INDIANAPOLIS - Warsaw Community High School sophomore Justin Brooks capped of his outstanding season with a fourth-place finish in the wrestling state finals at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Saturday.
Four other wrestlers from the area participated in the tournament but were eliminated in opening-round losses Friday evening.Brooks wrestled at 112 pounds and finished his season with a record of 42-4. In his first match he bested Zachary Leffel of Peru in a 6-1 decision, and as a result, Brooks qualified to move on to the second day of the tournament.
Brooks began the day with a strong performance against undefeated Mitchell Richey of Brown County. Brooks started off with a takedown and Richey countered with the same in the second period. The third period was all Brooks, who nailed four takedowns, including the winner with just 12 seconds remaining to get the 10-9 victory.
In the semifinal round, Brooks faced Lawrence North's Christopher Quiroga, who boasted a record of 44-1. That one loss came at the hands of Brooks, who overpowered Quiroga in the championship of the Al Smith Invitationalin December.
Quiroga got his revenge by beating Brooks at Conseco, 7-2. Brooks was able to score only an opening takedown, and then Quiroga scored a reversal with just eight seconds remaining in period one and took charge for the remainder of the match.
In the consolation match against Jimmy Schoettle of Perry Meridian, the opening period went scoreless. Then in the time that remained, Schoettle got an escape and Brooks was penalized twice for false starts. Brooks escaped in period three, but was taken down one time.
An escape by Brooks put the tally at 5-2, but the feisty Tiger was unable to add any more scoring and settled for fourth place.
Two other Tigers, Matt Elvidge (135) and Andy Keener (152), were eliminated Friday evening, as were Wawasee's Chase Davis (130) and Whitko's Bryan Boggs (189).
Now begins the spring free-style season, when the better wrestlers hone their skills to become winter champions.
All three of the Warsaw wrestlers who competed in the state finals have considerable free-style experience.
Warsaw Coach Tony Boley said, "Ninety percent of the kids down at Conseco are freestyle wrestlers. We have a program at Warsaw, and there are about eighty middle school kids involved in school programs there. We have all kinds of wrestling for younger kids, including folkstyle, and I think this is going to work."
The representation of northern Indiana at Conseco was impressive. In fact, half of the champions are from the Merrillville Semistate.
The team state finals will take place Saturday at Center Grove High School in Greenwood. Among the eight competing teams will be a representative from the Northern Lakes Conference, Elkhart Memorial.
