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Click on the link above to access over 300 photos from the meet. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded and shared for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.
The Champion of Sunday night’s DeEttes Dream Diner Mixed League at the Swanton Sports Center was crowned when the league’s first-half winner, Kwitcherbitchin (Holie Grueshaber, Mary Stachgowiak, Darlene Long, Brian Hess) defeated the second-half winner, Gutterly Rediculous, (Madison Massey, Nick Glowski, Lyndsay Massey, Mike Massey) 2-0 (847-789 and 849-799) in a best of three match.
Final League Numbers – Season High Scores
Individual High Average: Men – Kevin Pelland (203.21) Women – Danielle Carr (192.36)
Handicap Series: Meat Puppets (2705), Sportsters (2659), The House (2630)
Handicap Game: Bubba Q Bowlers (1025), Gutterly Ridiculous (952), Gutter Gang (935)
Scratch Series: Men – Jerry Donaldson (682), Rick Nijakowski (656), Thomas Miracola (625)
Scratch Game: Men – Shawn Knapp (279), Don Connors (252), Mike Massey (241)
Scratch Series: Women – Lyndsay Massey (514), Kathy Knapp (495), Jeannie Dohrmann (488)
Scratch Game: Ashley Borck (198), Holie Grueshaber (189), Tina Pontious (189)
Most Improved Average: Men – Billy Daniels (118 to 144.07 = +26.07) Women – Darlene Stilwel (102 to 116.52 = +14.52)
Photo: Holie Grueshaber, Mary Stachowiak, Darlene Long, Brian Hess
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After allowing an early four-run lead slip into a five-all tie, the Swanton Lady Bulldogs scored 11 unanswered runs and blanked the Liberty Center offense the rest of the way to beat the Lady Tigers 16-5 on Monday afternoon in Liberty Center in the first NWOAL game of the year.
Down 5-1 entering the bottom of the third, the Lady Tigers rallied for four runs against Swanton starter Beyla Remer to bring them even at 5-5. With one out still remaining, Bulldog coach Lauren Yoder brought in reliever Alexis Faber who quickly shut down the rally. Swanton regained their composure scoring three runs in the top of the fourth, one more in the fourth and put the game away with five runs in the sixth inning.
Carli LaGrange helped power the Bulldog offense with three hits and four RBIs. Faber also had three hits and scored four times, Lacey Shinaver scored twice, had two RBIs on three hits, Remer had a double and two singles and scored the go-ahead run in the fourth inning. Cara Ludlow knocked in three runs with a single and a double and Jordyn Ramirez had a single with two runs scored. Payton Glonek had two singles and two RBIs. In the circle, the win went to Faber who threw 4.1 innings giving up just one hit and zero runs with three strikeouts.
The Lady Bulldogs improve to 10-2 on the season and 1-0 in the league. Their next NWOAL contest is at home on Thursday against the Evergreen Lady Vikings (6-3/1-0).
Click on the link to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded and shared for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.
Photo: Alexis Farber in the circle for a relief appearance
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Swanton junior Dominic Cook, making his first start of the season on the mound, threw four innings and allowed just one run as the Bulldogs defeated the visiting North Central Eagles 8-1 at Swanton’s Memorial Park on Saturday morning. In long relief, Brady O’Shea tossed three scoreless innings as Swanton picked up it’s fourth win of the season against one loss. Easton Fidler started and took the loss for the Eagles.
The Bulldogs beat the Liberty Center Tigers 5-3 on Monday afternoon to open up the NWOAL season and improve to 5-1 (1-0). They travel to Sand Creek High School (Michigan) tomorrow then return home on Thursday to face the Evergreen Vikings in a league game.
Click on the link to access photos from the North Central game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded and shared for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.
Photo: Dominic Cook deals to the plate
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Click on the link above to access over 500 photos from the Evergreen High School’s performance of “High School Musical”. Phots are inj the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded and shared for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fulroncountymedia.com website. The “redeye fix” feature was malfunctioning during the initial editing process. We apologize for the inconvenience.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/oU6zinddhiQEQTzAA
Click on the link above to access photos from the meet. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded and shared for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.
Future Leaders Exchange program or FLEX is a highly competitive, merit-based exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State that operates in approximately 20 countries in Eurasia. With just over a 2.0% acceptance rate, over 35,000 students compete annually in multiple rounds of testing to be selected to participate in FLEX, which provides for them to spend an academic year in the United States living with a volunteer host family and attending a U.S. high school. It was created from the belief of former Senator Bill Bradley that the best way to ensure long-lasting peace and mutual understanding between the United States and the countries of Eurasia was to enable young people to learn about the U.S. and Americans firsthand, and to teach Americans about their countries.
