Patriots take down South Adams for six wins in a row

BERNE — One of the Patriots’ goals was to win an Allen County Athletic Conference title.

With a win Thursday, they clinched a share of it.

The Jay County High School boys tennis team swept the South Adams Starfires 5-0 Thursday.

The Patriots (10-8, 2-1 ACAC) have won six matches in a row after starting 1-5. Bluffton was the Patriots’ sole loss in conference, giving the Tigers the tiebreaker for the title.

Liam Garringer played the best match of his career in a 7-5, 3-6, 10-7 victory over Gabe Neuenschwander in the No. 3 singles match.

The No. 2 singles match finished the quickest, with Eli Dirksen dismantling Ian Neuenschwander 6-0, 6-0. The No. 1 doubles team of Sam Myers and Gage Sims took down Cole Hayman and Will Mawhorr 7-5, 6-4.

Isaac Miller and Luke Muhlenkamp moved to 10-1 on the season in No. 2 doubles matches when they beat Kade Sprunger and Kane Sturwold 6-1, 6-4. In No. 1 singles action, Abraham Dirksen earned a 7-5, 6-2 win against Conner Hyman.

Gabe Pinkerton and Joseph Nicholes earned the only junior varsity win. They beat Isaiah Conrad and Artur Lynnyk 7-6.

Suffering a loss in the No. 1 doubles match were Blake Kahlig and Jacob Monroe. They fell to Ben Dubach and Alex Stutman 6-4.

In the No. 3 doubles competition, Dylan Chalfant and Chase Spencer couldn’t overcome Dubach and Stutman either. They beat the Patriot duo 6-4.

Pats can’t finish

Jay County’s volleyball team couldn’t get over the hump as it was swept by the Wes-Del Warriors 25-20, 25-21, 25-18 Thursday.

The Patriots (6-9) put up a good defensive effort in the game, with both Brenna Haines and Lani Muhlenkamp contributing 11 digs. Sophie Saxman and Maggie Dillon followed with nine and seven, respectively.

Bella Denton led the offense with nine kills. She also had three aces while Saxman had two.

Mya Kunkler also had a hand in the attack, recorded five kills and two blocks.

Saxman and Denton had the most service points for the Patriots with four each. Saxman also recorded a team-high 19 assists.

They will compete in the ACAC tournament today at Southern Wells.

The junior varsity team had better luck, beating the Warriors 25-8, 25-11.

Wes-Del struggled to return Jay County’s serves in the match. Ella Rigby aced the Warriors six times and Hallie Schwieterman did it five times.

Rigby also had 11 assists.

Heavyn Willoughby had a team-high four kills while Trinity Glassford and Kendel Rowles each had three.

Jay Co. dominates

PARKER CITY — Both the boys and girls Jay County Junior High School cross country teams scored 20 points to take down Monroe Central and Wes-Del on Thursday.

Monroe Central’s girls earned 51 points to trial Jay County by 31 and its boys earned 47 to trail by 27.

The boys team got a first-place finish from Raif Beiswanger who took 11:26 to cross the finish line.

After him, Rocky Beiswanger came in second and Sam Wiggins earned third. The other two scores came from Grady Warvel (sixth) and Carson Westgerdes (eighth).

Jedidiah Ferguson was the top boy outside of Jay County, finishing fourth with a time of 11:56.

The girls’ top scorer was Abby Fifer, who finished second with a time of 12:52. Rylie Paskiewiez of Wes-Del beat Fifer by six seconds.

While the girls didn’t claim the top spot in the race, they got the next five.

After Fifer were Jessie Homan in third, Ava May in fourth, Brooklyn Byrum in fifth and Gracie Rowles in sixth.

Spikers bounce back

After losing seven of its last eight games, the Jay County junior high volleyball team bounced back with a 25-8, 25-13 win over Union City.

The Patriots (9-6) took advantage of Union City’s mistakes while serving up 11 aces in the match. Emalyn Homan led with five and Allie Westfall was only one behind with four. The other two aces came from Brenna Ruble.

There were only two kills from Jay County. One came from Amelia Heath and the other from Kenady Lyons.

Lyons was also one of two players with an assist. The other was Peyton Schoenlein.