Nine months ago, Upper Sandusky High School senior Abbey Wenger swam against the fastest swimmers in the state. In approximately 11 months, she will regularly swim against the fastest swimmers in the Mid-American Conference as well as others from across the nation on the Division I level.

Upper Sandusky’s eighth grade girls basketball team pulled away in the second half for a 45-20 victory against Carey on Tuesday.

The defense was steady, so getting separation from Riverdale on Saturday evening was just a matter of creating enough offense. Alivia Oney hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter to cap a big run that gave Upper Sandusky some cushion and allowed them to pull away for a 49-32 victory against Riverdale.

BUCYRUS — Elgin senior forward Josi Wolf didn’t realize the shot went in. Moments after forcing a Wynford turnover and watching her teammate, junior forward Racheal Schoen, bury a jumper to give the Elgin girls basketball team the lead once again, the Comets quickly regained possession, and Wolf buried a jumper and a plus-one free throw to extend the lead.

Led by Wynford’s Seth Benedict’s first-team selection, eight area players received All-Ohio football honors in Divisions VI and VII on Sunday.

MOUNT BLANCHARD — The Riverdale girls basketball team was looking for revenge Friday night in the season opener against rival Carey in a non-conference game. They found it, defeating Carey 40-36 in a thriller that went down to the wire and was decided by free throws. The teams shot a combined 60 free throws in the game, with Riverdale connecting on 20-of-29 while Carey was just 13-of-31 from the charity stripe.

NEW RIEGEL — Take on a leadership role and keep shooting, even when the shots aren’t falling. That was the message that former Upper Sandusky guard Abigail Fogle gave to her sister, Upper Sandusky senior guard Alexis Fogle, heading into the 2018-19 season, a season in which the Rams will be without Abigail Fogle and Megan Hensel, who accounted for over 50 percent of the Rams’ scoring last season.

BUCYRUS — It does not matter to coach Amy Taylor-Sheldon how Wynford got there. The end result was a 53-51 victory that makes the Royals 1-0 for the first time for almost all of the team’s players. The Vikings rallied from 12 down in the fourth quarter to take a late two-point lead, but Lyndie Williams’ bucket tied it, and Olivia Grove made two free throws with 36.5 seconds left to help the Royals survive for their first season-opening victory since beating the Vikings 54-42 in 2016.

Carey’s Sarah Reinhart and Upper Sandusky’s Troy Mawer earned the top honors on the All-Daily Chief-Union cross country team as runners of the year, while Riverdale’s Kim Rall was named coach of the year. Reinhart, a freshman, was the top girls runner this season, posting a season average race time of 20:27.

Four Upper Sandusky competition cheerleading squads competed at the Oak Harbor Cheerleading Invitational last weekend. Not only did every squad — the Tiny Rams, Mini Rams, Little Rams and junior high — win first place in their individual division, but the Rams also earned the Nancy Leaser award for the highest school district average.