Jimtown High School

The Elkhart Kiwanis Club honored Jimtown winter athletes at their meeting on Tuesday. Honored at the meeting was Jimtown girls' basketball player Lily Gaugler, girls' swimmer Chloe McMullin, boys' swimmer Alexander Hoogenboom, and boys' wrestler Jasiah Payne. Please read about some of their accomplishments below: Lily Gaugler - Sophomore - Basketball Lily Gaugler is the daughter of Blake and Tori Gaugler. She is a Sophomore for Jimtown and participates in basketball and softball. She is representing our basketball team. She has lettered in both as a freshman and will this year as a sophomore as well. She has been our most valuable player for basketball this past season. She has had to do a lot for us this past season. Score, handle the ball, defend teams best players, lead vocally and by example, rebound, and help her younger teammates. Could be described as a difficult year. I have heard from multiple coaches how well she has been confident, has not complained, and just competes every night. She averaged almost 9 points per game. With 3.5 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists per game. In Softball, she started for us and pitched for us especially toward the end of the year. She was 6-1 as a pitcher with a no hitter. She had a 96% fielding percentage. While pitching in the sectional, she went toe to toe with a pitcher from New Prairie as we lost a heartbreaker by 1 to the defending state champions. She is 19th in her class out of 149 with a 4.01 gpa. Some of Lily’s favorite memory is: Pitching against the defending state champions in last year’s sectional. Coach Eberhart - Lily is a silent leader (even as a freshman last year) she leads by doing. She leads by example on the field and off. Her attitude even on the worst day is up beat with a can do mentality. Lily was our third string pitcher with very few innings to start the season. She ended as our number one and on the mound for the championship of sectionals up against the returning state champs. If I had to sum her up in a few words. It would be ice in her veins. No matter the competition she performed and never batted an eye. You would never guess she was only 14 and holding the returning state champs to only a couple runs and her team on top going into the 7th inning. She is the teammate everyone loves and a coach's dream. Coach Williams - Lily Gaugler is a sophomore co-captain on our team. She is an outstanding student (4.0) and a talented athlete, excelling in basketball and softball. Lily has a great attitude and is a fierce competitor, always pushing herself and her teammates to give their best. Coaching Lily is a pleasure because she is intelligent, works hard, and consistently encourages her teammates. She leads our basketball team in scoring, assists, steals, blocks, and charges taken. Whether she’s creating scoring opportunities, locking down on defense, or taking a gutsy charge, her impact on the court is a game-changer. Lily's leadership and all-around skills are the backbone of our team's growth and success, and we are incredibly excited about her future. Chloe McMullin - Junior - Swimming Chloe McMullin is the daughter of Fred and Elizabeth McMullin. She is a Junior for us and participates in tennis, swimming, and band. She is representing our swim team. She received the MVP swimming award last season. Mental Attitude award for swimming as well. Chloe has swam the 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 200 freestyle relay, and 400 freestyle relay and the 500 freestyle, 100 freestyle, and 50 freestyle sometimes. She placed 3rd place in the conference this year in the breaststroke. Chloe has also played tennis for us the past 3 seasons. Chloe is also in the marching band. She is the drum major this year and will be next year as well. This team has gone to state for multiple years. She has won 9 gold medals for ISSMA solo and ensemble. She won 2 Soloist awards for the ISSMa Jazz contest in the past two years. Chloe is 6th in her class of 111. She has a 4.167 gpa. She has been on Honor roll throughout her high school career. She has done 5K charity walks like the Turkey Stampede and Sunburst. She has participated in Feed the Children, and Santa’s for Seniors, as well as Toys for Tots Chloe’s best memory is having done 3 solos at Lucas Oil Stadium at state. Coach Stork - Chloe has been on the team for the last three years. She shows determination, gives everything she can at practice, and is a great asset to the team. She helps other teammates out during practices showing them different drills, techniques, and other little things to help them improve. She is always cheering on her teammates at the meets and consistently shows a