It may not draw in tons of fans or result in huge television contracts, but the Ohio State pistol team is the best program going after winning its fifth straight national title on Saturday. The Buckeyes did it by multiple shooters finishing among the top of both the sport and air pistol events. That combination gave OSU the title in both disciplines on the way to a first-place finish again.

Ohio State’s Marcus Klemp led the way. He had a first place aggregate final score of 1140. He finished second in the air pistol competition (572) and the sport pistol competition (568). His teammate, Balane Simpson, was third overall thanks to a seventh-place showing in the air pistol and first-place performance in the sport pistol (569).

Abbie Leverett (fourth – 1115), Riya Salian (fifth – 1108), and Jonathan Dorsten (sixth – 1104) also finished high in the standings and resulted in Ohio State having six of the top 10 overall finishers. Due to weather, the the standard pistol competition was canceled.

Here’s a look at the standings of the top competitors and teams:

Team Standings1. Ohio State – 44762. Navy – 43503. Army – 43254. Utah – 42855. The Citadel – 4213

Individual Aggregate1. Marcus Klemp – 11402. Blane Simpson – 11214. Abbie Leverett – 11155. Riya Salian – 11086. Jonathan Doresten – 11048. Evan Langerak – 1097

Sport Pistol1. Blaine Simpson – 5692. Marcus Klemp – 5684. Abbie Leverett – 5655. Johnathan Dorsten – 5596. Riya Salian – 556

Air Pistol2. Marcus Klemp – 5727. Blaine Simpson – 5528. Riya Salian – 5529. Maya Gantsooj – 55

1. Ohio State – 44762. Navy – 43503. Army – 43254. Utah – 42855. The Citadel – 4213

Individual Aggregate1. Marcus Klemp – 11402. Blane Simpson – 11214. Abbie Leverett – 11155. Riya Salian – 11086. Jonathan Doresten – 11048. Evan Langerak – 1097

Sport Pistol1. Blaine Simpson – 5692. Marcus Klemp – 5684. Abbie Leverett – 5655. Johnathan Dorsten – 5596. Riya Salian – 556

Air Pistol2. Marcus Klemp – 5727. Blaine Simpson – 5528. Riya Salian – 5529. Maya Gantsooj – 551

Few streams in Ohio keep their cool sufficiently throughout the summer to sustain cold-water fish.

Cold Creek, a 5-mile, meandering run of clear water that starts from holes in the ground and flushes into Sandusky Bay within view of Cedar Point, is one. The Ohio Division of Wildlife operates a trout hatchery near a source hole where rainbows are grown from eggs.

Lake Erie’s steelhead fishery is almost entirely a product of that Castalia hatchery.

Cold Creek, meanwhile, is a product of local geology where lowland water seeps into a limestone base and at a few sites emerges in volume cool and refreshed at 50 degrees, more or less, but without much oxygen.

Cold Creek is prone neither to freezing during the winter nor to warming during the summer. The oxygen problem long has been addressed, enough at any rate to suit fish.

Near the entrance to the hatchery and just outside state property, the winding, tentacled creek flows steadily over a dark, undulating bottom, passes under a bridge, then disappears just beyond showy evergreen shrubs growing on both banks. The picturesque package hardly seems home in Ohio.

Rainbows of size and in numbers suspend in the shallow water. Facing a steady current, their dark backs blending with the bottom makes them a little hard to locate at first, especially when the shimmering surface glows at angles under reflected sunlight.

Along the creek toward the bay are stretches of private land with fly aficionados who can afford to pay big money for limited access to stocked rainbows, browns, brookies and a few brown-brook hybrids.

A pay-to-fish site is located near the creek’s entry to the bay. Fish are caught, though at what frequency is hard to say. Not hard to say is the setting doesn’t match what’s a few miles upstream.

Most years, including this one, the wildlife division opens a half-mile stretch of Cold Creek inside hatchery grounds from May through September. The catch, so to speak, is that dates and times are assigned to winners of a lottery open to applicants through the end of this month.

The entry cost is a non-refundable $3. Applications, along with details, can be found at the web site wildohio.gov. A single application may be submitted through the Ohio Wildlife Licensing System or by using the HuntFish OH mobile app.

Winners will be notified by email in early April at which time they will be able to download through their customer accounts a permit and instructions covering fishing date and times. Applicants age 16 and older must hold a current Ohio fishing license.

Permit winners can bring a limited number of guests.

Turkey draw

The wildlife division this month is holding a drawing that might interest turkey hunters looking for a place to bag a gobbler. At stake are permits entitling holders to participate in controlled hunts at five wildlife areas.

Two of the locations – Killdeer Plains in Wyandot County and Killbuck Marsh straddling Wayne and Holmes counties – are within reasonable driving distance of Columbus and central Ohio.

Applications, which require a $3 non-refundable fee, are available through the end of the month via the web-based licensing system or by using the HuntFish Ohio mobile app.

Successful applicants will be notified by email.

Trout stocks

Rainbow trout stockings, which eventually will include 90 sites, including many in central Ohio, began last week with infusions in five locations.

Heritage Park Pond in Groveport is scheduled to get fish on March 19, Blue Limestone Park in Delaware on March 20. Details on additional stockings will be forthcoming.

outdoors@dispatch.com

Less than two months removed from a title win in the first 12-team College Football Playoff, a Buckeye athletics squad has captured another national championship thanks to the OSU pistol team securing the highest honor in its sport for a fifth straight year.

The title also marks the sixth for Ohio State since 2018, which was the second season under current head coach Emil Milev. Two years before arriving in Columbus, Milev became just the second U.S. Olympic shooter at the time to qualify for six different Olympic events. He also won the silver medal in the rapid fire pistol competition on behalf of Bulgaria at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Now, Milev has successfully overseen six national titles at Ohio State within just eight years of each other. The program has also captured 10 total titles in the sport since 2000.

The Buckeyes have not only won several of these team titles outright, but continue to do so in dominant fashion. Ohio State finished with an aggregate score of 4476 this year, which was over 125 points higher than second-place Navy. Last year, OSU beat the Midshipmen by a whopping 296 points to win the championship, while the margin between Navy and fifth-place Citadel ended at merely 233 points.

Ohio State saw six of its student-athletes finish with top 10 individual aggregate scores, including four in the top five and each of the top two. Marcus Klemp posted the highest individual aggregate score with a total of 1140 points, while teammate Blaine Simpson trailed him by only 19 points on aggregate but won the sports pistol competition outright with the highest tally of 569 points — one more than Klemp.

Abbie Leverett, Riya Salian, Jonathan Doresten and Evan Langerak rounded out the performances for the Buckeyes that finished among the top 10 for the national championship. Klemp also finished second overall in the individual air pistol competition.

As winter and spring sports prepare to head into respective postseasons in the coming months, the other teams representing Ohio State athletics will look to follow the standard set by the football and pistol programs early in the 2025 year.