Johnson leads JC runners

CONVERSE — The Jay County High School girls cross country team had all five runners place in the top 20, including two in the top five, as it ran to a second-place finish Tuesday in the Oak Hill Invitational.
The Patriot boys finished sixth.
The host Oak Hill Golden Eagles won the girls invitational with a team score of 36, while the Patriots tallied 51 points to finish one point ahead of the Eastbrook Panthers.
Abigail Johnson led the Patriot girls (21-1), who were undefeated prior to Tuesday, crossing the finish line in third place with a time of 21 minutes, 10 seconds. Teammate Megan Wellman finished five seconds behind her in fourth.
Kellie Fortkamp (23:03 – 12th), Emi Minnich (23:31 – 16th) and Kaitlin Hemmelgarn (23:35 – 19th) rounded out the top five Jay County runners.
On the boys’ side, the Western Panthers won on a tiebreaker with 42 points over Oak Hill, and Tipton placed third.
Michael Denney (19:59) crossed the finish line in 36th place to lead the Patriot boys to a team score of 187. Tanner Craw (20:45 – 46th), Dustin Cope (20:59 – 52nd), Chaz Carroll (22:06 – 70th) and Travis Barton (22:43 – 74th) were the top five runners for the Patriots.
The next meet for both teams is at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Blackford Invitational.

Girls soccer falls
NEW CASTLE — Freshman Stormi Canterbury scored her second goal of the season Tuesday in a lopsided 10-1 loss to the New Castle Trojans.
With her team trailing 7-0, Canterbury scored on a pass from Gabbie Mann 23 minutes into the first half.
Mann led the Patriots (0-3-3) with three shots, while Canterbury had two, and Emily Pogue made five saves as goalkeeper for Jay County.  
The Patriots travel to Converse at 5 p.m. Thursday to take on the Oak Hill Golden Eagles.

EJMS spikers win
The East Jay Middle School seventh and eighth grade volleyball teams won their first matches of the season Tuesday, as the eighth graders defeated the Blackford Bruins 25-15, 25-16 and the seventh graders won 25-8, 25-15.
Irene Braun and Alayna Aparicio led the eighth-grade Chiefs with five aces each, while Mallory Bost and Lucy Laux added four and three aces respectively.
Bost led all Chiefs with eight service points, while Aparicio tallied seven points and Laux and Braun each added six.
Kaylee Inman and Kayla Dirksen each added one kill for East Jay.
For the seventh graders, Sarah Walter led East Jay with three kills and eight aces, while Gwen Omstead and Olivia Kunkler each had two kills. Kailee Denney added five aces, and Gwen Butcher tallied four.
Maggie Pryor and Kaitlyn Dow each had one kill, and Hanna Dillon tallied two aces for the Chiefs.[[In-content Ad]]