Patriots claim ACAC outright

MONROEVILLE — The Patriots clinched at least a share of the Allen County Athletic Conference title in a blowout win on Saturday.

Three days later, they finished the job.

The Jay County High School girls basketball team stands alone atop the ACAC standings after blowing out the Heritage Patriots 51-17 in the regular season finale Tuesday.

Jay County (20-2, 6-0 ACAC) took firm control of the game with a dominant first quarter. It didn’t give up a single point the entire period as they tallied 20 of its own.

JCHS coasted from there, never allowing Heritage (1-18, 0-6) to hit 20 points as it scored 7, 3 and 7.

Molly Muhlenkamp led the way in scoring with 16 points. Sophie Saxman and Bella Denton reached double figures as well with 12 and 11 respectively.

Muhlenkamp also recorded the most rebounds with nine.

Dishing out the most assists was Breanna Dirksen, while Saxman and Hallie Schwieterman each gained five extra possessions with steals.

Jay County will ride an 18-game winning streak that began on Nov. 18 as it heads into the postseason, when it plays host Yorktown on Tuesday, Jan. 30.

Boys get first win

BERNE — The Fort Recovery boys swim team picked up its first win on Tuesday as it split with Greenville and St. Henry in a meet at South Adams. The girls team swept both opponents by winning nine of the 12 events.

All three Fort Recovery boys won their events to tally 36 points to beat St. Henry (12) and fall to the depth of Greenville (58).

 The girls earned 80 points, while St. Henry’s 61 took second place and Greenville trailed with 23.

Caleb Smith had a career day for the Indians (1-9) with wins in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100 breaststroke. His breaststroke time of 1 minute, 10.83 seconds broke the school record previously held by teammate Sage Wendel. Smith beat two competitors in the sprint freestyle with a time of 26.6 seconds.

Carson Fullenkamp swam uncontested in the 100 butterfly, but his 1:15.34 freestyle earned first in the 100 backstroke. Wendel picked up victories in the 200 individual medley (2:17.87) and the 100 freestyle (57.28).

Five swimmers on the girls team (7-3) picked up individual wins and two relays took first as well.

Joelle Kaup and Allison Knapke earned a pair of victories for FRHS. Kaup handled the 200 freestyle (2:16.01) and 500 freestyle (6:08.86), while Knapke’s wins came in the 100 butterfly (1:20.57) and 100 backstroke (1:19.97).

The other three individual winners were Teigen Fortkamp (200 individual medley), Paige Guggenbiller (50 freestyle) and Theresa Hipple (1-meter diving).

Fortkamp, Guggenbiller, Makenna Huelskamp and Aubrey Shuttlesworth made up the first-place 200 freestyle relay team (1:55.55). Kaup replaced Shuttlesworth on the freestyle relay team (4:13.14) that decimated the field by nearly a full minute.