The Opening Drive: Week 11

“The Windup:” “The Opening Drive” Week 11 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. 

“The Windup” wants to give a shout-out and congratulations to local professional bowler Ronnie Russell who is making waves overseas.  Russell finished fourth overall in the Kuwait Open in Iraq on Tuesday of this week.  He stood in 8th place after the 15-game qualifying block but put together a great string of games to finish second in the match play round with games of 299 and 289.  That performance pushed him into the championship round where he finished fourth.  Russell now ranks 18^th on the Professional Bowlers Association tour this season and has accumulated almost twenty-five thousand dollars in winnings this seasons.  He currently is in France participating in the Brunswick Euro Challenge and will return back home to Marion next week. 

Four players from the Oak Hill Girls’ Basketball team now have one more game on their schedule before they head to the off season.  Seniors Jessica Davenport, Tiffany Petro and Shancy Larson were selected for the Class 2A North team as part of the North/South Senior All-Star game.  Junior Danielle Thompson will represent Oak Hill in the Class 2A North/South Junior All-Star game.  Both games will take place on April 14^th at Lebanon High School with the junior game at 10:30 am and the senior game scheduled to begin at 4:30 pm.  Coach Todd Law acknowledges the performance of these players but also says it’s a testament to the Oak Hill team and that the Golden Eagles are a team to be recognized when it comes to high school girls’ basketball in the state of Indiana. Oak Hill went 16-and-5 this year and won the Central Indiana Conference with a perfect 7-and-0 mark.

We finish the drive today by celebrating two more sectional titles for local teams in the Grant County area…this time in Special Olympics basketball.  The Grant County Blaze and the Grant County Xtreme each won a sectional championship on Saturday at the Special Olympics Indiana’s Basketball Sectional at Taylor University.  The Xtreme defeated the ARC of Allen County Raiders, 46-to-19 in the level 4A Division Championship.  Meanwhile, the Blaze defeated the Delaware County Hawks, 29-to-12 in the Level 2A Division Championship.  These two teams move on to the Final Four in the state tournament in their respective divisions.  The Chronicle-Tribune reports the semi-final rounds will be played tomorrow with the winners in each division playing in the State Championship round on Sunday.

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.