JCHS girls draw New Castle in opener

The Patriots just picked off the defending champion of their sectional and may get to see them again soon.

The IHSAA released the Class 3A Sectional 24 tournament bracket, which will be hosted by Yorktown, on Sunday.

The Jay County High School girls basketball team drew a first round game against the New Castle Trojans (13-7) at 6 p.m. on Feb. 3. The Patriots have already beat the Trojans by 17 points on Dec. 18.

Should JCHS beat New Castle in the tournament opener, they will face defending sectional champion Delta (15-7) for the 6 p.m. semifinal on Feb. 6. The Patriots recently visited Muncie and managed to beat the Eagles by four points after having their season ended by Delta in 2025.

On the opposite side of the bracket, Connersville (15-6) and Hamilton Heights (14-6) will face off in an opening round game for a shot at host Yorktown (9-10) in the semifinal. Jay County beat Yorktown by seven points to close out 2025, fell to HHHS by 16 early in the year and have not faced off with the Spartans.

The Championship game will be held on Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

The sectional appears to be wide open with five teams that have Sagarin ratings of 71 points or higher. Based on the Sagarin ratings, Connersville (88.33) would be the favorite with Jay County (79.18), New Castle (75.36) and Delta (74.47) not far behind. Hamilton Heights and Yorktown aren’t far behind either with ratings of 71.96 and 67.64, respectively.

Sisters secure win

The Schwietermans ran amok on the Southern Wells Raiders in the Jay County High School girls basketball team’s 71-35 victory on Saturday.

Hallie Schwieterman scored with ease in the first half, finding the hoop eight times for 17 of her game-high 24 points.

Karsyn Schwieterman also put together a strong 16 minutes to open the game with 15 points, including a pair of threes for Jay County (14-7, 4-1 Allen County Athletic Conference).

Southern Wells (12-7, 2-4 ACAC) couldn’t slow the rest of the Patriots as six more scored in the contest with Elizabeth Brunswick leading the rest of the group with seven points. Claudia Dirksen scored a career-high six points with three made shots.

Raylah Newton hit a triple in the fourth quarter and had a pair of free throws in the first for five points. Araitz Lekue Magro and Natalie May each found the basket twice and Charlee Peters scored one bucket in the win.

Third in ACAC

BLUFFTON — Three Patriots finished as the runners-up in their weight classes as the Jay County High School boys wrestling team placed third at the Allen County Athletic Conference tournament hosted by Bluffton on Friday.

The Patriots racked up 212 points, finishing behind ACAC champion Adams Central with 270.5 and runner-up South Adams with 224.

Sylas Wenk, Bryan Fields and Spencer Smitley all came within one match of the championship.

Wenk pinned Adams Central’s Owen Macklin in one minute to reach the 120-pound final. He lasted into the second period against Max Adams of South Adams before falling.

Fields secured a 12-3 major decision over Ryker Dollar of Southern Wells in the 175 semifinal, but lost by technical fall to Alexander Schwartz of ACHS 21-1 in the championship.

Smitley had to go through two opponents to reach the 285 title match, but still couldn’t secure the win. He lost to Heritage’s Junior Vallejo in a 4-2 decision.

JCHS also had eight wrestlers take third place. They were Corbin Lothridge (106), Alex Rivers (126), Cooper Glassford (132), Jason Landers (138), Gabe Ardizzone (144), Jacob Robinson (150), Caleb Sibray (165) and Alan Ortiz (215).