While seventh-ranked Elkhart Memorial was blowing away the competition to win its 11th-straight Northern Lakes Conference championship Saturday, Warsaw senior Jarred Brooks was winning his fourth-straight individual title. With Warsaw Community High School hosting, Memorial won the team title with 290.5 points, followed in the top six by Goshen’s 190.5, Northridge’s 161, Wawasee’s 143, Plymouth’s 132 and Warsaw’s 129.5. “I thought we wrestled pretty well today,” Warsaw coach Justin Smith said. “We were a little more physical, which was one of our weaknesses earlier (in the season). We struggled this season with our conference schedule, but we’re going to finish sixth. We scored a lot of points in the consolation round, and got a lot of good wins from kids that didn’t have a lot of experience like Rory Nolin, Miguel Delfin and Anthony Hendrickson.” Smith may have gotten good performances out of some kids with less experience, but it was Brooks that led the way. Cruising through the tournament, Brooks won the 113-pound title with a 21-6 technical fall over Elkhart Memorial’s Codey Flickinger. The victory was Brooks’ fourth in four tries in NLC Championship competition, but he wasn’t exactly overwhelmed by the accomplishment. “It hasn’t really been a goal for me,” he said about winning four NLC titles. “It’s just kind of happened. My freshman year, it was kind of important to me, because it was NLCs and I thought it was a big deal. Now, it’s just a regular tournament. You have to treat everything like a normal tournament.” And after travelling to national tournaments in the offseason to earn the No. 1 national ranking at 113 pounds, Brooks had hoped to get a pin to win the NLC crown. “Every match, even if it’s against the same person I wrestled earlier, I want a better outcome, and I didn’t feel that was the best outcome (today),” Brooks said about defeating Flickinger, a wrestler he also defeated by a tech fall at the Mishawaka Invitational in December. “I definitely wanted to get a fall or win with a tech fall in good fashion.” Despite the four NLC titles, as well as three sectional, three regional and a semistate championship, there’s one that’s been eluding him. “I’m happy that I’m a four-time Northern Lakes Conference,” he said. “It feels good, but I’m not going to be satisfied until I win a state championship. Period.” Brooks’ title was the only one for local schools, as Wawasee’s Chad Eppley (220) and Dimitri Kaplanis (285) each finished as runners-up. The production out of his two wrestlers in the heavier weight classes was pleasing to Wawasee coach Paul Meyer, but the same couldn’t be said for some of his other guys. “I’m disappointed,” Meyer said about the Warriors’ fourth-place finish. “Watching the guys, I can’t say they weren’t ready, but they were some place else. I think they were looking past this to sectionals. So, we have some work to do Monday.” Warsaw and Wawasee will both travel to Plymouth for Saturday’s sectional, with Smith taking a team vacant in a couple classes. “We’re missing a few weight classes, so as far as the team race - I really don’t know,” Smith said about his expectations at the sectional. “I’m kind of approaching it from an individual perspective - let’s see how many individuals we can get to regionals. That’s always one of our goals. I know we’re the defending sectional champions, but we’re missing at least two weight classes. We’re injured at 106 and we’re injured at 126. It’s really hard to compete as a team in our sectional if you don’t have all your wrestlers scoring.” As for Brooks, the sectional should be another championship for him, but he’s not taking it too lightly. “I have a target on my back right now,” he said. “I have to keep working hard and keeping striving for what I want, and that’s the state championship.”
NLC CHAMPIONSHIPS Team Scores - Elkhart Memorial 290.5, Goshen 190.5, Northridge 161, Wawasee 143, Plymouth 132, Warsaw 129.5, NorthWood 101, Concord 50. (Final Round Results For Locals) 106: 1st - DeLawerence Gayfield (C) dec. Tony Vaughn (EM) 8-1; 3rd - Greg Newman (Waw) dec. Scotty Huff (G) 12-8; 5th - John Mills (P) tech fall Lucas Hochstetler 26-11. 113: 1st - Jarred Brooks (War) tech fall Codey Flickinger (EM) 21-6; 3rd - Nick Cox (G) dec. Henry Zelaya (C) 4-0; 5th - Osman Solis (P) pin. Anthony Davila (Nr) 3:00. 120: 1st - Jermel Moody-Neukom (EM) maj. dec. Devin Puckett (Nr) 14-6; 3rd - Kam Markovich (P) dec. Luis Cervantes (War) 12-9; 5th - Josh Bustos (G) dec. Josh Chupp (NW) 8-3. 126: 1st - Ryan Baxter (Nr) dec. Austin Maynard (G) 9-6; 3rd - Angel Gomez (EM) dec. Doug Corl (Waw) 5-3; 5th - Luke Schumacher (P) pin. Tyler Kinney (NW) 4:04. 132: 1st - Richie Sleppy (G) dec. Eric Blodgett (EM) 8-3; 3rd - Todd Santiago (Nr) dec. Javier Hernandez (War) 8-2; 5th - Stephen Abair (P) won by ff. 138: 1st - Ronnie Bogle (EM) dec. Jake Kenny (Nr) 4-2; 3rd - Kyle Clevenger (Waw) dec. Cyle Jaskola (G) 12-7; 5th - Richardo Ahtual (War) maj. dec. Caleb Reeve (NW) 11-3. 145: 1st - Kris Roberts (EM) dec. Marcus Williams (C) 7-5; 3rd - Travis Pickard (G) dec. Tim Deters (Nr) 3-0; 5th - Zac Wilson (NW) pin. Jake Sumpter (Waw) 0:58. 152: 1st - Ryan Ntende (G) dec. Nick Vaughn (EM) 5-1; 3rd - Ryan Lindsey (Waw) pin. Derek Weldy (NW) 3:34; 5th - Drake Heims (Nr) pin. Adam Becker (War) 0:53. 160: 1st - Tommy Kendall (EM) pin. Joey Solis (Nr) 0:36; 3rd - Ian Horvath (P) won by ff.; 5th - Nick Rozow (Waw) won by ff. 170: 1st - Darren Vance (EM) won by ff; 3rd - Kyle Duzan (War) pin. Evan Smith (G) 2:26; 5th - Tyler Goff (Waw) pin. Jacob Pearson (P) 2:31. 182: 1st - Zach Telschow (NW) dec. Kain Jenkins (EM) 6-4; 3rd - Aaron Houin (P) dec. Brian Clark (Waw) 2-1; 5th - Collin Bontrager (Nr) pin. Rory Nolin (War) 0:31. 195: 1st - Tieshawn Johnson (EM) pin. A.J. Carter (NW) 2:23; 3rd - Jacob Segraves (P) maj. dec. Zack Eldridge (G) 10-1; 5th - Ben Plummer (War) pin. McKenna Malcolm (Nr) 1:29. 220: 1st - Chase Spears (EM) pin. Chad Eppley (Waw) 2:54; 3rd - DeAndre Pickford (P) dec. Miguel Delfin (War) 9-6; 5th - Chris Connell (Nr) dec. Tyler Beasy (G) 7-1. 285: 1st - Brandon Daniels (G) dec. Dimitri Kaplanis (Waw) 8-2; 3rd - Will Henderson (EM) pin. Dan Guevara (NW) 3:27; 5th - Anthony Hendrickson (War) dec. Drew Dodson (P) 6-5.
