- WEEKLY POLL
Top 25 of 2007
Four-time state discus champion heads top 25 list
By J. Patrick Eaken
Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com
Winning a state championship is the dream of every high school athlete.
Winning a state title all four years of high school was enough to
gain Woodmore discus thrower Emily Pendleton attention
in the nationally-famous sports magazine, Sports Illustrated.
Those accomplishments are enough to put Pendleton at No. 1 among The Press top 25 sporting events for the Eastern Maumee Bay region in 2007.
Three local wrestlers, Eric Cubberly (Eastwood), Cody Magrum ( Oak Harbor), and Nick Purdue ( Genoa) also won state championships in 2007, and for Magrum, it was his second consecutive. Lake diver Brittany TenEyck won her second consecutive state championship, too.
There were national championships, too, including the second consecutive NCAA Division II wrestling title by Antonio Guerro (Waite) and two NCAA D-III 800 meter championship runs, including both indoor and outdoor seasons, by Ohio Northern’s Jimmy O’Brien (Eastwood).
There was tragedy, too, like the Bluffton baseball team bus crash in Atlanta with Cody McPherson ( Lake) on board, which also drew national attention. Of course, the razing of the 61-year-old Sports Arena at One Main Street was considered a tragedy by many Toledo residents, also.
Here are the top 25 teams, events, or individuals of 2007 who stand out among the others (be sure to read the complete stories on each item at www.presspublications.com) —
1. Now at the University of Michigan, former Wildcat discus thrower Pendleton broke the all-time record for all divisions in Ohio with a throw of 183 feet, 3 inches and completed a four-year sweep of the D-III state championship. In 2007, no prep thrower in the country came within 10 feet of Pendleton’s top effort. Read Full Story...
2. Guerro ran the table in the NCAA D-II 157 class to capture his second national title. He completed a 31-4 season. In 2006, he was 29-6 and won the 149 crown. Read Full Story...
3. O’Brien, a sophomore at Ohio Northern, wins the NCAA 800 meter run outdoor track and field championship in Wisconsin after taking the indoor national championship earlier in the year. Read Full Story...
4. Cubberly (51-1), Magrum (33-4), and Purdue (44-3) take state titles at 145 (D-II), 171 (D-II), and 189 (D-III). For Magrum, it was his second consecutive title and this year as a senior, may become the Oak Harbor’s first three-time state champion if he repeats. Read Full Story...
5. TenEyck scores 475.55, just 10 points off the state record, to win the D-II one-meter state diving championship. Read Full Story...
6. Bowling Green Falcon guard Kate Achter (Clay) becomes just the 22 nd player in school history to reach 1,000 career points, and only the eighth to do so prior to her senior season. She leads the nationally-ranked MAC champions to the NCAA Sweet 16. Read Full Story...
7. After serving Toledo for 61 years, the historic Sports Arena at One Main Street is razed. The Toledo Storm complete their final season at the “Old Barn,” but still manage to make the playoffs for the 13 th time. Read Full Story...
8. Division IV playoff qualifiers Genoa, Eastwood, and Oak Harbor football teams split a round robin schedule. “Comet Nation” celebrates a 21-14 win over Eastwood to claim an SLL title, but in the playoffs Eastwood defeats Genoa 14-7 in a highly anticipated rematch. The rematch, reminiscent of legendary rematches between Patrick Henry and Liberty Center, was the two school’s 50 th meeting on the gridiron ( Genoa leads 27-23).
For Genoa, it was the first time reaching the playoffs. The Eagles and Comets won their first playoff game, and Eastwood reaches the regional finals, losing to Marion Pleasant (which lost to eventual state champion Coldwater, which defeated nationally-ranked Youngstown Cardinal Mooney). Meanwhile, Oak Harbor defeats Genoa, loses to Eastwood, and wins an SBC championship. Read Full Story...
9. NFL history has not forgotten two area residents — Lake father Jim Russell and former Waite running back Curtis Johnson. Fifty years ago, Russell was an offensive lineman for the last Detroit Lions team to win an NFL championship (1957). Russell’s sons, Marlin and Mike, played for Lake, the Toledo Rockets, and briefly in the NFL and World Football League.
Johnson, another former Rocket, was a defensive back for the Miami Dolphin’s “no-name defense,” which was 14-0 during the regular season and 17-0 after winning the Super Bowl. His Dolphins were the only team to complete the regular season undefeated in NFL history until the New England Patriots went 16-0 this season. Read Full Story...
