No. 2 Bellmont Beats Wawasee
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
DECATUR - Scott DeHart and his Wawasee wrestlers may not have been able to see the bull's eye on their backs, but Bellmont fans, wrestlers and coaches had the target lined up in their sights.
One year ago a 14-3 Wawasee team beat 20-0 Bellmont 31-30 in its home gym to win the semistate team title. Bellmont fans remembered. They filled the stands on one side of the gym and then spilled into other stands for Wednesday's semistate rematch. The juiced fans hollered from start to finish. They chanted. When Wawasee fans yelled, Bellmont fans yelled louder.
The place crackled with an electricity normally reserved for the high school basketball postseason.
And this time, a 25-1 Bellmont team ranked second beat a 17-1 Wawasee team ranked 10th 39-22. Bellmont won despite missing two key wrestlers to injuries, 130-pound junior Ryan Feasel (30-5) and heavyweight Tony Myers (30-7).
"You hear about the extra man," Bellmont coach B.J. Faurote said. "Our fans were that tonight.
"It didn't matter who we wrestled. Yes, it's nice to beat them. But our goal at the beginning of the year was to get to state. I figured Wawasee would be back here because they had a lot of guys returning, so we would be knocking heads again."
Bellmont wrestlers, now a combined 46-1 the last two years, were determined not to lose two semistate matches in a row. The same went for their fans, who provided emotional lift after emotional lift.
"We came into the lion's den," DeHart said. "It's a helluva thing when you wrestle a semistate match in your home gym. That's tough."
The Braves drained the suspense out of this match early by winning the first six matches to lead 18-0. In reality, though, the lead was 24-0 - Wawasee's 171-pound weight class was lurking down the road, a weight class where the Warriors were forfeiting six points.
"You get down 18 or 24 points to these guys in their home gym in a semistate, it's a battle," DeHart said. "Our kids did battle. They wrestled for six minutes. They have nothing to hang their heads about."
No, losing the first six matches was not the script DeHart had in mind. The Warriors had only four takedowns combined in those six matches.
The shockers of the evening came in the 112, 119 and 125 weight classes.
Wawasee's Chet Wortinger, a 36-3 junior, lost to freshman Nick Koons (33-4) in the 112 match. Wortinger bolted ahead early with two takedowns to lead 4-0, but Koons tied it at 10 when regulation ended and won 12-10 in overtime.
"I was just shocked the way our 112-pounder came back," Faurote said. "We knew that was going to be a swing match. He gave up two takedowns early but came back. He's an outstanding freshman for us."
Bellmont's Jessie Beasley, a senior with a 12-3 record, beat 31-9 Travis Coy 13-9 in the 119 match. The injury to Feasel forced Tom Friedt into the lineup in the 125 match. Friedt, a freshman, owned a 2-1 record. He knocked off Wawasee junior Ken McIntosh (18-10) 12-6.
"(Beasley) was a senior who cracked the lineup at the beginning of the year then got beat out," Faurote said. "He came around and showed a lot of heart, a lot of guts. Boy, did he come through. This kid didn't make it out of sectional and hadn't seen a lot of action - he's only 12-3 and a second-year wrestler. We had an all-star performance out of him.
"We preach to our kids it's a team effort. We throw in a freshman, Tom Friedt, at 125 and move our regular 125-pounder up. We pick up two wins. That's the sign of a good team. Tom Friedt has been in the varsity lineup only two times, and he gets the job done."
And two Bellmont wins later, the Braves led 18-0.
"There were three swing matches," DeHart said. "We needed to get two of the three. We didn't get them. Our kids battled like they have all year.
"That (112) was one of those matches I thought we had to have. The Koons kid is a tough kid. He battled and did what he had to do. The best part is, hopefully Saturday Chet will get another shot at him in the individual (semistate). We're looking forward to that."
Wawasee's first wins came from Tyler Cline (140) and Jason Carr (145), who pinned their opponents in back-to-back matches to pull the Warriors within 18-12. But Bellmont's Chad Johnson slowed Wawasee's momentum by beating J.J. Davis in the 152 match to up the lead to 21-12. Wawasee's Jason Carr (160) followed that match with a win by a major decision to trim the lead to 21-16.
