The first night of district wrestling took place on Friday.

HARPERSFIELD TOWNSHIP — Area athletes ended the Division 2/3 indoor track season at the Ohio Association of Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Finale on Friday at Spire Institute.

NEW MIDDLETOWN — Pymatuning Valley coach Ryan Shontz embraced his players after they received their Division III district runner-up medals at Springfield on Friday night.

PERRY — Caleb Selman could be one match away from the only thing that’s been on his mind for a year now — qualifying for the state tournament.

The last time Pymatuning Valley played in a district final, Springfield coach Steve French was an assistant to Mike Shontz and coaching his son, Corey Shontz in 2008.

Colt Edgar stepped onto a wrestling mat even before he stepped into his kindergarten classroom.

ANDOVER — With 6:23 left in the third quarter, Jonah Wilkerson tried to draw a charge on the baseline, but instead picked up his third foul.

Pymatuning Valley’s Tyler Bean always dreamt of taking the game-winning shot. He just wasn’t sure what sport it would be in — basketball or wrestling.

SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — Brandon Ford used his football skills Lakeside’s 72-69 overtime win over Grand River at Lakeside High School on Monday night.

Pymatuning Valley coach Ryan Shontz believes one of the most important matchups heading into Wednesday's Division III district semifinal game against visiting South Range is the play on the interior.

MENTOR — As Edgewood's Gregory Stolfer was preparing to go to Lake Catholic for the Division II sectional tournament on Saturday morning,  the Edgewood wrestling coach said something to his father that probably hasn’t been said much around the Warriors wrestling room this season.

BURTON — Three years ago, Chase Cottrell was two matches away from advancing to the state tournament.

ANDOVER — Jonah Wilkerson looked off the defense as he threw an alley-oop pass to Tanner Rhoades on the right baseline to give Pymatuning Valley a 13-8 lead.

YOUNGSTOWN — With six minutes left at Chaney High School, the referees looked over at the scorer’s table. A foul was called and the clock kept running. The Chaney boys basketball team was up by 42 points, signalling the start of the running clock.

SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — The sun hasn’t even slipped over the horizon most mornings when the Lakeside girls softball team shows up for practice.

SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — With 8.4 seconds left, trailing 49-48, Brandon Ford intentionally fouled Austintown Fitch’s Todd Simons, as he ran toward half court draining seconds off the clock during a Division I sectional semifinal on Wednesday at Lakeside High School.

CANTON — Steve Hanek still has fond memories of his daughter’s first swim lesson.

ORWELL — The opposition may have been the Grand Valley Mustangs, but when Jefferson’s Robert Ray stepped on the court, it was those that determined the tournament seedings that he had it out for.

The Cleveland Browns left town and came back, LeBron James was born and led the Cleveland Cavaliers to an NBA title (Cleveland’s first professional sports crown since 1964) and the Cleveland Indians fell short three times of winning the World Series.

Marcus Ernst went over the 1,000-point plateau in his high school playing days at Edgewood High School.

Bri Aveni has set a high mark in the pole vault competition ... literally and figuratively.

HARPERSFIELD TOWNSHIP — Sitting in her lifeguard stand perched above the Olympic Pool at the Spire Institute, the same pool she qualified for the Division II state swim meet less than 24 hours ago, Izabella Hanek was still coming to terms with the range of emotions she’d been dealing with ov…

GENEVA — No lead was safe for Jefferson Friday night.