Sectional seniors

Dominant.

The Patriots’ champions both left zero doubt.

Griffin Byrum and A.J. Heskett showed off their superior skills in different ways, one recording the quickest pin of the finals while the other racked up the points.

The pair of seniors — one a repeat champion and the other a first-timer — stood atop the podium Saturday as they led a group of nine regional qualifiers as the host Jay County High School boys wrestling team took third place in the sectional tournament.

"It feels great to be a two-timer and get my name on the wall twice,” said Byrum, who is ranked 16th in the state. “That's what I was after.”

"Amazing," said Heskett. "Last year I fell short just by one match right at the end. And now a year later I'm back at it, senior year, got it."

The Patriots’ 208 points left them behind champion Bellmont (250.5) and runner-up Adams Central (230). South Adams was fourth in the nine-team field with 193.

Joining Byrum and Heskett in making it to the finals were Corbin Lothridge at 106, Jason Landers at 132, A.J. Myers at 190 and Alan Ortiz at 285. Sylas Wenk and Bryce Coy finished third at 120 and 215, respectively, and Cole Carpenter placed fourth at 175.

The top four wrestlers in each weight class earned regional berths and will return to Jay County at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 8.

“Not a bad day,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers, whose team was without Jacob Robinson because of a ligament injury. “I thought we wrestled fairly well.

"We always like to have an extra place here and there, but I felt like overall we wrestled well.

“Griff’s been pretty dialed in for the last few weeks,” he added. “He’s wrestling really well.

“A.J. Heskett’s … been behind some pretty good guys the last few years. He's wrestling really well right now. We're working really hard in the practice room. I'm excited about his progress."

Byrum (33-3) played to his strength in the championship match, getting behind Adams Central’s Myles Kaehr for a takedown 30 seconds in. From there, he worked for his signature cradle. Once he locked it in, Kaehr was done.

The championship pin in 1 minute, 14 seconds, followed his victory in 1:25 over Union City’s Joseangel Perez in the semifinal after he got a bye in the quarterfinal.

"I knew coming into that match that the biggest part of the match on the feet was gonna be level,” said Byrum, who won his second sectional title. “I knew he was going to be diving and I knew I had to have a good level for that.

"I'm extremely excited about it, but it's just another goal that I've had that I see myself getting. I expected to win."

While Byrum took care of business in a hurry, Heskett (33-4) went a different route. He nearly got caught as Wyatt Mann of South Adams took a quick shot but was able to avoid it, setting up a battle for position. Heskett eventually came out on top, getting a cradle for a takedown and three-point near fall. 

The ensuing escape from Mann was the only point he would earn.

Heskett extended his lead to 10-1 by the end of the first period and finished the match with another cradle for a four-point nearly fall. His victory by technical fall — 17-1 — came in 3:08.

The senior, who pinned Will Franze of Bellmont in the semifinal after a quarterfinal bye., has continued to flourish after moving up from wrestling at 132 early in the season.

"it was too hard for him to stay down there,” said Myers. “We looked at 138, kind of a tough class, and we're like, 'Let's just go to ’44.' ... Once he got adjusted to it here, I think he's really growing into it."

Landers (25-12), a sophomore, looked primed to break through and give Jay County a third champion as he took control of a back-and-forth match late in the second period with a couple of near falls for a 15-7 lead. But Will Patterson of South Adams threw him into a headlock to start the third period and was able to squeeze it for a pin in 4:24.

The trip to the finals for Landers came with pins over Grant Nunley of Bluffton in 2:24 and Jarin Frauhiger of Southern Wells in 3:30.

"He made one mistake, kind of got into a tie situation when we didn't need to and got a headlock,” said Myers, adding that Landers made huge strides after not wrestling his best eight days earlier in the Allen County Athletic Conference Tournament. “I'm really happy with the progress he made in a week. I'm really kind of heartbroken for him because he did everything he needed to do to win that match and just made a bad choice and ended up on his back.

The Patriots had a difficult time in their other finals matches, all of which were losses to rivals from Bellmont.

Lothridge (27-9) gave up a single-leg takedown in the first minute of his championship match and went on to drop a 10-1 major decision to Jacob Binegar. He pinned Payton Taylor of Union City in 31 seconds in the quarterfinal round and then Brock Sprunger of South Adams in 4:27 in the semifinal.

Myers (17-5) and the eighth-ranked Ortiz (32-3) each fell by pin in the finals, the former in 1:44 to No. 8 Xavior Palacios and the latter in 2:56 to Grady Baker. Both cruised through their first two matches of the day, with Myers pinning Kaden Bercot of Southern Wells in 25 seconds and handing Max Nussbaum of Adams Central a 16-1 technical fall. Ortiz recorded pins against Blackford’s Clayton Heflin in 2:58 and Adams Central’s Gavin Rumple in 5:23.

Wenk and Coy both bounced back from getting pinned in the semifinals to take third. Wenk (27-12) picked up a technical fall in the consolation bracket and then pinned Titus Loshe of South Adams midway through the second period of the third-place match. Coy (23-11) won his final two matches of the day with pins, including finishing off Bellmont’s Ryne Fawbush in 2:36 in the consolation finals.

Carpenter (7-14) split his first two matches of the day and earned his regional berth by pinning Norwell’s Camden Connet in the consolation bracket. He dropped the third-place match by pin to Bellmont’s Landon Rich in 53 seconds.