Patriot girls go back-to-back

BLUFFTON — In 2024, the Patriot girls squeaked past the Warriors by 7.5 points to claim the Allen County Athletic Conference title.

This year, they expanded the deficit as the runner-up fell 19 points short.

The Jay County High School girls track team won the ACAC track and field Championship hosted by Bluffton on Friday, as the boys slipped to third place.

The girls totalled 149.5 points to claim the victory, while Bluffton finished in second with 130.5.

The JCHS boys edged out Woodlan for third place by 0.5 points as they collected a score of 97.5. Bluffton ran away with the crown as they posted a 163 to runner-up Heritage’s 125.

Jay County’s girls only won three events outright, the same number as the boys team, but six second-place finishes and five more third placements pushed them to the top.

The only individual wins came from Mya Kunkler and Maria Hemmelgarn in the high jump and pole vault, respectively. Kunkler cleared a height of 4 feet, 10 inches, to take the top spot, while Hemmelgarn cleared a bar that was 9 feet off the ground. Hemmelgarn’s height also set a new meet record.

The 4x100-meter relay team of Morgan DeHoff, Jenna Dues, Ariel Beiswanger and London Lloyd took the top spot as well. The Patriots finished with a time of 51.75 seconds to beat out Heritage’ team by 0.86 seconds.

Other scores for the JCHS girls came from:

•The 4x400 relay team (second)

•The 4x800 relay team (second)

•Beiswanger in the 200 dash (second) and the 400 dash (second)

•Dues in the high jump (second) and 100 dash (third)

•Lloyd in the 200 dash (third)

•Brooklynn Byrum in the 800 run (second) and the 1,600 run (fourth)

•Ava May in the 3,200 run (third) and the 1,600 run (seventh)

•Peyton Carpenter in the 400 dash (third), 100 dash (fourth) and long jump (eighth)

•Kunkler in the pole vault (fourth) and 300 hurdles (fifth)

•DeHoff in the long jump (third), 100 hurdles (sixth) and 300 hurdles (sixth)

•Jessie Homan in the 3,200 run (fourth)

•Jordyn Hutzler in the discus (fourth) and shot put (sixth)

•Paityn Wendel in the 800 dash (eighth)

The JCHS boys matched the girls with three individual victories.

Adam Alig led the way with wins in the 110 hurdles (15.27 seconds) and 300 hurdles (41.63).

The other victory came from Dash Thacker in the 3,200 run, posting a time of 9 minutes, 59.62 seconds.

Other points came from:

•The 4x100 relay team (second)

•The 4x800 relay team (second)

•Joseph Boggs in the 800 run (second)

•Thacker in the 1,600 run (second)

•Alig in the high jump (third)

•Caleb Garringer in the 1,600 run (fourth) and 3,200 run (fourth)

•Sytree Jordan in the 400 dash (fourth)

•Peyton Yowell in the pole vault (fifth)

•Brasen Glassford in the shot put (sixth)

•The 4x400 relay team (sixth)

•Caden Gambill in the 200 dash (seventh) and 100 dash (eighth)

•Austyn LeMaster in the discus (seventh)

Jay County boys finished fourth at the ACAC meet in 2024.