Jay girls 1st, boys 2nd

The Patriot girls cleaned up the field events.

It included the top three spots in the shot put.

The boys got a handful of wins, too, but just not enough.

Jay County High School’s girls track team had nine event wins to take first place while the Patriot boys were second out of three squads Tuesday in a senior-night meet with Allen County Athletic Conference foes Adams Central and South Adams.

“I’m very pleased with how everything went,” said JCHS track coach Joe Imel. “I think we had a really strong meet.”

The JCHS girls scored 70 points for first place, moving to 5-0 on the season. South Adams, which has won the last three ACAC championships, scored 52 points for second while Adams Central totaled 25 points for third.

South Adams’ boys had 87 points to get the win, with Jay County (45) in second and Adams Central (24) in third. The Patriots are now 3-2 on the young year.

Kinsey Shannon and Elisa Parazzi, the latter of whom is an exchange student from Italy, both had a pair of individual wins. Shannon won the 100-meter dash, edging out South Adams sophomore Ali Smith for the win.

Shannon nabbed the lead with 80 meters to go for a win in the 400 dash as well.

“Kinsey today, a really strong showing in the 100 and coming back in the 400,” Imel said. “She works on that (400) in practice really, really hard.”

Parazzi led a one-two punch in long jump with Cash Hollowell, and then she won high jump as well.

“Elisa Parazzi, we asked her to step in at long jump as well,” Imel said. “She is an extremely talented high jumper. She won long jump, so that’s going to help us as we move forward in our season.”

Imel got the biggest smile on his face while simply saying “One, two, three in girls shot put,” referring to the Patriots sweeping the top three spots in the event. Kylie Klopfenstein, who was third in discus, had the top put, with Chelsea Frontz second and Gabi Bilbrey third.

Bilbrey was first in discus, completing the field event sweep for the Patriots.

“I feel like we’re strong and we’re poised to continue to get better,” he said.

Sophia Fugiett had the Patriots’ other individual win as she led almost wire-to-wire in the 800 run.

Bralee VanSkycok, Natalie Wehrly, Makinsey Murphy and Shea Bailey teamed for a win in the 4x100 relay, while Abby Benter, Natalie Miles, Bailey and Shannon combined for a victory in the 4x400 relay.

Winning times and distances in the girls events were not provided.

Isaac Kunkler had the only individual win for the JCHS boys, taking the top spot in high jump, which was the final event to be completed for the night. Kunkler had a height of 5 feet, 6 inches.

He also helped the 4x400 relay team which included Griffin Lennartz, Dylan Knapschafer and Aaron Funkouser to a time of 3 minutes, 48 seconds, which was first place.

Skyler Bee, Gavin Farmer, Owen Ransom and Adrek Pogue won the 4x100 relay in 47.49 seconds.

Imel noted the boys’ 4x100 and 4x400 relays ran their fastest times of the season.

“I’m really pleased with how we did,” he said.