Patriots earn ECIC repeat

For several seasons, James Myers has talked about his team taking the next step — going from finishing among the top teams at tournaments to winning them.
A year ago they broke through with their first East Central Indiana Classic title in more than 20 years.
Saturday’s repeat marked their third tournament win this month.
Jay County followed up victories at the Spencer Haworth Invitational and the Delta Duals by dominating as host of the East Central Indiana Classic for a winning total of 219 points.
“It feels great,” said Myers. “The guys had a pretty good day. … We would have liked to have won last week (at the Twin Lakes Invitational) and swept the month. Once we won the first one, that was the goal. …
“Today I think we rebounded really well. … Just overall it was a pretty solid performance.
“This is our best tournament team we’ve had in years.”
The Patriots, who got individual titles from Eric Hemmelgarn (HWT), Kyle Garringer (195), Jesse Finnerty (145) and Alex Abbott (113), were 36 points better than runner-up Winchester in the 16-team field. Hemmelgarn, the second-ranked heavyweight in the state, walked away with the award for fastest falls as he recorded four pins in a combined 6 minutes, 51 seconds.
Jay County scored 196 points a year ago when it finished 24 ahead of runner-up Heritage.
“In my high school career this is the best season we’ve ever had,” said Garringer, who is ranked sixth in the state. “I’m pretty happy with it.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys, but we work hard, do the things we’re supposed to do and it all pays off.”
The work continued to pay off for Garringer and Hemmelgarn at the ECIC, who both won four matches to push their matching unbeaten records to 26-0.
Hemmelgarn breezed through the first two rounds with pins in 33 and 28 seconds and then finished off Austin Pittenger of Wes-Del in 3:12 in the semifinals. He took a while to find his groove in the championship match before coming up with a reversal in the second period and then using a half nelson to pin Winchester’s Logan Williams in 2:40.
Garringer also pinned his way to the finals, beating his first two opponents in the first period and then topping Dustyn Hangen of Winchester in 2:53 in the semifinal round. He was unable to put Delta’s Brendan Gill to the mat in the championship match, instead playing a game of takedown and release en route to a 14-3 major decision.
“Kyle looked good all day,” said Myers. “His offense on his feet, his wrestling on the mat is just so much better than it was last year. He’s really putting it together. …
“Some kids try to slow him down,” he added of Hemmelgarn, “but once he gets on top and gets to working on his offense, he is a lot for most guys to handle.”
Abbott used a pair of pins to reach the finals and then took a 2-0 lead in the finals against Western Boone’s Steven Parsley. He hurt his knee in the second period, but responded with a sense of urgency and used a spladle to get the pin in 3:13.
“I had a bum knee the whole week of practice and tried to wrestle through it,” said Abbott. “Toward the end of the match I hurt it. …
“I wanted to just pin him and get it over with.”
Finnerty didn’t even need to wrestle in the championship round to earn his title as he picked up the win thanks to an injury default by Northeastern’s Cody Handley. He used three pins, the first in 48 seconds and the other two in the second period, to advance to the finals.
“I thought I wrestled pretty well my first three matches, but the forfeit kind of disappointed me a little bit,” said Finnerty. “I just wanted to earn the championship.”
Each of the Patriots’ other two title matches ended in losses by decision, with Conner Ray (120) falling 6-4 to T.C. Perry of Southern Wells and Donnie Miller suffering a 7-2 defeat against Briar Gerber of Bluffton.
But Ray won each of his two other matches on the day with pins in one minute flat, and Miller came up with three second-period pins to surge to the finals.
“Garringer dropped down and then Donnie comes in and puts together two great weekends,” said Myers of Miller, who took over the 220-pound spot when Garringer shifted to 195. “He had a sixth-place finish after being unseeded last week, and a second-place finish after being the eight seed today. It’s nice when you can insert a guy … and he picks up big team points …
“(Ray) is really coming together on his feet. He’s finding some takedowns that he’s comfortable with. It was a good day for him.”
Also placing among the top eight for the Patriots were Corey Bellis (152) and Zach Metcalf (160) in third place, and Levi Hummel (170) in sixth.[[In-content Ad]]