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Zach LaRoche of Marysville looks to make a pass between Dublin Scioto defenders Dominic Madison (1) and Ryan Duncan (22) during a game earlier this season. The Monarchs open Division I district tournament play against sixth-seeded Newark on Saturday, Feb. 25, at Jonathan Alder. Buy This Photo

The Marysville High School boys basketball team enters the Division I district tournament looking to pull a few upsets.

The Monarchs, seeded 33rd, play sixth-seeded Newark in the first round at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at Jonathan Alder.

“We know that Newark is a very well-disciplined team,” coach Ryan Grose said. “Coach (Jeff) Quackenbush does a great job over there. His kids play hard. They’re going to play good defense. I know they’re pretty young. They’re a team that had a great year this year, and they have most of their guys coming back. This is going to be their first step at it, and we’re hoping we can ruin it.”

Although the Monarchs were 5-14 overall before facing Dublin Scioto on Feb. 17, they had been playing better of late.

Marysville earned its first OCC-Cardinal Division win by beating Dublin Jerome 61-55 in overtime on Feb. 7.

The Monarchs challenged Westerville North before losing 58-52 on Feb. 10. North was tied with Westerville South for second (10-3) in the league behind champion Olentangy Liberty (12-1) before playing Olentangy on Feb. 17.

Against North, Craig Runyan scored 20 points and Steven Romesburg scored 16.

Romesburg was averaging 12.2 points and Runyan was averaging 10.8 through 19 games.

“Our seniors did a great job of stepping up,” Grose said. “When I sat with them over the summer, heading into the fall and what we wanted to accomplish, the one thing was being consistent in our work ethic, and I think we did that very well this year. It may not have transferred into more wins on the scoreboard, but we’re headed in the right direction as far as changing that.”

Newark was 15-4 overall and 10-3 in the OCC-Ohio before playing Lancaster on Feb. 17.

The Wildcats will finish second to Pickerington Central in the league. The Tigers were 12-1 in the league before playing Reynoldsburg on Feb. 17.

Newark has received a balanced effort this season, with contributions from junior wing player Jalen Dartis, senior guard Christian Keller and 6-foot-6 senior center Ben Barnhart.

“When you’re seeded 33rd out of 42 teams, you don’t get a lot of selection,” Grose said. “It was basically play (Westerville) North, South or Central in our conference or get outside of our conference.

“I think our division (of the OCC) is the best out of the four. When you look at the seedings, three of our teams (Olentangy Liberty, North and South) are in the top eight, so that tells you how strong our division is, and I think you are going to see that represented well in the tournament.”

Liberty is seeded third, North is sixth and South is eighth.

The Marysville-Newark winner will play Delaware or Olentangy in the second round March 2 at Jonathan Alder.

Olentangy beat Marysville 63-59 on Dec. 9 and 61-53 in overtime on Jan. 24.

“If we can win a couple games in the tournament, it will show people that we’re definitely not as bad as our record shows, because we’ve lost a couple real close games lately,” senior Zach LaRoche said.

•The girls basketball team lost to Dublin Coffman 63-26 in the first round of the Division I district tournament Feb. 16 at Hilliard Davidson.

The Monarchs finished 4-17 overall and 2-12 in the OCC-Cardinal.

Junior Katy Turner led Marysville with 10 points.

Coffman took advantage of several turnovers to take control in the second quarter, outscoring the Monarchs 17-2 to open a 31-10 halftime lead.

Marysville finished with 16 turnovers.

“We were 4-16 coming in, but if you watched our effort, I don’t think you would think we were 4-16,” coach Aric Tucker said. “I’ve seen a lot of times where kids think, ‘I want to go to soccer, I want to go to softball, I want to get this done,’ and we play that way. I didn’t think any of our kids (against Coffman) from No. 1 to No. 15 showed that at all. I thought their attitude and mindset were right. We had a shot; we just didn’t get it done. Coffman is a pretty good team.”

•The boys and girls swimming teams competed in a Division I district meet Feb. 18 at Ohio State.

The top two individuals or relays in each event, along with 16 at-large qualifiers awarded in each event based on district times statewide, advanced to the state meet Feb. 24 and 25 at Branin Natatorium in Canton.

The Monarchs prepared for the district meet by competing in a sectional Feb. 11 at the Union County YMCA.

Led by senior Quinn Mickelson, the boys team finished seventh (209) behind champion Dublin Jerome (343).

Mickelson won the 50-yard freestyle (22.74 seconds) and 100 free (56.16). Mickelson, Gavin Mickelson, Grant Barnhorst and Gage Bowman were second in the 200 medley relay (1:47.26).

The girls team finished seventh (164) behind champion Dublin Coffman (333).

Mary Kallinicou won the 100 breaststroke (1:08.22).

“The swimmers performed fantastic at sectionals,” coach Ann Rausch said. “We had three events where we had sectional winners (for the) first time in the program’s history.”