The Top 10 local sports stories for Europe in 2023:

A sublime D-I basketball final

Everyone in the Ramstein High School gymnasium between 7 and 9:30 p.m. Feb. 18, 2023, will remember the game they watched.

What began as a dominant Stuttgart performance in the Division I boys basketball championship game turned into a double-overtime thriller, as the Royals recovered from a 14-point deficit to send the game into extra time.

In the end, the Panthers outlasted Ramstein 62-60 for the title, its first since 2013.

The game produced all sorts of drama. Stuttgart thought it had won after the first overtime period after Tyler Jackson hit a 3-pointer, only for the scorer’s table and referees to agree Royal Jayvian Jennings had connected on a 3-pointer instead of a 2-pointer right before, leaving the score tied.

After the game, Ramstein coach Brendan Rouse said, “If there’s a game to lose, that’s the one.”

Stuttgart’s Trenton Jackson said: “I have never been a part of something like this, nor seen something like this.”

Ansbach hits its mark

Ansbach had never won a DODEA European marksmanship title, yet the small school ran the table in 2023, dethroning nine-time champion Stuttgart in the process.

After a solid regular season, the Cougars dominated at Wiesbaden on Jan. 28. Most importantly was the team title after a 2,279-2,266 victory over the Panthers. Alexander Pohlman defeated teammate Kalea Russell by a bull’s-eye tiebreaker to win overall individual honors. Emma Pirner was nearly perfect in the prone position, totaling 199 points to receive the top spot.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Cougars would create more history by winning the Army JROTC championship during the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s Service National Finals at Camp Perry, Ohio, on Feb. 10-11.

That led to an invitation to the All-Service Finals a month and a half later in the same place. There, the Cougars placed 10th overall and third among Army squads.

Panthers are kings of Europe

Basketball wasn’t the only boys sport Stuttgart took care of business.

In baseball, the Panthers got revenge after losing in the 2022 final to Ramstein. They got it with a dominant 15-5 victory at Ramstein Air Base’s Southside Fitness Center on May 20. It was the program’s first title since 2012.

In soccer, Stuttgart trailed Wiesbaden in the 65th minute before star Itzak Sandoval created something out of nothing. The junior pinged a shot from midfield that squeaked into the upper right corner of the net for an equalizer. Then freshman Christian Ingle slotted home a shot in the 76th minute to seal the 2-1 victory.

The football championship this fall was just as impressive, considering the Panthers were 1-2 to start the season. The three-time defending European winners made a run in the playoffs with wins over Wiesbaden and Ramstein before beating longtime title-game foe Vilseck 24-22 to retain the crown.

Warriors, Royals in girls rivalry

Three girls Division I European championship games saw Ramstein and Wiesbaden meet in the end during 2023 – basketball, softball and volleyball.

In basketball, the Warriors topped the Royals for the fourth time that season, 43-34 in the finals. It marked the program’s first title since 2015 in its first campaign under coach Kristin Kachmar.

Brandi Stanford led the way, as the freshman sensation dropped a game-high 22 points. Lyndsey Urick, DODEA-Europe’s Athlete of the Year, added another eight.

In the softball championship game, the Royals came out on top, 3-2, in a pitcher’s duel on May 20. Natalie Briceland scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning, beating out a throw to home plate. It was the Royals’ first crown since 2017.

In the fall, Wiesbaden and Ramstein met in the title game after finishing the regular season atop the standings. The Warriors managed to repeat with a 25-18, 15-25, 26-16, 22-25, 15-3 victory on Oct. 28.

Ramstein returns to wrestling royalty

Stuttgart had the European wrestling community in a stranglehold for almost a decade, beginning in 2014. The Royals did manage to tie the Panthers in 2020. Still, they hadn’t taken the crown outright since 2013.

On Clay Kaserne in Wiesbaden on Feb. 10-11, that drought ended. Ramstein dethroned the Panthers with a 39.5-point cushion.

The Royals produced three individual champions in Cole Santos at 106 pounds, Jesus Olivares at 113 and Joshua Conway at 126; three runners-up in September Snyder at 106, Colton Lucas at 190 and Evan Brooks at 215; three third-place finishers in Liam Horne at 120, Jayden Andrews at 132 and Isaac Martinez at 144; and three fourth-place finishers in Hayden Basham at 150, Lucas Hollenbeck at 157 and Alexander Belote at 285.

