Winner wins top story

Plenty of teams and individuals found postseason success in 2024. A handful of them even made it all the way to the state tournament.

While several of those teams and individuals found success at their respective state tournaments, only made their way to the top of the podium. That one athlete has also established a history of success.

Mallory Winner claimed the top spot on The Commercial Review’s list of biggest sports stories for claiming her third consecutive state title in girls wrestling in 2024.

The rest of the top 10 is as follows:

2. FR baseball goes on a Cinderella run to the state championship

3. Construction on the Cleathouse and football field finished

4. Levi Muhlenkamp sets record for career goals

5. Anna Roessner cleans up at state track meet for Fort Recovery

6. Tony Wood and Cody Rowles cap off a successful season for JCHS boys wrestling

7. Indians girls bowling makes state tournament for first time

8. Caleb DeRome becomes first JCHS golfer to medal at sectional

9. The Tribe girls golf team won the Midwest Athletic Conference title

10. FR volleyball makes regional for third time

1.  Third title

After an undefeated freshman campaign and a repeat title as a sophomore, Winner found herself back at the state tournament as a junior. To remain undefeated and claim her third consecutive state title, Winner had to go through No. 2 Rhaigyn Trenary, who the JCHS junior also beat in the semi-state title.

Winner set Trenary up, offering her leg out front and when the Eastside Blazer took a shot, Winner countered with a double-leg takedown. She did this once in each period and never relinquished control to win the 155-pound state title match and go 26-0 on the season.

2. Cinderella run

The sixth-seeded Fort Recovery High School baseball team found a late-season offensive spark to pull off upsets of second-seeded Crestview, and fourth-seeded Marion Local to win the Northwest 3 district championship. But the Indians weren’t done, marching all the way to the state tournament in Akron for the first time since 2016.

A strong effort from Alex Dues on the mound got FRHS past Hillsdale 3-1 to make the championship game for the first time in 71 years.

Fort Recovery scored two runs on Hiland – they were driven in by Caden Grisez and Caden Homan – but gave up runs on an error and two-out flyball to the right field wall to fall 3-2.

3. Field finished

Jay County High School debuted the Cleathouse this past fall and field this past fall. The $6.1 million capital improvement project included a turf football and soccer field at Harold E. Schultz Stadium and the Cleathouse, a building beyond the north endzone that includes concessions, restrooms and locker rooms.

Construction of the building was completed by Mid-States Concrete and General Construction Co. of Jay County and the turf was installed by Sprinturf.

The field debuted with a 1-0 JCHS boys soccer victory over Muncie Central.

Jay County School Board has also approved the installation of new lights for the baseball and softball fields as the next facilities project.

4. Levi leads

In a season where Levi Muhlenkamp led the Jay County High School boys soccer team to a second sectional championship in three years, the senior broke Brad Horn’s (Muhlenkamp’s former coach) record for career goals.

Muhlenkamp found the net seven times in the regular season finale against Liberty Christian to surpass Horn’s mark of 80 goals. The record-setting score came early in the second half on a corner kick, assisted by Dylan Marentes.

The senior finished his final regular season with 81 scores throughout his career. He found the net one last time in 2024 to hit 35 goals on the season and set the new record at 82.

5. Runnin’ Roessner

Anna Roessner capped off a breakout season with three medals at the OHSAA Division III state track and field tournament at Welcome Stadium. The Junior sprinter contributed 15 points from those events to lead the Fort Recovery High School girls track team to a 16th-place finish.

Roessner’s best finish came in  her third event, the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.09 seconds. She trailed just Izzy Zahn of Coldwater (24.48) and Iniya Charlton of Trinity (24.99).

In her other individual event, Roessner ran a 12.34 to place fifth in the 100 dash.

The FRHS junior also ran in the 4x100 relay with Paige Guggenbiller, Kiana Matsuda and Mara Pearson to claim fourth with a time of 49.67 seconds.

Pearson, Trevor Heitkamp and Natalie Brunswick also competed in individual events, but didn’t make the podium.

6. Senior state medals

Two of the most decorated wrestlers in Jay County High School history closed their careers in February by winning medals in the IHSAA Wrestling State Finals at the Ford Center in Evansville. Tony Wood took fourth place at 138 pounds by beating Blake Jones of Lawrence North in the opening round and Kyrel Leavell of Warren Central in the quarterfinal to extend his record to 46-0 before dropping his next two matches. Cody Rowles secured his state medal in the 126-pound bracket with a comeback 9-5 victory over Rochester’s Layne Horn and went on to finish eighth.

7. Rolling to Columbus

The Fort Recovery High School girls bowling team made it all the way to the state tournament for the first time in school history.

The Indians fought through a tough second game for their five starters to total 2,545 pins in the individual games, which was good enough for sixth place. They then struggled in the baker games, slipping all the way to ninth and missing the finals by just 13 pins. FRHS finished with 3,017 pins, while Rootstown claimed the final spot in bracket play with 3,030.

Kayla Heitkamp put together the strongest day with 545 pins in the individual games to tie for 21st place with New Bremen’s Marina Nelson.

    Brooklyn Wyerick of the Fort Recovery High School girls bowling team releases her Storm Electrify during the individual games of the OHSAA Division II girls State Bowling Tournament — it was the Indians’ first state appearance in school and program history — at H.P. Lanes in Columbus, Ohio. The lone senior in the Indians’ starting lineup shot games of 185, 148 and 191 to help the Tribe to sixth place before it slipped up in the baker games. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

8. Best finish

In his final season as a Patriot, Caleb DeRome became the first boys golfer from Jay County High School to earn sectional medalist honors by shooting a 70 at Hickory Hills Golf Course.

DeRome’s round of 70 finished just one stroke ahead of Christian Groves of Yorktown.

The JCHS senior made birdie four times on the second, fifth, 13th and 18th holes. On the  570-yard, par-5 18th hole, DeRome needed a long putt to drop to claim his first 18-hole event.

While the Patriots came up 14 strokes short of a regional berth, DeRome’s score got him through as an individual.

9. First in MAC

In the first full season since the death of former coach Joe Bruns, the Fort Recovery High School girls golf team dominated the Midwest Athletic Conference to win its first conference title in program history.

The Indians swept the MAC during the regular season, going 8-0 and narrowly beating defending champion Minster by two strokes. To secure the outright MAC title, the Tribe put up the best score at the MAC tournament of 418 strokes to beat St. Henry by one.

FRHS had four golfers make All-MAC teams, including Olivia Knapke and Mallory Evers making the first time, while Jeff Vaughn was named the MAC Coach of the Year.

10. Back to the regional

After making the move to the southwest district, Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team made a run to the regional tournament for the first time since 2020.

After being awarded the No. 3 seed in the Division VI Southwest 2 district, the Tribe cruised through its first two matches before upsetting a pair of No. 1 seeds — host Arcanum and Miami Valley Christian Academy — in three sets to claim the district title. Fort Recovery has only made the regional two other times.

The Indians’ run would end in the regional opener, as they fell to the Anna Rockets 25-18, 25-17, 22-25, 25-22.