Fulton County Ohio Media

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Perennial bowling power Bryan High School defeated both the Delta boys and girls bowling team at the Swanton Sports Center Friday afternoon. 

The Golden Bears took a large lead in the two individual matches and held on during the Baker Games to edge the Panthers 2074-2022.  Aaryan Singh led Bryan with a two-game series of 404.  Brody Waugh rolled a 361 for Delta.

Bryan Golden Bears:  Aaryan Singh (225 + 179 = 404), Alexander Douglas (200 + 172 = 372), Dakota Brandeberry (184 + 171 = 355), Skyler Crooks (187 + 159 = 316), Noah Mills (140), Justin Murphy (116), Baker Games (155 + 92 + 124 = 371)   Total = 2074

Delta Panthers:  Brody Waugh (214 + 147 = 361), Ethan Cone (188 + 168 = 356), Konrad Hawkins (151 + 134 = 285), Carter Mitchell (159 + 117 = 276), Jack Tedrick (148), Cody Stricker (110), Baker Games (123 + 200 + 163 = 486)    Total = 2022

The Lady Golden Bears were strong all across the board in beating the Delta Lady Panthers 2020-1339.  Zoey Gillet rolled a two-game series of 395 for Bryan.  Serena Shelhart led Delta with a 252.

Bryan Lady Gloden Bears:  Zoey Gillet (204 + 191 = 395), Alexis Hartman (147 + 140 = 287), Mya Federspiel (106 + 137 = 243), Polly Sleesman (188), Haylie Federspiel (165), Kyah Davis (133), Baker Games (148 + 121 + 184 = 453)    Total = 2020

Delta Lady Panthers:  Serena Shelhart (129 + 123 = 252), Kayleigh Opfer (95 + 106 = 201), Harper Stickley (93), Kathryn Mohring (84), Kiyah Leonard (78), Gabbriella Waller (68), Baker Games (125+ 130 + 92 = 347)    Total – 1339

Click on the link above to access photos from the matches. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Delta senior Brody Waugh entered the match with a 212 average.

From time to time, questions arise surrounding the Village of Swanton’s use of RITA, whose services the Village began using in July of 2009, almost 15 years ago.  What is it?  Is it an additional tax on Swanton residents?  Why do we use it and what does it do for us?  Below are some answers provided by the RITA website (www.ritaohio.com) and Swanton’s Director of Finance, Holden Benfield (fiscal@villageofswanton.us).

RITA Website: The Regional Income Tax Agency (RITA) provides services to collect income tax for municipalities in the State of Ohio.  RITA’s Board of Trustees is authorized to administer and enforce the income tax laws of each of the participating municipalities.  However, each municipal corporation retains its right to administer and enforce its own income tax laws concurrently with the Board.

RITA offers comprehensive tax collection from registration through litigation.

The Regional Income Tax Agency, known as “RITA” was formed in 1971 to administer the income tax ordinance of any Ohio municipality (city or village in Ohio) that joins the Agency through the Regional Council of Governments (RCOG).  Although not every Ohio municipality is a RCOG member, currently nearly 400 cities and villages (approximately 50% of Ohio municipalities with an income tax) utilize RITA to handle their municipal income tax collection and enforcement efforts.

Mr. Benfield: “It is Not a tax itself (this is a misconception we hear a lot). It handles the collection of our village income tax, which they then return to us in bulk monthly.  If we did not have RITA, the Municipal Office would be doing it ourselves so there’s no additional cost to the individual’s taxes.”

“For the service we get out of it, the cost to the village comes out to around the cost of a single full-time employee on an annual basis (factoring in things like benefits).  This cost gets us not only the collection processing, but has largely increased our actual collection rate opposed to when we used to do it in-house, and reduced delinquency in taxes.  For when someone is delinquent for any reason, RITA also handles both outreach and any necessary legalities surrounding the attempts at collection.  The cost is relative to how much we take in in a given month, so it generally is not set in stone.”

“More than anything, RITA reduces the overall load on our office. If we didn’t have RITA, we would likely need to add an additional staff member dedicated to that task.  Doing this would increase the strain on the office, and add more overhead and legal fees to the process which would likely end up exceeding the cost of RITA altogether.  RITA has a system that we’re able to access that lets us get delinquent reports on demand. So, we can see how much is still outstanding and how much has been reclaimed at any time.”