Then came the 171 match. Bellmont's Paul Ruble improved to 33-7 by walking out on the mat and raising his arm. More importantly, he earned Bellmont six easy points to up the team lead to 27-16.
Asked if Wawasee ever came close to finding a wrestler for that weight class, DeHart said: "We had a couple of kids start the season there early, but they didn't finish. We could have made some adjustments, but we felt the lineup we put on the mat was the best lineup we had to win the team semistate."
Bellmont clinched the win when 39-4 Brian Wurm pinned Jesse Leonard in the 189 match. Bellmont led 33-16, and there was no way for Wawasee to catch up. Even if Wawasee's last two wrestlers won by pins, the final would have been 33-28.
The Warriors had gotten along fine all season without the likes of 42-2 Darrell Carr and 39-3 Shaun Belin, two state finalists who graduated. They had gotten along without Rob Burke, who owned 25-plus wins as a senior last year.
Then there was Bellmont.
"You look on paper at some of the depth we lost with a Burke, a Belin and a Carr," DeHart said. "But I tell you what I saw. I saw a group of young men step up and take a challenge. Tom Bryan, our 215-pounder who is only a sophomore, wrestled well. Yeah, he got pinned. But the kid he wrestled was a senior. And he pushed him. He didn't lay down and die. Jesse Leonard gave us everything he had."
Indeed, Wawasee still has much to look forward to. The Warriors may be out of the team competition in the wrestling postseason, but they are still alive in the individual competition. Nine Warriors will wrestle at Saturday's semistate at Memorial Coliseum.
Wawasee lost to Carmel in the first round of last year's team state finals. Before this season, DeHart said his team's goal was to add one more peg and be team state champions. They fell short, but he wasn't about to apologize for the 17-2 season the Warriors enjoyed.
"We've had a super run," he said. "That's what people need to remember. We came in here and we were defending semistate champs. Bellmont had to take that away from us. They did that.
"Bellmont outwrestled us tonight. You have to give that to Bellmont. You can't take anything away from their program. That's a heckuva tradition here."
BELLMONT SEMISTATE
Bellmont 39, Wawasee 22
Records: No. 2 Bellmont 26-1, No. 10 Wawasee 17-2
Individual results, records, running team scores
103 pounds -ÊMatt Bauman (BEL/28-11) def. Josh DeGood (23-12); 3-0 BEL
112 -ÊNick Koons (BEL/34-4) def. Chet Wortinger (36-4) 12-10 (OT); 6-0 BEL
119 - Jessie Beasley (BEL/13-3) def. Travis Coy (31-10) 13-9; 9-0 BEL
125 - Tom Friedt (BEL/3-1) def. Ken McIntosh (18-10) 12-6; 12-0 BEL
130 -ÊAndy Miesse (BEL/39-1) def. Jacen Hendricks (25-12) 5-2; 15-0 BEL
135 -ÊBen Faurote (BEL/36-2) def. Ryan Johnson (30-5) 8-7; 18-0 BEL
140 -ÊTyler Cline (WAW/25-8) pinned Brad Aumann (9-8), 4:19; 18-6 BEL
145 - Kevin Carr (WAW/38-1) pinned B.J. Hopkins (9-7), 2:50; 18-12 BEL
152 -ÊChad Johnson (BEL/37-6) def. J.J. Davis (27-10) 13-9; 21-12 BEL
160 -ÊJason Carr (WAW/37-0) def. Erick Braun (27-6) 20-8 (major decision); 21-16 BEL
171 - Paul Ruble (BEL/33-7) won by forfeit; 27-16 BEL
189 -ÊBrian Wurm (BEL/39-4) pinned Jesse Leonard (WAW/20-16), 5:50; 33-16 BEL
215 - Dylan McKean (BEL/30-8) pinned Tom Bryan (WAW/18-19), 4:19; 39-16 BEL
275 -ÊJamie Salazar (WAW/34-5) pinned Carl Eguia (2-3), 1:26; 39-22 BEL [[In-content Ad]]
DECATUR - Scott DeHart and his Wawasee wrestlers may not have been able to see the bull's eye on their backs, but Bellmont fans, wrestlers and coaches had the target lined up in their sights.
