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Congratulations to our 8th grade girls basketball team as they went 3-0 this Saturday to win the Randy Johnson Tip-Off Tournament!

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Hanover College freshman Lanie Roberts finished in sixth place in women’s cross country during a recent Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) meet. Hanover won the conference.

The HCAC includes institutions from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio and is affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Division III.

Roberts graduated from Salem High School in 2024. She is the daughter of Jared and Cindy Roberts of Salem.

Brady Wells, coach for Hanover’s women’s cross country, was recognized as Coach of the Year. He formerly served as a teacher and coach at Salem High School.

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By Jerry Curry, Staff Writer

The speed of race cars and street vehicles have increased, and so has the impact and severity of crashes with mangled metal. The equipment has been improved over the years, and popular names have appeared such as the “jaws of life.” Gone are the days of volunteers without high powered equipment.

Entrapment in a crushed metal vehicle is not uncommon and the speed to get the victim out without increasing the injuries is critical. This was the case of a wreck at the Spooky 200 on Saturday, October 19 at the Salem Speedway located at 2729 IN-56 West, Salem.

The driver of one of the Crown Vic race cars lost feeling in his lower body after crashing. Rather than pulling him out the window and creating more physical damage, fast and safe action had to be taken. The Impact Rescue team sprang into action and cut the roof off the car to pick him up straight up out of the wreck with supports around him.

The driver was out of the car in 16 minutes, and he was in the ambulance en route to UofL Hospital in Louisville thanks to the Washington County Ambulance Service. It is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in this area with the next closest being in Indianapolis, such as the IU Health Methodist Hospital. Thankfully, the driver later recovered and feeling had returned to his lower extremities.

The Impact Rescue team is well trained and equipped. They quickly arrived at the scene of the accident in two trucks. One of which was the track’s own vehicle, and the other was a loaner from Eddie Gilstrap Motors. The equipment used by the team is furnished by the corporate sponsor, Impact Rescue, out of Indianapolis. These pieces of equipment are refurbished and donated to the track. Refurbished equipment includes a cutter, spreader, combination and a ram. Manufactured by Holmatro Rescue Equipment, these four machines are hydraulic and contain battery operated pumps. Every year, the equipment must be sent off for inspection and brought back to the Speedway in March. In addition, there is also equipment training for two days, March 29 and 30. Kimmel racing has donated two car frames that will be used for training purposes. One will be for cutting, and the other a simulator with all the bells and whistles of a real stockcar.

Salem Fire was one of the original trained rescue teams. In 2019, Bill Kneisley hired the team of 24 salaried and rotating members. Mike Spurgeon is the Deputy Director and Jonathon Sears is the Safety Chief. The team has a spotter in the tower that works with Glen Luckett to make sure the track is safe for the trucks to enter. The staff is dressed in fire suits, helmets and special gloves for safety provided by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sears has served on safety teams since 2010, and the tracks he has worked at include World Wide Tech, IRP, Kentucky Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He recalled an incident on May 18th, 2015 while working at Indy on turn one when the suspension broke on James Hinchcliffe’s Indy car. He hit the wall extremely hard, and part of the suspension broke through the car body into his thigh, nicking his femoral artery. Due to the large amount of blood he was losing, time was essential. They safely removed him from the car to be transported by ambulance to IU Health Methodist Hospital. It took 22 pints of blood, but they saved his life. Fast action like this shows the utter importance of an attentive and efficient team.

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By Josh Lewis, Writer

The Lady Lions basketball team opened the season up on Thursday night the way every team wants to, with a win. It wasn’t pretty, but that didn’t matter to the end result as Salem pulled away down the stretch in a back and forth game over Mitchell 34-30.

Wade Tomlinson is back at the helm as the head coach of the Salem girls basketball team. He said they were very excited to get the win to start the season. “We are all excited. The girls have worked really really hard. Considering the situation we are in, we are missing 13 kids from last year. We only have 1 letter returner. We are starting kids that didn’t even play last year. We knew there would be some rough spots, but wow they played hard. They tried to do everything we asked them to, really we just don’t have enough reps in. But they just played hard.Karissa really stepped up. She didn’t play last year. She’s really stepped up for us and was our leading scorer. She did some good things.”

Both teams struggled with turnovers throughout the game, but the Lady Lions took a 5-3 lead thanks to a bucket from Alexis Maudlin. Mitchell was able to get a lead late in the quarter though with a triple and another basket to make it a 12-7 lead. 

Payslea Chastain buried a corner three to get Salem going at the start of the second quarter. Karissa Hardy got a score in the post to knot the game up at 12. Abby Hardy got a basket in the paint and then Karissa got another score to help Salem start building a lead 15-12 late in the half.

To open the second half the Bluejackets hit back to back triples to take a 20-15 advantage. Karissa got a layup to stop the short run but both teams struggled offensively until the fourth quarter.

Mitchell hit two from the stripe to make it a 25-21 edge with 5:47 left in the game, but then Salem went on their run. Maudlin hit a jumper, and then Abby Hardy added one from the stripe and another bucket to tie the game at 26 with 3:37 left in the game. The Bluejackets hit a few more free throws on separate trips to make it 29-26.

Harley Walters hit a jumper and Maudlin hit a layup to reclaim the lead. On the next trip Maudlin found Abby in the paint with 1:35 left to play. Then Maudlin put the finishing touches on the game with another basket with 1:01 to go and the Lady Lions celebrated their season opening win.

Tomlinson said the team just kept playing hard down the stretch and that helped them take the lead. “They just kept playing hard. One of the things that helped us was Alexis didn’t play a ton because of foul trouble, but she finally got to play some in the fourth quarter. That helped our surge there. Wilson and Abby Hardy dominated the boards. We had 51 rebounds as a team which is amazing. Wilson had six offensive rebounds and that was really big for us. We played some kids that are deep in our bench and they did a great job.”

Salem took one on the chin on Saturday when they traveled to Seymour and came home with a 58-8 loss. Salem will travel to Crawford County on Tuesday.

MHS scoring: Modglin 2, L. Thompson 11, R. Thompson 6, Fountain 2, Lamm 1, Kohlhaas 8

SHS scoring: Chastain 3, A. Hardy 7, Maudlin 9, K. Hardy 10, Walters 2, Wilson 3

Threes: L. Thompson, R. Thompson, Kohlaas 2, Chastain

Payslip Chastain drives to the hoop.

Photos by Josh Lewis.