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The Delta Lady Panthers Junior Varsity basketball team roared out to a 23-4 halftime lead and cruised to a 32-19 victory over the Leipsic Lady Vikings in a Semi-Final game of the Bob Fisher Holiday Classic held at Swanton High School this past weekend. Delta’s Ellie Martinez led all players with 12 points. McKenzie Kruger added five, Addison Wyse had four, Grace Maynhart chipped in two and Aubree Perdew had one.

Leipsic: 3-1-8-3 = 15

Delta: 11-12-4-5 = 32

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Addison Wyse goes inside for an easy basket.

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The Swanton Lady Bulldogs rebounded from a 14-9 first quarter deficit to take a one-point lead, 26-25, over the Otsego Lady Knights by the end of the half and then really got busy.  Senior Emma Crow led a third quarter offensive explosion, scoring 11 of her team’s 25 points and Swanton went on to crush Otsego 63-38 in a Semi-Final game of the Bob Fisher Holiday Classic played at the Kevin J. McQuade Gymnasium last Friday.  The defense responded in the second half as well, holding the Knights to just 13 points.

Crow led all players with a career-high 21 points, including four shots from downtown, while fellow senior Olivia Gowing tossed in 14 points, with two bombs of her own.  Samantha Lehr scored 13 points for Otsego and Jocelyn Cornell added eight.

Otsego Lady Knights:  14-11-7-6 = 38    Samantha Lehr (13), Jocelyn Cornell (8), Ryleigh O’Brien (4), Rylee Brown (4), Savannah Villareal (3), Brooke Bergman (2), Cailyn Lorenz (2), Cailyn Rider (2)

Swanton Lady Bulldogs:  9-17-25-12 = 63    Emma Crow (21), Olivia Gowing (14), Peighton Manning (9), Ava Keiser (6), Alexia Ostrander (5), Carli Lagrange (4), Lauren Bettinger (2), Miranda Yeager (2)

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Emma Crow rises above the Otsego triple-team defense to score two of her game-high and career-high 21 points.

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The Delta Panthers’ offense scored early and often while their defense clamped down on the Swanton Bulldog offense en route to a 49-18 victory in the 2023 Bob Fischer Holiday Classic JV Boys Championship game at Swanton High School. Delta led 29-10 at halftime and increased their advantage after each of the final two quarters to bring home the trophy. Derek Sargent Jr. topped the Panthers and all players with 11 points and Zeb Kramer scored nine. Isaiah Bolyard and Drew Koder each scored six points for the Bulldogs.

Delta Panthers: 19-10-8-12 = 49  Derek Sargent Jr. (11), Zeb Kramer (9), Tyson Bower (6), Kade Lintermoot (6), Vincent Martinez (5), Jadon Lohman (4), Gary Valentine (4), Ashton Alig (2)

Swanton Bulldogs” 8-2-3-5 = 18  Isaiah Bolyard (6), Drew Koder (6), Conner Mitchey (3), Dennis Robinson (3)

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Delta Panthers JV Boys Basketball – 2023 Bob Fisher Holiday Classic Champions

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The Swanton Bulldog varsity rallied from a halftime deficit to beat the Maumee Panthers 51-43 in the semi-finals of the 2023 Bob Fisher Classic played in the Robert L. Fisher Gymnasium. In the finals, played at Swanton High School, the Bulldogs dropped a 49-40 decision to the Ottawa Hills Green Bears.

Click on the link above to access photos from the game versus Maumee. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website. 

Photo: Evan Reinhard challenges the Maumee defense inside and draws the foul

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Trailing by one point entering the second quarter, the Lady Bulldogs outscored the Otsego Lady Knights 13-2 to grab a 10-point lead at halftime.  Swanton kept the momentum going through the third quarter, tacking on seven more points to their advantage and never looked back, defeating Otsego 39-22 to advance to the JV Girls championship game of the Bob Fisher Classic.   Carli Lagrange topped all players with 15 points and Lauren Bettinger added 10.  Gracie Zsigray and Cailyn Lorenz led the Lady Knights with five points each.

