This is the second in a three-part series of Ashland Source highlighting area high school graduates who have performed consistently during their fall, winter and spring sports seasons at the college level during the 2025-26 school year. Featured schools include Ashland, Crestview, Hillsdale, Loudonville and Mapleton.
The following is a look at those in action during the 2025-26 winter sports campaign.
Ashland
● A pair of knee injuries sidetracked the college hoops career of former standout Arrow Eli White, but the guard was able to close out his time at NAIA Spring Arbor University with a solid finish.
The senior played in 19 games for the Cougars (13-16, 6-12 Crossroads League), netting 48 points and pulling down 16 rebounds in his final season. For his career at SAU, White totaled 785 points, 188 rebounds, 93 assists and 152 made 3-pointers.
● After missing the 2024-25 basketball season due to injury, Luke Denbow returned to the basketball court this winter with the NCAA Division II University of Findlay.
The guard and all-time scoring leader for the Arrows saw action in 18 games with the Oilers (18-12, 11-9 Great Midwest Athletic Conference), totaling 60 points, 21 assists and 20 rebounds.
Denbow played two seasons at Anderson University in South Carolina, averaging 12.1 points per game and making 40 starts before transferring to Findlay. He recently announced on social media that he will use his final year of eligibility to play at NAIA Mount Vernon Nazarene University.
● The indoor track season for Ashland University finished at the NCAA Division II national championships in mid-March in Virginia, where former Arrow Emilie Lemon was part of the Eagles’ distance medley relay. That quartet finished 12th in 12:32.22.
A senior, Lemon was named an all-region honoree with the relay, which also took gold at the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championships (11:33.60). Individually at that same G-MAC meet, she placed fifth in the mile (5:02.62).
● Also in action for the Ashland University women’s indoor track squad was Vivian Walter, a freshman who put up some big numbers in the 60-meter hurdles and pole vault.
The record-holder at AHS in the pole vault, Walter placed ninth at the G-MAC Championships in that event with a clearance of 11-5. In the 60 hurdles, meanwhile, she took third in 8.68.
● Now a redshirt junior for the Ashland University wrestling team, Hayden Flynn posted the best season of his college career thus far. The AHS grad was 13-19 at 174 pounds with six pins for the Eagles. In three seasons at AU, Flynn has collected 32 wins.
● On Ashland University’s swimming and diving team, a pair of former Arrows were contributors at the G-MAC/Mountain East Conference Championships, as freshman Altin Rowland placed second in both the 1- and 3-meter diving and sophomore Grant Wallery took third in those same two events.
The Eagles placed second as a squad in those championships.
● One of the best boys swimmers ever to come through AHS, Bailey Parsons wrapped up his senior season in the pool for NCAA Division III John Carroll University in February.
The former Ashland All-Ohioan closed his college career by scoring points at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships in the 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly and the 500 freestyle.
Parsons also was an All-Ohio Athletic Conference performer in multiple events earlier in his time as a Blue Streak.
● On the indoor track for Ashland University, jumper Landon McFrederick had a few solid outings. The junior placed third in the high jump during Akron’s Al Campbell Invitational (6-2¾) in January, then later took fifth in the same event at the G-MAC Championships (6-4¾), where the Eagles took first place.
● During the indoor track season at NCAA Division III Ohio Northern University, sprinter Kendyl Stone was part of the third-place 4×200-meter relay at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships (1:47.21).
The sophomore and former Arrow also was on the fourth-place quartet in the same event at the All-Ohio Championships two weeks earlier.
● Additional Ashland High School graduates rostered on college squads in the winter were Mount Vernon Nazarene’s Mackenzie Kauffman (junior in bowling) and Owen Lemon (freshman in track); Ashland University’s Brady Welch (redshirt junior in wrestling), Chaden Sampson (freshman in track), Jacob Holbrook (freshman in track), Jayden Goings (freshman in track) and Adria Brock (freshman in track); and Gordon College’s Asher Stefaniuk (freshman in track).
Crestview
● Continuing to produce big results at Ashland University, wrestler Hayden Kuhn qualified to the NCAA Division II national championships for a second consecutive season.
The former star Cougar closed his junior year with a 30-6 record that included seven pins – his second straight winter with 30 wins for the Eagles.
Kuhn helped AU win the G-MAC title and was a first-team selection in the league at 149 pounds. He’ll enter his senior year with 81 career victories as an Eagle.
● Already an All-American runner during his time at NCAA Division II Hillsdale College, Ross Kuhn was back on the indoor track this year. During the G-MAC Championships, the senior took the runner-up spot in the mile in 4:08.75.
That performance came a few weeks after a breakthrough outing for the former Cougar, as Kuhn shattered the Hillsdale indoor record in the mile by nearly four seconds (4:02.42) during the Meyo Invitational at Notre Dame.
● A senior distance runner on the indoor track squad at Grace College, Morgan Welch found her way to the NAIA’s Indoor National Championships as part of the Lancers’ 4×800 relay unit. The quartet put together a 10th-place 9:11.68 time – the third-fastest clocking in program history.
A few weeks earlier at the Crossroads League Indoor Championships, Welch claimed fourth place individually in the mile (5:14.87).
● After a headline-grabbing career at Crestview, where he set the school record for career points, Justice Thompson put together a quality freshman season for the NCAA Division III squad at Bluffton College.
A 6-foot-5 guard, Thompson played in all 26 games for the Beavers (9-17, 7-11 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference), averaging 6.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 15.8 minutes per game. He had seven games in which he scored double-digit points.
● Additional Crestview High School graduates rostered on college squads in the winter were Ashland University’s Tanner Moore (junior in track) and the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s John Tackett (junior in track).
Hillsdale
● A freshman at Ashland University, former Falcon All-Ohioan Bradey Krichbaum was rostered on the Eagle men’s basketball team this winter.
Loudonville
● Corri Vermilya fired out of the gates for the Ashland University women’s basketball team before injury cut her season short after six just games.
The sophomore guard made three starts and turned in big numbers for the Eagles (14-13, 10-10 G-MAC) while active, averaging 16.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.
Vermilya had three games with at least 21 points and was especially stellar from 3-point range, hitting 13 of 21 shots from downtown.
● An additional Loudonville High School graduate rostered on a college squad in the winter was Mount Vernon Nazarene University’s Sophia Spangler (sophomore in basketball).
Mapleton
● A state placer during his time with the Mounties, Andrew Sas became a steady contributor for the NCAA Division III wrestling squad at Otterbein University.
He completed a fourth consecutive season with double-digit wins for the Cardinals as a senior this winter, wrestling to a 14-9 record at 141 pounds.
For his career, Sas closed with a 54-38 mark at Otterbein, totaling 14 pins and 10 technical falls among those wins.
● After turning in an All-Ohio performance as a senior basketball player with the Mounties, Hailey Bergosh got some time on the hardwood as a freshman at the NCAA Division III College of Wooster this past season.
Appearing in 15 of 25 games for the Fighting Scots (11-14, 3-11 North Coast Athletic Conference), the forward logged 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
● Additional Mapleton High School graduates rostered on college squads in the winter were Ashland University’s Brock Durbin (sophomore in wrestling) and Scotty Hickey (freshman in both men’s basketball and track).
