DARKE COUNTY – Two underclassmen who had strong performances in the Ohio High School Athletic Association tournaments are this week’s Daily Advocate athletes of the week.
This week’s Daily Advocate athletes of the week are Mississinawa Valley boys bowler Zac Longfellow and Tri-Village girls swimmer Lucie Morris.
Longfellow had the second best average among all Darke County bowlers this season with 198.5 pins per game. He had a high game of 266 and a high two-game series of 474.
The Mississinawa Valley sophomore had the 11th best average in the West Ohio High School Bowling Conference and the fifth best average in the WOHSBC South Division.
Longfellow finished third in the OHSAA Division II sectional meet at Poelking Marian Lanes with a three-game series of 622 to qualify for the district meet.
He finished 12th at the district meet at Beaver-Vu Lanes with a three-game series of 633, finishing just 26 pins out of state-qualifying position. As a freshman last year Longfellow advanced to the state meet and finished 25th.
Morris qualified for the OHSAA state swim meet this year in the Division II girls 50 yard freestyle. She finished 17th in the preliminaries with a time of 24.58, just 0.07 seconds out of qualifying position for the finals.
“Lucie is one fierce competitor,” coach John Bishop said. “She pays attention to detail as well as any swimmer out there. It is great that she accomplished making state as a freshman, along with eight other freshman girls in 50 free. Getting to the state meet and seeing what it’s about is the first step. Handling the pressure and having goals of some day being a state champion, with a lot of hard work, is not out of the question.
“We look forward to seeing Lucie progress in the future. The confidence she achieved is a big step in the right direction. She will be battling at state next season in a couple races. With nine freshman girls qualifying this year, for the 50 free, the next several years will be very competitive in that race.”
At the district meet, Morris finished fourth in the 50 yard freestyle and 10th in the 100 yard backstroke.
At the Cross County Conference swim meet, Morris set a conference record of 1:04.18 in the 100 yard backstroke.
Morris had the best 50 yard freestyle time among Darke County girls this season at 24.31 and the best 100 yard butterfly time of 1:05.26. She was second in the 100 yard freestyle at 55.65, second in the 100 yard backstroke at 1:00.63, second in the 100 yard breaststroke at 1:17.06, third in the 200 yard freestyle at 2:10.99 and third in the 200 yard individual medley at 2:19.48.
“I am thrilled with the season that Lucie had,” Tri-Village swim coach Lee Morris said. “She was very fortunate to earn a trip to the finals and a sixth place finish at the Southwest Coaches Classic in the 50 free, and to have two top 10 finishes at the Southwest District Division II swim meet at Miami University. Her fourth place podium finish in the 50 free was definitely her top performance of her season and to earn a trip to Canton and the state swim meet as a freshman was a fantastic way to complete the season. Lucie has been blessed with some talents and has worked very hard to capitalize on those talents, which has allowed her to travel and compete in many states at some very special places. She is looking forward to traveling to Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 3 through 7, to compete in the YMCA Short Course Nationals.”
