School's best Winner

On the surface, it was just three more victories on his quest for a state title.
But they were much more than just a few more notches in the win column.
It took 63 seconds for Mason Winner to tie the record.
Another three minutes and he was at the top.
Four minutes, 50 seconds, into his final match of the day, he earned his third title.
Winner, a Jay County High School senior, broke the school record for wins in a career in claiming his third regional championship Saturday as he led a contingent of four Patriot wrestlers to earn semi-state berths.
Despite the magnitude of the accomplishment, the three-time state medalist was already focused on what’s to come.
“There’s always the next weekend,” the 182-pounder said. “Something to improve on, something to fix. Now it’s just waiting on the semi-state draw to come out, see who I got, study some film and wrestle another match.”
Bellmont scored 130.5 points to win the team title, its 32nd overall. Delta was the runner-up with 123 points, while Norwell scored 115.5 for third.
Jay County was fifth out of 14 scoring teams with 75 points.
“I thought we wrestled pretty well overall,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers, whose squad had another regional champion in freshman Ethan Reiley at 113 pounds.
Zakk Atkins (120) finished second, and Cooper Jacks took third at 220 pounds.
The top four in each weight class earn a berth in the semi-state tournament, which is set for Saturday at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne.
Needing to win his first match to tie 2014 graduate Eric Hemmelgarn as the program’s all-time wins leader with 162 career victories, Winner made easy work of Winchester senior Gabriel Keister.
Beating Keister assured Winner, who is ranked second in the state and a three-time semi-state champion, another weekend of wrestling.
But he had two more matches Saturday, and the next of which would seal history.
In the semifinal against Blake Heyerly of Adams Central, Heyerly came out as the aggressor but Winner nabbed an early takedown, and a three-point near fall made it 5-0. A takedown in the second period led to the eventual pin and the record-breaking victory.
Having his hand raised 164 times, more than any other Patriot, the senior hasn’t quite been able to comprehend the gravity of what he’s done.
“It’s always good to make history and set new records and set the bar higher for someone else to try and achieve it and do better,” he said. “On the other side, they’re just matches and stuff. They’re just lessons. I look at each match as just a lesson. There’s always something to fix and improve on.”
Myers said someday Winner will recognize the feat.
“At one point it will hit him,” Myers said. “Four-time conference champion, four-time sectional champion, all-time wins leader, three-time regional champion and we’ll see what else he picks up here in the next few weeks.
“Just an incredible year. When I hear them read that before his finals matches I get chills up and down my arms.”
Reiley backed up his sectional title with a regional crown, but his didn’t quite come as easy as Winner’s despite disposing of Winchester’s Trenton Ragon in 34 seconds in the quarterfinal.
The 113-pounder controlled his entire semifinal match en route to a 10-4 decision against Bellmont’s Karson Everett, and pinned Delta sophomore Gage Cline 17 seconds into the third period for the championship.
“It’s pretty cool being able to say I was a regional champ as a freshman,” he said. “I’m going to try to get my name on the [wrestling room] wall four times.
“Coach just told me to go in there, wrestle smart, stay in good position and that’s what I did and it worked.”
Atkins, a senior, punched his ticket to semi-state by pinning Yorktown sophomore Lane Baird 27 seconds into the second period of their quarterfinal, then had to work for an 8-5 decision against Daleville’s Brandon Kinnick.
Atkins scored five points in the first period before Kinnick came roaring back to make it 6-5. But a takedown in the third gave Atkins a little bit of a cushion.
“He got a quick five and I thought he’d coast,” Myers said. “He got into a dogfight, had to fight off his back and worked pretty hard to win there.”
In the championship match against No. 11 John Robinson of Delta, Atkins found himself trailing 10-4 in the third period before cutting the margin to
just two points, 10-8. Robinson, who helped Delta win the sectional it hosted last week, got a reversal with 12 seconds left for a 12-8 decision.
Cooper Jacks, a 220-pound senior who was third at sectional, became a semi-state qualifier by pinning Muncie Central’s Jordan Stigall in the second period of their quarterfinal.
Jacks then met second-ranked Cale Gray of Norwell in the semifinal and lost by fall in the opening period. Jacks then rebounded by getting a second-period fall against Bluffton’s Cameron Farmer.
Jay County sophomore Ramon Bravo lost by tech fall, 18-3, in the opening round of his 195-pound weight bracket as his season ended with a 17-19 record.