SAHS wins, Jay second (12/29/2008)

There were far more teams at Saturday's tournament than three weeks earlier at the South Adams Invitational. But that didn't change the result.

South Adams edged Jay County, 218-214.

Jay County High School won all of its three championship matches as host of the East Central Indiana Classic, leading to is runner-up finish in the 16-team tournament. The Starfires had only two champions, but added a trio of runners-up to take the title.

Winchester was a close third with 202 points. Southern Wells took two championships to finish fourth with 164 points, followed by Bluffton (160.5) and Heritage (159).

South Adams and Jay County, which were separated by just six points in their dual match at the Dec. 8 South Adams Invitational, went head-to-head in the 152-pound championship match. The battle between Skylar Finnerty and Chase Sprunger went the distance with the Patriots' Finnerty pulling out an 8-5 victory.

Finnerty's win was the second of back-to-back titles for Jay County. Ben Thuerer had won the 145-pound championship by pinning Alexandria's Zack Morphew in 3-minutes, 33 seconds.

Casey Kenney, who is ranked sixth in the state at 119 pounds, kept his undefeated record in tact with three pins. The final one came in 5:45 over Bluffton's Bobby Perry.

The two championships for the Starfires were spread out, with Todd Batt first pinning his way to the championship at 103 points. He finished off his run by pinning Shenandoah's Jack Dodd just 11 seconds into the second period.

South Adams dropped its next three title matches before Jackson Werst took the mat at 215 pounds. He fought off Winchester's Anthony Fodrea, winning by a 6-4 score in overtime.

The Starfires' Josh Ehr fell 6-0 to Darin Fiechter of Southern Wells in the 103-pound championship match. At 140 pounds, T.J. Burnfield suffered an 8-2 loss to Josh Martin from Randolph Southern.

Both Jay County and South Adams placed 10 wrestlers in the top five. The Starfires had two third-place finishes, two fourth-place and one fifth while the Patriots recorded three thirds, one fourth and three fifths.

Gabe Sprunger (112) won his third-place match for SAHS, pinning Jon James of Winchester in 1:41. Jim West also scored a pin in his third-place match, finishing off Elijah Justice in 1:35 at heavyweight.

Jordan Landers (125) and Nick Taylor (160) placed fourth, and Dustin Hunt (145) was fifth.

Jay County dominated in all three of its victories in third-place matches.

Sha White (171) pinned Dennis Bosler of Winchester in 2:06, and Cameron Pfeifer pinned Union City's Cole Sells in 2:29. Caleb Culy (135) needed just three minutes to defeat Alexandria's Jon Blanton with a 20-4 technical fall.

Matt James (215) placed fourth, and Seth Drumm (140), Andrew Lancaster (189) and Kyler Blowers (HWT) were all fifth.

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