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The Newton Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams celebrate as both teams qualified to run in Regionals in Troy on Saturday.  (Photos by Dale Barger)

Congratulations to the Newton Boys and Girls Cross Country teams for qualifying to run in the OHSAA DIII Regional Cross Country Meet at Troy High School on Saturday October 26^th.

The Boys will run  at 10:00 am and the girls at 10:45am.  It was the 5th time the boys have qualified and the 1st time for the Lady Indians to reach the regionals.

Along with both Newton teams participating the following WOAC boys’ runners qualified to run as well. 

Ansonia sophomore Bennet Lehman won the OHSAA DIII Boys District race with a time of 15:49.10.  

They are Bennett Lehman and Ethan Sparks of Ansonia, Samuel DeHart and Hunter Todd of Twin Valley South, Collin Day of Dixie and Tucker Denlinger of National Trail who finished 10th at District in at time of 16:54.47.

On the girl’s side Mississinawa Valley runner Taylee Woodbury was the only individual women’s runner to qualify to run in regionals.

Good luck to all our WOAC runners participating at regionals.

Mississinawa Valley senior Taylee Woodbury was State Finalist in her freshman and sophomore years but an injury kept her from running last year.  She was the only individual girls runner to qualify for regionals in 2024.
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Arcanum fell short of goal of winning a district championship to a strong & athletic Fort Recovery team peaking at the right time. (All feature photos by Dale Barger)

ARCANUM – Fort Recovery came out swinging in their OHSAA DVI District Semi-Final game verses Arcanum.  The Trojans defeated Fort Recovery in five sets nearly two months ago but on this night the Indians rolled to a straight three set victory to advance to the District Finals.

“We knew Fort Recovery was going to definitely bring the energy tonight, and I was hoping that we would kind of match it a little bit more,” said Arcanum coach Jacie Holman.

Fort Recovery established themselves early rattling off 7 straight points to take command and Arcanum played from behind, it wasn’t the start expected falling in set one 25-17.

Sophomore Jordyn Garbig tries to put the ball in play from the back line.

“I will give my girls credit. I mean, it's not like we just came out and fell completely flat, but I wish we would have come out a little bit stronger in that first set,” Holman commented.

A healthy and strong Arcanum team rolled to 19 wins this year … but over the last week  adversity began to set in.

“We've been dealing with illnesses and injuries this week … it seems to be our tournament story, where go all season totally healthy, and then on our tournament run we start to get sick,” Holman stated.

“That's no excuse, give credit to Fort Recovery they had us frazzled, with their energy and a lot of hard hits and we just could not adjust,” Holman noted.

When the Trojans had one on one opportunities they were able to capitalize as junior Kamryn Beisner sends one down the line.

In the second set Arcanum battled even with the Indians but couldn’t put together the kind of run needed to jump ahead or put pressure on the Fort.

One of the strengths throughout the season for Arcanum has been their ability serve well enough to get the other team out of system, but they only had two aces on the night.  Fort Recovery had nine aces in their service game.

“We talked about our serves, and that has been a strength of ours. Unfortunately, we just have not seen a lot of our good serves lately.  Especially when we're down, we tend to get a little bit less aggressive, and that's actually the time I want them to be more aggressive, to make them out of system.  Unfortunately, we just did not serve well, and I think it's the theme of the game tonight, we did not play our game,” Holman pointed out.

Fort Recovery’s big front line became an obstacle in this one as well, Arcanum accustomed to being able to set and kill was running into roadblocks with the Indians sending two and sometimes three to the net taking away the big hits to win the second set 25-18.

Fort Recovery was able to use their size bringing three blockers to take away big swings from Alexis Gibbons here and others throughout the game.

“They definitely were able to get up and complete a lot of blocks on us tonight, when our two outsides are not typically used to seeing two blockers during the season or the middle sees three blockers, that's like a whole different game,” Holman offered up. 

“Our back row wasn't really talking to our front row, to tell them there's three blocks, and try to adjust to it. Even on the outside and the right side, we weren't talking a lot to adjust to those big blocks,” Holman added.