10. The Bluffton College baseball team’s bus crashes in Atlanta with McPherson( Lake) on board. Four are killed, and McPherson, the son of a Northwood school administrator, is injured. But McPherson returns to finish the season as an all-league selection, and in the summer, joins the Ohio Trojans. The Trojans win the wood-bat CABA College World Series championship in Elgin, Illinois. Read Full Story...
11. Waite’s historic Mollenkopf Stadium receives a much needed $1.2 million facelift. Named for legendary Waite and Purdue coach Jack Mollenkopf, Northwest Ohio’s only walled-in stadium rededication occurs before the 30 th annual Oil Barrel Trophy game between East Side rivals Waite and Clay. Read Full Story...
12. After 37 years on the ice, Lake cutsvarsity hockey to help the school district through a financial crisis. School officials also cut bowling and tennis in a plan to bring the school district in line with other SLL schools. Read Full Story...
13. Clay grad Troy Wollenbecker, 29, after being a PBA member four years, gains exemption from qualifiers and joins the association’s major tour. Read Full Story...
14. Clay senior Nick Tammerine, bound for Notre Dame, amasses over 3,100 career yards and surpasses Clay and Ohio State running back Jimmy Harrell’s long held school record. Read Full Story...
15. Oregon native Justin Thomas (Clay) pitches his first two innings of major league baseball during spring training for the Seattle Mariners against the San Diego Padres. Thomas allows no base runners during the fifth and sixth innings, including back-to-back strikeouts of Terrmel Sledge and ex-Mariner Mike Cameron. Read Full Story...
16. Former Lake and Bowling Green baseball pitching standout Wade Diefenthaler joined legends like NBA basketball standout Nate Thurmond and distance runner Sid Sink in BGSU’s Athletic Hall of Fame on September 21. Read Full Story...
17. Basketball becomes “big-time” at Waite as the Indians finish a 19-1 regular season, win another City League championship, and are ranked fourth among the state’s D-I schools. All-state guard Shareese Ulis, a two-time Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press Player of the Year, surpasses 1,000 career points. Read Full Story...
18. Clay baseball and softball teams sweep City League championships. The state-ranked 25-3 baseball team, behind all-state pitcher A.J. Achter (now at Michigan State) loses to Cleveland St. Ignatius in the regional semifinal, and the state ranked softball team closed a 23-3 season with its second straight league title. Read Full Story...
19. SLL softball teams open the 2007 season 36-3 against non-league opposition. Read Full Story...
20. Familiar coaching faces Jim Welling and Don Christie return, as the former Owens College coach, Welling, takes over at Lake, and Christie at his alma mater, Oak Harbor. Todd Henline takes over at his alma mater, Eastwood, after being a long-time assistant. In football, Mike Donnelly returns to his alma mater, Clay, and Bob Abbey returns to his alma mater, Lake. Mike Vicars, a highly successful coach at Delta, comes to Genoa and brings with him success to football-hungry Comet fans. Read Full Story...
21. Genoa Christian Community Academy plays its first-ever high school basketball game last January, losing to the Tri-County Christian ( Mich.) junior varsity. 59-46. In December, the Crusaders won their first game ever during GCCA’s second season, defeating Toledo Apostolic Christian, 53-39. Read Full Story...
22. Andy Shammo of Millbury and Ken Hahn of Gibsonburg won short-track racing series titles at Fremont and Attica Speedways. Read Full Story...
23. Golfers Alyssa Shimel (Eastwood), Rachel Brown ( Genoa), and Nichole Woggon ( Oak Harbor) finish 1-2-3 in the Gold Flight at the Jamie Farr Junior Amateur. Shimel, scoring 42-72-114, was honored at the 18 th green ceremony after the Jamie Farr Open at Highland Meadows. Read Full Story...
24. City of Oregon maintenance worker Paul Rufus Drake III, the American Softball Association Umpire-in-Chief for Ohio, is selected as one of four American umpires to work the World Special Olympics Summer Games during September and October in Shanghai, China. Read Full Story...
25. Lucas McCullough, 9, son of Mike and Kelly McCullough, Luckey, won his age group at the state Pepsi NFL Punt, Pass, and Kick competition Nov. 25 at Cleveland Browns Stadium before the Browns-Houston Texans game with a distance of 235 feet, 1 inch. McCullough will be competing at the national level during an NFL playoff pre-game. Read Full Story...
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