Emotional advance

A.J. Myers has been through a lot.

He tore his medial collateral ligament.

He tore his anterior cruciate ligament.

He tore his meniscus — twice.

He considered giving up wrestling (and football) to focus on baseball during his senior season.

Instead, he stuck with it.

Now he’s headed to semi-state with a chance to earn a berth to the state finals.

Myers joined classmates Griffin Byrum and A.J. Heskett as regional runners-up Saturday as a group of five Jay County High School wrestlers earned semi-state berths.

“I wanted to do this for my dad,” said Myers, trying to fight off tears. His father, James, is a former JCHS head coach and a current assistant coach, and was a state medalist during his time as a Patriot. “I tried to quit a long time ago, but he’s always told me to keep going.” He paused, again emotional. “He’s the only reason I’m here today.”

The host Patriots scored 70 points to finish fifth out of 13 scoring teams, 5.5 ahead of sixth-place South Adams and 3.5 behind fourth-place Yorktown. Bellmont (129.5) claimed the regional title by eight points over runner-upNo. 17  Delta with Adams Central (97.5) in third.

Only three of the seven Jay County athletes who made it to semi-state last season were in the lineup Saturday — three graduated and Jacob Robinson is out with an injury — but the team still continued it run of sending groups of wrestlers to the penultimate level of the state tournament series. (The top four wrestlers in each weight class — those who win in the opening round at the regional — advance to the semi-state.)

“I’m proud of our guys and the amount of work that they put in,” said Patriot coach Eric Myers. “A lot of that is still attributed to the guys who moved on because they set the tone and the work ethic in the room. But then you also have to give credit to our upperclassmen for buying into that and leading our team … I’m proud of what the individuals in our program … the precedent that they’ve set.”

“We had a few 50/50s in the first round, a couple that went our way, a couple that didn’t,” he added. “I’m happy with the way our guys competed. Always bummed to lose the guys that we do, but I felt like our guys wrestled pretty well.”

A.J. Myers (19-6) made the most of his final regional opportunity, needing just 15 seconds to take down Tom Dygard (16-19) of Yorktown in the opening round at 190. He finished him off less than a minute later, recording his pin in 1 minute, 6 seconds.

He went on to hold off Dallas Godby (21-6) of Wes-Del 8-5 in the semifinal before falling by pin to No. 8 Xavior Palacios of Bellmont for the second consecutive week by pin in 2:32 in the championship match.

That opening pin, though, earned A.J. Myers an opportunity compete at the coliseum for the first time in his high school career and put him two victories away from a state berth.

“I just kept my head in it,” he said. “That semifinal match was tough. I was gassed at the very end. I just had to keep my head in it, keep telling myself I could do it.”

It was just the second regional appearance for Myers, who fell short while trying to battle through one of his knee injuries in 2023 and then was unable to wrestle because of another injury last season.

Heskett (35-5) also earned his first semi-state berth when he handled Monroe Central’s Cory Brown Jr. (33-5) in the opening round at 144. He built a 6-1 lead in the first period and then caught Brown in a headlock that he converted to a pin in 3:42.

He went on to pin Cowan’s Jacob Unger (14-6) in the semifinal before giving up a 17-1 technical fall to Yorktown’s Wyatt Hoppes (32-1) in the championship match.

“He had a little bit of nerves going into that first one and was able to push through that,” said Eric Myers. “And then he pinned a pretty solid Cowan kid in the semifinals; just ran in to a tough Yorktown kid in the semifinals.”

The 12th-ranked Byrum (35-4) finished as the regional runner-up for the second consecutive year, earning his spot in the 113-pound championship match by catching a quick cradle for a pin of Brayden Williams (15-9) of Yorktown in 22 seconds and then blanking Zac Reno (20-5) of Wes-Del 6-0 in the semifinal. He fell behind No. 12 Kaid Jackson (30-6) of Delta by six points in the championship match, picked up a third-period takedown and ultimately fell by a 15-6 major decision.

“It’s not what I wanted,” said Byrum. “I wanted to win. I wrestled hard to win. It’s just not my day.

“I knew it was going to be a hard match. I just didn’t keep my intensity up and let myself fall behind.”

Landers (27-13) and Lothridge (28-11) locked in their semi-state berths with pins in the quarterfinal round at 132 and 106, respectively. The former beat Cowan’s Kyler Coffey (21-8) in 1:30 while the latter topped Shepherd Zick (22-17) of Muncie Central in 1:14.

After a loss to Delta’s 10th-ranked Sam Mosier (30-4) in the semifinal, Landers bounced back to beat Yorktown’s Jayden Cline (23-12) by a 16-4 major decision in the third-place match. 

Lothridge dropped his final two matches of the day to No. 10 Reed Wicker (29-4) of Delta by a pin and Jacob Binegar (24-14) of Bellmont by a 12-0 major decision.

Patriots whose seasons ended with quarterfinal losses Saturday were:

•No. 8 Alan Ortiz (32-4), a semi-state qualifier in each of his first two seasons, at 285 by a 4-1 sudden victory to Cortez White (32-11) of Muncie Central

•Sylas Wenk (27-13) at 120 by a 9-8 decision to Ben Bush (26-8) of Yorktown

•Brice Coy (23-12) at 215 by a pin against Yorktown’s Wyatt Roach (13-5)