Perfection proceeds (02/04/08)

Casey Kenney was in no mood to mess around.

The Jay County High School junior made quick work of what was supposed to be one of the premier matches of the day, pinning rival Jacob Armantrout on the way to a regional title Saturday.

Kenney advances to the semi-state round of the tournament with a 41-0 record. Ben Theurer, who finished as the regional runner-up at 135 pounds, will join him.

The top three wrestlers in each weight class earned berths in the Woodlan semi-state, which will be contested Saturday at the Allen County Coliseum.

"We wanted to get six out. We thought that was realistic," said JCHS coach James Myers, who had seven wrestlers competing in the regional hosted by his squad. "We lost a couple close ones in the first round, but we got two in the finals and got a champion. Even the matches that we lost for third we wrestled pretty well.

"This regional is loaded. It's very tough. We had chances to get four guys out. It's just little things."

Kenney, whose freshman and sophomore seasons ended in the regional round, left no doubt this time.

He destroyed Travis Bryant (26-11) of Muncie Central 17-2 in his opening match to set up the showdown against Muncie Southside's Armantrout, who is ranked sixth in the state.

Armantrout (25-4) lost 2-1 to Kenney at this year's Olympic Athletic Conference tournament, but was also responsible for ending his season in the regional a year ago.

Kenney earned a takedown in the first 30 seconds and went for a cradle to try to end it. He couldn't finish off Armantrout then, but it didn't take him too much longer.

A minute later Kenney said Armantrout nearly took him down, but he was able to sidestep it and lock in the cradle for the pin in just 1-minute, 25 seconds.

"Every time we wrestle it's real close," said Kenney of the Southside sophomore. "I just happened to catch him in something and I pinned him. I was really happy and excited about that."

Kenney got a first-period takedown against ninth-ranked Steve Gonzales (30-4) of Delta in the finals, and pushed his advantage to 3-0 with an escape in the second period. Gonzales scored his only point with an escape at 1:48 of the third period as Kenney won the championship match 3-1.

"He had a great day," said Myers. "You knock off the sixth- and ninth-ranked wrestlers, and you pin the sixth-ranked wrestler. That was exciting. He's our first regional champion since 2000. It's nice to be back there. It means you only have to wrestle one match to qualify to state."

Kenney is the first JCHS wrestler to be undefeated this deep into a season since 1982 when Glen Glogas was perfect until losing the state championship match.

"It feels good," said Kenney, who will have a first-round bye in the semi-state thanks to his regional title. "Hopefully I can stay undefeated. If I win seven more matches I can be state champ. That's what I hope to be."

Theurer (31-6) scored convincing wins in each of his first two matches to earn the Patriots' other championship berth.

The junior took a 7-0 lead in his opening match against Muncie Central's James Cole (15-12) en route to a 12-2 win. In the semifinals he was up 6-0 against Caleb Dunn (18-13) of Yorktown on the way to a 10-3 victory. But in the finals Muncie Southside's ninth-ranked Bryant Whitaker (28-1) proved too tall a challenge as Theurer lost a 9-0 major decision to finish as the runner-up.

"He did a nice job, even in his last match," said Myers. "Give credit to Bryant. He's one of the best 135 pounders we've seen all year. ... It was a great effort by Ben both weekends."

Jay County nearly had a third semi-state qualifier as Skylar Finnerty (22-18) wrestled for third place at 145 pounds. He was up 4-2 after the second period, and after Norwell's James Landis (20-17) evened the score with a takedown midway through the third period he pulled ahead again with an escape.

However, Finnerty couldn't quite hold on, giving up a takedown in the final five seconds and dropping the match 8-5.

"He did everything right in the match," said Myers, "he just didn't sure up his defense the last 20 or so seconds of the match."

Josh Lochtefeld (26-7) also wrestled in the consolation finals, giving up a takedown late in the first round to Tanner Armantrout (23-6) of Muncie Southside. That proved to be the only scoring of the match as Lochtefeld's season ended with a 2-0 defeat.

Jay County's other three competitors Saturday lost first-round matches. Caleb Culy (31-8) fell 3-0 to Josh Martin (30-3) of Randolph Southern at 130 pounds; Cameron Pfeifer (19-8), the team's lone semi-state qualifier a year ago at 112 pounds, lost 8-4 to Winchester's Steve Dossett (30-9) at 140; and Zach Ainsworth (15-22) dropped a 16-1 technical fall in 5:01 to Winchester's Anthony Fodrea (30-8) at 189.[[In-content Ad]]