Patriots take Oak Hill invite

CONVERSE — With three runners in the top 10, the Patriots turned in their second consecutive invitational victory Tuesday.
Jay County High School’s girls cross country team picked up a solid win at the Oak Hill Invitational with 61 points. The host Golden Eagles were second with 82, and Eastern finished third with 93.
Katie Simmons paced the Patriots (24-2), who also won the Celina Rotary Invitational on Aug. 28. She finished eighth with a time of 22:20.
Eme Miller followed in ninth place in 22:23, and Abigail Johnson was 10th in 22:26.
Leah Wellman also broke the 23-minute mark to place 15th in 22:47, and Logan Laux finished 19th to complete the team score in 23:03.
It was the depth that carried the Patriots through despite Eastern having two of the top three runners. Wellman, Laux, Liz Lennartz and Miranda Gerber all finished ahead of Oak Hill’s No. 5 runner and Eastern’s No. 4 and 5 runners.
Chaz Carroll had the top time for the JCHS boys in 22:27 for 75th place. Tyler Osborne was 78th in 22:39, and Zach Johnson finished 110th in 28:36.

Girls soccer battles
Taking on an undefeated squad was a tall task. But the Jay County girls soccer team gave the visiting New Castle Trojans their toughest test of the year.
The Patriots gave up and early goal, but held New Castle scoreless the rest of the way in a 1-0 defeat.
The Trojans got the only score of the game with less than seven minutes off the clock. From there, Mollie May made 12 saves to hold them scoreless over the final 73 minutes.
Sammi Compton had two shots on goal for JCHS (1-4-1), and Mallory Poole added one.
No team had limited New Castle (8-0) to a single goal this season, and it had scored three or more goals five times.
Jay County dropped the junior varsity game 1-0 as the Trojans got the lone score on a penalty kick. Ericka Reynolds took three shots on goal for the Patriots.

Football falls
MUNCIE — Jay County slipped below .500 with a 14-6 C-team football loss to the Muncie Southside Rebels.
Zach Metcalfe scored the lone touchdown for the Patriots and totaled 76 rushing yards.
Keenan James added 52 yards on the ground, and Eric Hemmelgarn had six tackles.

Spikers win two
HARTFORD CITY — Serving carried the East Jay Middle School volleyball teams to victory Tuesday over Blackford. Both teams totaled 20 aces as the eighth graders picked up a 25-6, 25-8 win, and the seventh grade team totaled by a 25-11, 22-25, 15-13 score.
Breanne McIntire had 16 points, including six aces, and notched a pair of kills for the eighth grade Chiefs. Jessica Kerrigan finished with 13 points and five aces.
The seventh graders got 18 points, including seven aces, four assists and two kills from Kylie Osborne. Ava Kunkler had eight points, including four aces, five kills and a block.

WJ wins a pair
DUNKIRK — James Williams and Bryce Bantz were each part of three touchdowns and Phillip Newsome had two to power the West Jay Middle School football teams to wins Tuesday over Muncie Wilson.
Williams’ effort led the eighth graders to a 48-20 victory, and Newsome rallied the seventh graders for a 12-6 win.
Williams (113 yards rushing) scored on runs of 25 and 63 yards and completed a 50-yard TD pass to Bryce Bantz, who also scored on a 50-yard kickoff return and a 1-yard run. Grant Alsip added a 27-yard TD run for WJMS (2-0).
The seventh grade Eagles (1-1) trailed 6-0 before Phillip Newsome scored on a 37-yard run in the fourth quarter. He added a game-winning 6-yard TD run to finish with 128 rushing yards and also made six tackles.[[In-content Ad]]