Wrestling finishes fourth

BERNE — Three Patriots took out all of their Allen County Athletic Conference foes to stand atop the podium, but that wasn’t enough for the Patriots to crack the top three.

Caleb Sibray, Freddie Lingo and Spencer Smitley all claimed the top spot in their respective brackets for the Jay County Junior High School wrestling team on Thursday, which tallied 252 points at the ACAC meet.

The Patriots finished fourth at the meet, just three points behind South Adams. Adams Central earned the conference crown with 316 points, while Bluffton (281) finished as the runner-up.

Sibray (25-1) received a bye in the first round of the 150-pound bracket, to set up a matchup with Southern Well’s Colton Caldwell (3-11) in the semifinal. Sibray quickly pinned Caldwell in 10 seconds to advance to the championship against Gideon Mihm (9-9) of Adams Central. Mihm put up more of a fight, but Sibray still pinned his opponent in the first period after 1 minute, 8 seconds.

Lingo (26-1) and Smitley (23-4) both had double byes to advance directly to the championship match in the 190 and 215 weight classes.

Lingo matched up with Adams Central’s Kaleb Hackenjos (6-16), who he pinned in just 39 seconds.

Cooper Affolder (9-2) of Bluffton gave Smitley more trouble, but Smitley got the job done with a fall 21 seconds into the second period.

Three Jay County wrestlers also found themselves in the championship matches for their weight class, but couldn’t pull off the victory.

Mitchell Byrum (13-8) stayed alive through the first period of the 75-pound championship, but ended up pinned by Adams Central’s Max Myers (15-1) 13 seconds into the second.

Varen Ridgeway lasted 1 minute, 7 seconds in the 165 championship before Jax Litchfield (21-0) of Heritage put him on his back.

Henry Vanntette (5-0) of Adams Central beat George Plessinger (21-3) by fall 23 seconds into the 285 bracket.

Other placements for the Patriots include:

•Corbin Lothridge third in the 95 weight class

•Logan Wendel third in the 113 weight class

•Max McClain third in the 126 weight class

•Alex Rivers third in the 132 weight class

•Karson Hines fourth in the 85 weight class

•Miles Jones fourth in the 120 weight class

•Shayli Witt fifth in the 144 weight class

•Amara Crawford fifth in the 175 weight class

•Danaca Chowning sixth in the 90 weight class

•Domonic Fredrick sixth in the 100 the weight class

•Cooper Reynolds sixth in 138 the weight class