Rivers runs through 126

Alex Rivers spent the entirety of his ECIC day last season in the consolation bracket.

He lost his opening round match and went on to finish in seventh place.

The Patriot sophomore has spent the last year working to get to where he stood at the end of the day Tuesday — atop the podium.

Rivers and senior teammate Silas Wenk earned championships in the East Central Indiana Classic to lead the host Class 2A No. 10 Jay County High School boys wrestling team to a fourth-place finish.

“You know, first time I ever had first place,” said Rivers. “Pretty excited about it. Pretty happy, pretty pumped.

“It just shows that I've gone so much better … It means a lot to win.”

The Patriots scored 168.5 points, holding off Centerville by 1.5 points for the No. 4 spot despite having one fewer wrestler. They trailed only teams that are ranked.

Class 1A No. 4 Alexandria-Monroe rolled to the team title with 235 points while Class 1A No. 8 South Adams (194.5) held off New Castle (192), which is No. 19 overall in the state power poll, for third place in the field of 19 teams.

“We definitely had some highs and lows,” said JCHS coach Tyler Leonhard, whose team was selected Monday to participate in the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association Class 2A Team State Duals on Jan. 10 at Brownsburg. “The one consolation round kind of killed us a little bit. We didn't really win a lot there. But we kind of bounced back from that with our placement round.”

Rivers, who ran his record to 13-4, had perhaps his biggest challenge in his quarterfinal match at 126 pounds, falling behind 6-0 to Union City freshman John Mangen. He roared back and pulled even at 9-9 in the third period before notching a pin in 4 minutes, 35 seconds.

After dispatching of Alexandria-Monroe’s Cannon Runyon by a 24-8 technical fall in the semifinal, Rivers dominated his championship match. He racked up nine first-period points against Daniel Rupp of Sout Adams, had a 12-1 lead after a takedown early in the second period and used a four-point near fall to finish off a 19-2 technical fall.

“The first two matches, I started off a little shaky,” said Rivers. “I went into that (championship) match with Rupp just ready to ready to go 100%. I wanted to put it all in the mat …

“I felt really good the whole match. … I got to my shots pretty well and I finished all of them. So I was pretty happy.”

Wenk’s day went more as would be expected at 120, as he scored a first-period pin over Blackford’s Benjamin Rosenauer in the quarterfinal before getting a tech fall over Joseangel Perez-Contreras of Union City in the semifinal.

He gave up an early takedown to Alexandria-Monroe’s Jayden McPhearson with the championship on the line and trailed at the end of the first period. But when McPhearson chose the bottom position to start the second, Wenk quickly maneuvered into a cradle for a four-point near fall that gave him the lead for good.

McPhearson closed the gap to 8-5 with a reversal at the 1:08 mark of the final period, only to have Wenk (18-1) reverse him back to secure a 10-5 victory.

“I think he did everything right,” said Leonhard. “He's just on that killer mindset right now where nobody can beat him. It shows on the mat. He would wrestle really well on his feet; when he got on top, he dominated on top. I can't think of a single thing that he did wrong.”

No. 15 Alan Ortiz (13-2), also a senior, made the championship match in the heavyweight bracket but ended up finishing in second place. The title match was scoreless until Haydon Standlee of Alexandria-Monroe got an escape six seconds into the final period. Ortiz tried for a single-leg takedown late in the match but wasn’t able to finish it, leading to a Standlee takedown for a 4-0 final margin.

Corbin Lothridge at 106, Cooper Glassford at 132, Jason Landers at 138 and Caleb Sibray at 165 all finished their days strong, winning their final matches to finish in third place. Glassford, Landers and Sibray were all 3-1 on the day while Lothridge went 2-1.

“Ending the day on a win is definitely a good thing,” said Leonhard. “Jason Landers … he works with Alex Rivers and he's a tough-nosed wrestler. … He has that, that killer mentality. He works hard.”

Adding top-six finishes for the Patriots were Spencer Smitley (fifth – 285) and Bryce Whisler (sixth – 113).