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The result was the same this time around between Fremont and Warsaw, but the Tigers certainly made the Eagles work for it - every bit of it.
After getting thumped by Fremont 51-21 in the regular season, Warsaw put a bit of a scare in Fremont fans' hearts before succumbing 40-31 in the team wrestling competition at Jimtown High School Wednesday.
The Tigers (16-7) led 31-22 after Marvin Farmer came up with a pin at 171 pounds.
Warsaw forced Fremont to wrestle, and the Eagles came up with pins in the final three weight classes to outclass Warsaw by nine.
"One thing we were lacking when I first came here was heart," first-year Warsaw coach Tony Boley said. "These kids showed tremendous heart tonight. We have been getting more and more guys to show heart and never quit. We had them on the ropes. We had them scared to death. We wrestled very well."
No. 14 Jimtown beat No. 20 Goshen in the semifinals, and then beat Fremont 41-23 in the championship match for the regional title.
Coming into the regional, Boley was unsure how his young Tigers would react to another step in the postseason. After coming up big at last Saturday's sectional, Boley didn't know if the Tigers had another good performance in them. The Tigers showed they did.
"I was afraid that being young that our kids would just show up and not want to wrestle, and we would get blown away," Boley said. "That wasn't the case; they came to win.
"This is another big step for our program, just like sectional was, just like placing third in the conference was," he said. "There were only 64 teams wrestling today as sectional champions."
The Tigers made it known right away that they were there to wrestle and not roll over and play dead. Adam Harter (112) and Greg Patrick (119) simply dominated their competition in picking up quick pins and staking Warsaw to a 12-6 lead.
Fremont made it 12-9 with a win at 125 pounds, but the Tigers' Robbie Boley (130) and Aaron Banks (135) won by decision for a 19-9 Warsaw lead.
Banks' win might have been biggest of the day for the Tigers. Banks beat Fremont's Michael Knoblauch at the Culver tourney 6-3, but came out Wednesday more cautious and fell behind 2-0 into the third period.
Time was ticking away in the two-minute round. Bank came up with an escape to cut the margin to 2-1 with 15 seconds left and then made his move with a takedown with 10 seconds left and won 3-2.
"I thought he wrestled cautious, and then he turned it on," Boley said. "I thought he might run out of time."
Fremont then won the 140, 145 and 152 pound weight classes to take a 22-19 lead. But then Chris Wilson (160) and Farmer got the pins to put Warsaw back in front 31-22.
Boley made some calculating moves, flip-floping Hartwell and Zellers in their weight classes and Farmer and Fribley. Farmer was the only one to come up with the win.
"Sometimes you move somebody and hope they can win, but you also hope they don't get pinned," Boley said. "Then possibly you only lose three points instead of six. We thought both Carl and Matt could win, their kids just wrestled very well against them.
"Sometimes it is hard to wrestle someone twice, we thought we would flip-flop them," he said. "Marvin won by pin, and Steve wrestled well. Sometimes your opponent is just better."
Warsaw now sends 12 individual wrestlers to the Goshen Regional on Saturday.
"Now we are going to the individual regional and hopefully we can have a couple of good practices and advance some people to the semistate in Fort Wayne," Boley said.
FREMONT 40, WARSAW 31
103 - Paul Sacquitne (F) pinned Scott Snyder
112 - Adam Harter (W) pinned Joe Loftus, :27
119 - Greg Patrick (W) pinned Mike Van Auken, :42
125 - Brent Schlosser (F) def. Tim Roe, 7-5
130 - Robbie Boley (W) def. Kent Palmer, 10-2
135 - Aaron Banks (W) def. Michael Knoblauch, 3-2
140 - Scott Worl (F) pinned Luke Chabot, 1:48
145 - Josh Foster (F) def. Carl Hartwell, 13-2
152 - Eric Patterson (F) def. Matt Zellers, 11-6
160 - Chris Wilson (W) pinned Scott Parrish, 4:09
171 - Marvin Farmer (W) pinned William Melchi, 1:53
189 - Todd Sacquitne (F) pinned Steve Fribley, 4:11
215 - Toby Morris (F) pinned Steve McKinley, 2:21
275 - Kevin Applegate (F) pinned Chris Godwin, 1:47
Goshen Regional Pairings
Saturday, Feb. 8 at 10 a.m.
Area wrestlers, first round pairings
103 - Ryan Klotz (Triton, 18-3) vs. Josh Baker (Lakeland, 20-11); Paul Sacquitine (Fremont, 35-2) vs. Scott Snyder (Warsaw, 19-16)
112 - Adam Harter (Warsaw, 32-7) vs. Jason Hosler (Northridge, 22-11)
119 - Greg Patrick (Warsaw, 26-10) vs. Darin Schrock (Fairfield, 23-5)
125 - Tim Roe (Warsaw, 14-17) vs. Renault McHenry (Angola, 26-5)
130 - Josh Hooley (Triton, 17-7) vs. Darrell Roberts (Elkhart Memorial, 36-3); Robbie Boley (Warsaw, 31-9) vs. Ryan Kallimani (Jimtown, 27-6)
135 - Aaron Banks (Warsaw, 25-13) vs. Matt David (Angola, 28-2)
140 - Dan Sellers (Triton, 21-7) vs. Adam Rifenburg (Lakeland, 28-3)
145 - Jason Lemler (Triton, 16-8) vs. Michael Kratzer (Elkhart Memorial, 33-6)
152 - Carl Hartwell (Warsaw, 20-13) vs. Steve Keener (Goshen, 29-9)
160 - Chris Wilson (Warsaw, 23-6) vs. Brian Amos (Elkhart Memorial, 27-6); Chris Hoover (Valley, 23-6) vs. Wes Sponseller (Concord, 26-9)
171 - Steve Fribley (Warsaw, 12-16) vs. Nate Liechty (Jimtown, 24-9); Mike McNeal (Valley, 13-14) vs. Justin Vendola (Bremen, 10-8)
189 - Marvin Farmer (Warsaw, 11-5) vs. Todd Sacquitne (Fremont, 25-8); Mark Wortley (Valley, 11-12) vs. Michael Jones (Elkhart Central, 33-4)
215 - Steve McKinley (Warsaw, 14-17) vs. Jason Thompson (Prairie Heights, 28-5)
275 - Chris Godwin (Warsaw, 7-5) vs. Joe Stoffel (Northridge, 20-14)
