Jay wins ECIC crown

James Myers has coached state qualifiers four times.
He was one of two state medalists on the Patriots’ 1997 team.
But Jay County had not won its own tournament for more than two decades.
Until Thursday.
Kyle Garringer was the lone champion for the Patriot wrestlers, but they placed in 13 out of 14 weight classes and scored 196 points to earn their first East Central Indiana Classic championship since 1988.
“That was the goal coming into today,” said Myers, whose JCHS squad finished third behind South Adams and Alexandria a year ago. “The focus basically last week and this week was to come in and wrestle and win a tournament at home. It’s a good feeling.”
A Patriot squad also took the runner-up slot, with Heritage scoring 172 points. Norwell finished third in the 16-team field with 164 points, and Muncie Southside was fourth with 159.5.
Alexandria, which won the most individual titles with three, finished fifth overall at 153.
Garringer and Shenandoah’s Jacob Lumpkin wrestled a scoreless first period in the 195-pound title match before the JCHS junior scored an escape at the 1:19 mark of the second period. He added a takedown 38 seconds later, and entered the third period with a 3-1 lead.
Lumpkin closed the gap with a quick escape to open the final period, but Garringer didn’t allow him to score again and added a takedown at the buzzer for a 5-2 victory.
“I just stayed in good position and stayed moving the whole time,” said Garringer. “I kind of knew what the kid was going to be doing, so I had good defense.
“He had a nice sweep single and I just kept circling the other way so he couldn’t get it, and if he did I’d just down block on him so he couldn’t get the leg.”
Garringer pinned his way to the finals, beating Wes-Del’s Zac Hoffman in 1 minute, 41 seconds in the first round, Heritage’s Joel Saxton in 37 seconds in the quarterfinals and Muncie Southside’s Corey Crabtree in 3:35 in the semifinals. His second straight ECIC title improved him to 21-1 on the year.
“It was just another day of grinding it out. He stayed in good position today and came away with another tournament title,” said Myers of Garringer, who won the 189-pound ECIC crown a year ago. “He’s just so determined. He wants to win everything for the rest of the year. I think that’s what drives him — know last year he was so close to getting (to state) and then coming up short. That’s what’s motivated him.”
Sophomore Eric Hemmelgarn (285) and freshman Alex Abbott (106) also wrestled in championship matches, each finishing in second place.
Hemmelgarn reached the finals with a pin followed by a 5-4 decision over Delta’s Jim Schafer. He suffered just his second loss of the year in the finals, going down 8-0 to undefeated Kyle Short of Norwell after getting caught in a cradle to fall behind in the first period.
Abbott matched Garringer by scoring three pins, all in the first period, to advance to the championship match. He was within striking distance trailing 4-1 after two periods, but went on to fall to Muncie Southside’s Tyler Rigney by a 13-2 major decision.
“He had a great day,” said Myers of Abbott, who is now 20-9. “He got to the semifinals and then (top-seeded Dean Fites of Shenandoah) took a shot on us and boom, he went to a spladle and stuck the kid.
“In the finals against Rigney I thought he wrestled tough. … He had a great tournament.
“He had a great tournament,” Myers added of Hemmelgarn, who is 25-2. “He got some pins, controlled matches. It was another solid day, two tournaments in a row where he’s been in the finals.
“We’ll see Short again at the Adams Central duals, sectional, regional, so those two could be battling here for a while.”
Senior Nick Leonhard (152) and junior Robert Cooper (113) each added fourth-place finishes for the Patriots. Austin Bentz (138) and Zach Metcalf (160) finished fifth, Dustin Tighe (132), Dylan Harris (170) and Andrew Eley (182) were sixth, Nick Spahr (220) placed seventh and Connor Ray (120) and Jesse Finnerty (145) took eighth.
“We placed 13 out of 14 wrestlers, which is one of the things we’ve talked about,” said Myers. “We’ve got to place as many as we can if we’re going to start winning these tournaments.”[[In-content Ad]]