Penn placekicker Jared Hancock committed to play at Anderson University.

Originally, Hancock committed to St. Joseph College in Rensselaer, Indiana, but unfortunately the college will be closing after this school year.

“When I heard St, Joe was closing, I knew I had to start looking for schools that needed a kicker,” Hancock said. “Anderson was also a good fit for me academically.”

During the 2016 season, Hancock had a game-winning 40-yard field goal against Michigan powerhouse St. Mary’s Prep. He ended the season with 26 touchbacks and three field goals beyond the 40-yard line.  

Penn High School students earned 15 Scholastic Writing Awards, including seven Gold Key Awards.

Lauren Funk won four awards, including one Gold Key Award, and Renee Yaseen won three awards, including two Gold Key Awards.

Penn’s Scholastic Award Winners:

Emily Daley, Short Story, Silver Key

Lauren Funk, Poetry, Gold Key

Lauren Funk, Poetry, Silver Key

Lauren Funk, Poetry, Honorable Mention

Lauren Funk, Short Story, Honorable Mention

Lucie Horvath, Flash Fiction, Honorable Mention

Neya Johnson, Poetry, Gold Key

Rachel Kario, Poetry, Gold Key

Zoe LaBonte, Poetry, Gold Key

Anna Lang, Short Story, Silver Key

Sydney Seigel, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Gold Key

Sabrina Thayer, Short Story, Silver Key

Renee Yaseen, Poetry, Gold Key

Renee Yaseen, Poetry, Gold Key

Renee Yaseen, Poetry, Honorable Mention

Jarod Swank rallied from a 4-0 deficit to win the East Chicago Semi-State championship of the 170-pound weight class in high school wrestling state tournament action on Saturday, Feb. 11.

Swank’s championship highlighted a Semi-state effort that saw four Kingsmen punch their tickets to the State Championships Feb. 17-18 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Kory Cavanaugh (113), Tanner DeMien (120) and Will Vakalahi (220) will join Swank in pursuing state crowns.

Swank, Cavanaugh and DeMien are in an elite group of eight wrestlers in Kingsmen history to be three-time State Finalists. DeMien qualified twice with NorthWood High School.

Swank, the 29th Semi-state Champion in Penn history (est. 1958), defeated Zack Fattore of Hobart 10-7 for the title. Swank (33-3) beat Ben Warren of Andrean with a pin in 3:38, and knocked out Jamari Washington of Hammond Gavit 19-3. He own the semifinal bout with a 6-1 decision against Ismael Cornejo of Portage.

Cavanaugh placed second at 113, DeMien placed fourth (injury) at 120, and Vakalahi placed fourth at 220.

By ANDREW SPALDING

Pennant Reporter

Penn High’s Kingsmen girls swim team competed for state at the world famous IUPUI Natatorium last Friday and Saturday. The Kingsmen captured a fifth-place finish behind strong performances from Penn’s relay teams.

A fifth-place finish is quite incredible considering Indiana swimming is among the most competitive in the country. The Carmel girls swim team won their 31st consecutive state championship, with Chesterton coming in second. Penn’s state finish capped off a great season.

Kingsmen State Finals Results:

200 Medley Relay (Madilyn Ziegert, Kionna Clayton, Makenna Bottorff, Meagan Ronci) – 1:42.95 (3rd)

200 Freestyle- Kayla Molnar 1:53.74 (18th)

50 Freestyle- Madilyn Ziegert 23.57 (8th)

100 Butterfly- Makenna Bottorff  57.15 (15th), Taylor Bush 57.20 (17th)

100 Freestyle- Meagan Ronci 51.21 (5th)

500 Freestyle- Kayla Molnar 5:04.42 (14th)

200 Freestyle Relay (Meagan Ronci, Madilyn Ziegert, Sydney Acito, Makenna Bottorff) – 1:35.44 (4th)

100 Breastroke- Kionna Clayton 1:03.14 (4th)

400 Freestyle Relay (Meagan Ronci, Madilyn Ziegert, Kionna Clayton, Makenna Bottorff) – 3:27.19 (3rd)

Topic: Homework

Sources:

Principal: What happened when my school ended useless homework

A new wrinkle in the research about the real value of homework

Homework survey shows teacher-parent divide

Why the dog eats Nikki's homework: making informed assignment decisions

Topic: Type of Schooling

Sources

Less homework, shorter days: the Finnish touches

KIPP charter school wants to build on success

EDITORIAL: Study points the way to better public schools

Students using laptops and tablets in class perform worse on exams, study says

Preparing students for real-life futures

Two schools of Thought: High-tech vs. No-tech

Giving children computers basically does the opposite of what you'd expect

Topic: Technology addiction

Sources

Half of teens 'feel addicted' to tech. What's to be done?

D.A.R.E. to Keep Kids off Tech

Balanced Technology Diet Prescribed for Teens, Parents; Technology Addiction: Concern, Controversy, and Finding Balance

When a High Tech Habit Becomes Unhealthy

Kids' media time adds up, subtracts from homework; interest in learning new things also shrinks with greater screen time, pediatricians find

Attack of the tech-savvy toddlers; kids as young as 2 years old are downloading content to cell phones, computers, and portable digital music players, according to a report from NPD group

Topic: Parent/Teacher surveillance and privacy

Sources

Schools are helping police spy on kids' social media activity

Sophomore wing Drew Lutz scored 14 points to lead four Penn scorers in double figures, and the Kingsmen rolled to a 66-37 victory against Bremen in Northern Indiana Conference high school basketball.