Junior Grace Psczulkoski gets one past a single defender for the score. 

It would be easy to shut it down after going down two sets, but Arcanum showed fight in the third set, the kind of fight that propelled them to a WOAC League Championship in 2024.

They would battle back and forth with the Indians with several long volleys … but in the end they fell in third set 25-22.

Sophomore Ella Flatter shows all-out hustle to try and chase one down to put back in play.

Arcanum finished the year 19-4 overall and graduate two key senior players Mackenzie Byrne and Alexis Gibbons. 

Mackenzie Byrne was the district 9 player of the year and 1^st team all WOAC and Alexis Gibbons was 1st team district 9 and All-WOAC.

“Kenzie and Lexi were a part of my first group on my first varsity team when I took this program over and they are exactly what our what I want our program to look like,” Holman said.

“They are leaders on the court and push themselves to be better and push their team to be better. They are outstanding on and off the court and it speaks volume to me, and we will miss their leadership tremendously.  I know great things are ahead, and I'm proud of them,” coach Holman concluded.

Seniors Mackenzie Byrne and Alexis Gibbons were leaders on and off the court and both had a big impact on the Trojans Volleyball program. 
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Four of the twelve WOAC Volleyball teams; Arcanum, Ansonia, Tri-Village and Newton advance to the District Semi-finals after last weekend with tournament volleyball wins.  Of the eight team that lost, three came at the hands of fellow WOAC Teams that advanced. (Dale Barger photo)

Volleyball Tournament Quarter Final Results

DV
#12 Dixie fell to #11 Valley View 23-25, 12-25, 26-24, 25-15, 15-9
#9 Preble Shawnee fell to #4 Miami East 25-22, 25-10, 25-11 

DVI
#7 Twin Valley South fell to #3 Fort Recovery 25-8, 25-13, 25-10
#13 Tri-County North fell to #1 Arcanum 25-11, 25-4, 25-14
#10 National Trail fell to #6 Ansonia 25-19, 25-15, 25-7
#5 Franklin Monroe fell to #9 Houston 25-17, 22-25, 25-23, 25-20
#4 Tri-Village defeated #11 Calvary Christian 25-12, 25-17, 25-14

DVII
#16 Bradford fell to #2 Covington 25-7, 25-16, 25-4
#7 Mississinawa fell to #8 Newton

TROTWOOD – #7 Mississinawa Valley who finished 2^nd in the league this year lost to #8 Newton a team they defeated twice in the regular season, Newton won in straight sets 25-14, 25-15 and 25-22.


After falling twice in the regular season, the lady Indians extracted revenge with a tournament win over the Blackhawks.

Mississinawa limped in down a starter when Allyson Waymire was injured in practice earlier in the week. Despite that MV was deadlocked midway in the first set with Newton before things started to go sideways.

Newton coach Danita Rapp talked about her teams resolve and improvement through the course of the season and pleased they were able to get a tough win over the Hawks.

“So early in the season, obviously, we took two losses to them (MV) we were trying to kind of figure ourselves out. And from that point on, the girls, regardless of who we were going to play made a commitment to push hard till the end of the season and through tournament. 

Makenna Kesling and Isabelle Prickett put up solid wall at the net.  Newton was able to capture a big win over Mississinawa.

We saw an opportunity to play Mississinawa Valley and I knew that my girls were ready, and one of the key things we did was just focus really hard on serving pass and trying to keep them out of system so we could run our offense consistently and effectively, and I felt like my team delivered very, very well in that department today,” Rapp explained after the game.

Newton will be back in action on Thursday, 5pm where they will take on Jefferson at Trotwood Madison High School for chance to advance to the District Title game.

ARCANUM – #10 National Trail fell to #6 Ansonia in straight sets 25-19, 25-15, 25-7.


The Lady Tigers celebrate winning a point in tournament volleyball action.

The Lady Blazers had their largest score in the opening set but were on the losing end of a 25-19 score to the Lady Tigers.

