Schwieterman tops list again

A sophomore repeated as the state champion.

One of the winningest coaches in Indiana history retired.

A multi-million project was approved and began.

All are rare occurrences. But when an athlete becomes not only the leading scorer in program history or school history but across all basketball ever played in the county, that accomplishment stands alone.

Renna Schwieterman claimed the top spot on The Commercial Review’s list of the biggest sports stories for the second year in a row for becoming the all-time leading scorer across boys and girls basketball in Jay County history.

The rest of the top 10 is as follows:

2. Mallory Winner repeats as girls wrestling state champion

3. Multi-million dollar outdoor athletics project is approved and gets underway

4. Mara Pearson finishes as state long jump runner-up

5. Kirk Comer retires as JCHS girls basketball coach

6. FR girls cross country records best state finish in school history

7. Jay County Baseball Club pursues indoor training facility

8. Tony Wood places seventh in state; Patriots win sectional, regional titles 

9. Gabi Bilbrey wins regional discus crown, breaks school record 

10. Fort Recovery opens new baseball facility

1. Bales bested

Schwieterman had already surpassed all-time Jay County High School girls basketball leading scorer Shannon Freeman in late 2022. When she did, just three players in county history remained ahead of her — 1971 Bryant graduate Tom Weigel (1,529 points), 1959 Bryant graduate Richard Masters (1,574) and 1972 Redkey graduate Greg Bales (1,723). Schwieterman quickly surpassed Weigel and Masters, and then, with 4.2 seconds left in the third quarter of the final game of the regular season, she hit a pair of free throws to move past Bales. She finished her career with 1,754.

2. Repeat champion

Mallory Winner was an undefeated state champion as a freshman. After breaking her leg in the offseason, she had a couple of hiccups as a sophomore. But trailing by one with two minutes to go in her season, she came back strong.

Trailing top-ranked Grace Hiroms of Rochester 1-0 heading into the final period of the 160-pound state title match, Winner showed the bottom position. With just 37 seconds remaining, she scored a reversal and then held on for a 2-1 victory and her second consecutive state championship.

3. Upgrading outdoors

In late 2022, Jay County High School athletics director Steve Boozier presented Jay School Board with a list of "do now, do next, do in the future” priorities. The board took action in late January, approving a $6.1 million capital improvement project that includes the construction of a new $3.15 million locker room, restroom and concession building at the northeast corner of the football field and the installation of synthetic turf at a cost of about $1.25 million.

That project is underway with a target of being in use for the 2024 fall sports season.

4. Second in state

Mara Pearson set three goals for the OHSAA state track meet: to medal, jump in the mid-high 18s and be more consistent. Four jumps of 18 feet and better secured all three goals and the runner-up spot.

The Fort Recovery High School junior’s fifth jump went 18 feet, 5 inches, and left her three quarters of an inch short of Lucas’ Shelby Grove, who took home the state title. They were trading first throughout the meet before Grove’s fourth attempt put her on top for good.

Pearson was also on the school-record-breaking 4x100-meter relay team.

5. Coach steps away

About three months after his team’s season came to an end, Jay County High School girls basketball coach Kirk Comer announced his retirement.

At the time he stepped away, his 408 career wins were ninth-most among active Indiana high school girls basketball coaches and ranked 24th on the all-time list. More than half of those victories came in his two stints with the Patriots — 2005 through 2010 and 2016 through 2023 — including a sectional championship in 2006.

He also coached at Daleville, Union, Union City, Winchester and Monroe Central during his three-decade career.

6. Best in FR history

All seven runners played an important role for the Fort Recovery High School girls cross country team that earned 306 points to finish 10th at the state meet in the highest finish in school history.

Natalie Brunswick set the pace with a 43rd-place finish (19:41.65), followed by Makenna Huelskamp (90th), Ellie Will (105th) and Joelle Kaup (124th). After a slow start, Jenna Hart passed an opponent at the finish line to place 160th.

While Maddie Heitkamp (165th) and Anna Roessner (167th) didn’t score, they took away points from Fairbanks and Sand Valley, which tied for 11th with 307.

Fort Recovery High School freshman Makenna Huelskamp (3049) and senior Ellie Will (3055) run at the OHSAA Division III state cross country meet earlier this year. With her third-place finish on the team, Will scored all four years of high school as the team made its fourth appearance in as many years. Jenna Hart also accomplished the same feat. The trip was Huelskamp’s first visit to a state competition. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

7. New clubhouse

Jay County Baseball Club closed on a building in early September that it plans to turn into an outdoor sports complex in the near future.

The purchase of the building cost $575,000 with the price of technology, equipment and labor to outfit the building coming out to about $320,000.

It received a one-time match of $175,000 in wind farm economic development fund dollars from the county.

The building will have batting cages, turf, a golf simulator, office space and a classroom, and will be available to members of the community via membership.

8. Medal, championships

A banner year for the Jay County High School wrestling team closed with Tony Wood earning book-end victories at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to finish seventh in the state at 138 pounds.

Wood pinned Cathedral’s Max McGinley in his opening state match before dropping his next two. He then beat Warren Central’s Christian Arberry in the seventh-place match.

The junior’s effort capped a season that saw the Patriots repeat as sectional champions and win their first regional title since 1988. They had eight wrestlers qualify for the semi-state and four compete at the state finals.

9. Regional, record

Jay County High School’s Gabi Bilbrey scratched her first throw of the regional meet.

After an adjustment from throwing coach Brian Miles, Bilbrey came back to secure a spot in the finals.

Bilbrey’s throw of 128 feet, 1 inch, was enough for the championship and a trip to state. The victory was the second time Jay County had a regional champion in the past three years, after Elisa Parazzi took the high jump in 2021.

A week earlier, Biblrey broke her own school record twice in the discus. Her toss of 140 feet, 6 inches, also set a sectional record.

10. Field debuted

The LeFevre Family Baseball and Softball Complex made its debut for the 2023 season Fort Recovery High School baseball and softball seasons.

The project to construct a new baseball field, with a press box, restrooms and concession building, adjacent to the existing softball field had been in the works since 2017. Construction was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The new baseball field features stadium-style seating, an observation mound behind the center field fence and wood fencing in right field designed to resemble the wall of a fort.