The Opening Drive: Week 10

“The Windup:” “The Opening Drive” Week 10 Script

We start “The Windup” today with a brand new edition of our “Opening Drive” segment.  This is where we highlight some of the sport stories making news in the Grant County area from the past week. 

There are new state champions in the world of gymnastics that have Grant County connections.  Cherish Allen and Kendal Emmons won the state championship in their respective divisions last week in West Lafayette.  8-year-old Allen, who lives in Wabash, won the Junior D division in vault with a score of 9-point-7.  Gas City resident Emmons, who is also just 8-years old, won in the Junior C division in the high beam with a score of 9-point-6-2-5.  Both gymnasts participate with the Mid-America U-S-A Gymnastic group that calls Marion home.  While Allen and Emmons participated in the Level 3 state championships, the Level 5 state championships are this weekend in Indianapolis.  The Mid-America group will have 5 more gymnasts participating in the event.

In women’s college basketball, the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association, also known as the N-A-I-A, announced their All-American teams this week and the Indiana Wesleyan Lady Wildcats saw two names pop up on the list.  Senior Center Krystal Stoneking received first team honors while Junior Forward Paige Smith received an honorable mention.  Stoneking led the Wildcats with over 16 points and 7 rebounds per game for the 33-and-3 Wildcats team.  Meanwhile, Smith averaged 12 points and 6 rebounds per game while coming off the bench.  Taylor University Junior Guard Erin Guarneri also received NAIA All-American honors by making the honorable mention team. She averaged almost a double-double with 13 points and 9 rebounds this season.

We finish the drive today with Grant County’s connection to the N-C-A-A Division One Men’s Basketball National Tournament this week.  When 13-seed Ohio plays 4-seed Michigan tonight, two Taylor University alums will be on the sidelines coaching the teams.  1994 graduate John Groce is in his 4^th season leading the Ohio Bobcats. The former Trojan has been on the sidelines as a coach for 19 seasons now and has made the postseason in 17 of those years. On the other end of the court, 1976 graduate Jeff Meyer is an assistant coach for the Wolverines.  Meyer has been just as successful as Groce as his teams have made the N-C-A-A or N-I-T postseason tournaments in 11 of the last 14 years.  You can see the game tonight starting at 7:20 p.m. on T-N-T. 

That does it for the drive today.  Make sure you listen for the Fortress Sports Update airing throughout the week updating you on all the local Grant County high school sporting events.