Looking to enjoy the ride

The Patriots claimed the sectional and regional crowns.

They took third at the semi-state meet.

They sent a school-record four wrestlers to the state tournament, one of which earned a medal.

This year, they will try to repeat those results while giving the team a chance to have some fun.

The Jay County High School boys wrestling team returns three of its four state qualifiers, five of eight semi-state qualifiers and a strong senior class that will make up half of the Patriots’ lineup.

“We've got a really exceptional group of seniors,” coach Eric Myers said. “I've never had a group this large that stuck together and one grade that is this talented collectively. So, that's pretty exciting.”

The group includes state qualifiers Cameron Clark, Cody Rowles and Tony Wood. Taye Curtis and Bryce Wenk both qualified for the semi-state meet. Juaquin Flores and Connor Specht round out the class.

Wood was undefeated until the final day of the state tournament, and ended up with the seventh-place medal and a final record of 43-2 in the 138-pound weight class. The senior didn’t put the sport down over the summer, but rather placed 13th in the 2023 US Marine Corps Junior National freestyle tournament and 25th in the Greco-Roman tournament, two high-level tournaments for high school athletes in Fargo, North Dakota. The performances helped Wood with his confidence.

Myers was impressed with the work that his athletes put in during the offseason.

“All those guys work really hard,” Myers said. “Some of them are multiple sport athletes, though. So some of them are working pretty hard on other sports too so they really don't have downtime.

“Tony and Cameron you can't say enough about them both of them being placers before but, all those guys want to make it to the semifinals and that means not only winning Friday night but winning right away Saturday morning. We’ve got to get in that mentality that we're ready to do that. We're confident enough regardless of the draw.”

Wood is expected to reprise his spot at 138 while Clark will bump up to 150. 

During his state run at 145, Clark earned a 36-3 record.

Curtis will fill in the hole at 144. He hit a growth spurt during his junior year, causing him to struggle to make the 120 weight limit at times. Myers said he’s excited to see what the senior can do without needing to worry about his weight as much.

Rowles will move from 126, where he went 37-4 to make it back to the state for the second time, to 132.

Bryce Wenk nearly qualified for state two years ago as a sophomore, but lost the match 9-8 to NorthWood’s Trey Tobias in the ticket round of the 182 bracket. As he vies for his first bid, he will run into a new challenge with the changing weight classes.

“He was dealt a little bit of a tough hand because the weight class changes took an upper weight out,” Myers said. “So those classes get a little bit more crowded with talent. But Bryce is a kid that really could win a semi-state. He's that talented.”

Wenk will battle with Flores in the 175 and 190 weight classes. Specht will wrestle at 285 while sophomore Alan Ortiz will take the final upper weight class of 215. Myers thinks that the extra year of experience under Ortiz’s belt will make a big difference and he could potentially have a breakout year.

Filling out the lower weight classes will be Griffin Byrum (113), Cooper Glassford (120) and A.J. Heskett (126) while Grant Linville and Sylas Wenk will compete for the 106 spot.

Jacob Robinson will step in at 157. Myers expects him to take advantage after waiting his turn behind other older wrestlers.

“(The Indiana Tech coach) saw Jacob Robinson and said, ‘Oh my goodness, I can't believe he wasn't in your varsity lineup last year. He's a state level kid,’” Myers said. “We just had so many kids right in those weight classes. Normally, when you have a kid that’s that talent that came in as a freshman you'd be in our lineup most years. We’re excited to see what he can do in the varsity lineup.”

The 165-pound spot will be a competition between freshman Leighton Brown and sophomore Garrett Bennett.

The Patriots lost four key wrestlers this season. Regional qualifiers Ethan Reiley and Daniel Moore graduated, state qualifier Christian Wittkamp moved back to Illinois and A.J. Myers will miss the season after a knee injury during football.

Despite the losses, Jay County is still targeting big goals.

“We have the goals that we've had for a while, you know, to win a conference, sectional, regional, semi-state, and take as many states as we can,” Myers said. “I think that sometimes we got so caught up in some of our goals … we didn't enjoy the experience as much.

“So this year, we know that we have a good team, but what we really want to do is go out and enjoy every moment of these guys. We want to compete the best that we can, and we want to make these kids into the best people that we can.”