Out-dual-ed

The Patriots admittedly set big goals heading into this season.

One of them was to compete for an ACAC title.

Having a chance at the dual-meet crown got a lot more difficult Friday.

South Adams turned what looked like a defeat into a six-point win early and successfully avoided a couple of Jay County’s top wrestlers as it handed the home team a 45-33 loss in the second round of matches in the Allen County Athletic Conference Duals.

“A couple matches go the wrong way and we end up losing that one,” said JCHS wrestling coach Eric Myers, whose Patriots cruised to a win in their opening match by a 60-22 score over Heritage. “We were on our way to a win there and got pinned at ’26, a nine-point swing. And a couple other ones there where we thought we could win, we didn’t.”

The day-one split leaves Jay County needing a strong effort today — action starts back up at 9 a.m. — and some help to have a chance to even share in the conference duals title.

South Adams also defeated Woodlan 51-30 to finish the opening evening of action at 2-0. Bluffton, ranked fifth by IndianaMat.com in Class 1A, is 1-0 after a first-round bye and a 45-31 victory over Class 1A No. 7 Adams Central.

Jay County is tied with Adams Central and Southern Wells at 1-1. Woodlan and Heritage are 0-1 and 0-2, respectively.

The second match started at 126 pounds, where Dylan Garringer seemed to have things under control against South Adams’ Mavrick Summersett. After giving up an early takedown, he built a 6-2 lead by the end of the first period and was up 11-5 with a takedown about 30 seconds into the third. But in an instant, he gave up a reversal and found himself pinned with just over a minute remaining.

Another pin — South Adams’ Michael Rupp defeated Sebastian Jones in 52 seconds — at 132 pounds put the Patriots in an early 12-0 hole. They would never take the lead.

The Starfires used a bit of strategy as well, shifting their lineup to avoid Garrett Mann at 160 and third-ranked 182-pounder Mason Winner at 195. They took forfeits at those weight classes as well as at 182, but got pins from the wrestlers they shifted away from Jay County’s big guns. Jakob Plattner pinned Kadin Ridenour of the Patriots in 23 seconds at 170 pounds and Christian Summersett knocked off JCHS’s Ramon Bravo in 2 minutes, 45 seconds, at 220 pounds.

“We just didn’t have the right guys in place to bump around and cover that up,” said Myers, noting that he would have liked to shift Mann up to 170 but didn’t have anyone else to put at 160 to accept the forfeit. “That one’s probably on me a little bit.”

Jay County had a strong start to the evening, getting a 12-point cushion thanks to forfeits in the first two matches against Heritage. A run of four straight pins from Mann (160), Ridenour (170), Ryan Herring (182) and Winner (195) combined with a forfeit at 220 to give the Patriots an insurmountable 48-22 advantage on the way to the win.

Ethan Reiley, a freshman, closed out the victory by pinning Carson Rothgeb in just 46 seconds. He was also strong against South Adams, recording two takedowns and a three-point near fall in the opening period before finishing off Logan Bauman in the second.

He was the only Patriot to win two contested matches Friday.

“He’s been in kids’ faces, and he just goes out and takes what he wants,” said Myers. “Instead of letting someone else dictate the match, he dictates the pace of the match. He’s brutal on top. He’s just wrestling really, really well right now.”