Garringer, Hemmelgarn advance

The Patriots got a pair of runner-up efforts. The Starfires walked away with two titles.
Both teams will be sending the same number of athletes to semi-state competition as they did a year ago.
Kyle Garringer and Eric Hemmelgarn each turned in runner-up finishes to earn their semi-state berths for the host Jay County High School wrestling team Saturday as it hosted the regional wrestling tournament.
“They’re both good wrestlers and both of them can make a run,” said JCHS coach James Myers. “If good things happen they can both be on the podium Saturday.”
Todd Batt and Sawyer Miller both won regional titles to lead a group of seven semi-state qualifiers for South Adams. Yorktown, which had four champions, and Muncie Southside also earned seven semi-state berths apiece while Bellmont and Adams Central each earned eight to lead the field.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class advanced to compete at the Fort Wayne Snider semis-state, which will be contested at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Saturday at 9 a.m.
“I thought we wrestled pretty well,” said SAHS coach Eric Myers, who will also have L.J. Moser, Charlie Hirschy, Shea Pyle, Jordan Landers and Isaac Werst competing at the semi-state. “We had one hiccup … but other than that … I thought everybody wrestled about as well as they could.”
Garringer, a junior who is headed to the semi-state for the third time, cruised through the first two rounds of the 195-pound bracket.He pinned Yorktown’s Cody Smith in 1:57 to secure his semi-state berth and then added another pin against Monroe Central’s Taylor Morris in 3:59 in the semifinals. His wins set up a rematch of the sectional championship bout from a week earlier against Bellmont’s Ben Baker, who also scored pins in each of his first two regional matches.
After wrestling two scoreless periods a week earlier, Baker struck in the first period at the regional as he powered Garringer to his back with 42 seconds left in the opening period. Garringer couldn’t get an escape to cut the gap, and again failed to score after choosing the bottom position to start the second period.
Baker added a late escape for a 3-0 victory.
“Baker took us down early and we didn’t get a point back,” said James Myers. “And then on bottom we didn’t score. Those are places we’ve got to take advantage of.”
Hemmelgarn, who got a 2-1 overtime win over Southside’s Aundre Diamond in the semifinal round, also faced a sectional final rematch in the championship at 285 pounds.
Kyle Short scored a takedown just seven seconds into his fifth match of the season against Hemmelgarn, and the JCHS sophomore was never able to recover. Hemmelgarn got an escape in the second period to close to within 2-1, but Short added two late takedowns for a 5-1 victory.
“We got taken down early … but we got rode for 1:40, which was big,” said James Myers of Hemmelgarn, who had won three straight over Short after losing to him at the East Central Indiana Classic. “Him riding us out, he hadn’t been able to do that most of the season. … And then we couldn’t put together any offense to get a takedown, and that really hurt us.”
Batt (132), a senior who is ranked ninth in the state, advanced to the finals with a pin and a technical fall before defeating sixth-ranked Derek Roe of Adams Central for the second straight week with a 5-1 victory. Miller (106), a freshman who is ranked eighth, had pins in each of his first two regional matches and then knocked off Southside’s Tyler Rigney 3-1 in the finals.
“Beating Roe again is a big win,” said Eric Myers. “Roe has an awesome shot. … (Batt) fended off some good shots, pushed some of the action and scored off a few of those shots. …
“When we were down at Ben Davis, (Miller) beat two ranked kids that were really tough. In my mind that really prepared him mentally for getting to the regional finals against a kid like (Rigney) … I’m glad that we went down there and he got a little bit of a confidence boost at that tournament … He’s having an awesome season for a freshman, one of the best in South Adams history …”
Three other Starfires reached the finals, with two of them falling to highly-rated wrestlers from Yorktown. Moser (113) dropped a 6-1 decision to No. 3 Schuyler Phillips, and Hirschy (138) fell by a pin in 2:42 to undefeated No. 1 Devon Jackson.
Werst lost the 170-pound championship match by a 7-0 decision to Southside’s Jake Reed.
Landers (160) advanced for SAHS with a third-place finish, and Pyle (152) moved on as he placed fourth.
Jay County’s other regional qualifiers dropped out in the first round, with senior Nick Leonhard (160) turning in the closest match. He led Muncie Southside’s Khalil Lewis 6-4 at the end of the second period, but gave up and escape and a takedown in the final minute in a 7-6 defeat.
In other first-round matches, Hunter Gillette (182) lost 10-3 to David Tinsman of Monroe Central, Zach Metcalf (152) fell by pin to fourth-ranked Isaiah Bradley of Southside in 3:44 and Alex Abbott (106) fell by pin to Rigney in 3:35.
Dropping out in the first round for South Adams were Eric Pimentel (120) in a 10-5 decision to Winchester’s Gavin Cox, Boaz Marbach (126) by a pin in 3:44 to Yorktown’s Chandler Carroll and Andrew Beachy (285) by a pin in 5:16 to Diamond.[[In-content Ad]]