BY ARV KOONTZ
For The Tribune
Seniors Kayla Griffin and Lauren James were announced as All-Hoosier Hills Conference players and received other special awards during the Seymour girls basketball awards program conducted in the school cafeteria Wednesday night.
This is the third straight year for Griffin to make the squad, as she was first team her junior year and honorable mention two seasons ago.
James was the second-leading vote-getter on the all Hoosier Hills Conference team this season.
Sophomore Makenna Fee was named all-HHC honorable mention.
Owls coach Jason Longmeier said getting three players on the team shows the respect the other HHC coaches have for the Seymour program.
Griffin also received the rebound award for leading the team with 169, and she received a plaque for topping 900 points for her career as she finished with 909.
James took home a plaque for topping the Owls in points this season as she scored 407 for an average of 16.9, and she received the assists award with 72 this season.
Sarah Benefiel received the steals award with 40.
Katie Suits was named recipient of the coaches’ award, and Longmeier said she did a nice job of filling her role this season. Her high-point games were nine against Silver Creek and Austin.
Benefiel and Suits also are seniors.
Fee and Megan Ritz, both sophomores, shared the most improved award. Fee’s high-point game was 17 against Borden, while Ritz scored 10 against Jennings County.
Longmeier praised the seniors, which also included Hannah Thompson, for their hard work.
“It’s hard to see the seniors go,” he said. “It’s tough for the parents to send them onto the next chapter. I’m challenging the seniors to be great. I enjoyed my time with the seniors. LJ put in a lot of extra time working on her shooting, and all the seniors put in extra time.”
The Owls were 15-9 overall and 3-4 in the HHC. The Owls had five-game and four-game winning streaks. Longmeier said Seymour’s opponents were 362-239 for the 25th best opponents’ record in the state.
“We had high character kids,” Longmeier said. “The season had its ups and downs. I hope you learned as much about me as I learned about you. We were a family.”
Frank Guthrie was varsity assistant coach, Amanda Gerth was the junior varsity coach, and Jason Thompson coached the C-Team. All the coaches are former Seymour athletes.
The junior varsity had a record of 11-10, and Gerth said key wins were over Heritage Christian, Rushville, and New Albany, Jennings County and Floyd Central in the HHC.