For the 2025-2026 academic year at Swanton High School, that student is a young 17-year-old girl by the name of Ksenia Velikoglo from the autonomous territorial unit of Gaguazia in the country of Moldova. Moldova is small Eastern European country of approximately 2.4 million people. Going back hundreds of years, it has been a part of the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, Romania, the Ukrainian SSR and, most recently, the Soviet Union until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 when it gained its independence. Consequently, it is a multicultural country with a variety of languages spoken within its borders. Ksenia’s main language is Russian but she also speaks several others, including English which she began studying in the second grade.
Ksenia qualified after rounds of rigorous and demanding tests that are designed to ensure a country is sending only their best and brightest to spend one academic year at an American high school. “You need to write essays about your life, your leadership qualities and how you apply them in your life, what problems and situations did you get through and what did you learn about it,” explained Ksenia. “They want a person who will adapt to any conditions and will survive in any conditions. To move at 16 to another country without your family, you need to be mentally and physically strong.”
In August of 2025, then at 16 years of age, Ksenia left her parents Maria and Ivan and her little eight-year-old sister Daria, to come to the United States and Swanton and is living with her host parents Brooklyn Miller and Andrew Markley. And she brought with her an incredible resume of achievements and life experiences. Ksenia has a very solid grasp of the English language, is very articulate and she has quickly and fully immersed herself in our American midwestern culture and is well liked by her young American counterparts. Even though bowling does not exist in Moldova, she was a member of the Lady Bulldog Bowling Team, starting out with scores in the 60s and 70s and finishing with a personal record of 157. She also was part of the cast of Swanton’s rendition of “Cinderella” and is currently on the Bulldog track and field team. Volleyball is her favorite sport but she was unable to join Swanton’s team due to travel commitments with her host family.
One noticeable difference Ksenia found was the philosophy of the two countries’ education system. American high school students may take six or seven classes on average each day of an academic week. Moldova students will have eight classes each day but they will vary between 15 or 16 different subjects. “Our school program is very difficult to learn. It’s like AP (Advanced Program). And we don’t get to choose what we study. Our government chooses what will be in our curriculum. And we have homework every night,” she said.
Another striking difference in the two systems is the use of technology. “We don’t use Chromebooks. In our country we are ‘old school.’ The teacher uses chalk and the blackboard and explains everything in detail. We do have an internet board so it’s kind of the same. Our country just wants us to be smarter and not use something else,” said Ksenia. “We don’t use calculators. At all. We need to do the math in our head. Here it’s very different for me because they use a calculator for everything, logarithms, equations, graphs, everything. And we need to do it the head or on the paper. This was a very big shock for me.”
Even before she came to this country, Ksenia enjoyed American movies, television shows and western culture in general. Her other interests at home include poetry, poetry reciting contests, painting and reading, especially Russian literature and, interestingly enough, science fiction. However, chess is probably Ksenia’s biggest passion and she is very good at it. Internationally competitive good. “I love chess so much. I learned how to play at 10 years old and I became very good at it. I went to different countries like Bulgaria and Ukraine and played in tournaments and won a lot of them. I went to Moscow before the war and there were 21 countries. It was a very big tournament,” she related. Several years ago, Ksenia had the honor of playing with Anatoly Karpov, the former Russian World Chess Champion and Chess Grand Master who was visiting Moldova. She currently holds a chess level rating of 1900 which is one step below “Expert” on the scale used by the International Chess Federation.
As we are all aware, Eastern Europe, or more specifically Moldova, is situated in a relatively precarious part of the world, sharing its northern, western and southern borders with Ukraine. “We don’t really talk about it (the Russian-Ukraine war) very often, said Ksenia. We don’t want to live our lives in fear.” Once, after the Russian invasion, while on a visit to Ukraine, she and her family had to take shelter during a Russian attack that took place just several blocks away. When contrasting her situation with the average American teenager, it certainly puts things in perspective.
Spending her junior year in an American high school does not automatically qualify Ksenia to become a senior when she returns to her home country. She must first pass a series of exams and quizzes before she can begin her final year of high school. After graduation she wants to study abroad, probably somewhere in Europe, but she is hoping to earn a “full ride” scholarship given that tuition is so expensive. Ksenia mentioned International Studies as a possible major where her linguistic skills and public speaking abilities would be great assets. Judging by her accomplishments at such a young age, anything is possible for this rising star.
