whitko 73, Manchester 45 Three Rivers Conference boys Rochester 65, North Judson 55 (nonconference) Taylor 57, Northwestern 13 (nonconference) Wabash 45, Maconaquah 41 Southwood 70, Peru 63 Hoosier North girls Culver Academy 48, Culver 34 (non

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Isaac Shaffer will be the new football coach at Rochester, pending approval at Monday’s school board meeting. If hired, Shaffer would replace his father Ron, who stepped down Nov. 6 after compiling a 39-13 record over five seasons. Isaac Shaffer is a 2016 Lewis Cass grad who played collegiately at the University of Indianapolis. He has been on the Rochester coaching staff since 2021. He has been the JV coach and the varsity defensive coor

Hunter leads with 14, J. Field adds double-double BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Jadyn Field Rochester girls basketball coach Joel Burrus was left wondering after Wednesday’s game against Knox at the RHS gym whether his players read the defensive scouting report that he puts together for games. But whatever issues they had defensively, they made up for them on offense in a 51-46 win. Brailyn Hunter hit three 3-pointers and tied her season high with 14 points, and Jadyn

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Brailyn Hunter Brailyn Hunter hit four 3-pointers and scored 12 points, but the Rochester girls basketball team lost to Southwood 39-37 at the RHS gym Saturday. Aubrey Wilson and Lyla Bowers added seven points each for the Lady Zs, who dropped to 3-5 overall and 0-3 in the Three Rivers Conference. Sophomore post player Alivia Pershing scored a game-high 13 points for Southwood. Freshman Sophia Cline added nine, including five in the fourt

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC RTC4 Football Player of the Year Brant Beck No one was more omnipresent on a football field than Rochester’s Brant Beck, and as a result, he is our RTC4 Football Player of the Year for the second straight year. Offensively, Beck ran for 1,283 yards on the season while crossing the 4,000-yard barrier for his career. He also made a position change on defense, and he led the defense with 66 tackles. Most notably, he leaves Rochester with a c

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC RTC4 Volleyball Player of the Year Betty Shepherd Tippecanoe Valley had never had the RTC4 Volleyball Player of the Year. Until now. The high-flying, powerful Betty Shepherd deserves the honor by leading her team in kills and being the go-to hitter for her team against its extremely tough schedule. More than any player on Valley’s team, she was the one opponents had to game-plan for. And sometimes, she got so high off the ground that oppo

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC RTC4 Boys Soccer Player of the Year Sean Stark Sean Stark had shown great promise through his first two years on the Winamac boys soccer team. Still, we did not see this coming. But what we did was so impressive that he is the clear choice as the RTC4 Boys Soccer Player of the Year. Stark scored nine nine goals as a freshman and then tallied 17 goals as a sophomore. But this season, he scored 38 times. He broke the Winamac single-season s

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC RTC4 Girls Soccer Player of the Year Ava McCune Her season had a heartbreaking ending when Culver lost in penalty kicks to LaVille in the sectional final, but once again, Culver’s Ava McCune is our RTC4 Girls Soccer Player of the Year. McCune was not as productive as a sophomore in 2025 as she was last year, though we would argue that was because she faced the full brunt of her opponents’ defensive focus. Still, she had 25 goals and is we

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC RTC4 Boys Cross Country Runner of the year Logan Fredel We saw it at the Caston Invitational back in September. There were some runners who could hang with Winamac senior Logan Fredel for the first mile. There were still a couple who could keep pace with Fredel for the second mile. But by the third mile, he was on his own. Strong, competitive and the frontrunner on a conference championship team, Fredel is our RTC4 Runner of the Year and

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC RTC Runner of the Year Allyson Calloway It was not that Rochester senior Allyson Calloway ran alone, but she was a runner who had accomplished outstanding things in search of a pack to lead. She finally had one this year, and Rochester was better off for it, going from incomplete team to second place in the Three Rivers Conference in one year. From lone wolf to leader of the pack, Calloway, a Purdue Northwest signee, is our RTC Runner of

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC RTC4 Girls Golfer of the Year Olivia Bailey The girls golf season in the RTC area could not be summed up in a sight so much as a sound. The sound was the ball making an unusual thawack into the 17th hole on Olivia Bailey’s slam-dunk hole-in-one at Sandy Pines Golf Club in DeMotte during the regional. It was a historic shot during a historic round of 67 in which Bailey earned regional medalist for the third straight year. For that and many

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC RTC4 Boys Tennis Player of the Year William Mellott Brothers William and Noah Mellott usually play on side by side courts as the Nos. 1 and 2 singles players for the Tippecanoe Valley boys tennis team. Their father Thadd is Valley’s coach. Owen was the emerging player working his way up in the Valley lineup. But the standout player we are recognizing today is William, our RTC4 Player of the Year. William’s power and speed both improved fr

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Boys wrestling Clarence Garrett Rochester 64, Plymouth 18 (Wednesday): Jackson Robbins (120), Grant Holloway (126), Layne Horn (132), Clarence Garrett (157) and Mason Hisey (215) won by fall for host Rochester as they took down Plymouth at the RHS gym Wednesday. Horn needed just 55 seconds to get his pin, and Holloway also won in the first period in 1:45. In addition, Brant Beck (165) and Declan Gard (HWT) won by technical fall. Braxton H

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Girls wrestling Serenity Howard Plymouth 42, Rochester 30 (Wednesday): Lilly Gerald (105), Serenity Howard (115), Kyra Doran (120) and Laine Peppler (170) won by fall for the Rochester girls wrestling team in a home loss to Plymouth at the RHS gym Wednesday. Gerald, Howard and Doran won in the first period. Peppler got her fall 12 seconds into the second period. In addition, Constance Velez (235) won by forfeit. Peppler is ranked No. 2, a

Hines leads 3 in double figures with 23; Kiser scores 15 to lead Zebras BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS Sports Editor, RTC Jaybin Hines Jonas Kiser The Rochester boys basketball team plays a switching man-to-man defense. Winamac third-year coach Mike Springer noticed this in preparing for Friday’s game at the RHS gym, and he told his team that could lead to driving lanes to the basket and back door cuts. In other