Ansonia took a 19-12 second-set lead, bringing a timeout from the Lady Blazers bench. The break did little to slow down the Lady Tigers, earning a double-digit second-set win, outscoring Trail by a 25-15 count.

The third and final set of the day saw the Ansonia girls win big by a 25-7 score to advance to tournament play and face the No. 2 seed Anna Lady Rockets.

Ansonia's Camryn Winner knocks down a kill in win over National Trail.

With the tournament win, Ansonia improves to 12-11 overall in the 2024 season and they will play next on Wednesday, October 23, at Arcanum High School with a 7 pm verses #2 Anna.

Tri-County North was the third team to fall to a fellow league foe #1 Arcanum in straight sets 25-11, 25-4, 25-14.

PLEASANT HILL – The No. 4 seed Tri-Village Lady Patriots defeated the Bellefontaine Calvary Christian Lady Spartans in straight sets to advance in OHSAA DVI volleyball tournament play.

Tri-Village Lilly Camacho scores against Calvary Christian in the OHSAA Quarterfinals.

“We preach that everybody is 0-0 when the tournament starts,” said Tri-Village coach Taylor Rawlings.   “We had to come out ready to play because you never know what that team will bring at you.”

Tri-Village advanced with a win over Calvary Christian in straight sets.

Tri-Village grabbed a double-digit 19-9 second set advantage in taking the set 25-17 and leading 2-0 on the day.

Coach Rawlings and the Lady Patriots did not know what they would face when they took on the girls from Bellefontaine.

“I didn’t have much information on them, so we came in pretty blind,” Rawlings noted.

The Lady Patriots doubled up on Calvary 19-8 to open first set play on their way to a 25-12 win.

Camryn Osborne digs one out for the Patriots who advance to district semi-final game where they will take on Houston.  

Calvary Christian battled back in set No. 3 with leads of 2-3, 4-6, and 9-6 before the Lady Patriots used a 3-0 run to even the score at 9-9. The Bellefontaine girls got the lead back at 10-9 before Tri-Village used an 11-3 run to lead 20-13 on their way to a 25-15 third-set win.

“We had our moments, but we were able to gather it back together and finish strong,” said Coach Rawlings. “I am proud of them for finding that go to finish that strong because once you’re done, it’s done. It’s tournament time so I’m glad we were able to find that grit, that effort to finish off.”

“Gabby Kirby had a few nice kills; Zoe Ayette set well today,” Rawlings added. “We are starting to play more as a team. The team as a whole did pretty good today.”

With the win, Tri-Village improves to 12-11 on the season and advances to play the Houston Lady Wildcats, winners over the Franklin Monroe Lady Jets. The Lady Patriots will play the No. 9 seed Houston on Thursday, October 24th, at Newton High School with a 5:30 p.m. start time.

Arcanum – The Lady Trojans breezed to their opening round tournament game against Tri-County North a team they played mere days before to win an outright WOAC Championship.

#1 Arcanum will be back in action on Wednesday against verses #3 Ft. Recovery at Arcanum in with the winner advancing to the District Title game.
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Zane Henderson #21 scores final TD of game, celebrates with Jacob Schmitmeyer #6 and Ben Zerkle #12 who defeated Preble Shawnee 24-13 in WOAC showdown.
(All Feature Photos by Dale Barger Photo)

ANSONIA – It was a Saturday night special between the top two undefeated football teams in the WOAC featuring the ground and pound Ansonia offense vs a wide-open Preble Shawnee offense.

Both teams were putting up over 40 points a game, but the Tigers physicality and ball control offense got the upper hand with Ansonia clinching at least a share of the conference championship with a 24-13 win over the Arrows.

The Tigers would rush for 317 yards in the game with Zane Henderson going for 120 yards and Jacob Schmitmeyer 119.

Ansonia was aided on their opening kickoff drive by two offside penalties by Preble Shawnee to keep the drive going scored and they would score on a four-yard TD run by Zane Henderson to go up 6-0 after failing on the two-point conversion at 5:26 of the first quarter.

Zane Henderson works through a hole opened up by his line as the Tigers scored on their opening drive.  

