Wake up ready

Wake up and be ready to go.

The Patriots aren’t looking past anyone. But if they’re able to get through Friday night, they know Saturday morning will decide whether they reach a level not achieved by their team for a decade.

Jay County High School seniors Tony Wood and Cody Rowles will compete this weekend in the IHSSA Wrestling State Finals at the Ford Center in Evansville.

That Saturday morning match, if they get to it, decides if they will wrestle in the top four and have a chance at the state championship or scrap for places fifth through eighth.

“Since I’ve been here, we haven’t broken through to the semifinals yet,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers, who has led the Patriots since the 2014-15 season. (The team’s last semifinalist was Eric Hemmelgarn, who placed fourth in 2014.) It would be great to get to the semifinals and give ourselves a shot to get into the finals. It just would mean a lot to our program. 

“We’ve done a lot of great things … and we just haven’t quite got a guy into the semifinals or finals. I think it would be great. … I think it would be nice to see and fun to see a guy get a little bit closer to wrestling for a state title.”

Rowles and Wood will both wrestle in the second session Friday beginning at 6:30 p.m. (The heavier weight classes wrestle in the first session at 3 p.m.)

Opening-round winners guarantee themselves a state medal and return to wrestle it out for the eight places on the podium beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday. (It will be 9 a.m. in Evansville, which is on Central Standard Time.)

Wood, who is ranked fourth in the state at 138 pounds, will open the state finals against Lawrence North’s Blake Jones (29-7). He has experience against Jones, having beaten him during offseason events.

A victory in the opening round would send him to take on either Plymouth’s No. 5 Wesley Smith, who beat the Patriots’ Cameron Clark in the opening round of the state tournament last season, or No. 13 Justice Thornton (34-2) of Columbus North.

“I generally don’t try to look at it too much,” said Wood, addressing his tournament draw. “My goal is to win a state title, so I’m going to have to beat anyone anyway. …

“Honestly, I don’t have too much of an opinion. I just want to go wrestle.”

The contenders at 138 pounds are spread across the bracket, with each of the top four in their one quarter. That means Wood could face second-ranked Kyrell Leavell (37-1) of Warren Central in the semifinal. He wouldn’t see No. 1 Clinton Shepherd (29-3) or No. 3 Brady Ison (28-6) of Brownsburg until the championship match.

The last Patriot to wrestle for a state title was Casey Kenney, who in 2008 was 44-0 heading into the state finals. He remained perfect until he lost 7-3 to Indian Creek’s Ethan Raley in the championship match at 103 pounds.

Likewise, Wood carries a 44-0 record into the state finals. He is a four-time sectional and regional champion, two-time semi-state champion and four-time state qualifier who finished seventh in the tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis last year. (The state finals were moved to Evansville this season because the state capital is hosting the NBA All-Star game this weekend.)

“I think it would be really cool,” said Wood. “It’s been a dream since you’re a kid. You go watch the state finals and you see guys on that final face-off and then under the spotlight. You see them on the Jumbotron. That’s what you dream of and you work toward. It would be really cool.”

Rowles, who is ranked 18th in the state, had a challenging season. After entering the regional at a combined 94-2 through his first three years, he was 25-9 at that point of his senior campaign. But he found his spark during that regional tournament on his home floor, upsetting No. 5 Neal Mosier of Delta in the semifinal and then avenging a sectional championship loss to Union City’s Bradin Daniels in the championship. He went on to finish second at the semi-state and will be making his third state appearance. (Each of his previous two visits to the state finals ended in first-round losses.)

Senior Cody Rowles of Jay County wraps up Boston Bass of Prairie Heights in a cradle during the first round of the semi-state tournament Saturday at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne. Rowles, who is 31-10 and ranked 18th in the state at 126 pounds, will wrestle in the state finals for the third time this weekend, taking on No. 17 Layne Horn (44-1) in the opening round Friday. (The Commercial Review/Ray Cooney)

 

He will open his day in the 126-pound bracket against seventh-ranked Layne Horn (44-1) of Rochester. A victory would give him an unranked opponent — either Gunner Butt (33-5) of New Palestine or Fynn Douglas (26-7) of Floyd Central — in Saturday morning’s quarterfinal. Evansville’s No. 1 Isaiah Schaefer (36-2), whose only losses this season came against Jayden Raney of Kentucky, looms as a possible semifinal opponent.

Rowles, now 31-10, said for him the tournament is just as much mental as it is physical.

“I just have to just treat it like a normal match and don’t try to hype it up in my head or psych myself out or anything,” he said. “It’s just a normal match. …

“I think that’s where some of my losses have came this year, just from being in my head. …

“A lot of times throughout the week, I’ll catch myself worrying about who I’m wrestling … And then I tell myself that I’m gonna have to wrestle that match no matter what, so there’s no point in me worrying about it. I just need to be ready to go wrestle.”

As Wood and Rowles approach their final tournament as Patriots, Myers is continuing to preach the mantra that he has all season. He just wants his guys to take it one match at a time.

“I’ve told them the guys that I’ve coached that have advanced the furthest in that tournament, they just go in there and wrestle,” Myers said. They just kinda end up there.”

“You see guys that catch fire and they have the tournament of their lives and they end up in the finals or on top of the podium or in the semifinals,” he added. “I feel like that could be both of our guys.”