Roaring regional

ALEXANDRIA — The tears flowed on Friday.

Some tears were shed due to stress and anxiety.

Some tears were shed due to frustration and heartbreak.

Some tears were shed due to elation and shock.

But for Mallory Winner, it was just another day at the office.

Winner was one of the five Jay County High School girls wrestlers that made it through the first IHSAA sanctioned Regional 3 hosted by Alexandria-Monroe on Friday as the Patriots finished second.

    Pictured are the five Patriots that made it state tournament pose together. From left are Brenna Ruble (120-pound weight class), No. 5 Katie Rowles, No. 1 Mallory Winner (170), No. 6 Lina Lingo (135) and No. 11 Tatianna Willis (110). (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

The 10 Patriot wrestlers combined to earn 115 points, which was good enough for second place out of 54 teams at the regional. Only Franklin Central managed more points, scoring 133 for the regional crown.

To reach that score, eight of the 10 JCHS competitors made it to the ticket round, and five more punched their tickets to make it to the inaugural IHSAA State Finals at Corteva Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on Jan. 17.

“It kind of goes both ways,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers. “To get five girls to state is awesome. They competed really well and I’m proud of the girls that made it.

“Realistically, you come in here and want to push every girl through. So whenever a girl’s season ends, all of them put in a lot of time and a lot of hard work, that’s always a bummer.

“You’re bummed for them, but you’re also pretty happy for those girls who were able to punch their ticket to state.”

While plenty of wrestlers shed some tears at AMHS, the top-ranked Winner (32-0) was one of a handful of the dry-eyed Patriots. The three-time state champion rolled through her first three rounds of the 170-pound bracket with first-period pins against Dashauna Gammage (5-13) of Richmond, Warren Central’s Kimberly Bautista (19-9) and Franklin Central’s Sadie Tilden (27-12).

Winner hit a slight snag against No. 11 Lydia Kwaleh (17-4) of Perry Meridian in the 170 championship match.

Through the first two periods, neither Winner nor Kwaleh could get an advantage. The JCHS senior chose to start the third on bottom and work for an escape to win.

Winner nearly stood up twice in the first 30 seconds, but got brought back to the mat each time. At the 1:14 mark, Kwaleh got warned for stalling before being brought to the center of the mat. That’s when Winner made her move, getting a wide base and escaping when Kwaleh tried to flip her over.

    No. 1 Mallory Winner of Jay County attempts to stand up and escape the control of Perry Meridian’s No. 11 Lydia Kwaleh during the 170-pound regional title match on Friday. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)
 

“She was really strong and heavy handed and I have not seen that much this season, so I was caught off guard,” Winner said. “I told myself that I had to wait for the pressure to ease off. I know she wasn’t going to be able to keep forward pressure the whole time, so I had to just weather the storm and wait for my opportunity.”

For the last 56 seconds, Winner just needed to pass the Falcon’s shots to let the clock run out and claim the 170 regional title and reach 99 career wins.

While reaching state is nothing new for Winner, a pair of Patriots punched their ticket for the first time, resulting in an overflow of emotion.

No. 11 Tatianna Willis (28-7) rolled through Beech Grove’s Danica Ray (20-9) to reach the 110 ticket round. The senior got an early 3-0 advantage on Bishop Chatard’s Alexa Moore (6-10) and extended it to 7-0 with 34 seconds left in the first period. Willis got called for a full nelson with 22 seconds remaining, but made up for it by putting Moore on her back 13 seconds later.

Brenna Ruble (33-7) — a JCHS freshman — quickly dispatched Haylee Malston (6-14) of Alexandria with a 32-second pin to get to Nashira Stark (13-8) of Warren Central in the 120-pound ticket round. Ruble circled around Stark after 33 seconds for a takedown that led into a cradle for the pin (46 seconds) and a state berth.

Following their ticket rounds, both girls were overcome with emotion.

“I knew the girl was going to be okay but I could win it,” Willis said. “I don’t think it really hit me until Lina (Lingo) gave me a hug and the tears started to flow. It’s exciting. It took forever but I’m here.”

“I was very happy and I think my emotions got control of myself,” Ruble said. “I usually don’t cry when I win a match but I cried. I was just proud of myself and proud of my other teammates and that just came out.”

    No. 6 Lina Lingo of the Jay County High School girls wrestling team runs a double wrist bar on Dyomi Myers of Warren Central during the 135-pound opener during the IHSAA Regional 3 at Alexandria-Monroe on Thursday. Lingo punched her ticket for the second consecutive season before claiming third place in her weight class. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

Willis and Ruble both lost by fall in the semifinal — the former to No. 6 Monica Alvarado (23-2) of North Central and the latter to Marion’s Alana Montgomery (21-6) — before bouncing back to claim third seeds at state. Willis got ahead of Perry Meridian’s Leeah Shelton (15-8) before closing out with a fall in 2 minutes, 38 seconds. Conversely, Ruble fell behind 8-0 to Olivia Lemus (22-8) of Roncalli before executing a risky reversal that led to a pin in 3:36.

While the first-time state qualifiers had some tears of joy to cry, a returner had some tears of frustration.

After missing out in 2024, No. 5 Katie Rowles (31-5) made it back to the state finals. The JCHS junior had a bye in the first round before punching clinching her spot at state with a 1:13 pin of Franklin Central’s Gracie Meeks (24-11).

Rowles’ tears of frustration came after taking a comeback-loss in overtime of the 100-pound semifinal to No. 7 Aniah Delgado (27-4) of Perry Meridian. She bounced back with a 12-second pin of Greenwood’s Violet Roell (17-11).

Anxiety and the stress of being faced with their final regional meet and potentially the last matches of their careers resulted in some tears being shed. No. 6 Lina Lingo (30-8) and No. 9 Emily Manor (29-8) were examples of that.

While Lingo dealt with the stress, she punched her ticket in the 135-pound bracket with a 14-2 major decision over Warren Central’s Nyomi Myers (9-10) and a 51-second pin against Richmond’s Ambria Tate (14-10). Lingo lost to No. 2 Kyla Johnson (12-0) of Southport in the semifinal before pinning Beech Grove’s A’maya Miller (22-10) in the third-place match.

Manor saw her career come to an end at the hands of No. 1 Maddie Marsh (17-0) in the 140-pound ticket round after an early double-leg takedown led to a pin.

Along with Manor, No. 5 Amara Crawford (35-5) cried some tears of heartbreak. The freshman held a 2-0 advantage over Triton Central’s Zoie Gray (15-4) before the Tiger spun a reversal directly into a pin.

Maleah Parsons (27-9) also had a lead before losing the 145 ticket-round contest to No. 15 Kenniya Alexander (27-11) of Franklin Central. Parsons developed a 5-2 advantage before Alexander utilized a headlock to takedown and pin the JCHS senior.

“It’s a bummer because, as a coach, you’re feeling pretty good about the match and then it goes another way,” Myers said. “For those girls, their season is over. Fortunately, they’re both underclassmen, so they’ll get another crack at it. So they’ll just need to learn from that position, get better and never take anything for granted.”

Also competing for Jay County at the regional but falling in the opening round were Allison Tipton (12-13) and Madison Gage (20-15).