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Andrea Kjerrumgaard/ThisWeek

Maggie Mitchell of Newark drives past Gahanna’s Reyna Montgomery during a game earlier this season. Mitchell, a sophomore, is scoring a team-best 18.1 points. Buy This Photo

Point guard Reed Huffman and coach J.R. Shumate joined the Newark High School girls basketball team at the same time.

She and the other seniors have forged a bond with Shumate over the past four years as the Wildcats turned around their fortunes. Before playing Grove City in an OCC-Ohio Division game Feb. 3, they had won a combined 42 games together, which included this season’s 9-8 overall record and 6-5 league mark.

The days when Newark labored through consecutive one-win seasons in 2003-04 and 2004-05 and won only 18 total games in the four seasons preceding Shumate’s arrival in 2008-09 now seem like a distant memory. Last year’s team finished 15-7 overall to post the program’s first winning season since 2001-02 under longtime coach Dan Walters, who retired two years later.

“Reed’s been a starter since she walked in the door,” Shumate said. “Over the past few years we’ve been able to change the mentality around here, and Reed was a big part of that.”

Among other things, the Wildcats steadily have improved because they have a more vested interest.

“The season doesn’t start in November anymore; the girls are working through the summer and fall now,” Shumate said. “They’ve made basketball more of a priority. They spend a lot of time on basketball, and with that they’re able to dig a little deeper at the end of a game.”

Huffman, who before the Grove City game was eight assists shy of breaking the program record held by Walters’ daughter, Casey, will be honored along with her classmates when Pickerington North visits for the regular-season finale Saturday, Feb. 11. The other seniors are Katie Gordon, Hallie Landerman, Tevisha Patton and Kayla Bear, a multiple letterwinner who is just returning from a knee injury.

“I’m sure it’s going to be an emotional night,” Shumate said. “The seniors have meant a lot to us. Hopefully, we’ll be celebrating at the end.”

Through 17 games, sophomore guard Maggie Mitchell was leading the team in scoring average at 18.1 points. Huffman was averaging 5.6 assists and 6-foot-4 junior Paige Cashin was averaging 7.5 rebounds. Five of the team’s losses came against Reynoldsburg, North and Gahanna, while two others were against out-of-state schools. The Raiders are ranked first and the Panthers fifth in the latest Division I state poll.

“Without question, this is the best team we’ve had at Newark in 10 years. But if you look at our league, Reynoldsburg’s got its best team ever and North is playing at (its) usual level,” Shumate said. “We just have to keep plugging away, keep working hard. We can narrow the gap between them and us if we do that.”

•WRESTLING — The latest Division II district coaches poll should be a strong indicator as to how the MSL-Ohio tournament will play out at Licking Valley on Saturday, Feb. 11. The three-time defending-champion Panthers have been ranked first all season, and Whitehall is second.

Newark Catholic is hoping to make it a three-team race, however, and the new bracket-style tournament format could aid its cause. The league championship was determined by duals in previous seasons.

“It’s a tall order, but we’ve hung with Valley a little this year,” said coach Jason Boucher, whose Green Wave finished third (264 points) behind the Panthers (333) and MBC-member Northridge (267.5) in the Licking County Invitational on Dec. 17 as Granville (fifth, 195.5) was the next highest-finishing MSL-Ohio team. “We saw them at the county tournament and were right behind them (finishing fifth at Coshocton’s StitchCo Classic on Jan. 6 and 7).

“We just have to score every point we can because you know Valley’s going to be awfully tough. Don’t forget Whitehall, either.”

•SWIMMING & DIVING — The Granville boys team was a perennial MSL runner-up behind Columbus Academy until breaking through to capture the league title for the first time in 2010, in the Vikings’ home pool no less.

Now the Blue Aces have a streak going. They won their third consecutive title by outscoring second-place and host Academy 302-164 in the MSL meet Jan. 28. Granville’s girls team, which was last year’s Division II state runner-up, has strung together back-to-back victories after outscoring the second-place Vikings 410-271.

“Despite the (point differentials) it’s still a great rivalry,” Blue Aces coach Kevin Yates said. “And we definitely like (Academy’s) pool.”

The schools will face off again when both compete in a Division II sectional meet Saturday, Feb. 11, at Academy. Granville’s boys team had a 283-237 edge over the second-place Vikings in last year’s sectional while the girls were first (281.5) ahead of Hartley (204.5) and Academy (190).