Loveland, Ohio – This spring, Loveland High School is competing in the Eastern Cincinnati Conference in baseball, softball, men’s and women’s track, men’s tennis, and men’s and women’s lacrosse. Athletes claim to hope for a competitive and successful season, and to grow as athletes and as a team. The season is already off to a winning start for many teams.
“Most of our spring sport programs are highly competitive. If you go and you look at the top ten currently in the city and southwest ohio, many of our teams are currently ranked in the top 10, which is outstanding. For example. Baseball is currently ranked 5. Men’s lacrosse is ranked 7. Women’s lacrosse is currently ranked 5. We have lots of individual track athletes that are currently ranked: Senior Ally Kluender, senior Zion Wynn, Senior Kennedy Bontrager, even some of our men’s and women’s relays will start to come on, too. So there’s a lot of kids there that will be recognized,” explained athletic director Julie Renner. Mens Track is ranked #6. Womens Track is ranked #10.
Although softball got off to a rough start with 6 losses and 1 win, they have still seen success. They are now 7-11, 3-9. Senior, Maggie Bailey set a school home run record in the first game of the season with 15 in her career. She has 7 so far in the season and is hitting .440.
“My expectations and goals for this season are for us to perform well as a team and to make sure that we are focused and that we can play our best out there. I hope we just have fun and play hard,” claimed softball player and junior Audrey Sweringen. Bailey is not the only individual who has potential to find success this spring season.
“[Senior] Luke Waddell, has the potential to break many school records here at Loveland. Career records, not just season records,” claimed Renner. Baseball currently sits at the top of the ECC standings.
“My goals coming in this season are definitely to win the ECC and then to win sectionals again, and see if we can make a run. We got a lot of good players this year, so I’m really excited to see what happens,” Waddell explained.
The team started their season in Florida, and holds an overall 17-7, (9-3 ECC) record.
Track is already seeing success, with Loveland athletes holding many of the top spots in almost every event.
“They are already doing well and only getting better, so I expect them to reclaim our title from Kings,” said Senior, Zion Wynn. Wynn currently holds first place in the ECC for 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, 400 meter dash and long jump. Senior, Caleb Davis holds second in the 1600 meter run and the 3200 meter run. Senior, Vaughn Richter holds second for the 100 meter dash, senior, Senior, Colin Flanagan holds second in shotput and second for discus. Senior, Drew Kluender is in first for high jump. Cooper Smeller is second in the high jump. Women’s 800 meter relay holds second. Kennedy Bontrager sits at number one for women’s shotput and number 2 for discus, and Ally Kluender holds first for discus and sophomore. All current track standings can be found here.
Men’s lacrosse also holds third place in the ECC at 7-5, 3-1. l. Women’s lacrosse, also first in the conference, is doing even better, at 8-1, 4-0.
Men’s tennis is in second in the ECC pack, 8-4, 4-2.
“Both JV and varsity could have a good run through the season. I think we’ll have a pretty solid season. The new freshmen are crazy talented and everyone has gotten better this year,” explained varsity tennis player and Junior, Sam Sauer. Players claim to have an exceptionally strong team this year.
“This season will hopefully see us place top three in the ECC, and do well in the ECC tournament. We are going to play some tough opponents, but we have a deep team this year with two quality freshmen, Alex Ditchen and Sam Greenberg, which should help us considerably,” explained senior, Chrisitan Harris.
“I’m really proud of all of our student athletes. I believe that they really work hard every day to exhibit our core values here at Loveland High School: respect, responsibility, integrity, pride. It really is the grind. It’s now the time that a lot of them really have the ability to go from good to great. And I believe that there’s a lot of potential there to do that,” said Renner.
