Schroeder, Brenneman named top scholar-athletes

The Western Buckeye League tennis tournament isn't until later this week and the WBL track meet is scheduled for next week.

But The Lima News Scholar-Athletes of the Year, Ottawa-Glandorf track standout Allison Schroeder and St. Marys' No. 1 singles player Jameel Brenneman, already had big tests on their minds at the beginning of this week.

The two Scholar-Athletes of the Year both were focused the last few days on taking advanced placement tests to get a head start on their college academic careers.

Schroeder and Brenneman were named the top male and female scholar-athletes from among 30 area high school students honored by The Lima News at its annual Scholar-Athlete Banquet at Ohio State-Lima on Wednesday night.

Those honored came from 20 schools and had a combined grade point average of just over 4.00.

Schroeder, a senior at O-G, was the Division II girls state champion in the 300-meter hurdles last year and has been first-team All-Western Buckeye League in soccer, basketball and track in the last year.

She has a 4.0 grade point average, is senior class president and volunteers for a variety of activities. She will run track at Notre Dame next year. She plans to major in bio-chemistry and says she might go on to medical school.

Brenneman, a senior who also has a 4.0 grade point average, was first-team All-WBL in soccer, was a WBL runner-up in singles in tennis last year, and lettered in basketball.

He participates in the scholastic bowl, jazz band and was a Buckeye Boys State delegate. He plans to attend Huntington (Ind.) College, where he will play tennis, and hopes to go into sports broadcasting.

Busy is a way of life for all the scholar-athletes.

"I like to be busy.  And when I don't have something to do, it seems kind of weird that I don't have anything to do," Schroeder said.  "There are nights when it's stressful and I'm up late and not very happy about that.  But I think everything that is important in life, you try to find time for it."

Brenneman said, "There are some late nights but a lot of it is cutting out the free time, or extra time of just sitting around.  Instead of that, you're doing sports or school work or important things."

Schroeder and Brenneman received $500 scholarships from The Lima News, subject to NCAA rules. All of the scholar-athletes are eligible for $500 scholarships from Ohio State-Lima, a co-sponsor of the event, which can be used at that school.

Thirty-six high schools in the area nominated 110 student-athletes and the top 30 were selected from those nominations.

Twelve of the 30 scholar athletes had grade point averages of 4.0 or higher and 14 more earned a GPA of 3.9 or better.

The Lima News girls scholar athletes are: Mallory Bloom (Kenton), Sarah Coble (Continental), Courtney Diller (Columbus Grove), Kara Dysert (Ada), Heather Easley (Van Wert), Devon Golden (Wapakoneta), Emily Heitmeyer (Ottawa-Glandorf), Stacy Moon (Shawnee), Shannon Nadler (Leipsic), Hannah Phlipot (Van Wert), Alexa Pohl (Shawnee),  Abbie Selhorst (Ottawa-Glandorf), Emily Shellabarger (St. Marys), Amanda Stratton (Bluffton) and Schroeder.

The Lima News boys scholar athletes are: Darren Bass (Lima Senior), Bryce Bergman (New Bremen), John Bonvillian (Celina), Kyle Caven (Lima Senior), Joe Flarida (Shawnee), Adam Foley (Waynesfield-Goshen), John Guagenti (Bluffton), Clayton Leimeister (Temple Christian), Briggs Orsbon (Crestview), Kurt Riethman (Coldwater), Scott Schnelle (New Bremen), Nick Stanford (Lima Central Catholic), Chris Stucke (Marion Local), Adam Swick (Lima Central Catholic) and Brenneman.