Local Wrestlers Advance To Regional
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
Scoring 216 points, Plymouth won its 19th wrestling sectional title and its first since 2009, while Culver Academies was second with 200.5 points, followed by third-place Tippecanoe Valley’s 144.
“Overall, I thought we did pretty well,” Valley coach Scott Smyth said. “To be honest, after our first round, I thought we were going to be sixth. Our first round was terrible, but the kids battled back, which we're proud of them for that.”
By battling, Valley had eight wrestlers finish in the top four of their respective weight classes, advancing to Saturday’s Rochester Regional.
Advancing for the Vikings were sophomore Wyatt Nelson (126 pounds, 3rd place), sophomore Devin Childers (132, 2nd), sophomore Cody Runyon (145, 4th), junior Arron Heller (152, 4th), freshman Garrett Bell (160, 2nd), junior Keaton Bell (170, 2nd), sophomore Wes Beck (182, 3rd) and junior Jaron Kidd (195, 2nd).
On top of a strong showing at the sectional, Smyth’s also pleased that none of the aforementioned wrestlers have the word ‘senior’ in front of his name.
“Everybody's back,” he said. “Our whole lineup is back. We’re third and we have everybody back. We’re happy with that.”
Also from the area, Wawasee finished seventh with 92 points, while Warsaw was eighth (65) and Triton was ninth (62) at the 10-team sectional.
Wawasee coach Paul Meyer had hoped for a better finish, but injuries and unforeseen losses nixed that plan.
Freshman Josh Matthews suffered a torn ACL during the week, then at the sectional, freshman Logan Bowers got a concussion at 132 pounds and freshman Stephen Possell sprained his ankle at 170 pounds.
“Things started piling up,” Meyer said.
On the mat, Meyer expected a strong showing from senior Doug Corl, who was third at 126 pounds a year ago, but failed to place at 138 this year.
Along with Corl’s day, junior Michael Pena was expected to score some points at 145, but a 5-4 first-round loss to Triton sophomore Nate Spangle ended his day early.
“I thought we’d be in the middle of the pack, and if we’d had some more point-getters, we’d have been alright,” Meyer said. “Some things that blew my mind were, (Doug) Corl didn’t place, (Michael) Pena didn’t place. Those are points out of our lineup that would have placed.”
There were disappointments for Wawasee, but there was also some excitement, as four Warriors made it to the championship match, with seniors Nick Rozow and Brian Clark capturing titles.
“This has just been a big dream of mine,” Clark said after his 14-4 major decision over Valley’s Kidd in the 195-pound title match. “This was one of my preseason goals, one of the first things written down for me. There’s just a lot of emotions going on right now. I wanted this one really bad. Out of any match I’ve ever had, I wanted this one so bad.”
Rozow had just won the Northern Lakes Conference title at 160 pounds a week earlier, but the sectional win was a bit bigger for him.
“In my opinion, this one is more gratifying, because it’s a lot more intense competition,” he said. “At NLCs, I went in seeded first, but I was third here.”
And Rozow’s match had the most thrilling finish against Valley freshman Garrett Bell, the No. 4 seed.
Knotted at 3-3 late in the third period, the two went into a referee’s position, with Rozow on the bottom and Bell on top.
At the whistle, Rozow jumped to his feet, but Bell grabbed him by the ankle once he was up.
With time running out, the savvy senior escaped the hold, tallying the decisive point with one second remaining.
“I just got into the mindset that he wasn't going to hold me down,” Rozow said. “I wasn’t going to go into overtime. I wasn’t going to put it into that chance. I was going to do it and do it in the time that was set. He had done it two times before and I had almost gotten away. This time, I just lifted my leg a little harder, turned and faced.”
Along with Rozow and Clark advancing, freshman Tristin Ponsler (113) and senior Chad Eppley (285) did as well, finishing second.
For Warsaw, the team that finished second at last year’s sectional, it could only celebrate the advancement of two wrestlers this time around.
