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Mason's Josh Dooley competes in the long jump at the district meet at Mason High School May 16, 2012. Dooley will compete at the state meet in the 1600-meter run. Photo by Tony Tribble.

The Greater Miami Conference recently honored many Mason student athletes for their success in track and field. Multiple athletes were honored more than once and several relay teams were also honored.

Several of the student athletes will also compete at the state meet Friday and Saturday to be held at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Individually, on the boys’ side, junior Alex Notton (1600-meter run), senior Josh Dooley (100-meter dash) and junior Asad Maiden (110-meter hurdles) will be competing at state. In those same events, Notton and Maiden were selected to the all-GMC first team. Dooley, meanwhile, was selected all-GMC third team in the long jump and was honorable mention in the 100-meter dash.

Maiden was also selected to the all-GMC second team for the 300-meter hurdles, as well as for the high jump. Other individual athletes, who were recognized by the GMC include sophomore Tim Clark (3200-meter run, first team), senior Leslie Pil (pole vault, first team), senior Juan Cummings (200-meter dash, second team), senior Michael Mumma (800-meter run, second team), senior Ted Liu (200-meter dash, honorable mention) and sophomore Zac Thompson (3200-meter run, honorable mention).

The Mason boys’ squad will also be represented at the state meet in both the 4×400-meter and 4×800-meter relay teams. The 4×400 team (senior Adam Court, senior Zach Taylor, sophomore Ethan Valentine, junior Robert Diehl) and the 4×800 team (Valentine, Mumma, Notton and junior Paul D’Hyver de las Deses) were selected to the all-GMC first team. (more…)

Posted in: Sports, Spring sports |

Tags: Tags: columbus, comets, division i, mason, mason high school, Mason sports, Mason track and field, mcauley, state, track

Mason's Taylor Reid competes at a meet earlier in May. Later in the month, Reid finished second in both the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdle events at the regional track meet in Dayton. The placing qualified her to compete in both events at the state meet. Photo taken by Joseph Fuqua II.

The Mason girls and boys track team will be well represented at this weekend’s 2012 Ohio High School Athletic Association State Track Championship in Columbus.

Overall, the high school qualified five of its individual competitors and five relay teams due to strong performances at last week’s regional tournament at Welcome Stadium in Dayton.

One of those individual qualifiers was senior Taylor Reid, who qualified for the state meet in both the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdle events. At the regional meet, Reid finished in second place in both races.

Other individual athletes, who qualified for state, include sophomore Jenny Nelson (pole vault), senior Josh Dooley (100-meter dash), junior Alex Notton (1,600-meter run) and junior Asad Maiden (110-meter hurdles).

Also qualifying for state were the 4×100-meter (senior Kara Lamotte, sophomore C.C. Wilson, sophomore Beneria White, freshman BreAuna Keys), 4×400-meter (junior Olivia Gaus, freshman Delaney McDowell, senior Ivy Beddow, senior Monica Lake) and 4×800-meter (senior Bridget McElhenny, McDowell, Lake, Gaus) girl relay teams, as well as the 4×400-meter (junior Robert Diehl, senior Zachary Taylor, senior Adam Court, sophomore Ethan Valentine) and 4×800-meter (Notton, senior Michael Mumma, Valentine, junior Paul D’Hyver de las Deses) boy relay teams.

The state tournament will take place at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State University in Columbus this Friday and Saturday, June 1-2.

Posted in: Sports, Spring sports |

Tags: Tags: columbus, comets, division i, mason, mason high school, mcauley, state, track

Mason's Miguel Cepeda returns a shot Saturday during the OHSAA state tennis tournament. Jay LaPrete for the Enquirer

Jarrod Ulrey reports:

Mason junior Miguel Cepeda and sophomore Luke Tsai were determined to not be content with reaching the championship match of the Division I state doubles tournament Saturday at Ohio State.

After needing three sets to beat Sycamore’s team of junior Yuri Karev and freshman Nakul Narendran at the sectional tournament, Cepeda and Tsai quickly found their groove and easily won the rematch against the duo 6-1, 6-1 to capture the title.

Mason's Luke Tsai returns a shot. Jay LaPrete for the Enquirer

Cepeda and Tsai became the first boys tennis players from the program to reach a state final a year ago when they lost to Upper Arlington’s Billy Weldon and Stu Little 6-3, 6-1.

“It feels great,” Cepeda said. “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet, but when we look back on the whole season, it’s going to be like, ‘Wow, we really accomplished something.’”

Cepeda and Tsai needed three sets to beat New Albany’s Oliver Sybert and Alex Kobelt 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) during Friday’s second round. Then in their state semifinal, Cepeda and Tsai defeated the Sycamore doubles team of juniors Dylan Stern and Nikhil Grandhi 6-3, 6-4 to reach the championship match.

“Last year we were kind of happy just to be in the final, and this year we had a pretty tough second round,” Tsai said. “We had to save two match points to (beat New Albany). We knew we just had to be aggressive today.”

“They were definitely being more aggressive,” coach Linda Kirtley said. “We’ve never even been to the final before last year, so we’ve definitely come a long way.”

Coming up just short of a championship for the third consecutive season was Lakota East senior Zach Mueck.

After finishing as runner-up each of the past two seasons, Mueck needed three sets to beat Perrysburg’s Jeffrey Schorsch (6-2, 1-6, 6-2) and again reach the final.

Then facing Westlake senior Colton Buffington, he couldn’t overcome a slow start and lost 6-2, 6-3.

