Jay County wins finale

The Patriots ended their dual meet schedule with a convincing victory on Friday.
It also helped that they were aided by six forfeits.
The Jay County High School wrestling team won its final head-to-head matchup with a 57-15 victory over the visiting Heritage Patriots.
“It’s tough when you come in and you’ve got eight guys wrestling,” said Heritage coach Kam Meyer. “You know you’re going to be giving up big points toward the forfeits, so I just told them, ‘You wrestle those six minutes and you wrestle them as hard as you can.’
“For the eight matches we wrestled, that’s what we accomplished.”
In the 195-pound match, Jay County freshman Gaven Hare beat Heritage junior Joe Dominguez by a 4-0 decision.
After the first period went scoreless, Hare started the second in the down position. He had a difficult time getting away from Dominguez early on, but flipped over his back for the escape and a 1-0 lead.
Dominguez battled cramps in both of his calves for the majority of the match. It had to be stopped to start the third period because of a second injury timeout, giving Hare the choice of how he wanted to resume the match. He chose the down position, got a quick escape and then capitalized on mistake by Dominguez to get a takedown for the final margin.
JCHS coach Eric Myers said Hare’s victory was the highlight of the match for his team.
“He beat a pretty good Dominguez kid,” said Myers, whose team finished 9-3 in dual meets and 5-2 in the Allen County Athletic Conference. The Patriots placed third behind Leo and Adams Central, and will host the ACAC tournament Jan. 24. “Gaven wrestled really well against him, fending off those takedowns.”
Tyler Leonhard earned a 9-4 decision against Austin Conrad at 152 in a match he controlled almost all the way through.
Leonhard scored five straight points in the second period on an escape, a takedown and a quick two-point nearfall. Conrad finally scored on a reversal, but wasn’t able to make much out of the change in momentum.
With Conrad beginning the final period from the mat, Leonhard kept him in his grasp until the Heritage senior did a backflip for a reversal to make the score 6-4. Leonhard escaped, though, and took Conrad to the mat for a takedown as the buzzer sounded.
“I thought he looked good against him,” Myers said of Leonhard, adding that the Jay County sophomore had a handful of forfeits in the Patriots’ last few matches. “It was nice for him to get back in action.”
Jay County’s Andy Kohler pinned Jon McNeal at 182 to improve to 23-2 on the season. The junior had a 5-1 lead in the second period before he took down McNeal, notched a three-point near fall to take a 10-1 advantage.
With a handful of Patriot volleyball players in attendance cheering him on — Kohler was the manager for the squad in the fall — he rolled over McNeal for the second-period fall.
“He’s having a great year,” Myers said of Kohler, who took first at the East Central Indiana Classic Dec. 27 and is seeded No. 1 in today’s Garrett Invitational.
Levi Hummel, who dropped down to 160 for the first time this season after wrestling at 170, defeated Justyn Hart by an 11-6 decision. He was winning 7-2 heading into the final period. Hart escaped to start the third, then Hummel picked him up and tossed him to the mat for a takedown. He nearly pinned Hart, getting a two-point near fall and an 11-3 advantage until the Heritage junior scored three points on an escape and a takedown.
Mitchell Frasher (138) got the only other win against an opponent, pinning Robert Anderson with four seconds remaining in the second period.
Winning by forfeit for Jay County were Seth Fugiett (106), Kaimen Sanders (113), Colton Compton (126), Dallas Dudelston (132), Ivan Hemmelgarn (145) and Jacob Schmit (170).
At 120, Heritage’s Kyle Rothgeb pinned Jay County’s Logan Drumm. Jared Brinkman pinned Patriot senior Jon Blankenship at 220, and Heritage heavyweight James Morua earned a pin against JCHS sophomore Simon Brumfield.