While freshman Alec Haines advanced to the regional with a third place finish at 220 pounds, senior Luis Munoz did so by defeating a two-time sectional champ at 120 pounds.
Against Culver Academies junior Kayla Miracle, who made Indiana high school wrestling history by becoming the first female to advance to the state finals last year, Munoz won a 6-3 decision.
“I was really afraid, but a lot of people gave me tips, so I used them,” Munoz said about his mindset going in against Miracle, who had won the 103 and 106 sectional titles as a freshman and sophomore, respectively. “They told me not to tie her up, because she’s really good on technique. I just followed their advice. I shot and it worked out good.”
Making the win even more impressive was the fact that Munoz hadn’t wrestled for a while, having suffered a concussion the week of the conference meet.
“I’m out of shape,” he said. “I had the concussion, so I hadn’t really been working out.”
The Munoz win helped Warsaw coach Justin Smith salvage a rough day for the Tigers.
“We have a lot of young guys on the team, and they wrestled hard,” he said. “They’re just not there yet. They’re going to keep working. Hopefully, watching Munoz wrestle as a senior, it motivates some of the other kids to say, ‘Hey, if I work hard, I can be under the lights.’ That’s what we hope comes out of this.”
For the Triton Trojans, senior Joseph Soriano (106, 3rd), freshman Gage Waddle (138, 3rd) and freshman Lane Stevens (220, 4th) all advanced to the regional.
At the regional, which begins at 9 a.m., qualifiers from the Plymouth Sectional square off against Mishawaka Sectional qualifiers, with the top four then moving on to the Merrillville Semistate.
PLYMOUTH SECTIONAL
Team Scores - Plymouth 216, Culver Academies 200.5, Tippecanoe Valley 144, Bremen 128.5, Rochester 128, Culver Community 104.5, Wawasee 92, Warsaw 65, Triton 62, Caston 30
(Finals Round, 1-4 Advance to Regional)
106: 1st – Cody Allmon (Ply) dec. Josh Heckathorn (Roch) 4-0; 3rd – Joseph Soriano (Tri) maj. dec. Steven Muthart (CA), 10-0; 5th – Jerrod Betts (CC) maj. dec. Eric Starke (Bre) 10-1
113: 1st – Allen Betts (CC) maj. dec. Tristin Ponsler (Waw), 17-8; 3rd – Osman Solis (Ply) dec. Justin Schroder (Roch), 5-1; 5th – Austin Nault (TV) dec. Cole Spaid (Bre), 6-2
119: 1st – Luis Munoz (War) dec. Kayla Miracle (CA), 6-3; 3rd – Seth Moon (Roch) dec. Joey Bailey (Bre), 2-1; 5th – Triston Rodriguez (Ply) pin. Austin Brissette (CC), 3:15
126: 1st – Kam Markovich (Ply) pin. John Hunting (Roch), 5:10; 3rd – Wyatt Nelson (TV) dec. Tyler Felten (Bre), 8-2; 5th – Luis Cervantes (War) pin. Chayton Durham (CA), 2:15
132: 1st – Noah Trevino (CA) dec. Devin Childers (TV), 4-3; 3rd – Stephen Abair (Ply) pin. Ben Thornton (Bre), 2:48; 5th – Jessi Burkholder (Tri) pin. Bobby Kite (Cas), 2:11
138: 1st – Anthony McHugh (CA) pin. Jay Heckathorn (Roch), 2:44; 3rd – Gage Waddle (Tri) maj. dec. Braden Moss (Cas), 16-4; 5th – Landin Madsen (TV) dec. Austin Mahoney (Ply), 4-2
145: 1st – David Zajac (CA) dec. John Ahlenius (CC), 6-4; 3rd – Nolan Wright (Ply) dec. Cody Runyon (TV), 8-2; 5th – Josh Fuchs (Bre) tech. fall Spencer Gareiss (War), 16-0
