Mount Vernon High School

Mount Vernon high School softball coach Ryan Pentz cautions that these early games are only scrimmages before the real action starts for the Lady Jackets, this weekend in Florida. But in their pre-season tune-up against Highland, March 22, the Lady Jackets were running on all cylinders, hitting, pitching, errorless fielding and pushing runs across early and late.

Students at Mount Vernon High School donated over 40 items for the cats at the Knox County Humane Society. and over 100 items for the dogs at the Knox County Animal Shelter.

Coming off a big season in which they went 19-4 and 10-0 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference, the Mount Vernon Lady Jackets softball team is looking to fill the gaps left by seven graduated starters off last year’s team. The 2021 squad won their fourth straight conference title, outscored their opponents 274-67 and advanced to the OHSAA Softball State Div. 1 Regional Semifinals, where their run was stopped by Pickerington Central, 6-2, on May 26.

Mount Vernon Highs School’s head baseball coach, Nate Hunt, said the challenge that the Jackets face year after year is that they play in a tough conference (Ohio Cardinal Conference) and all of those teams are NOT in the Central District. Hunts said, “Because of this, we have to play a tough non-conference schedule in order to have some respect in the central district. The goal for this season is to win the O.C.C. and continue to improve every day and be as prepared as we can for the tournament.”

In two recent sectional and divisional high school wrestling tournaments, the Mount Vernon yellow Jackets placed third (sectionals) and eighth in regionals, and the team saw 10 wrestlers move forward to the regionals, then several more move on after the regionals.

Tim Zeller, graduate of Mount Vernon High School, class of 2017, need only the first week of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference baseball season to win Athlete of the Week honors in the league for his college school, Ashland University (Ashland, Ohio).Zeller earned following a big weekend at the plate and on the mound for the Eagles at the Frank Loria Invitational in Salem, W.Va.

Emma Rinehart, Mount Vernon High School’s only female wrestler, placed third in the 115-pound weight class, at the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association (OHSWCA) Girls State Wrestling Tournament , Feb. 19-22 at Hilliard Davidson High School in Hilliard.

The Mount Vernon wrestling team finished third among seven teams at last weekend’s OCC Championships, Feb. 19 at Ashland HS. Defending champion Ashland was supplanted by West Homes to win the Ohio Cardinal title. The Knights amassed 221.5 points, Ashland 218.5 and the Yellow jackets 195. Mount Vernon had four wrestlers win gold medals. Colton Spurgeon at 126 pounds, Rylan Firebaugh at 132, Jake Taylor at 150 and Zach Thomas at 175 all won their weight division titles.

The competition season for the Yellow Jacket Swim team is ending, with Districts coming up this Saturday Feb. 19. Last weekend, the Yellow Jackets competed in the Sectionals, and after the waves had settled, Bre McCluskey, Rylee Jarosz, Anna Rhodebeck, and Julie King will move on in their 200 freestyle relay, and 200 medley relay. Jarosz qualified in her individual 100 breaststroke event.

Logan Meyer, a 2018 graduate of Mount Vernon High School, was a four-year letter-winner in both track and cross country and a three-year team MVP in both sports.

Three Mount Vernon wrestlers struck gold at last weekend’s Ron Thomas Senior Invitational at Jonathan Alder High School in. Plain City, Ohio, and finished second among 21 teams. The Jackets were edged out of first by Licking Valley, 170-169. Grove City finished third with 154 points and host Jonathan Alder was fourth with 146.

Girls Softball Registration set for February-MarchMount Vernon Girls Softball will be holding registration for the 2022 Spring Season.

Despite huge game by Payne, Trojans beat Danville by 23. Spencer Payne had a career night for Danville, but it wasn’t enough for the Blue Devils to derail undefeated (in KMAC) Centerburg, Monday night. The Trojans countered with six players in double figures to dominate the Devils for a, 88-65 victory, Jan. 18. Centerburg improved to 12-1 on the season and 8-0 in KMAC and Danville fell to 4-10 and 2-8 in KMAC)

Mount Vernon Wrestling: Yellow Jackets place 6th at Boardman Spartan Meet. The Mount Vernon wrestling team competed in the Boardman Spartan meet last weekend at Boardman High School, and the Yellow Jackets finished sixth of 17 teams.

Mount Vernon wins a pair on the road over West Holmes and Olentangy Berlin. Mount Vernon’s boys basketball teams won two games on back-to-back nights on the road, to run their record to 8-7 (4-2 Ohio Cardinal Conference). On Jan. 14, the Yellow Jackets topped West Holmes, 56-54 and the next evening, the Jackets got the better of Olentangy Berlin, 60-43

Trojans remain unbeaten in KMAC with 71-32 romp over Pirates. Centerburg improved to 11-1 and remained unbeaten in KMAC play at 7-0, with a thorough 39-point shellacking of Cardington-Lincoln (3-10, 1-7 KMAC), 71-32, Tuesday night at home. Controlling the action and shooting well, Centerburg hit 18 field goals and eight threes, to six and six for Cardington. Protecting the ball well, Centerburg turned the ball over only three times, to 10 for C-L.

The Mount Vernon Yellow Jackets swimming season was on hiatus, and after three weeks of intensive training, the swimmers resumed competition. At the Mansfield Senior High School Tyger Championship Invitational on Jan. 8, Yellow Jacket boys finished in seventh place among 14 teams, and the girls squad came in fifth, for a combined finish in fourth place.

Yellow Jackets get two 20-pt. performances, but lose to Ashland 67-65. Mount Vernon rode two big scoring nights to a fourth-quarter lead, but was overtaken by Ashland, 67-65, Jan. 7.. Nolan Belcher scored 22, Trevor Buttke poured in 20 and the Jackets (5-7 and 3-2 in Ohio Cardinal play) got 13 points from Caden Rowland, but their big nights were for naught as Ashland improved to 7-7 and 4-2 in OCC play on a 35-point night by Garrett Denbow.

The Mount Vernon News sports department’s 17th ATHLETE OF THE WEEK nominations continues the established procedure of spotlighting student-athletes’ skills and performances on the fields and courts of action. For the second week in a row, we had outstanding performances on the mats and the hard court, but this time the roles were reversed, with a female wrestler and a male hoops star taking the spotlight.

MOUNT VERNON – A pair of comebacks weren’t enough to overcome Mount Vernon’s biggest nonconference rival.The host Yellow Jackets erased an eight-point deficit in the fourth period Wednesday, but succumbed to foul troubles late.