Patriots season ends

FORT WAYNE — Two Patriots advanced to the ticket round.

One had a lead heading into the second period.

But for the first time in a decade and a half, they will not be represented at the state finals.

The Jay County High School boys wrestling season came to an end Saturday when its final remaining athletes — seniors Griffin Byrum and A.J. Heskett — fell in the ticket round of the semi-state tournament at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne.

Fellow Patriots A.J. Myers, Jason Landers and Corbin Lothridge each lost in the opening round.

“It was disappointing not to be able to advance anyone,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers. “I felt like our guys wrestled pretty hard. … The effort from our guys really was there.”

The top four athletes in each weight class — those who win in the second round, also known as the ticket round — advance to the state finals.

The opening-round wins for Byrum and Heskett scored eight points for Jay County, tying it for 30th place among 46 scoring teams. Delta had three semi-state champions and two runners-up to win the team title with 115.5 points. It finished 10 ahead of runner-up New Haven.

Byrum, ranked 16th in the state, had the best opportunity for a state berth amongst the group of Patriots as he cruised through the opening round at 113 pounds. He used cradle after cradle against Manny Mora (32-9) of Oak Hill and eventually pinned him midway through the second period.

That set up a ticket-round match against Charlie Fleshman (41-4) of Central Noble. Byrum struck quickly with a single-leg takedown just 15 seconds into the match, but Fleshman was able to scramble for a reversal for a 3-2 score at the end of the first period.

Fleshman chose to start the second period in the bottom position and was able to get another reversal about 30 seconds in, then used a chicken wing to pin Byrum in 3:21.

“He got into a couple situations where he got to his cradle and got a little anxious,” said Myers, noting that Fleshman was hooking Byrum’s leg. “He got a little too anxious there and tried to run that with a leg hook and got reversed both times and wasn’t really able to recover from that.”

Heskett (36-6) dominated Western’s Erik Hunt (29-11) in his first-round match at 144, finishing him off with a cradle for a pin in one minute flat. But he ran into ninth-ranked Brody Hagewood (39-3) of Prairie Heights in the ticket round, got overpowered early and was pinned in 1:27.

Hagewood went on to win the semi-state title.

“He had a nice cradle and got a pin for us early there, was able to make it to the top 32 in the state, two weight classes above where he started out at,” said Myers. “A.J. and Griffin … they had to wrestle behind some really good guys … They got the chance to step out and lead the team and they did a great job for us this year.”

Myers (19-7) came closest to joining his classmates in the ticket round, bouncing back from an early deficit against East Noble’s Dylan Krehl (31-10) in the 190-pound bracket for a takedown and near fall that had him up 7-5 after the opening period. He chose the bottom position to start the second period and got a reversal to extend his lead to four points but was thrown to his back and pinned in 2:56.

Landers (27-14), a sophomore, battled with Noah Dove (39-9) of Eastside in the opening round at 132, giving up an early single-leg takedown but bouncing back with a reversal with 17 seconds left in the first period. He was unable to score in the second period and then gave up a reversal in the third in a 6-2 loss.

Lothridge (28-12), a freshman, had the most difficult assignment of the group of Patriots, taking the mat against undefeated and top-ranked senior Julianna Ocampo of New Haven. He fell by pin midway through the second period to Ocampo (47-1), who took her first loss of the season 10-7 to Delta’s No. 10 Reed Wicker in the semifinal and went on to finish third.

The Patriots’ run of state qualifiers started with Drake Meska in 2011 and also included Eric Hemmelgarn (three times), Kyle Garringer, Andy Kohler (twice), Mason Winner (four times), Gavin Hare (twice), Chandler Chapman, Ethan Reiley, Tony Wood (four times), Cody Rowles (three times), Cameron Clark (three times) and Christian Wittkamp.

“Quite a run of really talented kids,” said Myers. “There’s a lot of multiple-time state qualifiers in that run. It says a lot about our program that we were able to put a guy in the state finals that many years consecutively.

“At this point, you’ve just got to look to start a new run.”