152: 1st – Edward Hogan (CA) dec. Tyler Downhour (Roch), 6-2; 3rd – John Stillson (Ply) dec. Arron Heller (TV), 6-5; 5th – Matt Holderman (Bre) dec. Jake Sumpter (Waw), 5-4
160: 1st – Nick Rozow (Waw) dec. Garrett Bell (TV), 4-3; 3rd – Edmond Hogan (CA) dec. Braxton Lee (Roch), 3-0; 5th – Logan Wiegand (Ply) dec. Huntley Davis (War), 7-1
170: 1st – Mark Hurford (CC) dec. Keaton Bell (TV), 7-0; 3rd – Danny Williams (CA) dec. Joel Miller (Bre), 6-2; 5th – Jacob Pearson (Ply) pin. Michael Leonard (Roch), 2:45
182: 1st – Matt Hurford (CC) pin. Aaron Houin (Ply), 1:42; 3rd – Wes Beck (TV) pin. Wyatt Gordy (Bre), 0:48; 5th – Jordan Schultz (CA) tech. fall Lester Payne (War), 16-1
195: 1st – Brian Clark (Waw) maj. dec. Jaron Kidd (TV), 14-4; 3rd – Collin Parker (CA) dec. Vincente Vasquez (Ply), 3-0; 5th – Robbie Shoaf (Bre) pin. Jordan Shafer (Roch), 4:26
220: 1st – DeAndre Pickford (Ply) pin. Randy Shoaf (Bre), 0:41; 3rd – Alec Haines (War) dec. Lane Stevens (Tri), 9-5; 5th – Andy Holderman (Waw) pin. Joe Howard (Roch), 1:45
285: 1st – Drew Dodson (Ply) dec. Chad Eppley (Waw), 4-3; 3rd – Collin Pepper (CA) pin. John Mangum (Cas), 1:11; 5th – Caleb Coffel (Bre) pin. Justin Heffner (Tri), 1:59[[In-content Ad]]
Scoring 216 points, Plymouth won its 19th wrestling sectional title and its first since 2009, while Culver Academies was second with 200.5 points, followed by third-place Tippecanoe Valley’s 144.
“Overall, I thought we did pretty well,” Valley coach Scott Smyth said. “To be honest, after our first round, I thought we were going to be sixth. Our first round was terrible, but the kids battled back, which we're proud of them for that.”
By battling, Valley had eight wrestlers finish in the top four of their respective weight classes, advancing to Saturday’s Rochester Regional.
Advancing for the Vikings were sophomore Wyatt Nelson (126 pounds, 3rd place), sophomore Devin Childers (132, 2nd), sophomore Cody Runyon (145, 4th), junior Arron Heller (152, 4th), freshman Garrett Bell (160, 2nd), junior Keaton Bell (170, 2nd), sophomore Wes Beck (182, 3rd) and junior Jaron Kidd (195, 2nd).
On top of a strong showing at the sectional, Smyth’s also pleased that none of the aforementioned wrestlers have the word ‘senior’ in front of his name.
“Everybody's back,” he said. “Our whole lineup is back. We’re third and we have everybody back. We’re happy with that.”
Also from the area, Wawasee finished seventh with 92 points, while Warsaw was eighth (65) and Triton was ninth (62) at the 10-team sectional.
Wawasee coach Paul Meyer had hoped for a better finish, but injuries and unforeseen losses nixed that plan.
Freshman Josh Matthews suffered a torn ACL during the week, then at the sectional, freshman Logan Bowers got a concussion at 132 pounds and freshman Stephen Possell sprained his ankle at 170 pounds.
“Things started piling up,” Meyer said.
On the mat, Meyer expected a strong showing from senior Doug Corl, who was third at 126 pounds a year ago, but failed to place at 138 this year.
Along with Corl’s day, junior Michael Pena was expected to score some points at 145, but a 5-4 first-round loss to Triton sophomore Nate Spangle ended his day early.
