Patriots place 4th in ECIC

There could not have been a better finish to a great day.

Matt James' upset of undefeated Seth Biberstine in the championship match at 215 pounds sealed an outstanding day for the Jay County High School wrestling team, which bounced back from a lackluster performance four days earlier at Twin Lakes to place fourth as hosts of the East Central Indiana Classic.

It was a great day overall for the local teams as South Adams won the ECIC title with 212.5 points. Jay County, which got championships from Drake Meska and James, scored 162.5 to finish behind the Starfires, Alexandria (197) and Heritage (178) in the 17-team field.

"It was a great day for our wrestling team," said a beaming JCHS wrestling coach James Myers after the tournament. "If somebody would have said we would have been in the top five, top four, pushing third, I would have said that would have been a great day for us as a team. I was very impressed with us today.

"From the first match we wrestled today it was like we were a different team. ... We did what we set out to do today."

South Adams left two weight classes empty because of illnesses and filled in a third with a junior varsity wrestler. But everyone came through as all 12 Starfires finished in the top seven led by champions Josh Ehr and Jim West.

"It's pretty awesome for 12 guys to come through and win this thing," said SAHS coach Eric Myers, who picked up his 100th win last week. "We really stepped up."

James turned in the signature match of the day for the Patriots in his title bout at 215 pounds against Southern Wells' Biberstine.

The sophomore attacked James over and over again, but more often than not he came up empty. Each time Biberstine would lunge for his legs, James would slide out of the way and spin behind him for a two-point takedown.

"He was very aggressive, shooting on my legs as hard as he could," said James. "All I was trying to do was get him to want to try and shoot on me and spin behind him and take the points from him."

After trading takedowns in the opening minute, James scored an escape and added a takedown with 27 seconds on the clock in the first period for a 5-2 lead. He never trailed again, building a 12-6 at the close of the second period.

He fought off Biberstine the rest of the way en route to a 16-12 victory.

"He does everything he needs to do to win a match," said James Myers. "He stays in position, he knows his strength ... He's got good hips. He's got good balance. Getting those early takedowns on him got (Biberstine) out of the match."

It was the first loss of the season for Biberstine (16-1) while James improved to 26-2 and has won each of his last two tournaments.

"It's awesome," said James, who lost to Biberstine at the same tournament last season. "It's a great feeling.

"He's a very good wrestler. He's very aggressive. He's just a great wrestler. ... When you beat him, that's a really big deal."

In the championship match at 130 pounds, Meska trailed Eli Walker of Alexandria 2-1 after the first period. But he chose the down position to start the second period and made the decision pay off, scoring a reversal with 48 seconds on the clock in the second to take the lead for good.

Walker started the third period neutral in hopes of coming up with a takedown for the win, but Meska fought him off to run his season mark to 27-1.

"Drake wrestled a really tough kid in the finals," said Myers of Walker, who is 17-2. "That kid gave us fits. But Drake was able to get a reversal there in the second. That was basically the difference in the match."

Kyler Blowers (HWT) and Nathan Drumm (135) each won their final matches of the day to finish in third place. Jay County's other two consolation matches both came against South Adams wrestlers with Heng Hong (152) falling to Isaac Werst and Kyle Garringer (189) losing against Cody Conner to each finish in fourth.

Others placing for the Patriots were Chase Louck (fifth - 119), Nick Leonhard (fifth - 145) and Eric Beougher (sixth - 160).

"Nathan Drumm, not seeded, knocks off a No. 3 seed, finishes third," said Myers, starting his list of Patriot wrestlers who impressed him. "Heng Hong at 152, unseeded, knocks off a three seed, finishes fourth. You start there with guys who outwrestled their seeds. A third or fourth place out of those guys is great."

West (23-0), the No. 5 heavyweight in the state who barely knocked off Blowers 1-0 in the semifinals, won the title with a pin of Blackford's Elijah Justice in 4 minutes, 54 seconds. Ehr, who is 25-0 and ranked fourth in the state, took the 145-pound championship with a 5-0 decision over Bluffton's Kyle King.

T.J. Burnfield finished second for SAHS, dropping a 5-3 decision to fourth-ranked Josh Martin of Randolph Southern in the finals at 140 pounds. Also placing for Starfires were John Striker (119) and Nick Taylor (171) in third, Adam Hofstetter (160) in fourth, Gabe Sprunger (125) and (135) in fifth, Shea Pyle (112) in sixth and Drew Taylor (215) in seventh.

"Those guys that won it, or who were in the finals, really did well," said Eric Myers. "But then, I always tell them it's the complete team effort to. For all those guys to come through and place today, that's amazing. ... It was a complete team effort."

Meska, James win at TL

MONTICELLO - Drake Meska and Matt James each picked up championships at Saturday's Twin Lakes Invitational, but Jay County struggled to an 11th-place finish in the field of 15.

The Patriots scored 93 points, just four more than the 12th-place host Indians. Delphi won with 187, and South bend Riley was second at 176.5.

Meska (130) had a perfect day, culminating with an 8-2 win in the finals to run his record to 23-1. James improved his season mark to 22-2 and also won the championship by an 8-2 score.

Freshman Kyle Garringer (189) finished 4-1 for fifth place, and Chase Louck (119) and Dyllan Derrickson (140) both turned in 3-2 records.[[In-content Ad]]