Tourney success will be earned

The season is already winding down for the Jay County High School wrestling team. Meanwhile, the gymnasts are just getting started.
Regardless of where each team is in respect to its schedule, the winter season thus far has been a successful one for the Patriots.
Every JCHS squad has a winning record.
The wrestlers, who are barely two weeks away from their sectional tournament, are 20-5 after picking up three victories at Saturday’s Adams Central Duals. The gymnasts are 2-1 in their young season.
On Tuesday the girls basketball team improved to 10-4 with its first win in school history over the Huntington North Vikings on their home floor. The boys are 6-2 with their only losses coming to Richmond (9-2) and Class 3A No. 1 Muncie Central.
And the girls and boys swim teams pushed their records to 10-2 and 7-2 respectively with victories Tuesday over Hagerstown.
Regular-season success always breeds high hopes for the postseason. Many of the Patriot teams will have uphill climbs to reach those goals this year.
The JCHS wrestling team has performed well in tournaments, including a win in the East Central Indiana Classic for the first time since 1988, and could win sectional titles in a number of weight classes. It will have to deal with the Adams County triumvirate as it tries to win its first team sectional title since 2001.
Bellmont leads the group as the 21-time defending champion Braves rank 20th in the state. South Adams, which has finished as the runner-up to Bellmont each of the last three years, beat the Patriots 64-16 in December. And Adams Central knocked off the Starfires 36-28.
Jay County’s girls basketball team found out from the start which squad would be its biggest challenge, losing its season opener 53-32 to Fort Wayne South Side.
The Archers (14-1) dropped their next game to Class 4A No. 2 Penn, but have not lost since while climbing to fourth in the Associated Press poll. Homestead sports a 12-4 record and has won five straight games.
In girls swimming, the season-opening Norwell Invitational is often a good barometer for the sectional meet, and the Patriots won it by more than 50 points over runner-up Bellmont.
But Muncie Central doesn’t compete in the event, and the Bearcats are the team standing in the way of Jay County’s first sectional title. JCHS will learn just where it stands Tuesday when it hosts Central, which won the 2011 sectional by nearly 100 points over the runner-up Patriots.
Jay County’s only defending sectional champion, the boys basketball team, may face the most treacherous path.
Homestead, the team the Patriots beat in the 2011 semifinal round, is undefeated at 13-0 and ranked fourth in the state. New Haven, a newcomer to the sectional group this year, is also perfect at 8-0 and finished 17th in this week’s Class 4A voting.
The other new team in the Sectional 6 field is Wayne, which was the last team to beat the Patriots last season before they won seven straight games en route to the sectional title.
Jay County faced a difficult road in winning its first Class 4A sectional championship in boys basketball last season. It rallied from 10 down against the host Huntington North Vikings in the opening round, knocked off favorite Homestead in the semifinals and beat a South Side squad led by Purdue recruit Rapheal Davis in the title game.
Any sectional championships for the Patriot winter teams this season will be similarly well-earned.[[In-content Ad]]