For the third week in succession, three triumphant Tigers tallied tournament titles and were among sixteen area athletes who qualified for wrestling semistate competition by placing among the top four at the regional level Saturday.
Six Whitko grapplers advanced to the Fort Wayne Semistate.For Warsaw, Jarred Brooks (103 pounds), Justin Brooks (119) and Adam Keener (152) each won championships at the Rochester Regional. Meanwhile, Paul Manbu (135) took third place, joining the three champions in qualifying for the Merrillville Semistate Saturday.
Warsaw's first champion was freshman phenom Jarred Brooks (103 pounds).
"Jarred had an excellent wrestling performance," said first-year Warsaw coach Justin Smith. "In his match to get into the finals he had about 15 takedowns; and then in the finals he got his offense going again and just wrestled well. He was riding well and put all the pieces together."
In his semifinal bout, the younger Brooks strung together 15 takedowns in a 32-17 victory over a formidable Matt Lindsey of Triton. Then in the finals, Brooks dominated Lymen Stoneburner of Mishawaka in a 10-5 decision.
Next for the Tigers was senior Justin Brooks (119), about whom Smith said, "He was a little sluggish in his match to get into the finals, having a little trouble getting the offense on track."
Brooks agreed that he was a little slow in his second match.
"I was too cautious," the senior said. "But I started to pick it up there in the end."
He won the semifinal match in a hard-fought 6-1 battle over Matt Guerra of Mishawaka.
"But again in the finals he was Justin Brooks and he did was he does," said Smith. "He wrestled tough against a guy he has faced before and got his shots working and then pounded the guy once he was in the top position."
Of his championship performance Brooks said, "I went out there to actually attack him." Unbeaten at 35-0, Brooks earned the title when he defeated Corey Hildebrandt of Penn, 8-2.
Capping the day for the Tigers was the championship earned by Keener (152).
"I feel pretty good, I came out on top and you can't ask for much more," said Keener. "I definitely was fired up because I figured this could be my last day in wrestling so I came out and did what we drilled in the room."
Keener won his first match by fall at 1:35, and then he defeated Penn's Austin Kunze in an 11-2 major decision to make the finals.
"From the first whistle of the first match that he wrestled, Adam was on fire, pinning his first guy quickly," said Smith. "Then in his second match he just went out there and put it all together. He was in it the entire day, winning in the finals against a strong Mishawaka kid."
Keener defeated Tim Forte of Mishawaka in a solid 7-2 win.
Wawasee had a runner-up in Bobby Marcuccilli, who wrestled through the entire six minutes against three-time state champion Josh Harper of Mishawaka, but came out on the short end of an 8-0 major decision. Meanwhile Tom Schwartz (215) earned third place, beating Mishawaka Marian's Mikolas Lindke, 7-4.
Tippecanoe Valley and Triton each had a pair of fourth-place finishes. For Valley it was sophomores Austin Nelson (130) and Isaac Yoder (152), while Triton had Matt Lindsey (103) and Blake Hoffer (171).
Triton's Hoffer suffered an injury in his semifinal loss and his status isn't certain according to coach Sam Davis. Daniel Kerkhoff of Valley is lined up as the alternate at that weight.
Three other Valley wrestlers are also on stand-by as alternates: Seth Fincher (103), Tayler Judy (125), and Trent Bauters (135). Triton's alternates are Darius Stevens (140), Zack Clark (160), Matt Heath (215), and Aaron Haines (285). Wawasee's lone alternate is Lance Wright (189).
The semistate is at Merrillville High School Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. Central Time.
Whitko grapplers competed in the Carroll regional and advanced six combatants to their semistate.
Jarrod Lewis (160) was a runner-up for Whitko. Four of the Wildcats placed third: Austin LeTournea (103), Jordan Gilbert (112), Dylan LeTourneau (119) and Dan Rothgeb (125), while Drake Brainard (285) finished fourth and Austin Striggle (171) is an alternate.
Saturday's Fort Wayne (New Haven) Semistate is held in the Coliseum, beginning at 9 a.m.
