All in the family

Pat Rowles and Bruce Wood won regional titles more than three decades ago.

Their legacy lives on in their freshmen sons.

Freshmen Cody Rowles and Tony Wood followed in their fathers’ footsteps Saturday in claiming their respective championships in the IHSAA wrestling regional tournament.

“It’s really neat,” said Jay County High School wrestling coach Eric Myers, whose Patriot team had six of its 10 competitors advance semi-state berths. “A lot of their success is attributed to their dads with how hard they’ve worked with them as they’ve grown up. They gave them a solid foundation to get into high school wrestling.”

Bruce Wood, a 1989 graduate, won his regional title as a junior, and Pat Rowles earned his championship the following season as a sophomore.

Bellmont scored 131 points to claim consecutive regional championships and its 33rd overall. Jay County was the distant runner-up with 90 points, and Bluffton scored 76.5 points for third.

The top four in each weight class advance to the semi-state tournament, set for Feb. 13 at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne.

Cody Rowles made quick work of his three opponents in claiming his 106-pound title. He pinned fellow freshman Royce King of Delta in just 24 seconds, then handled Joey Cline of Yorktown in his longest match of the day — 52 seconds. The championship match against Norwell’s Cayden Smithley — Rowles (34-1) defeated him to win the sectional crown a week earlier — lasted a mere 35 seconds.

In all, his three matches totaled 1 minute, 51 seconds.

Tony Wood qualified for semi-state by pinning Landon Hutchens of Wapahani in 25 seconds, then received a victory over Silas Loshe of South Adams by injury default. The Jay County 120-pounder, who is now 34-3, dominated Allen County Athletic Conference rival Austin Lewis of Bluffton in getting a 11-1 major decision.

“Cody and Tony both beat those kids for the third time, and each time they’ve ramped it up a little bit which says a lot about even though they’re winning those matches they’re still making adjustments to get better rather than being content with just winning them,” Myers said. “I’m really proud of those guys and their work ethic and the way they’re adjusting and improving.”

In consecutive weeks, the Woods and Rowleses became the program’s first father-son sectional and regional champions. But the sons can do what their fathers didn’t if they win a semi-state title.

“It’s just awesome,” Tony Wood said. “It’s great. Me and (Cody) growing up together and running regional is amazing.”

Another Jay County freshman, Cameron Clark, wrestled for the 132-pound championship but dropped a major decision to Bellmont’s Dominic Litchfield. Clark, who is now 26-4, defeated Cowan’s Preston White and Yorktown’s Ben Edwards by 5-4 and 8-3 decisions, respectively, to reach the final.

“He’s battling a little bit of mobility issues,” Myers said, referring to a left knee Clark had braced each of the last two weeks. “Every week that he gets to recover he’s going to improve.

“He improved quite a bit from last week to this week. He’s still not 100% but he’s getting there.”

Freshmen Taye Curtis (113) and senior R.J. Heskett (138) were each third in their respective weight classes.

Curtis defeated TJ Fritz of Daleville in the quarterfinal before falling to eventual champion Issac Ruble of Bellmont in the semifinal. Ruble, who is ranked third in the state, was state-runner up at 106 a year ago.

Curtis then bounced back with a win over conference rival Colton Bollenbacher of South Adams to place third.

Heskett, who along with Rowles and Wood was a sectional champion, scored a late reversal and three-point near fall for a 9-5 decision in his third-place match. Heskett got a second-period pin in the quarterfinal before a 15-8 loss to Daleville’s Julius Gerenscser, the eventual regional champion.

“I thought he looked excellent today,” Myers said of Curtis. “He’s got Ike Ruble in there and that’s going to be a tough match every time.”

Jay County senior Blake Pruett also qualified for semi-state by placing fourth at 160 pounds. He defeated Muncie Central’s Jagger Scott in the quarterfinal before getting pinned by Cowan’s Austin Jones in the first period in the semifinal round. Pruett then dropped a 4-2 decision to Bellmont’s Isaac Freidt to place fourth.

Saturday marked the end of the season for four Patriots, including returning state qualifier Ethan Reiley, who lost his 126-pound quarterfinal match.

Cameron Gage (152), Bryce Wenk (182) and Peyton Bennett (285) all lost in the first round.

“Ethan is in a tough weight class and he knew that,” Myers said. Reiley lost a 7-5 decision to Brandon Kinnick of Daleville. “He did everything that he could to win that match … He went from a freshman to a sophomore captain. We put a lot on his shoulders and he’s done a great job with it. He’s obviously disappointed he didn’t move on but he was one of the first guys out there to support his teammates that were moving on.

“I think that says a lot about the kind of person he is and his character.”