Riley Verb, a junior at Bluffton High School, qualified for the 200 individual medley (IM) and the 100 breaststroke events at the OHSAA Ohio State High School Division II Swimming and Diving Championship. The event will be held Feb. 23-26 in Canton, Ohio at Canton McKinley High School's C.T. Branin Natatorium.
At the district meet in Bowlng Green, Verb finished second in the 200 IM with a time of 2:00:74 which is a personal record, dropping 2:54 seconds from his seed time. A second-place finish in the event resulted in an automatic ticket for Verb to the state tournament. At the state tournament, he is seeded 12 out of the 24 swimmers who qualified for the 200 IM.
The Bluffton University men's basketball team was unable to seal the deal on a rare Friday night of hoops in the Sommer Center. Rival Defiance clinched the #3 seed in the upcoming HCAC Tournament with a 67-62 win over the Beavers.
Bluffton cashed out with a 6-17 mark overall and 2-13 in the Heartland Conference, while Defiance improved to 11-11 and 9-6 in the HCAC. Defiance will host #6 seed Franklin College on Sunday, Feb. 20.
The Bluffton University women's basketball team will go into the Heartland Conference tournament on a cool six-game winning streak after carving up Defiance 78-59 on Senior Night in the Sommer Center, February 18.
Bluffton enters the tourney as the #2 seed, sporting an 18-6 mark with a 13-4 record in HCAC play. Defiance fell to 13-9 and 9-7 in the conference and the Yellow Jackets will make the long trip to Terre Haute, Ind., for a Sunday matchup at Rose-Hulman.
Playing at home, the Bluffton High School boys basketball team ran out to an early lead and easily dispatched visiting Toledo Rogers 60-43 in a non-conference game Saturday night, February 19.
The Pirates led 13-6 after the first quarter. They extended the margin to 31-15 at halftime as Trey Boblitt drilled three second quarter triples.
Trenton Donley knocked down three trifectas in the third period to help Bluffton stretch the margin to an insurmountable 47-25 count heading to the final stanza.
The Pandora-Gilboa High School boys basketball team completed a perfect Blanchard Valley Conference season in front of a near capacity home crowd on Saturday, February 19. P-G claimed the outright BVC title, beating second place Liberty-Benton 50-40.
With both teams known for playing tough defense, it was no surprise for P-G to be holding a slim 10-5 lead after just eight minutes of action, thanks to the P-G defense forcing three charge fouls in the quarter. The surprise was that P-G would never trail the rest of the way, stretching their advantage to 24-16 by halftime.
Bluffton High School senior point guard Sami Scoles was named second team All-Northwest Conference in voting recently conducted by the league coaches.
Heady southpaw Scoles led the Pirate girls in assists to lead Bluffton to a 16-6 record and a 4-4 NWC mark. The Pirates tied for fifth in the nine-team league with Leipsic.
Senior wing Kylie Monday and freshman post Ayla Grandey were voted honorable mention all-league.
Sophomore Alyvia Lindeman of Delphos Jefferson was named NWC Player of the Year.
