Seniors power strong Jay grapplers (11/20/2008)

There are 14 positions in a wrestling lineup.

Jay County High School coach James Myers can fill nine of his spots with seniors.

"That's a good thing for the wrestling team," said the coach, whose squad finished in the middle of the sectional pack last season 11 points behind fourth-place Norwell but 24.5 ahead of sixth-place Adams Central. "We've got a lot of experience on the mat and in the wrestling room."

With so much experience returning, including 2008 state runner-up Casey Kenney, semi-state qualifier Ben Theurer and three other regional qualifiers, Myers has every reason to be optimistic about the upcoming season.

The Patriots open at the New Castle Invitational, which begins Friday and continues Saturday.

No one will have higher expectations than Kenney, who took an undefeated record with him to Conseco Fieldhouse last season.

"I expect him to win a state title this year," said Myers of Kenney, who will begin the season at 119 before possibly moving down to 112. "Not that his season was a disappointment last year, but for him, he expects to win it."

Kenney ran his record all the way to 47-0 last season before falling 7-3 to Ethan Raley of Indian Creek in the 103-pound state championship match. Despite the long string of wins, about half of which came at 112 pounds, Kenney was disappointed.

That feeling drives him as his senior season begins.

"His mentality is that he's going to dominate a match. He's going to beat whoever he's wrestling," said Myers. "Obviously, with his judo background ... his wrestling skills go well with that. I don't really think he has a weakness. He's tough mentally. He's good on the mat. He's good on his feet. He can beat anybody any time he steps on the mat."

Myers also noted high expectations for Theurer, Cameron Pfeifer, a semi-state qualifier in 2007, and Caleb Culy, who has produced a pair of 30-plus win seasons.

Theurer, who will wrestle at 145 this season, narrowly missed a trip to the state finals a year ago as he fell just 8-5 in his ticket-round match at 135 pounds. He was the runner-up in the regional a week earlier.

Other regional qualifiers returning from last season are Culy (130), Pfeifer (135) and Skylar Finnerty. Jarid Conatser (125), Seth Drumm (140), Mason Murphy (152), Sha White (171) and Andrew Lancaster (189) are the other seniors in the starting lineup.

"They're seniors, and it's their time," said Myers. "They understand it's their last chance to get there and get on the podium. Ben and Cameron have already been to the semi-state - Ben was just a few seconds from qualifying.

"All those guys are seniors. They've done well in the past for us and they should do well again this year.

"We expect a lot out of everybody in that lineup."

A trio of juniors will fill out the upper weight classes with Michael Daniels at 160, Jacob Boyer at 215 and Matt Jones, a transfer from Delta, at heavyweight. Kyler Blowers will also see time at heavyweight.

Although Kenney will anchor the team, the Patriots are light on depth overall in the lower weight classes. Freshman Matt Seagraves will be at 103 pounds, but they will start with no one at 112 pounds thanks to injuries to both sophomore Drake Meska and freshman Austin Bentz.

"Coming form middle school to high school is a big change in conditioning, technique and mat awareness," said Myers of Seagraves. "Those are things he's going to have to develop very quickly ... to be successful around tournament time."

Seagraves is part of a double-digit freshman class that will be the future of the program. Myers said he believes being around the current seniors will help get the youngsters ready for the future, much like the Class of 2006 helped develop the current seniors.

Tournament success will once again be the goal for the Patriots, who picked up titles last season at the Delta Duals and the South Adams Invitational. They matched their best finish since the sectional switched to its current nine-team format - fifth - but hope for a lot more this season, perhaps even a team regional berth.

However, advancing as a group will be even harder this year. Instead of taking the top two teams from each sectional to the regional round, this year the IHSAA will only advance the sectional champion.

"We've just got to win it. We're just going to have to go out and win the thing," said Myers, while noting how difficult it will be with the five top teams from last season all returning strong rosters. "I really believe as deep and as good as Bellmont is going to be, this is probably our best lineup in the last four or five years. We've got a lot of good individuals who will pick us up a lot of points at the big tournaments. So it'll be a chance for us to push this year."[[In-content Ad]]