Jay stumbles, SA advances 3 (02/06/06)

The Jay County wrestling season, as well as a couple of Patriot careers, came to abrupt and unexpected ends Saturday.

Jay County, serving as the host school, entered Saturday’s wrestling regional with a pair of sectional champions — both seniors who were semi-state qualifiers a year ago. It came away with nothing.

Both Kurt Hess (140) and Bill Spahr (171) were upset in the semifinal round by wrestlers from Bellmont, then knocked out of the tournament by opponents they pinned just a week earlier to win their sectional crowns.

“I really don’t know what happened,” said JCHS coach James Myers, who also had senior Robert Ralston fall from the tournament in the consolation finals Saturday. “We had a great week of practice. I thought the kids were ready. A couple of our guys came out and looked a little sluggish in the first round and it carried over for the rest of the day.”

It was a more pleasant result for the South Adams Starfires, who advanced three wrestlers to Saturday’s semi-state tournament hosted by New Haven. The top three wrestlers in each weight class earned a regional berth.

Bellmont, which had wrestlers competing in all 14 weight classes, was the top team as it sent 10 athletes to semi-state competition. Adams Central followed with six, and Muncie Southside and Norwell each had five.

“I’m happy,” said South Adams coach Eric Myers. “(Spencer) Hayworth wrestled awesome. And (Christian) Baer, I thought he was on his way to winning that one.”

Baer (130) finished second, Hayworth (125) was third. Josh Mann (112) also advanced with a runner-up finish.

Although he had hoped to push four wrestlers through to regional, Eric Myers said his kids should be proud of the way they wrestled and the progress they’ve made.

“The practice room is just really intense,” he said. “Those kids work so hard and wrestle so well with each other and motivate each other so well.”

Hess and Spahr each got through their opening round matches with relative ease, but ran into trouble against Bellmont in the second round.

Hess matched up against Tyler Baker, who he defeated 8-2 during the sectional tournament just a week earlier. But Baker turned the tables in a match which was never very close.

The Bellmont freshman scored a couple of takedowns and a two-point near fall in the opening period for a 6-1 lead. Hess never scored again as he fell 12-1.

Spahr faced a similar fate, although he had not faced Bellmont sophomore Ben Bultemeier in sectional action. He fell behind 5-0 in the opening period, didn’t score a point until early in the third and was pinned with just 3.5 seconds remaining in the match.

They both still had a chance to advance by winning their consolation matches for third place, but fell short.

Wrestling Bluffton’s Joel Hartsell, who he pinned in 3-minutes, 57 seconds for the sectional crown, Hess again fell behind by a wide margin.

He trailed 5-0 before getting on the board a minute into the second period and could not come back in a 9-4 defeat.

Spahr had pinned Roger Pickens of Adams Central in 2:32 in their sectional championship match, but couldn’t duplicate the effort. He trailed 3-0 in the second period before rallying to tie the match at three when Pickens allowed an escape to start the third.

Pickens scored a takedown with just 12 seconds remaining, and Spahr didn’t have quite enough time to counter. He escaped with four seconds on the clock in the 5-4 defeat.

James Myers said he wasn’t sure why the regional matches turned in favor of Hartsell and Pickens.

“If I knew we might have been able to do something during the match,” he said. “When you get to this time of year and are wrestling this kind of competition you’ve just got to raise your level. That’s what those two kids did. I don’t think we wrestled the best we could have wrestled, but those guys wrestled their rears off and they deserved to win today.”

Ralston, who finished third in sectional action, won his opening match by an 8-7 decision over Monroe Central’s Eric Lamb.

He fell to sectional champion Jon Kiefer of Bellmont in the semifinals, and was pinned by Zac Osborn of Muncie Central in the third-place match in 3:01.

Spahr finished with a 33-5 record this year, and Ralston went 26-13.

Hess, ranked 19th in the state, went 33-4. He finished with a school record 120 wins.

“Kurt, Bill and Robert have had excellent careers,” said James Myers. “I’m proud of them for what they’ve done. It just didn’t end up the way we wanted it to.”

Senior Jason Crouch (HWT) and freshman Casey Kenney (103) also wrestled for the Patriots in regional action, each dropping out with first-round defeats.

No. 6 Mann (33-5) and Baer (37-3) each reached championship matches, but were unable to overcome highly ranked opponents.

Mann tied top-ranked Tyson Bercot (36-0) of Adams Central with an escape with just three seconds to go, but fell 8-6 in overtime.

Baer had a 2-0 lead on No. 13 Ben Nicely (36-1) of Yorktown and remained ahead 2-1 after the opening period. But he got tossed to his back at the 1:41 mark of the second period and was pinned eight seconds later.

Hayworth (30-9) earned his berth in the semi-state by topping Sergio Bonilla of Delta for third place. Josh Kimberlin (189) and Chase Sprunger (103) each lost third-place matches.

Eric Myers has already set some high goals for his team’s semi-state performance.

“I hope to get three through, I really do,” he said. “I thought 125 was tougher here than it will be at semi-state. Then at 130 I think Christian (Baer) is one of the best around, and Mann is definitely one of the best around. He goes toe-to-toe with the best kid in the state week in and week out.”[[In-content Ad]]