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Forced to play away from home because of wet grounds, the Swanton Bulldogs traveled to Otsego High School and defeated the Knights 9-3 to even their record on the season at 1-1. Carson Lemons started on the mound for the Bulldogs and threw four innings, giving up four hits and two runs (one earned) while walking two and striking out five. Dennis Robinson pitched one inning of scoreless relief and Luke Marlow tossed the final two innings allowing one run.
The Swanton offense had only six hits but they were timely and spread across the lineup and the Bulldogs took full advantage of seven Otsego errors. The score was tied 2-2 going into the top of the fifth inning but the Bulldogs broke the game open with one run in the inning, two more in the sixth and four more in the seventh to put the contest out of reach.
Marlow, hitting leadoff, reached three times with one hit and two HBPs and scored all three times. Brady O’Shea had a clutch RBI single and scored a run. Carson Bond had one hit and scored twice. Owen Hurst had one hit, one RBI, walked two times and ran down a long fly ball to left field to rob the Otsego hitter of a sure double.
The Bulldogs travel to Pettisville to take on the Blackbirds then are scheduled to come home on Thursday to play the Delta Panthers.
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: Luke Marlow scores Swanton’s first run of the game.
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Yesterday, Good Friday, from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM, the Swanton Public Library (SPL) held its Annual Easter Egg Hunt in Pilliod Park, adjacent to the library’s grounds. The SPL has been featuring this event since 2017, taking only 2020 off due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
In addition to the hundreds of eggs (several golden ones) scattered throughout the park, there were many activities such as golf putting, croquet, pickleball and others to entertain the kids and their families. Egg hunters were able to fill their baskets and turn in their booty for prizes, big prizes for those who collected the coveted golden eggs. And food and drinks were available from Swanton’s favorite local food truck, Hot Dogs 2 Go.
Click on the link above to access photos from the hunt. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded and shared for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.
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Delta seniors Abby Todd and Keagyn Gillen, basketball players who were both critical to the tremendous success of the Delta Lady Panthers basketball program, have decided to continue their basketball careers at the next level. Abby will head north to continue her education at Oakland Community College located in Auburn Hills, Michigan while playing in the Lady Owls program. Keagyn will travel west to continue her education at Trine University in Angola, Indiana while playing for the Lady Thunder.
After being contacted by the coaching staff at Oakland, Abby paid a visit to the campus, approximately a two-hour drive from Delta. “I really liked the campus, I really liked their basketball program and I thought it would be a lot of fun,” she said, explaining her decision. Abby was also a standout soccer player for the Lady Panthers and even received an offer from Owens Community College to play that sport. “I thought about it,” she said. But I really like basketball a lot more than soccer.” In the classroom, Abby will be involved in the college’s nursing program. She plans on earning her Associates Degree then transferring to a university with a four-year program.
Initially, Keagyn had decided to attend Trine University to major in biology and playing basketball was somewhat of an afterthought. “I thought I would go to Trine for academics then I thought about playing basketball. So, I reached out to the coach and I was contacted by the assistant coach and I visited the campus. It was a really good campus and the coaches were nice so, I decided to play,” she said. Trine is only about an hour away from Delta but the transition to her “new home” may feel a little more impactful given her new basketball coach will not be sitting across the dinner table from her like her Delta coach and mother, Kelsy Gillen, has been for many years. “I’m excited for it,” exclaimed Keagyn when asked about that.
For Coach Gillen, this signing day was extra special for her program with two players moving on and for her personally with her daughter deciding to take the big step. “I’m excited for both of the girls,” she said. “I’ve been coaching them from when they first started, Keagyn when she was in second grade and Abby when she started with the program when she was in fifth grade. And to see them reach this point and wanting to continue with basketball makes me so excited for them. They have been a lot of fun to coach. We will definitely miss both these girls.”
With Abby and Keagyn in the starting lineup the past two seasons, the Delta Lady Panthers had an incredible record-setting run. The team won 40 games overall, even with a strong out-of-conference schedule. The 2024-2025 season began with a school record 17 consecutive wins and then they started the 2025-2026 season with 12 straight victories. Delta won back-to-back Bob Fisher Holiday Classic Championships at Swanton High School, consecutive OHSAA D5 Sectional Titles, and a D5 District Title, earning a trip to the D5 Regional Semi-Finals.
Click on the link above to access photos from the signing and a few action shots from the players’ careers. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded and shared for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.
Photo: Keagyn Gillen and Abby Todd sign National Letters of Intent
Fulton County Ohio Media 