Back to the basics

The Patriots got an idea of where they stood opening the season with the Monroe Central Invite.

Coming back this week, they focused on the basics and dominated in a pair of dual matches.

The Jay County High School girls wrestling team steamrolled the Richmond Red Devils 66-18 and the Muncie Central Bearcats 72-6 on Thursday.

The Patriots (2-0) claimed nine of the 12 contested matches, winning all of them via pin.

“The girls gave us a lot of effort,” said JCHS coach Troy Jacks. “We went back to basics this week, we coached moves a lot. What we learned this past weekend, and it showed up today, was the girls were working on fundamentals, staying inside the arms, staying hips behind. We got some more wins out of it, which was what we were wanting to do.

“But it’s not really about the wins. It’s about how they’re wrestling and the matchups were a little bit tougher. Richmond and Muncie Central put their tougher girls against our tougher girls to see where we matched up and we shined.”

One person that immediately benefited from the extra work on making simple moves was Gracie Rowles.

The freshman wrestled one match in the 125-pound weight class against Muncie Central’s Abygail Berkshire. Rowles quickly pushed the Bearcat to the mat for a takedown in 12 seconds. After tackling Berkshire to the ground, Rowles quickly loosened her grip to allow her opponent to get to her knees, opening the opportunity to get an arm around her leg and run a full nelson.

The Patriot turned Berkshire over to get the quick pin 39 seconds into the match.

“I got my half nelson and didn’t get her leg at the beginning and she just kept scooting,” Rowles said. “Then I grabbed her leg and flipped her. … I think it’s amazing that it’s my first year and I’m doing this good. The practice has really helped.”

While Rowles secured her victory in less than a minute, it took Kenady Lyons nearly two periods, but she also benefited from the extra week of practice.

Lyons nearly got a single leg takedown on Arlett Espinoza of Richmond, but the first period ended with no advantage.

Lyons chose to start the second on top and after 1 minute, 42 seconds she finally got her arm around for a half nelson. She ran a near fall until eventually pinning the Red Devil with 5 seconds remaining in the 235 weight class.

“I was finally able to get my hand up above to get around for the half nelson,” Lyons said of how choosing top benefited her. “For a while there, I couldn’t get it. I was struggling because she kept pinching my arm, so I had to think of different way to get around it.”

A third freshman had a big day as well, as Alison Tipton won a pair of matches. Tipton went 1-1 at Monroe Central and came back to dominate both matches on Thursday.

In her 115-pound contest against Beautiful Criglar of Richmond, Tipton got a takedown in 11 seconds and two two-point near falls before securing the pin with 1:02 left.

Tipton then beat Muncie Central’s Kamylah Harris with a single-leg takedown that immediately led to a pin in 30 seconds.

“Her judo skills turned out really good, by working on the inside stuff instead of outside” Jacks said. “That was a flip floppy match that she pinned that girl from Central. That first match could have gone a different way had she not had the extra practice time.”

Returners Maleah Parsons (140 pounds) and Madison Gage (155) were the other two Patriots to win two matches. Parsons pinned Richmond’s Ambria Tate in 11 seconds and got a reversal on Learah Rollins of Muncie Central to secure the victory. Gage made quick work of Ashlyn Jones in 11 seconds and pinned the Bearcats’ Abrielle Morton at 1:17.

The other wins came from Katie Rowles and Amara Crawford, both of whom finished the season ranked fifth in the 100 and 190 weight classes respectively. Rowles pinned Richmond’s Veronica Woods in 42 seconds, while Crawford won the 170 contest against Muncie Central’s Joslyn Sutton after 2:21 elapsed.

JCHS dropped three matches on the day, two to Richmond and one to Muncie Central. Marlee Wampler and Ka’Myia Nicholson secured pins on Kaileigh Compton and Kaylee Bramlett for the Red Devils in the 130 and 135 weight classes, while Jasmine Ray’s pin of Jolee White in the 190 contest was the Bearcats’ sole victory.

Jay County will look to continue improving with the next major step being to work on more specific wrestling moves.

“We want to start folding in wrestling moves,” Jacks said. “Now we’ve started to lock down positioning, we can kind of start folding in more arrows in the quiver so to speak, or to have them knowing what to do once they break them down inside ties and staying flat.”