Otsego Lady Knights:  7-2-5-8 = 22    Gracie Zsigray (5), Cailyn Lorenz (5), Summer Olsen (4), Brooke Bergman (3), Mackenzie Shirkey (2), Ella Hartman (2) Ava Weaver (1)

Swanton Lady Bulldogs:  6-13-12-8 = 39    Carli Lagrange (15), Lauren Bettinger (10), Maddie Foster (6), Madilynn Stevenson (4), Lexie Yeager (2), Kaylee Mosko (2)

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to all for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Carli Lagrange puts up a floater for two of her game-high 15 points.

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Isaiah Bolyard and Owen Hurst combined to sink three critical free throws in the final seconds of double overtime as the Swanton JV Boys held off the Maumee JV Panthers 33-30 to advance to the championship game of the 2023 Bob Fisher Classic.  Playing in the namesake Robert L. Fisher Gymnasium, the former Swanton High School venue, affectionately known as the “Pit”, the Bulldogs were able to keep their composure after the Panthers tied at the game at 28 in the first overtime with a put back of an airball at the buzzer.  Swanton was also able to survive their feast or famine offense that saw them score 24 points in quarters one and three then just two points in quarters two and four.  Bolyard led all players with 16 points and Dennis Robinson had 13.  Paris James and Brock Heard each had seven points for Maumee.

Maumee Panthers:  6-4-7-9-2-2 = 30    Paris James (7), Brock Heard (7), Jack Cahill (6), Owen Kennedy (4), Keaton McCullough (2), Aiden Boyer (2), Abram Sutherland (2)

Swanton Bulldogs:  15-0-9-2-2-5 – 33    Isaiah Bolyard (16), Dennis Robinson (13), Drew Koder (3), Owen Hurst (1)

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Isaiah Bolyard takes aim at the foul line in the second overtime.

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It was a rough start for the Evergreen Vikings boys in their road basketball game against the Delta Panthers Thursday night.  Thanks to poor shooting and sloppy ball handling, the Vikings found themselves down 11-5 after the first quarter and searching for answers for their offense.  That answer came in the form of sophomore Troy Manz who stepped up by draining three shots from beyond the arc in the second quarter and added 10 more points after halftime to lead Evergreen over Delta 50-37.  Manz’s first half scoring pulled the Vikings within one-point at 23-22 and he made two more treys in the third quarter to finish the Evergreen comeback for the 13-point victory.   Manz topped all players with 21 points.  Alex York scored 10 for the Panthers.

Evergreen Vikings:  5-17-9-19 = 50     Troy Manz (21), Riley Dunbar (12), Eli Keller (6), Tyson Woodring (6), Drew Giller (4)

Delta Panthers:  11-12-7-7 = 37     Alex York (10), Jude Gibbons (6), Luke Reinhard (6), Justin Ruple (5), Tyler Ruple (3), Tyson Bower (3), Wyatt Gibbons (2), John Brasher (2)

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website. 

Photo: Troy Manz sinks a three-pointer from the corner

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In the first game of a Thursday night basketball double-header at Delta High School, the Delta Lady Panthers and the Evergreen Lady Vikings played an extremely physical game where virtually every shot attempt within 10-12 feet of the basket was met with a blow to the body, a slash on the arm or a hand in the face, forcing both teams to rely heavily on outside shooting.  In the final tally, Delta made seven three-pointers to Evergreen’s four, for a difference of nine points and defeated the Lady Vikings by that same nine-point margin, 49-40.

The game was tight through the first half with the Lady Vikings holding a slim 22-21 lead.  In the second half, Delta senior Grace Munger took control of the contest by scoring 16 of her game-high 21 points, including a shot from behind the arc and four free throws.  Evergreen had multiple opportunities to keep up with the scoring pace but faltered at the foul line, hitting only 8 of 26 attempts for 30.7 percent.  Delta shot 58.8 percent, with 10 of 17 attempts.

Evergreen Lady Vikings:  13-9-10-8 = 40   Addison Ricker (15), Kennedy Emmit (12), Brooke Sintobin (4), Avah Vaculik (3), Kyla Risner (3), Katie Hoffman (2), Bailey Lumbrezer (1)

Delta Lady Panthers:  15-6-16-12 = 49    Grace Munger (21), Alani Haas (7), Kate Friess (6), Ashlyn Lamb (5), Keagyn Gillen (4), Olivia Smith (2)

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format and cvan be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Grace Munger made 7 of 10 free throws