By Cort Reynolds
NAPOLEON - Ada senior Klava Katayama won two individual events handily to lead the Bulldog girls to a strong fifth-place finish at the season-opening Napoleon Wildcat Invitational meet Saturday.
Katayama swam to victory in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly events. She won by a whopping 9.04 seconds in the 200 free, and touched the wall 8.74 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher in the 100 fly.
Ada freshman Carlie Oldfield took fourth in two races, while junior Paige Cole took home a fourth and seventh.
Senior linebacker Mark Niles (Miramar, Fla.) has been named Second Team All-America in 2019 by the American Football Coaches Association.
Niles is a three-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference honoree and received the Gene Slaughter Award as the league's most valuable linebacker.
He was named First Team All-OAC in 2019 and 2018 and Second Team All-Conference in 2017.
Niles led the league in tackles for the second consecutive year in 2019, averaging 11.9 per game, which was more than two tackles per game better then his closest competitor.
By Cort Reynolds
RAWSON - The Ada wrestling team started its 2019-20 campaign by finishing fifth at the annual Cory-Rawson Duals Saturday.
Delphos Jefferson won the tournament with a perfect 5-0 record. Van Buren (4-1) was second, C-R (3-2) came in third and Ada was fifth (1-4).
The Bulldogs beat Toledo Woodward 18-12 for their win.
"Ada wrestled pretty well, considering how young and inexperienced a majority of our kids are," said new Bulldog head coach David Ames. "Sadly, we were without our 113-pounder because Antonio Petitt suffered a severe concussion earlier in the week.
Ohio Northern women's indoor track and field head coach Jason Maus believes his team has earned something ahead of the 2019-20 season.
"Pressure is a privilege," Maus said.
It's a phrase Maus has heard for years, and this season he believes it applies to the Polar Bears. But rather than using that phrase word for word, Maus is making a slight adjustment.
ONU women's basketball team won and the men's team lost in recent acxtion. Here's the report on both games.
Women's game
Through five games, Ohio Northern women's basketball head coach Michele Durand has learned a couple things about her team. The unbeaten Polar Bears are tough and have a team-first mentality.
Those characteristics were on display Saturday inside the ONU Sports Center. Northern used a late fourth-quarter flurry to edge Mount Union 58-57 in its Ohio Athletic Conference opener.
By Cort Reynolds
OTTOVILLE - The visiting Ada boys basketball team battled hard but lost at tough Ottoville 68-51 Saturday night in a non-league contest.
The Big Green improved to 2-1 with the home victory, while the Bulldogs fell to 1-3 with the defeat.
"It was a great effort from our guys for 3.5 quarters," said Bulldog fourth-year head coach Dre White. "It was a single possession game in the fourth quarter, and then we ran out of gas."