positive attitude both during practices and meets. The improvement that she has shown over the last three years is amazing. I am very lucky to be her coach and can't wait to see how she finishes out her High School swimming career next year. Jasiah Payne - Junior - Wrestling Jasiah Payne is the son of Isaac and Elizabeth Payne He is a Junior at Jimtown high school and wrestles for us. He had a 19-11 record this past season after going 12-20 last season. Jasiah won the conference and the Jimtown Super Dual this past season. He was a Semi-State participant last year for the IHSAA tournament. He placed fourth in the wrestling sectional this past weekend with a difficult road defeating a Semi State participant. He also showed his character receiving multiple Exemplary Behavior Report’s from officials and coaches about how he handled a very stressful and contentious situation. A couple examples are given below. During a 157-pound match at the Elkhart Sectional between Carson Nine of Wawasee and Jasiah Payne of Jimtown, an unfortunate incident occurred. His opponent exhibited increasingly aggressive behavior and growing frustration throughout the match. Despite attempts to address his conduct, the actions escalated to flagrant misconduct, including throwing punches at Jasiah. Consequently, he was disqualified from the match. In contrast, Jasiah Payne demonstrated exemplary sportsmanship and self-control. Throughout the match and its aftermath, Payne refrained from retaliating or responding to his opponent's provocations. This level of restraint is highly uncommon in such situations and deserves significant recognition. Payne's ability to maintain his composure and poise in the face of the unsporting behavior of his opponent is commendable. His behavior serves as an excellent example of sportsmanship and ethical conduct in competitive athletics. Jasiah Payne from Jimtown high school was wrestling at sectional. During his match his opponent pushed him in the face and then later in the match his opponent punched him in the face. He kept calm with no retaliation physically or verbally. I just feel his reaction was worth congratulating him and his exceptional behavior. He has a 3.6 GPA and is 33rd out of 111 students. He has placed in honor roll throughout his high school career. He is a student in the EACC and does Mechatronics. He loves to help out with Jimtown wrestling camps. Jasiah’s best memory of wrestling is defeating a semi state qualifier at sectionals this past season. Coach Dillenbeck - Jasiah shows up and is one of the hardest workers on our team. Never complains and is always in a good mood. One of the best things I can say for him is, if I owned a business, this is the type of employee I would look for. He is coachable and would be employable. He listens and does what you ask of him without complaint. Alexander Hoogenboom - Junior - Swimming Alexander Hoogenboom is the son of Chad and Lisa Hoogenboom. He is a Junior at Jimtown high school and swims for us. He placed first for 200 IM with a 2:08.65 time and 100 back with a 57.23 time for conference this year. He made the podium for both events in the conference last year. He placed for sectionals last year as well. In club swimming, he went to state in 100 back and 200 back and went to the state finals 200 back with a time of 2:01. We have not had a swim program very long. We don’t have a pool so it is difficult for our program and SB Washington is nice enough to let us use theirs, but he has made a big sacrifice to swim for us and to take the time for practice every day. As a very competitive and successful club swimmer; he has still felt the need to help represent our school and has shown Jimmie pride in doing that. He was MVP for our swim team last year and is again this year our best overall swimmer. He has been our best swimmer every year he has swam. He has 3.19 and is 60th in his class. He is in the chess and garden club. Alex’s best memory of swimming is playing water polo at practice. Coach Stork - Alex has been on the team for the last three years. He shows consistency at every meet getting first place in most of the events he swims. He has a true passion for swimming and you can see that not only when he competes, but also at practices. He helps out his other teammates during practices showing them how to do drills, turns, and techniques to help them improve as well. He is always looking for ways to improve his own strokes, starts and finishes. His determination is amazing to watch. He is a great asset to the team cheering on his teammates and having a positive attitude. I have been very fortunate to be his coach the last two years and am looking forward to his successes for next year.