Two win titles

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Chandler Chapman was on the verge of his first loss of the season.

He was behind by two points to Norwell’s Cale Gray with 40 seconds remaining.

A mere 31 seconds later he was ahead 12-11.

The senior remains undefeated.

Chapman was one of two Jay County High School wrestlers to win championships and the Patriots sent 11 to regional for the second time in as many seasons as they were runner-up to Adams Central in the IHSAA sectional tournament Saturday at JCHS.

“I thought we wrestled really well today,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers, whose team scored 210 points for second place a year after winning the title. Adams Central scored 231 points to take first. South Adams, which had one individual champion and sent seven to regional, was fifth with 132.5 points.

The top four in each respective weight class advance to the regional tournament Feb. 2, also at Jay County.

Chapman, a 195-pound senior who also won a title as a junior, trailed Gray 9-7 with 40 seconds to go in their championship bout. Chapman grabbed Gray’s arm, rolled him to the mat and scored a three-point near fall for a five-point swing and a 12-9 advantage.

Gray fought back for a reverse before they were whistled back to the center after going out of bounds with nine seconds left.

Chapman peeked at the clock to see how little time he had left and set his strategy — keep bottom position for nine seconds while appearing to make a move so as to not get penalized.

“I was getting kind of frustrated,” Chapman said of how he felt before his offensive charge. “Once I hit that throw I was like ‘This is going to be a lot of points for me.’ I got five, he got a reversal, I looked up at the scoreboard and saw I was winning by one. All I had to do was maintain on bottom.”

Chapman, who has yet to lose a match since making his return two weeks ago after serving a suspension. He is now 11-0 on the year.

“It feels great,” he said. Chapman received a bye to the semifinal before earning a 13-2 major decision over Cole Meeks of Southern Wells. He pinned Collin Shaffer of South Adams in 4:33 to reach the final. “It feels so good to be back in action and get a sectional title. I’m hungry.”

Mason Winner pinned his path to his third consecutive sectional championship after finishing first at 145 pounds as a freshman and 160 as a sophomore. He needed just 39 seconds to pin Bluffton’s Devin Johnson in the quarterfinal, disposed of Norwell’s Cameron Harris 1 minute, 17 seconds into the semifinal match before pinning Adams Central’s Monty Hill in 89 seconds.

“I’m on a mission,” he said after moving to 33-2 on the year. “I made a promise (to win a state championship) to my grandpa before he passed and I plan on keeping it.”

Jay County had three others wrestle in the title match of their respective weight classes but they came up just short.

At 126 pounds, freshman Blayne Daniels (28-8) dropped a 7-2 decision to Alex Currie of Adams Central. A pair of reversals in the third period made the score 2-2 before Currie got the upper-hand on a scramble that resulted in another reversal and a three-point near fall.

“He had a coin flip scramble situation that didn’t go his way this time,” Myers aid. “He’s wrestling really well right now.”

Thomas Hemmelgarn lost by an 11-6 decision to Gage Schuckman of Norwell in their 152-pound championship match. The Patriot senior got a pair of pins to reach the final, but wasn’t quite able to adapt to Schuckman’s wrestling style in the final to get much offense going.

Dawson Frasher, a 220-pound senior, was pinned in the second period against Jashawn Berlanga of Adams Central.

“I felt he put himself in a lot of good positions but he got caught with one of his elbows sticking up in the air and (got) tossed to his back,” Myers said. Frasher won by pin and a 10-4 decision to reach his championship match.

After finishing runner-up while a member of the Bluffton Tigers as a junior, South Adams senior Andre Hughes bullied his way to the 285-pound championship as the Starfires’ only sectional champion.

Hughes (28-3) pinned Tucker Corwin of Southern Wells 55 seconds into their quarterfinal match before knocking off Andrew Captain of Norwell in 2:58. He won his first sectional title with a pin of Devin Lotterr, an Adams Central junior, in 2:56.

South Adams sophomore Christian Summersett also wrestled for a championship but fell in the 170-pound title match to Parker Bates of Adams Central. Bates won a 9-6 decision.

Also advancing to regional for Jay County were Zakk Atkins (120 pounds – third place), Jordan Schricker (145 – third), Cooper Jacks (285 – third), Dyllan Garringer (106 – fourth), Jayden Maymi (113 – fourth) and Camron Gage (132 – fourth).

Regional qualifiers for South Adams include Logan Bauman (106 – third), Spenser Clark (220 – third), Michael Rupp (120 – fourth), AJ Dull (138 – fourth) and Collin Shaffer (195 – fourth).