The Tigers stopped Preble Shawnee on their first possession but coughed up the ball on a mis-handled hand-off in their own territory that was recovered by Brody Lynch.

It took the Arrows five plays scoring at 11:56 of the 2^nd quarter on TD run by Isaac Blankenship to go up 7-6 with the extra point kick.


Preble Shawnee's Isaac Blankenship tries to shake a defender.  He scored the a rushing TD in game with Ansonia. 

Ansonia went back to work with their ground game scoring at 9:07 of the 2^nd quarter when quarterback Layne Bowman faked everybody out on the hand-off up the middle then ran around the end and up the sidelines for a 32-yard touchdown.  Preble Shawnee again held off the Tigers two-point conversion something they would be successful at all night but trailed 12-7.

The Arrows were stopped on their 3^rd possession by Ansonia giving them one more opportunity to score before the end of the first half.   

The Tigers had advanced the ball down to the five-yard line and with the Arrows back against the wall they stuffed a 4^th down Tiger run denying a score with 46 seconds left in the half.

The good news for Preble Shawnee, who had only four possessions in the 1^st half  and the last with 95 yards to go and just 46 seconds, basically didn’t count … is that they would
receive the ball to start the 2^ndhalf.

Preble Shawnee would get in their own way on their first possession of the 2^nd half again plagued by penalties and forced to punt.

The Tigers knew what to do orchestrating a long 70-yard clock eating drive converting on fourth down twice along the way and Jacob Schmitmeyer hit paydirt from five yards out to go up 18-7 after the third failed two-point conversion.

Ansonia sophomore running back Jacob Schmitmeyer cuts back behind the kick-out block by Zane Henderson for a 5-yard TD.

With 3:29 left in the 3^rd quarter Preble Shawnee knew they had to respond and moved the ball out to midfield on a few quick plays setting up a Brody Morton pass that saw Reece Smith go up an over the defender and tip the ball back to himself with a spectacular catch and strolled into the endzone for a much-needed 60-yard score.  Their two-point conversion attempt failed … but they had narrowed the lead to 18-13.

Preble Shawnee Reece Smith gave the Arrows a shot in the arm with a great catch for a quick 60-yard score to close the gap to 18-13.

In classic Ansonia style they would break the arrows in more ways than one with a time-consuming drive that included two, fourth down conversions … but on the third 4^th down attempt Shawnee held taking over on downs at their own 9-yard line with about 5 minutes left to play.

If anyone questioned Ansonia’s defense, they gave answers with Preble Shawnee facing a 4^th and 1 on their own 24-yard line and the Arrows, not sure if they would get the ball back if they punted, decided to go for it.

Preble Shawnee Lane Lovey had success on the ground in the first half but the Arrows possessions were limited by the ball control offense of Ansonia.  

The Tigers stopped them short of the first down and a few plays later Zane Henderson scored his 2^nd TD of the night from five yards to go up 24-13 with a few minutes left in the contest.

Preble tried to work quickly to respond and a pass from Morton to Blankenship near the five-yard line was tipped by the Tigers Cade Shellhaas and Jacob Schmitmeyer was able to snag the carom for his 2nd interception allowing the Tigers to do what they did all game long and run out the clock for a victory.

Preble Shawnee coach Dave Maddox was disappointed that his team didn’t play their best in what likely determined the league championship. 

“We just made way too many mistakes. I don't know how many penalties we had, there's absolutely no way you can win, beat any team if you have that many penalties. We didn't show up ready to go, not focused and they punched us in the mouth. We waited too long to respond, and we still had opportunities throughout  the game but didn't take advantage and put ourselves in too big of a hole,” Maddox stated.

The Arrows won the first league championship back in 2021 and had hopes for a 2^nd title but now needs help from Mississinawa Valley next week, while they play Dixie.

Coach Hall knew his team was in for a good one with Preble Shawnee and saw his team steadily improved over the course of the year with many questioning if they would be up for the challenge.


