Taye-ken down

Ranked No. 3 and No. 8 in the state, respectively, the Patriots and Golden Eagles had been battling for the top spot all day.

They were tied heading into the consolation finals.

And the score remained tight heading into the championship matches.

But the hosts put four in the finals compared to just two for their top competitor. And in their one head-to-head match, Taye Curtis made sure the trophy would not leave the  premises.

The victory for Curtis over Oak Hill’s Peytonn Bowland combined with championships from Cody Rowles and Tony Wood pushed the Jay County High School wrestling team to the title Thursday as it hosted the East Central Indiana Classic.

“We wrestled pretty well,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers, whose team has also won titles at the Franklin Invitational, Allen County Athletic Conference Duals and Carroll Super Duals this year. “Getting three of four in the finals there was pretty big for us, and getting bonus points in one of them, winning against Oak Hill head-to-head in one of them and beating a pretty highly ranked state guy in the other.”

Jay County, ranked No. 3 in Class 2A by Indiana Mat, finished with 206 points to outdistance eighth-ranked Oak Hill by just 10 points. Mount Vernon (Ohio) was third in the field of 14 scoring teams with 181.5 points.

It was the Patriots’ first ECIC win since 2016 when Gaven Hare, Seth Fugiett, Tyler Leonhard, Mason Winner and Ivan Hemmelgarn all earned individual titles. (The annual tournament was not held last year.)

Rowles (113) had already made quick work of Kaden Davidson in his championship match at 113 pounds when Curtis (120) took the mat against Bowland, meaning a head-to-head victory would all but lock up the team title.

After a scoreless first 1:30 of the match, Curtis took a lead he would never relinquish when he was able to circle behind Bowland for a takedown. Bowland responded with an escape early in the second period only to have Curtis score a takedown with just three seconds left in the period to take firm control of the match. A reversal just 16 seconds into the final period increased the Patriot sophomore’s advantage and he held off a late effort from Bowland for a 9-4 victory.

“I was just really proud of him getting here and wrestling,” said Myers, nothing that Curtis had dealt with an illness earlier this week. “It was kind of a ‘get through the day’ type of day for Taye, and that’s hard to do when you’re wrestling top-level competition and you’re trying to win a tournament. … He came through in the clutch for us.”

The 15th-ranked Rowles was dominant in his victory over Davidson, getting a takedown and three-point near fall for a 5-0 lead less than a minute into the match. He later caught Davidson in a cradle, ending the match with a pin with 27.1 seconds left in the opening period.

“He’s just a pinner,” said Myers. “He goes hard all the time. He’s in your face. I always feel so confident in him, and I think a lot of that has to do with how confident he is in himself.”

Wood (132), who is ranked eighth in the state at 126 pounds, first fought off Brevan Thrine of New Castle 6-4 in overtime in the semifinal round. Then, with the championship on the line against Bluffton’s Landon Bertsch, he came up big in the third period. 

The sophomore caught Bertsch, the eighth-ranked wrestler in the state at 132 pounds, in a cradle for a three-point near fall 30 seconds into the final period. Bertsch managed an escape with 20 seconds left, but was unable to make any kind of legitimate shot at Wood in the waning moments of the match.

“For him, and us, the Bertsch match in the finals is pretty satisfying,” said Myers. “In the dual, we were at a point in our lineup where we had to bump Tony to make sure we had enough points … Putting him in at ’32, knowing that we had the opportunity to wrestle (Bertsch) was in the back of everybody’s mind. And then for him to go out and get a win like that, I felt like it proved to Tony and proved to everyone else that he wasn’t afraid to wrestle him.”

Daniel Moore, a junior, also made the championship round for the Patriots in the 106-pound bracket. He fell by a second-round pin to undefeated Bluffton freshman No. 16 Levi Johns and finished in second place.

Ethan Reiley (126), who is ranked 18th in the state at 120 pounds, dropped a 7-2 decision to eventually champion Justin Thornton of Columbus North in the semifinal round before bouncing back to dominate Mylan Nocton of Centerville for a 10-0 major decision in the third-place match.

Adding fifth-place finishes for JCHS were Camron Gage (145) and Bryce Wenk (182). Also ending the day in the top eight were AJ Myers (170) and Conner Specht (220) in sixth place, Ramon Bravo (195) in seventh and Benson Ward (160) in eighth.

“We kind of put our backs against the wall early and our guys battled back,” said Myers. “It’s not a ton of fun having to battle through that consolation bracket … But if you can go through there and get some bonus points and advance and place, every little bit helps out. And we had a lot of guys who were willing to do that today.”