After a two-year drought, the most dominant program in the history of the Hoosier Heritage Conference is back on top.
Delta boys’ tennis clinched at least a share of the HHC championship for the 26th time on Wednesday evening with a 5-0 shutout victory at Pendleton Heights.
The 13th-ranked Eagles (13-2 overall) improved to 6-0 in the conference. Greenfield-Central, which has been state-ranked most of the season, is in second place with one loss, a very narrow 3-2 loss to Delta.
Delta can complete a perfect league record when it hosts Mt. Vernon, on Monday evening on Senior Night.
Mt. Vernon won the league title in each of the last two seasons. Mt. Vernon, Greenfield and New Palestine all have been much improved in the past few years and have made it tougher for Delta to earn league titles.
Here are the teams with the most conference titles in league history:
> 26 — Delta boys’ tennis
> 24 — Delta girls’ tennis
> 17 — Yorktown volleyball
> 16 — New Palestine football
> 14 — Pendleton Heights boys’ cross country
> 14 — Yorktown wrestling
Other than boys’ and girls’ tennis, conference titles have been very difficult to come by for Delta in recent years. Over the past 10 years, the Eagles have won a conference title only six times in the 18 other sports.
In yesterday’s match at Pendleton Heights, the Eagles limited the Arabians to just nine total games in the five varsity matches.
Seniors Brady Williams and Ben Miller won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 doubles.
In the singles positions, freshman Jackson Darby won 6-1, 6-1, freshman Charlie Vannatter won 6-1, 6-0, and sophomore Luke Atkinson won 6-2, 6-0.
At No. 1 doubles, junior Tyce Dishman paired with freshman Brandon Grubbs to win 6-3, 6-1.
Senior Aaron Elliott missed the match due to illness.
Delta won the JV match 8-0. The JV team is also unbeaten in the HHC with a 6-0 record and has won 61 individual matches while losing only 17 against league opponents.
The JV team will play today (Thursday) against Eastern HS at the Eastern Howard Sports Complex in Greentown.
On Saturday, the varsity hosts the Delta Invitational while the JV plays at the Fort Wayne Carroll Invitational. The regular season then ends Monday with the home match against Mt. Vernon.
Complete Results
DELTA 5, PENDLETON HEIGHTS 0
Varsity Singles
- Jackson Darby def. Kean, 6-1, 6-1
- Charlie Vannatter def. Soultz, 6-1, 6-0
- Luke Atkinson def. Davis, 6-2, 6-0
Varsity Doubles
- Tyce Dishman/Brandon Grubbs def. Remington/Souders, 6-3, 6-1
- Brady Williams/Ben Miller def. Ghosh/Paul, 6-0, 6-0
JV
Delta 8, Pendleton Heights 0
JV Singles
- Colten Cruea won 8-2
- Roman Ashcraft won 7-6 (6)
- Owen Zacek won 8-4
JV Doubles
- Kaden Crist/Bryce Carmichael won 8-2
- Ayden Mitchell/Kiptyn Schwartz won 8-0
- John Atkinson/Jacob Tokar won 8-1
- Kiptyn Berry/Andrew Alexander won 6-3
- Denys Krushenytskyi/Cooper Coutinho won 8-0