Sports

Summer Young returns for her fourth year as head coach of the Marshall Lady Owls’ wrestling program with a roster that numbers 25, including one state medalist.As a junior, Sherlyn Solano finished fourth in the 235-pound weight class.While McKenzy Mason medaled as a freshman last year with a fourth-place finish in Columbia, she is not in the Marshall Public School system this year, according to Young.Young, who is being assisted again this year by Andrew “Blue” Winston, is excited to have Solano back.“She’ll be wrestling in the same weight class, and hopefully she can get some revenge on some of those girls that she saw last year and also hoping to place again at the state tournament.”Of the 25 on the roster, there are four seniors, two juniors and six sophomores.

Neither team scored for the first 3-1/2 minutes, and the game stayed close into the second quarter.But when Marshall head coach Diane Schlesselman had her girls apply a trapping defense, that’s when the game changed.The Lady Owls held Sweet Springs to two points in the second and two more in the third quarter and won the season-opener 39-27 on Kevin Hart Court in Jim Hargrave Gymnasium last Friday.Despite the slow start, Schlesselman was happy with her team’s play.“This was a good game to get our feet wet,” she said.

Stepping up the pressure defense, the Marshall Owls caused several turnovers that led to easy baskets and pulled away to claim a 64-32 season-opening victory over visiting Sweet Springs in Jim Hargrave Gymnasium on Kevin Hart Court last Friday.The Owls opened a 21-13 lead after one quarter and really clamped down defensively to pull away to a 44-17 lead by halftime.

The Sweet Springs Lady Greyhounds will be under new leadership.After five years under the direction of Brent Niemeyer, the Lady ‘Hounds will now be led by DJ Griggs.Griggs takes over a program that has been successful in making it to the district championship contest each of the last two seasons.Coming off a 13-13 year, a season that ended with a loss to Pilot Grove in the Class 1, District 8 Tournament, the Lady ‘Hounds will need to replace two quality seniors in point guard Lauren Shahan and wing Sammy Butts, the latter a first-team all-conference player.Butts paced the Lady Greyhounds’ scoring and rebounding at 12 points and 7.4 boards per game.

In the past two years, the Marshall Owls improved from two wins in 2021-22 to six wins in 2022-23 and 10 wins last year.But after two years at the helm, Lane Titus decided not to return as head coach.

On the gridiron this season, the Sweet Springs Greyhounds sported just one senior.

There are positives and negatives for third-year head coach Diane Schlesselman and the Marshall Lady Owls heading into the 2024-25 basketball season.One of the positives is three full-time starters and several others with quality experience return.

It was an up-and-down season for the Slater Wildcats last year.The ‘Cats, playing for first-year head coach Joey Gochenour, won two straight games three different times but never won three in a row and finished the season 11-15 overall.Despite the sub-.500 record, there were some highlights.