Jay draws Spartans

The Patriots couldn’t have gotten much better of a draw.

The Jay County High School volleyball team will open the IHSAA Class 3A Sectional 24 hosted by New Castle against the Connersville Spartans in the semifinals.

The Patriots (16-8) will skip an opening round matchup and instead will play Connersville (9-15), which they beat in three sets during the regular season, in the Oct. 18 11 a.m. semifinal. A win would earn them a spot in the 7 p.m. championship match.

Delta (10-10) and host New Castle (13-10) will play in Oct. 16’s opening round. The victor will face No. 10 Hamilton Heights in the second semifinal match on Oct. 18 for a shot in the championship.

Jay County previously fell to Delta in five sets and lost to New Castle 2-1 in a tournament. The Patriots will see the Trojans one more time in the regular season finale.

Garringer returns

EATON, Ohio — The top runner for the Jay County boys cross country team returned on Saturday during the Ed Lease Classic at Fort St. Clair Park.

The Patriot boys finished 19th with a 459 – Beavercreek won the race with a 52 – while the girls climbed to fifth with a 168. Celina won the girls race with 38 points.

Caleb Garringer paced the boys in his first race since Sept. 2 with a time of 17 minutes, 24.6 seconds to cross the finish line in 14th place.

The other top-five finishes for the Patriots came from Max Klopfenstein (33rd – 18:21.1), Grant Glentzer (48th – 19:08.7), Alex Rivers (80th – 20:05.1) and Ethan Powers (117th – 22:33.7).

Brooklynn Byrum’s 21:17.9 was the best time for the girls and earned her fifth place in the race. Ava May also claimed a top-10 finish as she put out a 21:24.9 to earn eighth.

Other scores for the Patriots came from Paityn Wendel (19th – 22:18.8), Alexis Sibray (27th – 22:47.6) and Jessie Homan (29th – 22:51.7).

Final loss

HUNTINGTON — Jay County’s boys soccer team fell to Huntington North 3-2 in Saturday’s regular season finale.

The Vikings (6-7-3) scored the only goal of the first half to enter the intermission 1-0.

Jacoby Penrod evened the score on an assist from Raif Beiswanger. The Patriots (6-9-1) pulled ahead nine minutes later when Emmitt Reynolds assisted Beiswanger.

Huntington North scored the final two goals of the game to pull away with the win.

Peyton Yowell recorded one save, while Zavier Hudson had eight.