Clean sweep

By CHRIS SCHANZ
The Commercial Review
The Patriots didn’t just win a conference title.
They won it in convincing fashion.
After picking up a pair of victories Friday night, the Jay County High School wrestling team thrashed its opponents Saturday to sweep the inaugural Allen County Athletic Conference dual championships.
“I thought we came out the gate a little rusty,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers, whose team finished 6-0 and became the first JCHS boys squad to earn an ACAC title. “We kept improving throughout the day.”
Adams Central was runner up with a 5-1 record, and Woodlan placed third at 4-2. Southern Wells (3-3) finished fourth, Heritage (2-4) was fifth, South Adams (1-5) placed sixth and Bluffton (0-6) finished seventh.
Jay County, which moved to 7-0 on the season in dual matches, didn’t just simply beat its opponents on the scoreboard. It dominated them.
The Patriots outscored the opposition 362-122, with an average victory of 40 points. The closest margin was a 42-31 victory Friday evening against Adams Central, and the largest was a 78-0 shutout of Bluffton.
In all, Jay County won 65 individual matches with 16 of them coming by forfeit. Of the 49 remaining victories, a whopping 39 were from pins.
“We’re pinning right now,” Myers said. Jay County had a streak of four consecutive pins in its 57-21 victory against Heritage, and had six in a row to beat South Adams 71-6. “Toward the end of the season I tell them ‘survive and advance,’ but right now whenever we’re in the dual meet portion, those pins come pretty handy.”
JCHS senior Levi Hummel, who was one of six Patriots to go 6-0 and won all of his matches by pinning his opponents, said it was a complete team effort to win in such a strong fashion.
“We knew what we had to do coming into this and we executed well,” said Hummel, who won four matches at 170 pounds and the other two at 182. “Coach had been talking to us all week about picking up extra points here and there as much as we could to make the deficit as huge as possible.
“We knew what we had to do and we came in and did it.”
Jay County defeated Woodlan 57-25 in the first round on Friday night before an emotionally-charged win against Adams Central. The Patriots handled Heritage in the third round Saturday morning before its lopsided victories against Bluffton and South Adams in rounds four and five. Jay County had a bye in the sixth round before knocking off Southern Wells 57-18 to claim the team championship.
South Adams won its first round match-up with Bluffton 48-33 and then had the bye in the second round. The Starfires then dropped all five matches on Saturday. They lost to Southern Wells (49-30), Woodlan (55-24), Jay County, Heritage (36-33) and Adams Central (66-10).
“We want to be a competitive team, and this weekend won’t define how we wrestle,” said SAHS coach Jesse Gaskill. “I definitely want to see how we go forward.
“We have to hate to lose more than we love winning and simply embrace the battle of the sport.”
Jay County sophomore Kaimen Sanders, juniors Tyler Leonhard and Ivan Hemmelgarn and seniors Andy Kohler and Dallas Dudelston were all undefeated through the two-day tournament.
“We were looking at them (Saturday) and man they’ve improved so much from last year,” Myers said. “That is a good feeling. A lot of them have put in quite a bit of time in the offseason and it really looks like it’s paying off.
“We don’t want those guys to step back obviously but for them to take a pretty nice leap forward it is fun to watch.”
Much of them, too, were wrestling in higher weight classes. Hummel, a 170-pounder, wrestled twice at 182, and Hemmelgarn bumped up to 170 once from 160. Dudelston also moved around from 132 to 138, and Colton Compton (5-1) moved around the same weight classes as Dudelston.
“Dual meet tournament seasons are complete opposites,” Myers said. “We could be moving and bumping around all the time.”
With that in mind, Hummel added that he and his teammates have to be ready for whatever the coaches ask of them.
“We come out especially in dual meets not knowing what weight you’re going to wrestle because coach can bump you around depending on what is going to be best for the team,” he said. “Personally I had to be ready to go for wherever coach had me and I went out there and did my best.”
Also competing for Jay County were Thomas Hemmelgarn (5-1), Ian Liette (4-2), Tristen Atkins (4-2), Gaven Hare (4-2), Jacob Ferguson (3-3), Max Schmit (2-1), David Ostrowski (1-1) and Davis Anderson (1-0).
Isaiah Baumgartner was 4-1 for South Adams, with his only loss of the day to Kohler. Wyatt Miller was 3-1, and Logan Hicks and Tayler Cuellar were both 2-4. Brandon Wynn (1-3), Corbin Blomeke (1-4) and Jordan Heckler (1-4) also wrestled for South Adams.