Patriots draw bye

The Patriots got an opening-round bye.

They know all too well how tough their semifinal opponent is likely to be.

Jay County High School’s girls basketball team came away with a bye in the IHSAA tournament draw held Sunday and will likely have a rematch against Delta in the semifinal round of the Class 3A Sectional 24 tournament at Connersville.

The opening round of Sectional 24 will feature Yorktown (13-6) against New Castle at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4, with Delta (14-5) and Hamilton Heights (5-15) to follow. Jay County (9-11) will get the winner of the second game in the semifinal round at approximately 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, after Connersville (14-7) plays the Yorktown/New Castle winner at 6 p.m.

The championship game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8.

The Patriots have split their four games with sectional opponents this season, including a 64-33 loss Thursday to Delta. Their other loss game to Yorktown while it defeated Hamilton Heights and New Castle.

JCHS won its last sectional championship in 2006.

Streak snapped

FORT RECOVERY — The Fort Recovery High School boys basketball team snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 57-32 victory over the Mississinawa Valley Blackhawks on Saturday.

The Indians (4-12) dominated MVHS (5-9) from behind the 3-point arc in the second quarter, draining six threes en route to 22 points. The Blackhawks managed three triples of their own, but only totalled 13 points.

Briggs Overman led the way with 23 points scored in the game, all of which came in the first three periods. Colson Post and Breaker Jutte followed with 11 and 10, respectively.

The last FRHS win came just shy of one month prior, when it beat South Adams on Dec. 27.

Seniors power

ARCANUM, Ohio — The two seniors led Fort Recovery’s girls basketball team to a 51-24 domination of the Franklin Monroe Jets on Saturday.

Kennedy Muhlenkamp led all scorers as she poured in seven buckets and five free throws, totaling 19 points. Karlie Niekamp followed right behind, as she scored eight of her 15 points in the first quarter.

Bridget Homan had a strong third period for Fort Recovery (9-9) to help the sophomore finish with eight points.

Presley Cox finished with 12 points for the Jets (3-12), but only got 12 points of support from her teammates.

First for Kaup

The Fort Recovery boys and girls swim teams set a new school record and had a Midwest Athletic Conference champion Saturday as the teams finished sixth and fifth, respectively, at the 2025 Cav Invite held at Jay County.

The girls racked up 51 points to finish fifth, while Versailles dominated the field with 144. The two boys managed to get 25 points, avoiding last place, which went to St. Henry with 13. New Bremen won the boys' side with 136 points.

Joelle Kaup had the top finish, claiming first in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1 minute, 5.22 seconds. Kaup beat out Erin Fredrick of Versailles by 6.38 seconds.

While Caleb Smith’s time of 1:09.54 didn’t win him the 100 breaststroke, it set a new record for the Indians. He also had the highest finish for the boys, placing second in the 50 freestyle.

The Indians also took second in the 400 freestyle relay, as Kaup, Liza Knapke, Aubrey Shuttleworth and Livy Timmerman combined to swim a 4:27.72.