Ansonia coach Adam Hall has got his Tigers poised for post season after winning a big game against DV Preble Shawnee to claim at least a share of the WOAC Football Title.

“We know that Preble Shawnee is a good football team. We've seen the scores, we've seen them on film. We've seen them play in person. They're good every year. They're a physical football team. They're an athletic football team and we knew we'd have our hands full coming in tonight. I think that they deserve a lot of credit for how they play, how they prepare, but our guys made plays tonight. And, you know, I think that our defense played as good as you could play, as good as we could ask them to play tonight, and offensively, holding onto the ball, doing what we do, it works out for us,” Hall said after the game.

It was a formula that has worked well for Ansonia over the years, and they have the results to prove it.

Hall who is in his 3^rd year at the helm for the Tigers saw his team clinch at least a share of the League Title and with a win at Mississinawa Valley next week will earn an outright championship and the third straight WOAC football championship for the Tigers who shared it with Tri-Village in 2022.

When push came to shove it was the Tigers winning most of the battles.  Here they were able to stop the Arrows on a fourth down and one late in the game.
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Girls Volleyball All-Conference Selections have been made for 2024. (Dale Barger Photo)

The Western Ohio Athletic Conference final season record and All-Conference selections for Volleyball in 2024.

The Arcanum girls’ volleyball team made it back-to-back championships and won the league title outright in 2024 going undefeated in the WOAC.  

Final League Standings
Arcanum  11-0
Mississinawa Valley  9-2
Newton   8-3
Tri-Village  8-3
Ansonia  7-4
Franklin Monroe 7-4
Dixie   5-6
Twin Valley South 4-7
Preble Shawnee 3-8
National Trail  2-9
Bradford  2-9
Tri-County North 0-11

All Conference First Team
Gabriella Leeper  Ansonia
Mackenzie Byrne  Arcanum
Grace Fry   Arcanum
Lexy Gibbons   Arcanum
Addie Bauman  Franklin Monroe
Allie Muhlenkamp  Franklin Monroe
Cora Hoggatt   Mississinawa Valley
Sienna Montgomery  Newton
Ava Rapp   Newton
Sallie Montgomery  Preble Shawnee
Mylee Bierly   Tri-Village
Lilly Camacho  Tri-Village

All Conference Second Team
Lydia Hahn   Ansonia
Kamryn Beisner  Arcanum
Caroline Long   Arcanum
Chloe Hocker   Bradford
Kendyl Hypes   Dixie
Ava Simon   Dixie
Danika Neargarder  Mississinawa Valley
Allyson Waymire  Mississinawa Valley
Haydn Davies   National Trail
Estie Rapp   Newton
Paityn Davidson  Tri-County North
Clara Meyers   Twin Valley South

All Conference Special Mention
Aleah Shilt   Ansonia
Cameron Garbig  Arcanum
Addysen Mills   Bradford
Teegan Miller   Dixie
Layni Ressler   Franklin Monroe
Makenna Hoggatt  Mississinawa Valley
Evie Hoffman   National Trail
Makenna Kesling  Newton
Macy Price   Preble Shawnee
Kiley Adkins   Tri-County North
Ava Pipenger   Tri-Village
Danika Caldwell  Twin Valley South

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Sienna Montgomery – Newton
Sienna Montgomery puts down one of her 346 Kills this year.  (Dale Barger Photo)

Sienna Montgomery led the league this with 346 kills and has 850 career kills as well.  She was 2nd in blocks with 45 for the Lady Indians and was named the WOAC Volleyball Player of the Year in 2024.

COACH OF THE YEAR

Jacie Holman – Arcanum
Jacie Holman looks on as her team competes in big game at Mississinawa Valley.  Holman won back-to-back Coach of the Year awards.  (Dale Barger Photo)

Jacie Holman’s team went undefeated in the conference this year and is currently 18-3 overall with the number one seed going into the post season.  Her team won back-to-back WOAC volleyball championships, and she also can claim back-to-back WOAC Coach of the Year awards winning in 2023 and now 2024. 

Congratulations to everyone who earned all-league honors and good luck in post season.
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