Ohio
Who was the best high school athlete in Greater Columbus last week? Your votes decide
How to nominate for the Columbus Dispatch’s Athletes of the Week
Here’s how to nominate students for the Columbus Dispatch’s athletes of the week ballots for the 2023-2024 school year.
Dispatch.com readers can now vote for their favorite high school athletes of the week on their desktop, the Dispatch.com mobile web or Dispatch app once per hour by scrolling down to ballots listed below.
Deadline is 4 p.m. Friday.
Last week’s winner: Horizon Science Academy’s Temidayo Owoyemi named Athlete of the Week
High school sports: Here’s how to nominate The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Athletes of the Week in 2023-24
Columbus High School Sports newsletter: Sign up for our weekly newsletter on high school sports
High school Athlete of the Week
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center high school Athlete of the Week voting occurs each week during high school sports competition and recognizes athletes across all sports.
Student of the Week: Who was the central Ohio high school Student of the Week? Your votes decide
If you can’t see the ballot when you scroll to the bottom of this story, try refreshing the link or clearing the cache in your browser. Voters can cast one vote per hour per device. You do not have to be a subscriber to vote.
Please do not email your votes; they will not count. Nominations and votes are not the same things.
Please be aware: The Dispatch’s voting system recognizes only one vote per WiFi IP address, so consider taking your phone off WiFi to vote each hour if you’re sharing it with multiple people.
Athletes were nominated over the past few weeks for the vote starting Monday, May 27.
Please do not email your votes; they will not count. Nominations and votes are not the same things.
Athletes are on this week’s ballot based on information made available to The Dispatch, and nominations made over the past week.
High school sports: 2022-23 Athletes of the week
Once athletes win during the regular season, they’re not eligible to be back on the ballot until the postseason. If athletes haven’t won in the regular season, they can be nominated more than once.
Student of the Week: Who was the central Ohio high school stood out the most? Your vote decides
The Dispatch staff reserves the right to remove ballots or athletes from the ballot where voting irregularities have occurred.
Have any questions? Email sports editor Brian White at bwhite1@dispatch.com.
Please do not email your votes; they will not count. Nominations and votes are not the same things.
Here are this week’s Athlete of the Week candidates:
Jacie Clifton, Logan Elm softball: Had two hits and four RBIs, including a three-run home run, in a 7-3 win over Dover on a Division II regional final.
Anna Conrad, Fairfield Union track and field: Won the 1,600 meters (5:06.84) and joined Sarah Lepi, Averey Cottrill and Abigail Pike on the first-place 1,600 relay (4:00.02) at the Division II regional meet.
Isabel Evans, Northridge track and field: Won the 100 hurdles (14.18) and 300 hurdles (43.42) at the Division II regional meet.
Dawayne Galloway, Marion-Franklin track and field: Won the 100 (10.56), joined Nazsir Jackson, Aaris Billingsley and Taliq Black on the first-place 400 relay (42.02) and ran on the second-place 800 relay (1:28.63) with Jackson, Billingsley and Terry Black (1:28.63) at the Division II regional meet.
Henry Lessard, Bexley tennis: Won the Division II singles championship to complete a 26-1 freshman season. In bringing Bexley its sixth all-time singles title and first since 1986, he went 7-0 in three-set matches.
Chayse Lipscomb, Fairfield Union track and field: Won the 110 hurdles (14.25) and 300 hurdles (37.36) ) at the Division II regional meet.
Olivia Pace, Westerville Central track and field: Won the 100 meters (12.06), 200 (24.27) and long jump (18 feet, 7 inches) and anchored the first-place 400 relay (46.67) at the Division I regional meet.
Avery Stratton , Teays Valley softball: Was 3 for 4 with two singles and the game-winning home run and pitched three innings, striking out four in an 8-7 win over Marysville to help the Vikings win their first district title since 2018.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
Have a question for Just Askin’? Email us.
The Just Askin’ series aims to answer the questions that no one seems to have an answer for, except maybe Google.
Do you have a question you want answered? Send it to us at justaskin@enquirer.com, ideally with Just Askin’ in the subject line.
It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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