Pair of Patriots advance

Jay County’s leaders are heading back to the Coliseum.
Senior Drake Meska and sophomore Kyle Garringer earned berths to the semi-state tournament for the second straight year, each finishing second Saturday at the regional wrestling meet hosted by JCHS. They will compete in the semi-state hosted by Woodlan at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum on Saturday at 9 a.m.
Five other Patriots dropped first-round matches to end their seasons, but coach James Myers said the entire day was a positive.
“The two kids we’ve got going on wrestled hard,” he said. “I think it will help all of our guys. We had freshmen and sophomores except for Drake here today. I think this experience will be good for them.
“The kids came in and they gave me everything they had this week.”
South Adams had seven wrestlers finish in the top four to earn semi-state berths, including champions Josh Ehr and Todd Batt. Joining them at the semi-state meet will be T.J. Burnfield, Maverick Morningstar, Gabe Sprunger, Eric Pimentel and Charlie Hirschy.
“The guys that did get through, I thought they wrestled really well,” said SAHS coach Eric Myers. “Once we got through that first round, I don’t really have any complaints. … I was happy with how we wrestled all day.”
Meska (140), who is ranked seventh in the state, earned his trip to the semi-state with a pin of Monroe Central’s Tim Baker in 2 minutes, 23 seconds in Saturday’s opening round. He cruised past Hirschy with a 15-0 technical fall in round two, and then took on Yorktown’s Cole Vanhorn in the finals.
After a scoreless first period, Vanhorn scored a reversal 1:14 into the second to take the lead for good. He gave up one point for a stalling call late in the second, but Meska was unable to get the escape he needed in the third.
“Drake had two good matches early in the day,” said James Myers. “On our feet, we’re just aggressive. And then when he’s on top he’s dangerous. He’s got all kinds of offense on top.”
Garringer (189), who won his quarterfinal and semifinal matches by decision, gave up an escape to Scott Neff in the second period of the championship match. The score remained 1-0 until Garringer tried for a single-leg takedown late in the third period, only to have Neff turn the tables and score a takedown of his own for a 3-0 final.
“He’s been wrestling not healthy the last three weeks,” said Myers of Garringer. “I think he’s finally coming around and starting to feel like himself. It was nice to get that monkey off his back in the semis against (Corey) Crabtree. He had beaten (Garringer) three times.”
Ehr (152) earned the 152-pound title by pinning Bellmont’s Will Busse in 4:46, and Batt (125) got a late reversal against Bluffton’s Phillip Gerber in the second period and held on in the third for a 5-4 victory.
Burnfield (145) had a 9-6 lead in the finals against second-ranked Andrew Hiestand of Yorktown before getting pinned in the third period. Morningstar (HWT) lost in 57 seconds to No. 1 Daniel Meyer of Bellmont in the finals.
Sprunger (135) pinned Muncie Central’s Scott Kohler to place third, and Hirschy (140) and Pimentel (119) each finished fourth.
Four of Jay County’s five opening-round losses came by way of pin. Eric Hemmelgarn (215) lost to Monroe Central’s Taylor Morris in 2:53, Dustin Tighe (125) fell to Rhett Hiestand of Yorktown in 1:43, Jesse Finnerty (130) lost to Wapahani’s Hunter Randolph in 2:25 and Zach Metcalf (171) fell to Muncie Central’s Spencer Osborn in 1:06.
Conner Ray (103) also suffered an opening-round defeat, giving up a 13-2 major decision to Tyler Rigby from Muncie Southside.
First-round losses for the Starfires were: Keegan Puterbaugh (103) pinned in nine seconds by Yorktown’s Brock Bevans, L.J. Moser (112) pinned in 4:29 by Schuyler Phillips of Yorktown, Jordan Landers (160) by a 6-2 decision to Winchester’s Jordan Simmons, Isaac Werst (171) by an 18-12 decision to Eric Sauser of Winchester and Cody Conner (189) pinned in 2:58 by Yorktown’s Scott Neff.[[In-content Ad]]