“I thought we’d be in the middle of the pack, and if we’d had some more point-getters, we’d have been alright,” Meyer said. “Some things that blew my mind were, (Doug) Corl didn’t place, (Michael) Pena didn’t place. Those are points out of our lineup that would have placed.”
There were disappointments for Wawasee, but there was also some excitement, as four Warriors made it to the championship match, with seniors Nick Rozow and Brian Clark capturing titles.
“This has just been a big dream of mine,” Clark said after his 14-4 major decision over Valley’s Kidd in the 195-pound title match. “This was one of my preseason goals, one of the first things written down for me. There’s just a lot of emotions going on right now. I wanted this one really bad. Out of any match I’ve ever had, I wanted this one so bad.”
Rozow had just won the Northern Lakes Conference title at 160 pounds a week earlier, but the sectional win was a bit bigger for him.
“In my opinion, this one is more gratifying, because it’s a lot more intense competition,” he said. “At NLCs, I went in seeded first, but I was third here.”
And Rozow’s match had the most thrilling finish against Valley freshman Garrett Bell, the No. 4 seed.
Knotted at 3-3 late in the third period, the two went into a referee’s position, with Rozow on the bottom and Bell on top.
At the whistle, Rozow jumped to his feet, but Bell grabbed him by the ankle once he was up.
With time running out, the savvy senior escaped the hold, tallying the decisive point with one second remaining.
“I just got into the mindset that he wasn't going to hold me down,” Rozow said. “I wasn’t going to go into overtime. I wasn’t going to put it into that chance. I was going to do it and do it in the time that was set. He had done it two times before and I had almost gotten away. This time, I just lifted my leg a little harder, turned and faced.”
Along with Rozow and Clark advancing, freshman Tristin Ponsler (113) and senior Chad Eppley (285) did as well, finishing second.
For Warsaw, the team that finished second at last year’s sectional, it could only celebrate the advancement of two wrestlers this time around.
While freshman Alec Haines advanced to the regional with a third place finish at 220 pounds, senior Luis Munoz did so by defeating a two-time sectional champ at 120 pounds.
Against Culver Academies junior Kayla Miracle, who made Indiana high school wrestling history by becoming the first female to advance to the state finals last year, Munoz won a 6-3 decision.
“I was really afraid, but a lot of people gave me tips, so I used them,” Munoz said about his mindset going in against Miracle, who had won the 103 and 106 sectional titles as a freshman and sophomore, respectively. “They told me not to tie her up, because she’s really good on technique. I just followed their advice. I shot and it worked out good.”
Making the win even more impressive was the fact that Munoz hadn’t wrestled for a while, having suffered a concussion the week of the conference meet.
“I’m out of shape,” he said. “I had the concussion, so I hadn’t really been working out.”
The Munoz win helped Warsaw coach Justin Smith salvage a rough day for the Tigers.
“We have a lot of young guys on the team, and they wrestled hard,” he said. “They’re just not there yet. They’re going to keep working. Hopefully, watching Munoz wrestle as a senior, it motivates some of the other kids to say, ‘Hey, if I work hard, I can be under the lights.’ That’s what we hope comes out of this.”
For the Triton Trojans, senior Joseph Soriano (106, 3rd), freshman Gage Waddle (138, 3rd) and freshman Lane Stevens (220, 4th) all advanced to the regional.
At the regional, which begins at 9 a.m., qualifiers from the Plymouth Sectional square off against Mishawaka Sectional qualifiers, with the top four then moving on to the Merrillville Semistate.
