Columbus-area boys high school sports notebook, April 26

•The Upper Arlington boys lacrosse team’s challenging schedule continued last weekend with a trip to Philadelphia, and despite the Golden Bears suffering their first loss of the season, coach Kyle Olson said they came home even more excited about their prospects.

UA is 10-1 overall, 3-0 in the OCC-Central Division and ranked first in the state by LaxNumbers.com. It split two games on its latest trip, defeating host Berwyn (Pennsylvania) Conestoga 8-5 on April 23 before losing 14-7 to Wilmington (Delaware) Salesianum School the next day at the University of Pennsylvania.

Salesianum is the top-ranked team in Delaware, according to LaxNumbers.com.

“It’s always good to challenge yourself with teams from all over. That will pay off on the field and in the regional standings,” Olson said. “It’s good to see what top-level teams from the East Coast look like and it reinforces the little things we talk about day in and day out.

“If you make mistakes against lesser teams, you can sometimes get away with it. Against these top-tier teams, you’ll pay for mistakes, but it’s only a bad loss if you don’t learn from it.”

The Bears, who are averaging 15.8 goals per game and allowing 6.4, got the 700th win in program history April 20 with a 17-11 victory at Olentangy Liberty. Liberty is ranked eighth in the state by LaxNumbers.com.

UA’s schedule does not get easier, as the Bears will play host to fourth-ranked Cincinnati St. Xavier on April 30 in a rematch of their state semifinal from a year ago, and will visit ninth-ranked Hilliard Davidson in league play May 3.

—Dave Purpura

•Camden Beatty won two events and ran on a winning relay to help the Thomas Worthington boys track and field team capture the title in the Jason Lindsay Invitational on April 23 at Liberty Township Lakota East.

Beatty won the 300-meter hurdles (39.24 seconds) and the long jump (20 feet, 9 inches) to lead the Cardinals to 146 points as 14 teams scored.

Beatty, Daniel Assoku, Jeremiah Smith and Parker Grosshart finished first in the 1,600 relay (3:36.36).

Beatty was second in the 110 hurdles (14.91) behind Huber Heights Wayne’s Tyler Stargel (14.67).

Also for the Cardinals, Benjamin Smith won the 3,200 (10:19.83) and Wayne Chen won the pole vault (10-6).

—Michael Rich

•The Westerville Central boys track team won the Wildcat Invitational on April 22 at Westerville South, collecting 156 points to finish ahead of Pickerington Central (94), South (93) and Westerville North (87).

Marcus Gordon Jr. helped lead the Warhawks by winning the 110 hurdles (14.94) and 300 hurdles (39.55).

Central’s Buba Bangura won the high jump (6-0) and triple jump (42-3/4).

Troy Lane led Pickerington Central by winning the 100 (10.85) and 200 (21.97).

Bryce Abston won the 400 (49.61) and Ben Gabelman won the 1,600 (4:26.82) for North, and South’s Ashton Diller won the pole vault (13-0).

—Frank DiRenna

•Luke Miller, A.J. Hawkins, Steven Miller and Ryan Smith took down a Worthington Kilbourne boys track record that had stood since 1994.

The 6,400 relay won in 18:01.25 in the Fulton Relays on April 21 at Lancaster.

Luke Miller (4:35.1), Hawkins (4:34.4), Steven Miller (4:27.7) and Smith (4:24.5) also set personal records in their splits.

It was the second record broken in a week by Smith after he set the program mark in the 3,200 (9:20.58) in the Joe Lenge Classic on April 16 at Dublin Coffman.

—Michael Rich

•The Olentangy Orange boys tennis team won its first five matches while going unbeaten on the singles courts. Parth Patel plays first singles, with Kallan Arledge at second singles and Zach Haar at third singles.

The Pioneers play at Olentangy Liberty on April 26, and both teams enter the match at 4-0 in the OCC-Central. The winner earns the league title.

Orange had won all of its matches 5-0, except for a 3-2 victory over league-foe Upper Arlington on April 19.

—Scott Hennen

•The Pickerington North boys volleyball team takes a six-match winning streak into two key OCC-Ohio matches this week against New Albany and Pickerington Central, and senior Aidan Rose took only partial credit.

The twist in Rose’s case was that he said the Panthers took off after he gave full-time setting duties to freshman Drew Vensko and moved into a versatile back-row role. Earlier this season, Rose and Vensko split setting duties in a 6-2 offense.

“A lot of it is still learning what works and who clicks together,” Rose said. “Drew is just a different setter than I am and a lot of our players made a good connection with him. I switched out and stepped more into the back row and Drew has been incredible. For a freshman, he stepped in and has been phenomenal. We’ve found more consistency and a lineup that works for us.”

North is 9-6 overall and 5-5 in the OCC-Ohio entering an April 26 visit to New Albany. Two nights later, the Panthers play host to the Tigers, who are 10-0 in the league entering an April 26 match at Gahanna.

—Dave Purpura

•The nine-time defending City League champion Whetstone baseball team has cruised through its City-North schedule mostly unchallenged.

The Braves lost to Centerburg 14-2 on April 23 to drop to 7-4 overall, but they are 5-0 in the City-North.

In a 10-3 win April 14 over Centennial, which was last year’s City-North runner-up, Whetstone scored two runs in the second and fourth innings and three in the third to build an early lead as Henry Wollerman struck out nine over the first five innings.

Sophomore infielder Justin Leisinger had two hits in each game as the Braves swept Logan 5-3 and 11-7 on April 16.

Senior Michael Newell-Dimoff (P/INF), junior Drew Burleson (P/1B/OF) and sophomore Padraig McSweeney (OF) also have been among the standouts at the plate.

—Jarrod Ulrey

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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Notebook: What's happening in central Ohio boys high school sports?