ADA — Senior Alexis Kirkbride (Zanesville/Bishop Rosecrans) poured in a career-best 15 points as the No. 15-ranked Ohio Northern women's basketball team powered past Capital 64-38 in its Ohio Athletic Conference opener on Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.
With their fifth consecutive victory, the Polar Bears improve to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in the OAC, while the Crusaders drop to 2-3, 0-1.
Kirkbride was a blistering 5-for-6 from the 3-point line, tallying a career-high 15 points to lead the Polar Bears offensively.
Sophomore Nate Barcaskey (Moon Township, Pa./Moon Area) won the individual title at heavyweight to lead the Ohio Northern wrestling team to a second-place finish at the 37th annual ONU Invitational on Saturday.
The Polar Bears had a strong outing, finishing the tournament with 11 wrestlers placers in eight of the 10 weight classes.
By Cort Reynolds
ADA - The Ada boys basketball team tipped off its season with a convincing 53-35 victory over visiting Hardin County rival Ridgemont Friday night in the season opener.
The Bulldogs held youthful Ridgemont without a field goal over the final 8:44, and outscored the Gophers 17-5 in the fourth period to finalize the win.
"We did a much better job defending in the second half," said Ada second-year head coach Dre White. "We only allowed four two-point field goals the entire second half.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Junior Ian McVey (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) shattered the school record in the men's 5,000-meter run indoors by 26.72 seconds at the Grand Valley State (Mich.) Holiday Open meet on Friday night at the Kelly Family Sports Center.
McVey ran a 14:32.11 in the 5k, topping the previous mark of 14:58.83 by Nate Rosenbaum in 2015. He finished 13th of 56 runners in the event, which was comprised primarily of NCAA Division I and II runners.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Senior 5-time National Champion Emily Richards(Delaware/Hayes) shattered the school record in the women's 3,000-meter run indoors by 40.62 seconds at the Grand Valley State (Mich.) Holiday Open meet on Friday night at the Kelly Family Sports Center.
Richards covered the 3,000 meters in 9:23.61, more than 40 seconds faster than the previous record of 10:04.23 set in 2013 by Allison (Steinbrunner) Kwiat.
Senior Emily Richards (Delaware/Hayes) added to her impressive resume as she was named an Ohio Athletic Conference Women's Cross Country Co-Runner of the Year for the 2017 season.
Otterbein's Claire Lamb was also named OAC Co-Runner of the Year.
Richards was named the Runner Up at both the OAC Championships and at the Div. III Great Lakes Regional meets, before going on to be named an All-American at the 2017 Div. III National Championships. She earned the OAC Runner of the Year honor for the first time in her career.