PLYMOUTH SECTIONAL
Team Scores - Plymouth 216, Culver Academies 200.5, Tippecanoe Valley 144, Bremen 128.5, Rochester 128, Culver Community 104.5, Wawasee 92, Warsaw 65, Triton 62, Caston 30
(Finals Round, 1-4 Advance to Regional)
106: 1st – Cody Allmon (Ply) dec. Josh Heckathorn (Roch) 4-0; 3rd – Joseph Soriano (Tri) maj. dec. Steven Muthart (CA), 10-0; 5th – Jerrod Betts (CC) maj. dec. Eric Starke (Bre) 10-1
113: 1st – Allen Betts (CC) maj. dec. Tristin Ponsler (Waw), 17-8; 3rd – Osman Solis (Ply) dec. Justin Schroder (Roch), 5-1; 5th – Austin Nault (TV) dec. Cole Spaid (Bre), 6-2
119: 1st – Luis Munoz (War) dec. Kayla Miracle (CA), 6-3; 3rd – Seth Moon (Roch) dec. Joey Bailey (Bre), 2-1; 5th – Triston Rodriguez (Ply) pin. Austin Brissette (CC), 3:15
126: 1st – Kam Markovich (Ply) pin. John Hunting (Roch), 5:10; 3rd – Wyatt Nelson (TV) dec. Tyler Felten (Bre), 8-2; 5th – Luis Cervantes (War) pin. Chayton Durham (CA), 2:15
132: 1st – Noah Trevino (CA) dec. Devin Childers (TV), 4-3; 3rd – Stephen Abair (Ply) pin. Ben Thornton (Bre), 2:48; 5th – Jessi Burkholder (Tri) pin. Bobby Kite (Cas), 2:11
138: 1st – Anthony McHugh (CA) pin. Jay Heckathorn (Roch), 2:44; 3rd – Gage Waddle (Tri) maj. dec. Braden Moss (Cas), 16-4; 5th – Landin Madsen (TV) dec. Austin Mahoney (Ply), 4-2
145: 1st – David Zajac (CA) dec. John Ahlenius (CC), 6-4; 3rd – Nolan Wright (Ply) dec. Cody Runyon (TV), 8-2; 5th – Josh Fuchs (Bre) tech. fall Spencer Gareiss (War), 16-0
152: 1st – Edward Hogan (CA) dec. Tyler Downhour (Roch), 6-2; 3rd – John Stillson (Ply) dec. Arron Heller (TV), 6-5; 5th – Matt Holderman (Bre) dec. Jake Sumpter (Waw), 5-4
160: 1st – Nick Rozow (Waw) dec. Garrett Bell (TV), 4-3; 3rd – Edmond Hogan (CA) dec. Braxton Lee (Roch), 3-0; 5th – Logan Wiegand (Ply) dec. Huntley Davis (War), 7-1
170: 1st – Mark Hurford (CC) dec. Keaton Bell (TV), 7-0; 3rd – Danny Williams (CA) dec. Joel Miller (Bre), 6-2; 5th – Jacob Pearson (Ply) pin. Michael Leonard (Roch), 2:45
182: 1st – Matt Hurford (CC) pin. Aaron Houin (Ply), 1:42; 3rd – Wes Beck (TV) pin. Wyatt Gordy (Bre), 0:48; 5th – Jordan Schultz (CA) tech. fall Lester Payne (War), 16-1
195: 1st – Brian Clark (Waw) maj. dec. Jaron Kidd (TV), 14-4; 3rd – Collin Parker (CA) dec. Vincente Vasquez (Ply), 3-0; 5th – Robbie Shoaf (Bre) pin. Jordan Shafer (Roch), 4:26
220: 1st – DeAndre Pickford (Ply) pin. Randy Shoaf (Bre), 0:41; 3rd – Alec Haines (War) dec. Lane Stevens (Tri), 9-5; 5th – Andy Holderman (Waw) pin. Joe Howard (Roch), 1:45
285: 1st – Drew Dodson (Ply) dec. Chad Eppley (Waw), 4-3; 3rd – Collin Pepper (CA) pin. John Mangum (Cas), 1:11; 5th – Caleb Coffel (Bre) pin. Justin Heffner (Tri), 1:59[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092