DeMotte Christian Knights

It is official! The DeMotte Christian Knights emerged victorious Saturday to earn their first sectional title in program history! Fourteen teams competed in Sectional 5, hosted by Rensselaer Central, but none came close to outrunning DMC, who boasted four of the top eight finishers. There are no classes in Indiana cross country, which means the Knights had to get the better of a number of larger schools… and they did so comfortably. Demotte Christian won with 44 points, Kankakee Valley came in second with 84, and hosts Rensselaer finished third with 100. The Knights’ average time of 17:13 completely wiped competitors off the map– KV’s was 17:50 and Rensselaer’s 18:11. Benton Central and Twin Lakes finished 4th and 5th. With zero other 1A schools in the group, each of the other top five finishers has over four times DMC’s high school enrollment. The other big story of the day was Hunter Drain, who finished 1st of the 92 runners competing and brought home the individual championship. The team’s only senior, Drain has been the leader of this Knights squad all season, and will bring home some well-deserved hardware from the trip to Rensselaer. He made his move with 600 meters left to overtake KV’s Matthew Hoffman and finish with a time of 16:21, an average mile of 5:15. Junior Michael Thatcher came in third overall with a 16:48 in a tight pack of three where he edged out Winimac’s Logan Fredel and another Knight– sophomore Easton Drain, whose final time was 16:51. Junior Tanyon Bakker was the next DMC runner to finish, coming in 8th overall with a 17:28. Bakker is also the first DMCS athlete to win sectionals in two different sports– boys basketball in the spring, and now cross country. Sophomore Harper Perkins was the Knights’ fifth scorer, coming in 27th overall with an 18:37. Sophomore Levi Frump and junior Jaxson Peak would finish 37th and 38th with respective times of 19:02 and 19:08. This marks the sixth sectional title in Demotte Christian history. Boys basketball has won three (2018, 2019, 2024), girls soccer two (2020, 2021) and now cross country gets on the board as the third sport to boast an IHSAA trophy, and the first to do so in a sport with no class split. The sectional trophy just further validates an already historic cross country season. The Knights won the Midwest Conference title in dominant fashion last week with four of the conference’s top five finishes (Drain, Thatcher, Drain, Bakker). Final team tally was DMC 24, Tri-County 83, Faith Christian 91, West Central 133, and Frontier 141. Hunter Drain won the individual championship, his third straight (!). DMC also won the New Prairie Invitational, a stacked field with 37 teams in the Class A division, with a score of 52 points– Westview came in second with 134 and Rensselaer third with 180. Going back even further, the Knights won in dominant fashion at the West Central and Marion Invitationals– the latter of which boasted a 28-school field at Indiana Wesleyan. The Knights will look to continue their storybook season at New Prairie this Saturday for regionals. It’s a field stacked with large schools and excellent programs, but team and individual advancements are on the line. Until then, congratulations to DeMotte Christian’s newest sectional title team!