Nobody can keep up with Jones

Described by an opposing coach as a machine, nobody in DODEA-Europe seemed capable of stopping Wiesbaden’s Luke Jones in long-distance running events.

The junior collected three titles in 2023, starting with the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races at the DODEA European track and field championships on May 19-20 at Kaiserslautern High School. Jones officially broke the European record in the 3,200 in 9 minutes, 29.63 seconds, having already bested the previous mark of 9:44.64 during the regular season.

Setting new marks continued into the fall. Jones seemed to break course records everywhere he went and even eclipsed the 16-minute mark at his home course with a 15:53.

The Warrior wasn’t that quick during the DODEA European cross country championships Oct. 21 on Rolling Hills Golf Course in Baumholder, but he still defended his individual title in record time. Jones beat the previous meet record by 7 seconds, crossing the finish line at 16:08.56.

Heroic efforts on or near the track

Wiesbaden’s Ava Stout continued to dominate every hurdles event she entered, breaking the DODEA-Europe record in the 100 hurdles twice in the championship meet.

The senior, now attending Michigan State University on a track scholarship, blitzed to a 14.59-second performance in qualifying, beating the previous mark of 14.81.

A day later, she topped that with a 14.56 in the final. She also won the 300 hurdles in 46.33.

Wiesbaden teammate Makiah Parker and Brussels senior William Pierce weren’t exactly slouches. Parker, the meet’s outstanding female track athlete, won the 100 (11.94), 200 (24.80) and 400 (57.44) dashes, just missing out on records in each race.

Pierce, the meet’s outstanding field athlete who currently is enrolled at the U.S. Naval Academy, won the long jump at 23 feet, 1 inch and the triple jump at 46-5.25.

Baumholder dynasty reigns supreme

The Buccaneer boys basketball program couldn’t be stopped in Division III.

Baumholder was supposed to be in a partially rebuilding year with just two seniors on the roster. The squad’s youth was highlighted by eight underclassmen - five of them freshmen.

Yet the Buccaneers once again came out on top in February at the DODEA European basketball championships. They controlled the title game against Spangdahlem, winning 40-27 for their fifth-straight crown.

The Sentinels had spoiled Baumholder’s perfect divisional record in the regular season, but the Buccaneers controlled the tempo on Feb. 18.

EFSL heats up pool in the Netherlands

Europe’s best swimmers converged Feb. 25-26 the European Forces Swim League Short Distance Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands. And they swam with a purpose.

Seven EFSL records were broken over the two days, led by Rota’s Isabella Cardenas.

The 16-year-old Tiburone took down the 15-to-16-year-old 400-meter freestyle mark set 15 years prior with a 4:37.22 on the first day. Then, on Day 2, Cardenas broke the records in her age group in the 200 individual medley with a 2:24.89 and the 100 backstroke on 1:08.65.

Cardenas also won the 200 freestyle and 50 freestyle.

Naples’ Avery DeBoer, meanwhile, used what she described as her worst stroke to make her mark. The 10-year-old recorded a time of 37.56 seconds in the 50 backstroke on the second day.

Other records eclipsed included Kaiserslautern’s Grace Cooper in the 15-16 girls 100 breaststroke (1:14.31), NATO’s Maj Pavesic in the 15-16 boys 100 breaststroke (1:09.35) and Kaiserslautern’s 15-19 mixed medley relay of Eliza Furqueron, Cooper, Keaton Tottle and Benjamin Heath (2:01.18).

KMC juniors singled out again

The DODEA-Europe tennis scene can’t wait for Ramstein’s Tristan Chandler and Kaiserslautern’s Stella Schmitz, Abby Hover and Alisha Dietzel to graduate.

The problem: All four are juniors.

At the T2 Sports Health Club in Wiesbaden on Oct. 20-21, all four triumphed for European tennis crowns. And they did so in dominating fashion.

Schmitz blanked every opponent onto her second-straight girls singles title and her third European title overall. Chandler won his third-straight boys individual trophy by dropping just two games.

Hover and Dietzel lost just three games all tournament en route to the girls doubles title. It marked Hover’s third-straight European title in doubles, having won her freshman year with Schmitz, and Dietzel’s second, having teamed up with Hover their sophomore season.