Make it quick

Griffin Byrum didn’t want to waste any time.

He had been sick all week. He had missed several days of school.

His goal in the sectional championship match was to end it — fast.

He only needed 23 seconds.

Byrum’s sectional title paired with Tony Wood’s career sweep Saturday to lead a group of nine regional qualifiers and third-place finish for the host Class 2A No. 4 Jay County High School boys wrestling team in the sectional tournament.

“I was sick all week,” said Byrum. “I was pretty sick yesterday. I wrestled through it. …

“It feels pretty good. I expected it though.”

Joining Byrum and Wood in qualifying for the regional — the top wrestlers in each weight class advance — were sectional runners-up Cody Rowles, A.J. Heskett, Joaquin Flores and Bryce Wenk, third-place finishers Jacob Robinson and Alan Ortiz, and fourth-place finisher Jason Landers.

Class 2A No. 2 Bellmont, which faced a sizable deficit heading into the championship round, roared past Class 1A No. 2 Adams Central as it rode five individual titles to the team crown with 248.5 points. The Jets were second with 243 in the nine-team field and the Patriots followed in third with 195.5.

“The wrestling roller coaster where you have some things that don’t go well for you, then you have some things that go really well for you,” said Myers. “In a couple instances we wrestled really, really well. And then there’s a few matches we’d kind of like to have back.”

While they agree he was sick, Byrum and his coach tell different versions of the days leading up to Saturday’s tournament.

Myers says it was touch-and-go as to whether the junior would wrestle or not, with a text message he saw in the wee hours Saturday finally providing confirmation. Byrum says there was never any doubt.

Regardless, he was there, getting forfeits through the first two rounds of the 106-pound bracket and then pinning Bellmont’s Ben Mills (24-15) in the third period in the semifinal match. And in the finals, he left no doubt.

Byrum (30-4), who is ranked 20th in the state, needed just four seconds to score a takedown against Titus Loshe (21-8) of South Adams. He quickly worked that into a cradle, which resulted in the referee’s hand slapping the mat at the 1:37 mark of the first period.

“You just watch the improvement and I think he’s a state contender. I’m envisioning him having to wait another year to try and make that come to fruition,” said Myers of his overnight worry that the junior might not be able to compete. “I just feel so much better that I don’t have to.”

Wood, ranked fourth in the state at 138, also picked up a couple of forfeits before breezing past Wyatt Mann (21-13) of South Adams in 49 seconds in the semifinal. An early takedown in the first period and an early reversal in the second staked him to a 4-0 lead over 18th-ranked Maverick Dubach (33-5) of Adams Central in the finals and he rolled to a 9-0 victory.

It was the fourth consecutive sectional title for the 2023 state medalist.

“It feels really nice,” said Wood, who ran his perfect record to 37-0. “It’s a lot of hard work that goes into it to get four sectional titles. It makes you feel good. It gives you confidence for next week. I’m hoping to get four regional titles.”

Despite eventually losing by a technical fall, A.J. Heskett (21-14) nearly gave Jay County a third sectional title when he caught 18th-ranked Brason Schortgen (36-2) of Adams Central in a third-period cradle. But he didn’t get the call and went on to a 23-8 defeat.

“A.J. Heskett gave himself a chance. He won a big semifinal match,” said Myers, referencing his pin of Bellmont’s Keven Loshe (21-15). “And I don’t know, if you ask certain people, he probably won a sectional today, but we couldn’t quite get that call. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

The other three Patriot championship matches were all decided by four points or fewer:

•Flores (26-9) had leads of 2-0 and 4-2 against Bellmont’s Xavior Palacios (33-8) at 175 before getting caught in a cradle to fall behind in the second period and another to get pinned in the third in 4:34.

•Wenk (34-2) escaped early in the second period to score the first points against No. 15 Trevor Currie (34-4) at 190 but lost the lead when he couldn’t pull away at the edge of the circle with 49 seconds left in the period and wasn’t able to generate offense in a 5-1 loss. (Both of his defeats this year have come against Currie.)

•The 18th-ranked Rowles (25-9) gave up a takedown late in the first period and was unable to find an escape in the second as he lost 4-0 to Union City’s Bradin Daniels (32-1) at 126 pounds.

After falling to eventual runner-up Max Byerly (24-13) of Adams Central 5-4 in the semifinal round of the 150-pound bracket, Robinson bounced back to blank Austin Roth (23-9) of Union City for third place. Ortiz suffered a pin fall defeat in 58 seconds to No. 3 Keagan Martin (38-1) of Bellmont in the semifinal at 215 before pinning Norwell’s Ethan Michael in four minutes to take third.

Landers (15-7) split his four matches at 144 pounds for his fourth-place finish.

Also competing for the Patriots on Saturday were Sylas Wenk at 113 in fifth place and Cooper Glassford at 120, Hayden Ison at 157 and Conner Specht 285 in sixth place.