Jay County opens tennis sectional against Blackford (09/30/03)

Jay County’s path to the sectional title features some familiar faces.

The Patriot boys tennis team will open play at the Marion Sectional Thursday against the Blackford Bruins at 4 p.m. With a victory Jay County would meet the host Giants in the semifinal round Friday at 3:30 p.m.

Both teams did battle with the Patriots (7-7) during the regular season.

They beat Blackford 5-0 Sept. 15, and opened the season with a 3-2 win over Marion. The victory over the Giants came before No. 2 singles players Kentaro Ohgo was able to join the team in competition.

The other semifinal match Friday at 3:30 p.m. will pit Mississinewa against Madison-Grant. The championship match will be Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

Jay County is looking for its third sectional title in four years, having won championships at Marion in 2000 and 2002. Blackford defeated the Patriots in the sectional finale in 2001.

Eastbrook tops JC JV

Justin Gilbert was in on three touchdowns, but it was not enough as the Jay County junior varsity football team dropped a 36-22 decision to Eastbrook Monday.

Gilbert scored on a 30-yard, second-quarter run, leaving the Patriots trailing 12-6 at halftime. He added a 75-yard kickoff return in the third quarter and ran in the 2-point conversion to cut the Eastbrook lead to 18-14 after three quarters.

However, Jay County couldn’t keep pace in the fourth period, allowing two touchdowns on the way to the final margin. Gilbert hooked on with Nick Foreman on a 70-yard scoring pass for the Patriots’ fourth-quarter score, and Micah Enyart ran for the 2-point conversion.

Chiefs down Eagles

The East Jay and West Jay cross country teams ran together Monday, with the Chiefs coming out on top in both contested team events.

East Jay won the seventh grade boys race 19-36, and took the girls race 20-35. West Jay did not have an eighth grade boys team.

Steven Kelly of the Chiefs took first in the seventh grade boys race in 12:04. Next for East Jay was Colt Martin in third in 13:02, followed by David Darby (13:22), Daniel Muhlenkamp (13:24) and Joey Franks (13:29).

Jeremiah Cotherman was the top West Jay runner in second play in 12:21. Ty Fullenkamp was seventh in 14:11 with Willie Mayfield (14:23) next and Spencer Pitman (14:51) rounding out the team.

Amanda Johnson set the pace in the girls race, winning for East Jay with a time of 11:56. Kyle Wellman placed second in 12:14 and Amber Detro was third in 12:28.

Cassandra Laux placed sixth in 13:39 for the Chiefs, and Brianne Wellman was eighth in 13:59.

West Jay got a fourth-place finish from Kelly Weaver with a time of 13:03, and Krystal Hutchins was fifth in 13:23.

Kristen Selvey placed seventh in 13:58, Brittany Burris (14:15) was 10th, and Kayla Barber took 11th (14:16).

East Jay’s eighth grade boys also ran, with Edwin Clott turning in the top time of 11:18. He was trailed by Cody Sutton (11:22), Leo Muhlenkamp (12:09), Justin Moser (12:13) and Justin Hall (12:41).

WJ football falls

The West Jay football team suffered an 8-6 defeat against Wes-Del Monday.

FCC leads challenge

With the first two weeks of the Jay Community Center 2003 Corporate Challenge completed, FCC (Indiana) has built a slight lead.

FCC currently has 83 points, just 3.5 ahead of the combined team from the City of Portland, Portland Forge Employees Federal Credit Union, Jay County REMC and Comprehensive Mental Health Services (PPRC). Americare Living Center of Portland is a distant third with 48.5 points.

The road to the lead for FCC was built by first-place finishes in both men’s and women’ ping pong by Toru Nasu and Sue Bailey respectively. It was also second in the men’s and women’s 5K.

Other individual event winners were Americare in softball, Jay County Hospital (Jan and Warren Lowe) in badminton, PPRC (Duane Monroe, Rhonda Monroe, Carter Johnson and Missy May) in the Down-on-the-Farm relay and PPRC (Chris Dull and Donna Chittum) in Euchre. Each of the other events ended in two- or three-way ties.

The challenge concludes this weekend with volleyball, bowling and basketball events still to be contested.

Pats lose at Wes-Del

Jay County’s junior varsity volleyball team lost a close match to Wes-Del last week, 22-24, 21-12, 21-16.

Erica McIntire paced the Patriots in the defeat, finishing with a team-high six kills. She also had five points and 13 digs.

Miranda Tingley added five points, four on aces, and Jamie Walker also scored five points. Walker led the team with 15 digs, Tingley notched 10 assists and Theresa Reinhart had four kills.[[In-content Ad]]