Patriots dominate Randolph Southern Invitational

Every score mattered for the Patriots over the weekend.

The Jay County High School girls cross country team snuck away with a narrow victory at the Randolph Southern Invitational, beating the next three teams by three points or less.

The girls team tallied 64 points, while New Castle and Monroe Central trailed by only two and Wapahani finished with 67.

The boys team ended as the runner-up with 75 points, only falling to Wapahani’s 33.

For the first time since junior high, Abby Fifer led the girls with a time of 21 minutes, 45.19 seconds to take eighth.

Three more freshmen followed as Brooklynn Byrum (22:10.94) finished 13th, Jessie Homan (22:27.47) claimed 16th and Ava May (22:53.99) ended in 21st.

Alexis Sibray (23:03) added the fifth score with a 23rd-place finish, while Natalie Carreno and Lizzie Brunswick took away key points from other teams.

Caleb Garringer and Dash Thacker paced the boys with times of 17:29.56 and 17:45.71 to finish in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Joseph Boggs added a 10th-place finish after 18:40.81.

Max Klopfenstein (19:21.01) and Dougie Cox (19:24.41) rounded out the score with placements of 27th and 29th.

Wilmore powers

Brylin Wilmore pulled off the first hat trick of her career to power a 9-0 Jay County girls soccer win over South Adams to stay perfect in Allen County Athletic Conference play.

Wilmore’s first goal came with just 3 minutes, 54 seconds remaining in the first half on a free kick from 15 yards out.

Her second came on an assist from Rylin Hummer at 23:10 in the second half. Less than two minutes later, Wilmore found the net off an assist by Morgan DeHoff.

Two more Patriot players scored a pair of goals. DeHoff scored twice in the second half, while London Llyod added one in each half, including the goal that ended the game.

Other girls to score for Jay County (6-3, 4-0 ACAC) were Aixa Lopez and Finley Hatzell.

Hummer had three assists in the game, while DeHoff, Kady Allred and Jayla Huelskamp all had one.

Goalkeeper Maleah Parsons only had to make three saves and didn’t allow a goal.

Spikers get one

NOBLESVILLE — The Jay County volleyball team finished 1-3 at a tournament hosted by Noblesville on Saturday.

The Patriots opened the tournament up with a 25-12, 25-15 loss to sectional rival New Castle.

Western Boone picked off Jay County next with a 25-14, 25-18 defeat. Hallie Schwieterman led the Patriots (6-6) with four kills in the match.

Despite a stronger offensive performance that included four kills from Schwieterman and Mya Kunkler, as well as four aces by Brenna Bailey, JCHS also fell to Lawrence North in two sets.

Jay County broke through in its fourth match of the day to beat Shelbyville 25-19, 25-19. Middle blocker Maria Hemmelgarn got going in the match with eight kills and two blocks.

Golf avoids last

DECATUR — The Jay County girls golf team finished sixth in the ACAC tournament at Cross Creek Golf Course on Saturday.

Its score of 448 strokes just beat out Heritage (458) for the bottom spot in the conference. Bluffton claimed the win with a 391.

Maddy Snow provided the top score for Jay County with a round of 103. She made par twice and bogey seven times en route to a 13th best score to make the second team All-ACAC.

London Smith of Adams Central and Julia Arnold of South Adams both shot 87s, and Smith won the tiebreaker on the second attempt to become match medalist.

Brooklynn Bright added the second best score for the Patriots, shooting a 111. She had five bogeys, including two of the par-5s.

Bailey Towell had a 115 for Jay County’s third score. She shot for bogey four times, while making par once on the par-3 16th hole.

Erin Aker cut down her previous 18-hole best score of 131 to 119 in the match to round out the team score. Jaycee Rowles’ 125 didn’t affect the final.