Jay County football will host No. 6 Kokomo

INDIANAPOLIS — The Patriots will get a home playoff game.

It will be against the highest-ranked team in the sectional.

The Jay County High School football team drew a first-round matchup with the No. 6 Kokomo Wildcats in the IHSAA Class 4A Sectional 20 on Sunday evening.

The Patriots (4-4) will host Kokomo (7-1) at 7 p.m. Oct. 27.

With one week remaining in the regular season, Jay County has a Sagarin Rating of 42.31 — 187th in the state and fifth in the sectional. Kokomo is the top-ranked team in the sectional with a 68.74 Sagarin Rating, 69th in Indiana.

Marion (2-6) will host Frankfort (1-7) in the other opening-round game in the lower half of the bracket, with the winner to take on the Jay County/Kokomo winner in the semifinal round.

The other half of the bracket features No. 8 Mississinewa (8-0) visiting Western (4-4) and Columbia City (5-3) traveling to Huntington North (1-7).

The Patriots are 1-0 against sectional opponents this year with a 14-9 victory over Huntington North.

JCHS has lost five straight sectional openers, with its last victory coming by a 22-21 score over Logansport in 2017. Its last, and only, sectional championship came in 2007.

Spikers finish strong

LIBERTY — The Jay County volleyball team finished the regular season Saturday with three wins and one loss at the Union County Invite to earn second place.

The Patriots earned wins against Seton Catholic (33-31, 25-14), Union County (25-20, 20-25, 15-11) and Alexandria-Monroe (25-8, 25-8) before falling to Adams Central in the championship 25-20, 25-23.

Isabella Denton dominated in the first two matches with 15 and 11 kills en route to 33 total.

Bryn VanVleet led Seton Catholic with 21 kills, but the six-player crew couldn’t outlast the depth of the Patriots (15-14).

A strong defensive effort from Mya Kunkler (four blocks) at the net and Brenna Haines (16 digs) and Brenna Bailey (10) on the back row propelled the Patriots past Union County.

Alexandria-Monroe struggled to return serves, as Jay County racked up 11 aces. Haines led the spikers with six while Bailey added three.

The Patriots couldn’t find a consistent source of points against Adams Central. Maggie Dillon led with seven kills while Denton added six. Haines was busy on the back line during the match with 20 digs. She ended the tournament with 52.

Sophie Saxman ran the offense, accumulating 80 assists over the four matches.

Boggs leads

BLUFFTON — The Jay County boys cross country team avoided last place in the Allen County Athletic Conference cross country meet at Bluffton High School on Saturday morning.

The Patriots finished with 129 points, beating out Woodlan, which had 137, while Bluffton blew away the field with 41. Adams Central won the girls race by earning 31 points.

Joseph Boggs crossed the finish line first for Jay County. He ran a 17 minutes 23.8 seconds for third place, only finishing behind Bluffton’s Tyler Godwin (16:43.6) and Levi Johns (17:13.8).

The boys had another top-10 finish from Caleb Garringer, who squeaked into 10th place by five seconds.

The final three scores came from Max Klopfenstien in 27th, Beckett Brandenburg in 53rd and Darren Fischer in 56th.

While Boggs tied his career best, Garringer (17:52.9) and Will Hawbaker (22:49.4, 61st) both set new ones.

The girls competed as individuals at the meet. Alexis Sibray had the best day among the Patriots with an eighth-place finish in 21:57.9. Adam Central’s Gabi Landis was just over two minutes faster to earn first place.

Willow Hardy and Paityn Wendel finished within two spots of each other at 31st and 33rd. Courtney Harris ran a career best 25:49.8 to finish 37th.

Jay sweeps ACAC

BLUFFTON — The Jay County Junior High School cross country teams remained undefeated as they swept the ACAC meet Saturday morning at Bluffton High School.

Both teams earned a score of 30 points on the way to the victory. The closest boys competitor was Adams Central with 62 while Southern Wells followed the girls with 54.

Along with the team championships, Raif Beiswanger was the individual ACAC champion for the Patriot boys, winning the race in a time of 10 minutes, 38.1 seconds, nine seconds faster than Alex Alana of Adams Central.

Jay County took third and fourth places, with Sam Wiggins and Rockland Beiswanger claiming the spots. The final two scores came from Grady Warvel (seventh) and Carson Westgerdes (15th).

Abby Fifer paced the Jay County girls for second place and a time of 11:48.4. She was nine seconds slower than champion Abby Ramseyer of Bluffton.

Behind Fifer was Jessie Homan, claiming third place. The other three scores came from Ava May (fifth), Brooklyn Byrum (seventh) and Maria Laux (13th).

Spikers place second

MONROE — The Jay County junior high volleyball team took second place in the ACAC tournament at Adams Central on Saturday.

The spikers earned the top spot in pool play because of a tiebreaker with Adams Central, but couldn’t pull through in the championship game.

Amelia Heath led the attack with 18 kills and five blocks. Brenna Ruble also totalled double-digit kills with 10, while blocking one ball.

On the back row, with Ruble and Kenady Lyons  recording five digs. Gabi Petro and Peyton Schoenlein followed with four and three respectively.

Splitting the responsibility of running the offense were Lyons and Emalyn Homan. Both setters tallied 12 assists.

Jay County aced their opponents 28 times in the tournament. Lyons had eight aces to lead the team, while Heath and Homan both had seven.