Senior point guard Brian Doslak scored 12 points, and senior post Connor Schneider and sophomore wing Noah Applegate scored 10 points each. Penn almost had five players in double-figure scoring, as Riley Smith scored nine points.

Penn bolted to a 13-0 lead, and led 20-6 after one quarter.

Penn connected on 27-of-48 shooting (56 percent), including 5-of-10 three pointers. Bremen was 14-of-36 (38 percent) and hit 6-of-15 from 3-point range.

Penn owned a 29-16 rebounding edge, including a 10-3 advantage in offensive rebounds. That helped the Kingsmen to a 12-2 margin in second-chance points.

PENN 66: Drew Lutz 14, Connor Schneider 10, Noah Applegate 10, Brian Doslak 12, Riley Smith 9, Noah Krathwohl 8, Stuart Feeley 3, Beau Ludwick 2, Matt McCown 2, Luke Carlton 0, Drew Schneider 0.

BREMEN 37: Chandler Snyder 14, Zach Burkholder 6, Dominic Lopez 5, Jacob Strehler 4, Brooks Feldman 3, Matt Box 3, Cole George 2, Ryan Caldwell 0, Bryce Ginter 0, Grant Klockow 0, Bryce Sterling 0, Jacob Wunder 0.

PENN    20           10           20           16 – 66

Bremen 6            8              13           10 – 37

Three-pointers:  PENN 5 (Lutz 2, Doslak 2, Feeley 1), Bremen 6 (Snyder 4, Lopez 1, Box 1).

On January 28^th, Team 6360 Brazen Bots, a Penn High School FTC Robotics team, traveled to Lafayette to attend the “Bash at the Wabash.”

There, they ran their robot and presented their progress over the season.

In the robotics side of the event, they placed 13th overall out of 32, a lot better than they had expected.

During the competition, Team 6360 encountered a robot failure. This caused the team to quickly fix the problems, like the bent bar that holds up the shooter, and a few things on programming and binding controls.

The competition was also enlightening in many other ways for Team 6360. They got to see what FTC competitions look like, and how good you can really be.

It really inspired them to work a little harder, and also allowed them to have a better understanding of the game and what things work best.

Penn’s High School’s acclaimed Jazz event, “An Evening of Jazz”, will be on Friday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. at St. Mark Missionary Church (55240 Bittersweet Rd, Mishawaka, IN 46545).

Tickets are $15, and include a dinner from Papa Vino’s Restaurant (​lasagna, salad, bread, dessert, water, and coffee).

Formerly known as “Jazz at the Palace,” the event features performances by the Penn High School Jazz Ensembles, Middle School Jazz Ensembles, and Concord High School Jazz Band.

Dr. Matt Pivec, Director of Jazz Studies at Butler University, is the guest artist.

Limited tickets still available! Contact Sheri Campeau – mikeandsheri99@gmail.com

By ANDREW SPALDING

Pennant Reporter

Penn High School’s Girls Swimming and Diving team added to its golden legacy, as the Kingsmen captured their 15th straight sectional title and 26th overall. Penn’s total of 26 sectional championships in swimming is the fourth most in the state. Click here for complete results.

Penn defended its home pool on Saturday, Feb. 4, racking up 522 points, 90 more than the second-place team, South Bend St. Joseph. Penn won seven of 12 events,  with nine different state-cut swims from 7 different swimmers.

Penn winners include the 200 medley relay (Madilyn Zeigert, Kionna Clayton, Makenna Bottorff, Meagan Ronci), which set both a pool and sectional record.

Kayla Molnar won the 200 freestyle with a time 1:52.43 and qualified for state.

Makenna Bottorff won the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.49, just a second off the pool record.

Meagan Ronci took the blue ribbon in the 100 freestyle.

Kayla Molnar struck again and won the 500 freestyle by an impressive nine seconds with a time of 4:59.18.

Penn’s 200 freestyle relay team (Meagan Ronci, Makenna Bottorff, Madilyn Ziegert, Kayla Molnar) set another pool and sectional record with a time of 3:29.18.

State cut swims include Maddie Ziegert in the 50 free, Kionna Clayton in the 100 breaststroke.

The final Standings were:

1. Penn 522

2. St. Joe 432

3. Riley 407

4. New Prairie 186

5. Bremen 167

6. Adams 141

7. Clay 96

7. Mishawaka 96

9. Marian 86

10. Washington 46

Penn High School students Renee Yaseen and Siddarth Das earned awards at the Model United Nations conference at Notre Dame on Feb. 4. 

Yaseen won outstanding delegate representing Somalia in the Disarmament and International Security Committee.  Student delegates debated and created resolutions on issues of autonomous weapons and arms trading.

Das won best position paper representing India in the World Health Organization. Student delegates debated and created resolutions for the Zika virus and sustainability of clean water.