One year ago a 14-3 Wawasee team beat 20-0 Bellmont 31-30 in its home gym to win the semistate team title. Bellmont fans remembered. They filled the stands on one side of the gym and then spilled into other stands for Wednesday's semistate rematch. The juiced fans hollered from start to finish. They chanted. When Wawasee fans yelled, Bellmont fans yelled louder.
The place crackled with an electricity normally reserved for the high school basketball postseason.
And this time, a 25-1 Bellmont team ranked second beat a 17-1 Wawasee team ranked 10th 39-22. Bellmont won despite missing two key wrestlers to injuries, 130-pound junior Ryan Feasel (30-5) and heavyweight Tony Myers (30-7).
"You hear about the extra man," Bellmont coach B.J. Faurote said. "Our fans were that tonight.
"It didn't matter who we wrestled. Yes, it's nice to beat them. But our goal at the beginning of the year was to get to state. I figured Wawasee would be back here because they had a lot of guys returning, so we would be knocking heads again."
Bellmont wrestlers, now a combined 46-1 the last two years, were determined not to lose two semistate matches in a row. The same went for their fans, who provided emotional lift after emotional lift.
"We came into the lion's den," DeHart said. "It's a helluva thing when you wrestle a semistate match in your home gym. That's tough."
The Braves drained the suspense out of this match early by winning the first six matches to lead 18-0. In reality, though, the lead was 24-0 - Wawasee's 171-pound weight class was lurking down the road, a weight class where the Warriors were forfeiting six points.
"You get down 18 or 24 points to these guys in their home gym in a semistate, it's a battle," DeHart said. "Our kids did battle. They wrestled for six minutes. They have nothing to hang their heads about."
No, losing the first six matches was not the script DeHart had in mind. The Warriors had only four takedowns combined in those six matches.
The shockers of the evening came in the 112, 119 and 125 weight classes.
Wawasee's Chet Wortinger, a 36-3 junior, lost to freshman Nick Koons (33-4) in the 112 match. Wortinger bolted ahead early with two takedowns to lead 4-0, but Koons tied it at 10 when regulation ended and won 12-10 in overtime.
"I was just shocked the way our 112-pounder came back," Faurote said. "We knew that was going to be a swing match. He gave up two takedowns early but came back. He's an outstanding freshman for us."
Bellmont's Jessie Beasley, a senior with a 12-3 record, beat 31-9 Travis Coy 13-9 in the 119 match. The injury to Feasel forced Tom Friedt into the lineup in the 125 match. Friedt, a freshman, owned a 2-1 record. He knocked off Wawasee junior Ken McIntosh (18-10) 12-6.
"(Beasley) was a senior who cracked the lineup at the beginning of the year then got beat out," Faurote said. "He came around and showed a lot of heart, a lot of guts. Boy, did he come through. This kid didn't make it out of sectional and hadn't seen a lot of action - he's only 12-3 and a second-year wrestler. We had an all-star performance out of him.
"We preach to our kids it's a team effort. We throw in a freshman, Tom Friedt, at 125 and move our regular 125-pounder up. We pick up two wins. That's the sign of a good team. Tom Friedt has been in the varsity lineup only two times, and he gets the job done."
And two Bellmont wins later, the Braves led 18-0.
"There were three swing matches," DeHart said. "We needed to get two of the three. We didn't get them. Our kids battled like they have all year.
"That (112) was one of those matches I thought we had to have. The Koons kid is a tough kid. He battled and did what he had to do. The best part is, hopefully Saturday Chet will get another shot at him in the individual (semistate). We're looking forward to that."
Wawasee's first wins came from Tyler Cline (140) and Jason Carr (145), who pinned their opponents in back-to-back matches to pull the Warriors within 18-12. But Bellmont's Chad Johnson slowed Wawasee's momentum by beating J.J. Davis in the 152 match to up the lead to 21-12. Wawasee's Jason Carr (160) followed that match with a win by a major decision to trim the lead to 21-16.