Buffington, who lost to Mueck 6-4, 6-2 in a semifinal in 2010, built a 4-0 lead in the first set. Then in the second set, Mueck led 2-0 but couldn’t keep it going against the fresher Buffington.

Buffington won all four of his state matches in straight sets.

Mueck is planning to take a short break before setting off to play for Xavier University next year.

Posted in: Sports, Spring sports |

Tags: Tags: luke tsai, miguel cepeda, state, sycamore, tennis, title

Anderson won the boys 4x800 meter relay,while Mason finished third at the Regional Track Meet at Dayton's Welcome Stadium, Wednesday, May. 23, 2012. (Tony Tribble for the Enquirer)

Mason’s Lady Comets suffered a narrow loss Wednesday to McAuley at the Division I regional championship at Dayton’s Welcome Stadium.

Mason’s 3,200-meter relay unit finished second (9.20.23) to McAuley’s finishing time of 9 minutes and 15.52 seconds.  Mason beat McAuley by a “blink of an eye” in last year’s meet, said McAuley coach Ron Russo.

Lebanon rounded up in third place (9.20.27).  The top four finishers automatically qualified for the big-school meet in Columbus.

Anderson won the regional title in the boys’ 3,200 relay. Nick Vogele, Casey Gallagher, Kameron Powell and Sean Batt clocked in at 7:50.17. Mason finished third and also qualified for state.

Wednesday’s competitors in the girls’ and boys’ discus, girls’ high jump, boys’ long jump and boys’ pole vault also qualified for state. All other track and field events were preliminaries qualifying participants to Friday’s regional finals.

Marc Hardin contributed

Posted in: Sports, Spring sports |

Tags: Tags: columbus, comets, division i, mason, mason high school, mcauley, state, track

Most area post offices are staying open until midnight today so you can make the deadline to file your federal and state income taxes.

While April 15 is typically the tax-filing deadline, taxpayers got a two day reprieve this year.

If you don’t plan to file your taxes yet, the extension request still is required to be in the mail by midnight.

The IRS extension form is 4868, and you can get it from the IRS.gov website.

While this gives you an additional six months to file, anything you owe on your 2011 taxes is due now. Send in a check with the extension form.

Mason income tax returns must be postmarked or dropped in the city drop box by  today. The city drop box is the black box at the end of the passenger drop-off drive in front of the Mason Municipal Center, 6000 Mason-Montgomery Road.

Residents can mail their state or federal returns at the postal unit in the Mason Community Center or via the post office mailbox in front of the Mason Municipal Center.  Mail is picked up at 3 p.m. there on weekdays.

Mason Public Information Officer Jennifer Trepal cautions residents that letters mailed after 3 p.m. via these two locations will be postmarked the next regular business day, so care should be taken when mailing returns on Tuesday.  Same-day postmarks are available until 5 p.m. at the Mason Post Office at 6338 Snider Road.

Posted in: News |

Tags: Tags: city of mason, deadline, federal, income taxes, irs, state, tax, tax day, taxes

Mason Schools was among Southwest Ohio schools that either improved or maintained their Ohio Report Card ratings last year, despite fears that changes in the way the state calculates its Ohio Report Card ratings would hurt them.

Mason, one of the state’s premiere academic performers, reported it had returned to the state’s top academic ranking of “Excellent With Distinction.”

The previous school year saw the 11,000-student district, which consistently ranks among the top 10 of Ohio’s 614 districts, fall one rating to “Excellent” for the first time since Ohio began the annual district rankings in 2000.

The Enquirer obtained the Report Card data Wednesday from the Ohio Department of Education through a public records request. The ratings reflect academic performance in the 2010 -11 school year. The state had planned to release the results for all 614 Ohio districts next week.

The state changed the way it calculates “Value Added” this year – a measure of how much students improved on state tests over the course of the year. The changes make it more difficult for districts to maintain or elevate their rating.

Overall among Southwest Ohio’s 49 school districts, 13 local districts went up one or two Report Card categories, 25 stayed the same and 11 dropped one to two ratings.

Read the complete report at cincinnati.com.

Posted in: Schools |

Tags: Tags: academics, education, excellent with distinction, mason city schools, mason school district, mason schools, ohio, performance, ranking, state

Mason Middle School students Mekhala Rao, Hannah Than Win, Shreya Nalluri, Irim Aslam, Kusha Ansari, and Bluye Demessie participated in the regional History Day competition.

Seven Mason students will compete at the state History Day competition in Columbus on April 30.

Mason Intermediate School sixth graders Annie McBeath and Kelsey Lewis

The following students qualified to compete based on judging evaluations at the regional competition, held March 12 at Raymond Walters College:

• Mekhala Rao and Hanna Than Win, seventh-grade;
• Bluye Demessie and Raga Maddela, eighth-grade;
• Annie McBeath, sixth-grade;
• Rhea Malhotra and Katie Darrah, sophomores

The History Day competition challenges students to research historical topics related to an annual theme.  This year’s theme was no easy task: Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, and Consequences.

Topics chosen by students this year range from the 1953 coup in Iran, Brown v. Board of Education, China and US Trade Diplomacy, the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, the Equal Rights Amendment and the Evolution of Democracy in Burma, among others. 

Students then research their selected topic and present their findings in the form of a written research paper or with multimedia elements before a panel of judges.

Other students competing at the regional event include seventh-grader Shreya Nalluri; eighth-graders Irim Aslam and Kusha Ansari and sixth-grader Kelsey Lewis.

Posted in: Schools, Student achievements |

Tags: Tags: achievement, competition, history day, mason high school, mason intermediate school, mason middle school, raymond walters college, state, students