Wood, Rowles earn fourth ACAC titles

BLUFFTON — The Patriots finished second in the Allen County Athletic Conference duals against the Jets.

They got another chance to take down the Jets in the individual competition, but came up short again.

The Class 2A No. 4 Jay County High School boys wrestling team had three individual champions to lead it to second-place at the ACAC tournament Friday hosted by Bluffton.

The Patriots’ 234.5 points were 52.5 points behind first-place, Class 1A No. 2 Adams Central. No. 6 South Adams also broke the two-century mark with 214 points while Bluffton (191), Heritage (105), Woodlan (95) and Southern Wells (84) lagged behind.

Three JCHS wrestlers walked away as ACAC champions, including No. 4 Tony Wood and Cody Rowles who both earned their forth ACAC titles.

Wood (33-0) dominated his first two opponents before taking down Adam Central’s Maverick Dubach (29-4) with a 15-0 technical fall 24 seconds into the third period of the 138-pound championship match.

Rowles (23-8) claimed the 126 bracket with an 8-0 major decision over Dylan Ogg (25-8) of Adams Central.

Griffin Byrum (27-4) claimed the other title for Jay County in the 106 weight class. Byrum pinned AC’s Myles Kaehr (24-7) in 1 minute, 25 seconds.

Runners-up for the Patriots were A.J. Heskett (132), Jacob Robinson (144), Juaquin Flores (175) and Bryce Wenk (190).

Third-place finishers were Sylas Wenk (113) and Alan Ortiz (215). Cooper Glassford (120) and Connor Specht (285) both finished fourth while Gavin Hambrock (150) and Leighton Brown (165) placed fifth.

Hayden Ison did not place in the 157-pound bracket.

Junior High struggles

NOBLESVILLE — The Jay County Junior High wrestling team placed sixth on Saturday at the Noblesville West Invitational.

Whiteland earned the top spot, while Jay County fell to sixth out of seven schools and an exhibition team.

The Patriots started off the day with a heartbreaking 57-56 loss to Zionsville.

Jay County struggled to get going as it dropped the next two matches to Noblesville West (82-42) and Alexandria (66-54) as well.

The Patriots finally broke through with a 78-42 win over Noblesville East. They finished out the day with a 64-54 victory over the exhibition team.