Then came the 171 match. Bellmont's Paul Ruble improved to 33-7 by walking out on the mat and raising his arm. More importantly, he earned Bellmont six easy points to up the team lead to 27-16.
Asked if Wawasee ever came close to finding a wrestler for that weight class, DeHart said: "We had a couple of kids start the season there early, but they didn't finish. We could have made some adjustments, but we felt the lineup we put on the mat was the best lineup we had to win the team semistate."
Bellmont clinched the win when 39-4 Brian Wurm pinned Jesse Leonard in the 189 match. Bellmont led 33-16, and there was no way for Wawasee to catch up. Even if Wawasee's last two wrestlers won by pins, the final would have been 33-28.
The Warriors had gotten along fine all season without the likes of 42-2 Darrell Carr and 39-3 Shaun Belin, two state finalists who graduated. They had gotten along without Rob Burke, who owned 25-plus wins as a senior last year.
Then there was Bellmont.
"You look on paper at some of the depth we lost with a Burke, a Belin and a Carr," DeHart said. "But I tell you what I saw. I saw a group of young men step up and take a challenge. Tom Bryan, our 215-pounder who is only a sophomore, wrestled well. Yeah, he got pinned. But the kid he wrestled was a senior. And he pushed him. He didn't lay down and die. Jesse Leonard gave us everything he had."
Indeed, Wawasee still has much to look forward to. The Warriors may be out of the team competition in the wrestling postseason, but they are still alive in the individual competition. Nine Warriors will wrestle at Saturday's semistate at Memorial Coliseum.
Wawasee lost to Carmel in the first round of last year's team state finals. Before this season, DeHart said his team's goal was to add one more peg and be team state champions. They fell short, but he wasn't about to apologize for the 17-2 season the Warriors enjoyed.
"We've had a super run," he said. "That's what people need to remember. We came in here and we were defending semistate champs. Bellmont had to take that away from us. They did that.
"Bellmont outwrestled us tonight. You have to give that to Bellmont. You can't take anything away from their program. That's a heckuva tradition here."
BELLMONT SEMISTATE
Bellmont 39, Wawasee 22
Records: No. 2 Bellmont 26-1, No. 10 Wawasee 17-2
Individual results, records, running team scores
103 pounds -ÊMatt Bauman (BEL/28-11) def. Josh DeGood (23-12); 3-0 BEL
112 -ÊNick Koons (BEL/34-4) def. Chet Wortinger (36-4) 12-10 (OT); 6-0 BEL
119 - Jessie Beasley (BEL/13-3) def. Travis Coy (31-10) 13-9; 9-0 BEL
125 - Tom Friedt (BEL/3-1) def. Ken McIntosh (18-10) 12-6; 12-0 BEL
130 -ÊAndy Miesse (BEL/39-1) def. Jacen Hendricks (25-12) 5-2; 15-0 BEL
135 -ÊBen Faurote (BEL/36-2) def. Ryan Johnson (30-5) 8-7; 18-0 BEL
140 -ÊTyler Cline (WAW/25-8) pinned Brad Aumann (9-8), 4:19; 18-6 BEL
145 - Kevin Carr (WAW/38-1) pinned B.J. Hopkins (9-7), 2:50; 18-12 BEL
152 -ÊChad Johnson (BEL/37-6) def. J.J. Davis (27-10) 13-9; 21-12 BEL
160 -ÊJason Carr (WAW/37-0) def. Erick Braun (27-6) 20-8 (major decision); 21-16 BEL
171 - Paul Ruble (BEL/33-7) won by forfeit; 27-16 BEL
189 -ÊBrian Wurm (BEL/39-4) pinned Jesse Leonard (WAW/20-16), 5:50; 33-16 BEL
215 - Dylan McKean (BEL/30-8) pinned Tom Bryan (WAW/18-19), 4:19; 39-16 BEL
275 -ÊJamie Salazar (WAW/34-5) pinned Carl Eguia (2-3), 1:26; 39-22 BEL [[In-content Ad]]