5 Warrior Wrestlers Head To Semistate
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
FORT WAYNE -ÊWhen the Wawasee wrestling team sent eight grapplers to the individual regional competition Saturday at Carroll, coach Kevin Taylor hoped that four would advance to the semistate competition.
Taylor was pleasantly surprised when five wrestlers advanced to the semistate competition and one will be an alternate at semistate.
"I am really pleased with our performance," said Taylor. "I thought we could maybe get four to semistate, and we ended up sending five."
Chet Wortinger, J.J. Davis, and Kevin Carr each wrestled their way to Regional Championship Titles.
Jamie Salazar placed second at the 275-pound class, Josh DeGood placed third at 112 to advance to the semi-state competition.
"Josh DeGood wrestled some tough competition, but he rose to the occasion to advance," said Taylor. "It was a surprise, and I am pleased with his performance."
DeGood defeated North Side's 112-pounder Joe Ellett in the first round but was pinned by Wayne's Kyle Hayden in the second round. In the third round, DeGood defeated Northrop's Jaray Ridley 13-9 to earn third place and advance to the semistate competition.
After defeating Churubusco's Pat McClain and Bishop Luers' Joel Peters at 119 pounds in the first two rounds, Wortinger won a 15-8 decision over Kris Cramer of Columbia City to become the regional champion.
In one of the most exciting matches of the day, Davis wrestled Dusty Runkle in the championship round. With 10 seconds left in the final period of the match, Runkle held a 4-3 lead. Davis scored five points in the last few seconds to win the regional title by an 8-4 decision. In the first two rounds, Davis pinned Michael Tarlton of Churubusco and won a 13-9 decision over Josh Buick of Bishop Dwenger to advance to the championship round.
"J.J. Davis' final match at 152 was one of the best matches of the day," said Taylor. "He was down by one point with 10 seconds to go and came back to get the win."
At 160, Kevin Carr won decisions over Ryan Keefer of Northrop and Shawn Waldron of Elmhurst to advance to the championship round, where he won a 13-3 decision over West Noble's Kevin Replogle to become the regional champion.
Jamie Salazar (275) pinned Mike Gambino of Carroll in 1:29 and won a 3-1 decision over Bishop Luers' Jordan Gigli in overtime to advance to the championship round. Salazar placed second after James Parke defeated him in the championship round by a 6-3 decision.
Tom Bryan won his first match of the day at 215 pounds by pinning Allen Thompson of Wayne High School in just 22 seconds. Bryan was defeated in the second round by Tom Christlieb of North Side, and forfeited the consolation round because of an injury with :37 left in the second period.
Kevin M. Carr (125) and Craig Jensen (189) fell in the first round of regional competition.
Now Wawasee is focusing on the semistate competition at the Fort Wayne Coliseum.
"Our goal is to get all five wrestlers through to state," said Taylor. "Hopefully we can get that done. If we wrestle to our full potential, I believe we can." [[In-content Ad]]
FORT WAYNE -ÊWhen the Wawasee wrestling team sent eight grapplers to the individual regional competition Saturday at Carroll, coach Kevin Taylor hoped that four would advance to the semistate competition.
Taylor was pleasantly surprised when five wrestlers advanced to the semistate competition and one will be an alternate at semistate.
"I am really pleased with our performance," said Taylor. "I thought we could maybe get four to semistate, and we ended up sending five."
Chet Wortinger, J.J. Davis, and Kevin Carr each wrestled their way to Regional Championship Titles.
Jamie Salazar placed second at the 275-pound class, Josh DeGood placed third at 112 to advance to the semi-state competition.
"Josh DeGood wrestled some tough competition, but he rose to the occasion to advance," said Taylor. "It was a surprise, and I am pleased with his performance."
DeGood defeated North Side's 112-pounder Joe Ellett in the first round but was pinned by Wayne's Kyle Hayden in the second round. In the third round, DeGood defeated Northrop's Jaray Ridley 13-9 to earn third place and advance to the semistate competition.
After defeating Churubusco's Pat McClain and Bishop Luers' Joel Peters at 119 pounds in the first two rounds, Wortinger won a 15-8 decision over Kris Cramer of Columbia City to become the regional champion.
In one of the most exciting matches of the day, Davis wrestled Dusty Runkle in the championship round. With 10 seconds left in the final period of the match, Runkle held a 4-3 lead. Davis scored five points in the last few seconds to win the regional title by an 8-4 decision. In the first two rounds, Davis pinned Michael Tarlton of Churubusco and won a 13-9 decision over Josh Buick of Bishop Dwenger to advance to the championship round.
"J.J. Davis' final match at 152 was one of the best matches of the day," said Taylor. "He was down by one point with 10 seconds to go and came back to get the win."
At 160, Kevin Carr won decisions over Ryan Keefer of Northrop and Shawn Waldron of Elmhurst to advance to the championship round, where he won a 13-3 decision over West Noble's Kevin Replogle to become the regional champion.
Jamie Salazar (275) pinned Mike Gambino of Carroll in 1:29 and won a 3-1 decision over Bishop Luers' Jordan Gigli in overtime to advance to the championship round. Salazar placed second after James Parke defeated him in the championship round by a 6-3 decision.
Tom Bryan won his first match of the day at 215 pounds by pinning Allen Thompson of Wayne High School in just 22 seconds. Bryan was defeated in the second round by Tom Christlieb of North Side, and forfeited the consolation round because of an injury with :37 left in the second period.
Kevin M. Carr (125) and Craig Jensen (189) fell in the first round of regional competition.
Now Wawasee is focusing on the semistate competition at the Fort Wayne Coliseum.
"Our goal is to get all five wrestlers through to state," said Taylor. "Hopefully we can get that done. If we wrestle to our full potential, I believe we can." [[In-content Ad]]