FHS swimmers look to defend NLL titles

BOWLING GREEN – Several Findlay High swimmers will be looking to defend their crowns and return to the top of the podium when the Northern Lakes League championship meets are held Saturday at Bowling Green State University. Senior Jake Best was a three-event league champion in last year's NLL meet. Best won individual titles in the 200-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly. He was also on the first-place 200 medley relay team with Maddox Debelak, Sam Dolan and Kai Borsay. Dolan has graduated, but Debelak, who won an individual title in the 100 backstroke, and Borsay are back. Sophomores Tillie Abbott and Norah Dolan will likely lead the FHS girls. Abbott was a state qualifier in the sprints last season. She and Dolan were also half of the NLL winning 200 medley relay team. The NLL meet gets underway today with diving competition at Napoleon High School. The swimming events will be held Saturday at BGSU. Anthony Wayne swept both the boys and girls Buckeye Division swim titles last season and is expected to be the team to beat once again. Napoleon and Fremont Ross are two of the top teams in the Cardinal Division. One of Northwest Ohio's longest and strongest hockey rivalries will take place on Friday when Findlay hosts Bowling Green in a Northwest Hockey Conference battle between the Red Division teams. Findlay captured the first OHSAA-sanctioned state tournament in 1978 and won another tile in 1983. Bowling Green owns six state championships in prep hockey. Findlay is at BGSU on Saturday to face Perrysburg in another Red Division matchup. Findlay's boys basketball team, 2-6 overall and 0-1 in NLL Buckeye Division play, will host league-leading Perrysburg (7-2, 2-0 NLL) on Friday. Immediately following that game, the FHS Gymnasium will undergo a transformation as wrestling mats and gymnastics apparatus are set up for the annual Beauty and the Beast event. Competition in both wrestling and gymnastics is set to get underway Saturday at 11 a.m. A full slate of Blanchard Valley Conference boys basketball games is also on tap for Friday. Van Buren (7-1, 4-0 BVC) and Pandora-Gilboa (5-3, 3-0 BVC) currently sit atop the standings. Four teams looking to stay in the thick of things will be going head-to-head on Friday, with Ada (8-3, 3-1 BVC) traveling to Liberty-Benton (6-3, 3-1 BVC) and Arlington (7-3, 2-1 BVC) hosting Riverdale (5-3, 2-1 BVC). Things could shake out even more next week Friday when Ada is at Van Buren and Arlington hosts Liberty-Benton.