“The best of the rest” offers reason to celebrate

• Clay senior Alison Zsigray, Clay sophomore Kirsten Zsigray, Eastwood junior Amy Myers, Oak Harbor junior Katie Bechtel, and two Oak Harbor relay teams (400 and 200 freestyle—sophomore Jenna Diekman, junior Samantha Reynolds, freshman Allie Reynolds, sophomore Olivia Porter) qualify for the state swim meet in Canton.
• Clay softball coach Brenda Radabaugh gets 300th career win in a 14-4 romp over defending Northern Lakes League champion Anthony Wayne at Pacesetter Park. After another win, Radabaugh was 301-118 for her career (includes a stint at Central Catholic) midway through the 2008 season, and her Clay teams won three consecutive City League titles and three Great Lakes League titles. 
• Clay’s 6-9 center Zac Taylor (Toledo) nominated to fill one of 24 positions on the McDonald’s All-American High School All-Star Team. Taylor averaged 21 points, 11 rebounds, and six blocks per game his senior season at Clay.
• East Toledo boxer Aaron Dunbar wins the Toledo Toughman contest 186-214 pound championship at SeaGate Centre.
• East Toledo resident Ray St. John’s Hockeytown Bus rides again in the downtown Detroit parade as the Red Wings win the 2008 Stanley Cup. The bus is a touring vehicle painted with the slogan “Hockeytown” that is easily recognizable by any Red Wings follower.
• Eastwood golfer Alysa Shimel is eighth at the girls’ state golf meet. The junior, who placed fourth as a freshman, shot an 80-76—156 on The Ohio State University’s Gray Course, earning her Second Team All-Ohio honors.
• Eastwood/Genoa golfers team with a professional to win the Jamie Farr Junior Pro-Am golf tourney. The Genoa golfers, Rachel Brown and Emily Mock, teamed with two Eastwood golfers, Alyssa Shimel and Mikayla Young, and LPGA professional Damille Downey, to shoot a 15-under-par 56 and beat the runner-up team by two strokes.
• Former Eastwood track star Michael O’Brien (Ohio Northern junior) finished third in the 800-meter dash finals at the NCAA Division III championships, earning All-American honors for the third time in his career. O’Brien was named the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association Great Lakes Region Athlete of the Year for the third time.
• Gary Quisno resigns after coaching football 29 years at Oak Harbor, earning a record of 224-83. In addition, his teams appeared in two state final fours in 1999 and 2005. Thirty-one of his players were selected onto the first or second team all-state.
• Genoa girls’ basketball Second Team All-Ohio Center Brittany Darling (Owens) plays in the Indiana-Ohio “Border Wars” All-Star Game.
• Gibsonburg sprint car driver Stuart Brubaker, 24, wins both Fremont and Attica season championships. Brubaker beat out runner-up Kevin Lee by 24 points for the 305 sprints title at Fremont. He competed in 19 races at Attica, winning four and having two second place finishes.
• Graytown 70-year-old resident Dorothy Gackstetter qualifies for National Senior Olympics after taking the Gold Medal in three events and the Silver in three others during the State Senior Olympics at Kettering Fairmont H.S. near Dayton.
• Kent State junior wrestler Drew Lashaway (Eastwood) was one of five Golden Flashes to qualify for the NCAA Division I tournament in St. Louis.
• Lake boys/girls soccer teams both reach regional tournament. The Lake girls went 12-4-4 and reached the D-II regional semifinals, and went 6-0-2 in the SLL to win the league’s inaugural league title. The boys win eight straight to advance with a 15-4-1 record to the D-III regional final, losing 4-0 to eventual state champion Ottawa Hills.
• Lake Erie Wrestling Club brings home Olympic Gold at the AAU Junior Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Tournament in Novi, Michigan. The LEWC send four teams to the dual-match tournament, with its first team capturing the title at the Rock Financial Showplace. 
• Lake’s Tim DeCant becomes a Second Team All-Ohio baseball player and 2008 Alan Miller Jewelers Baseball Player of the Year after the senior outfielder hit .382 with 12 RBI and 29 stolen bases.
• Lakota leaves the Suburban Lakes League citing dropping membership and enters the Midland Athletic League starting in 2009-10. The SLL invited Rossford for consideration for membership, but then voted Rossford down, leaving the SLL with seven teams for the next two school years. If Rossford had left the Northern Lakes League, it would have continued a domino affect that could’ve led to Clay entering the NLL.
• Oregon bowler Troy Wollenbacher becomes a regular on the PBA Tour, earning his exemption at the Tour Trials in June of 2007. 
• Oregon softball players Alyssa Frobase (St. Ursula) and Mollie Berry (Clay) compete for their college teams at NCAA regionals. Berry helped Wright State win the Horizon League tournament in Chicago, and Frobase was on Kent State’s team as the Golden Flashes opened the Ann Arbor regional against Notre Dame.
• Oregon ultimate fighter Cody Allen, 22, wins national martial arts title in the 161-pound class at the United States Fighting Championship Mixed Martial Arts Championships in Angola, Indiana. The Clay graduate trains at 360 Martial Arts on Sylvania Avenue.
• The East Toledo Junior Football League celebrates its 60th year. For ages 8-14, its Major Division plays for the Earl Cousino Cup, which has been around since 1972. The league’s motto is “Education through sports since 1948.”
• The Oregon Clay Wrestling Team earned All-American status at the AAU Disney Duals at the Walt Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla. Coached by Troy McLaughlin, the team had five medalists — Nick Garcia, Kody Sutter, Kirk McLaughlin, Reid Rayfield, and Jacob Staebler.
• The Wood County Dartball League celebrates 70 years at its league banquet. The league consists of 12 teams from 11 different area churches and is open to any denomination. Teams come from Bowling Green, Luckey, New Rochester, Pemberville, and Stony Ridge and plays on Monday nights.
• Veteran sportswriter George Cantor releases a 256-biography about Paul Brown titled Paul Brown: The Man Who Invented Modern Football, which features several pages on historic Toledo Waite’s football teams from the days when Browns’ Massillon Tigers played Waite. With a foreword by Bill Walsh, the book is available for $24.95 at www.triumphbooks.com.
• Waite’s renovated Mollenkopf Stadium press box is formally rededicated and named for the late Andy Toth. Toth had co-captained Waite’s last City League championship football team in 1963, receiving All-City honors, and he earned two letters in baseball at the University of Toledo.
• Woodmore sophomore cross country runner Lacy Nagy advances to state by placing second in the regional meet with a time of 19:33.15. Also qualifying for state is Gibsonburg senior Elias Dandar in the D-III boys meet and St. John’s Jesuit senior Chris Madaras, a Pemberville resident.