Eighth at state

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INDIANAPOLIS — Riding high knowing they each earned a state medal, Mason Winner and Gaven Hare were poised to work their way up the podium.

Winner, who a year earlier stood in the seventh spot, wanted a better medal.

Hare was hoping to join him near the top.

But the pair of Patriots had trouble doing anything offensively in their first match of the day.

And then the second.

And especially the third.

Winner, a Jay County High School sophomore, and Hare, a senior, weren’t able to build off victories Friday night as they each lost three consecutive matches to finish eighth in their respective weight classes Saturday in the IHSAA Wrestling State Finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

“It’s a tough day,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers, whose team had a pair of state medalists for the first time in five years. “We had two wrestlers go 0-6 today combined. It makes it tough. Whenever we look back on it in a few days, in a few months, we had a heck of a run. Just today didn’t work out for us.

“It doesn’t take away from the fact I’m super proud of both of those guys and what they’ve done to get here and their accomplishments.”

Winner, who was seventh at 145 pounds as a freshman, used his offense late on Friday night to score a 6-4 victory in the opening round of the 160-pound tournament.

But Saturday he wasn’t able to get much offense going in any of his matches.

In the quarterfinal against No. 13 Tucker Coffman, a Union County junior, Winner (45-5) got put to the mat 18 seconds in and trailed 2-0.

As he frantically tried to get loose, or grab a reverse, he got caught in a cradle and pinned 1 minute, 15 seconds into the match.

Then Winner, who is 10th in the state, dropped a 6-1 decision in the consolation semifinal against fourth-ranked Oszkar Kasch, a Crown Point senior. Kasch, who was fifth in the state a season ago and repeated the feat this year, kept deflecting Winner’s attempts at a single leg takedown.

In the seventh-place match, Winner was down 3-1 in the third period before he tweaked his left knee with 1:08 left in the second period.

“He couldn’t do a whole lot after that,” Myers said. “I think that really hindered him and he couldn’t really get any offense going or get up off bottom.

“Really, for me, I thought it was gutsy for him to finish the match out. He wrestled hard. The effort is always there for Mason. He struggled to put some things together.”

Hoping to not go winless on the day, the 220-pound Hare was a little too aggressive in his seventh-place match against Plymouth senior Nate LaFree. Following a scoreless first period, Hare escaped 20 seconds into the second for his only lead of the day. With 10 seconds remaining, Hare tried to throw LaFell to the mat and again ended up on his back.

Hare tried to push the pace in the third period to no avail.

“I felt like he could have wrestled a little bit more conservative offensively,” said Myers.

After the match Hare was in the depths of Bankers Life, sitting on the floor with his head in his hands and tears in his eyes.

“He was putting it all on the table,” Myers added. “It is what happens sometimes.”

Hare, who was a state qualifier as a junior but didn’t make it to the second day, lost his quarterfinal match Saturday morning to Lebanon senior and third-ranked Jacob McClaine by a 6-3 decision. In the consolation semifinal, Hare was at the wrong end of a 15-0 tech fall at the hands of No. 4 Kyle Cornwell, an Elwood senior.

“Couldn’t get any offense going,” Myers said. “He gets some bigger, stronger guys at this level.”

Winner, who was the program’s first freshman state medalist, is the first Jay County wrestler to earn two medals since 2014 graduate Eric Hemmelgarn became the first three-time medalist in team history.

“What he did this year is pretty incredible putting together the season that he did,” Myers said. Winner was one of two underclassmen out of the 16 state qualifiers at 160 pounds. “Win a second sectional, first regional and second semi-state, he’s had an awesome career so far.”

Hare ends his career as the 22nd medalist in Jay County wrestling history after posting a 39-10 record this year.

“I’m going to miss that guy a lot,” Myers said. “He’s just a fun guy to have around. He’s wanting to win. He’s competitive and at the same time he’s having a blast while he’s out there.

“I know he’s upset now, but I think he’s more upset that he’s done with high school wrestling than he is with his accomplishments.”