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JUNE 2023 · IHSAA Class 3A final, Bittinger Stadium, Purdue — New Prairie 4, Tri-West Hendricks 2
The drought ended on a Friday night in West Lafayette: New Prairie's softball team defeated Tri-West Hendricks 4–2 in the Class 3A state championship game at Purdue's Bittinger Stadium, and the IHSAA's own account states the fact this section turns on — it was "the school's first title in any sport." The Cougars scored twice in the sixth inning to take the game. The head coach, in his sixth year, was Derek Hicks; the names the association's record carries are the senior third baseman Abby Robakowski, signed to Indiana State, and the sophomore pitcher Ava Geyer, who finished 28–2 and struck out nine in the final. The title entered the national record within the month: the Congressional Record of 13 July 2023 (Vol. 169, No. 120) congratulates "the New Prairie High School softball team" on winning "the 3A State championship for the very first time in school history," names the 4–2 score and Coach Hicks, and prints the district's pride as the school's. The program had waited seventeen years between finals — its only earlier appearance is the article below — and the 2023 team's title is the first line of the school's championship roll as the record stands in November 2026.
Sources:
- Indiana High School Athletic Association, "New Prairie scores twice in 6th, wins first softball crown" (ihsaa.org) — the final, the venue, the first-title statement, Coach Derek Hicks in his sixth year, Robakowski and Geyer.
- Congressional Record, Vol. 169, No. 120 (House, 13 July 2023), "Congratulating the New Prairie High School Softball Team" — the score, the first-in-school-history statement, Coach Hicks named.