Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
CHURUBUSCO - Kevin Taylor is the head wrestling coach at Wawasee High School, not a fortune teller.
But going into Wednesday's matchup with Carroll at Churubusco's team regional, Taylor said he thought he knew what was going to happen.
And he was right.
"Wrestling coaches always score things out before a match," said Taylor. "I thought the key matches were at 103, 125 and 135. I felt like if we could win one of those we were in, but Carroll took all three and that put us deeper in a hole."
In all, Carroll took eight of last night's 14 matches en route to a 36-29 win.
Carroll improved to 11-6 with the win and moved on to the championship with Fort Wayne Bishop Luers, who defeated Fort Wayne Northrop 34-24 in the other semifinal matchup. Wawasee finished its season with a 6-11 record.
Bishop Luers then defeated Carroll 38-27 in the championship.
What put the Warriors in the hole the deepest were the 12 easy points they gave to the Chargers.
With no wrestlers in the 160-and 189-pound classes, Wawasee was forced to forfeit. Both came at crucial times.
"We talked to the kids before the match and told them they were in an adverse situation," said Taylor. "We've had to give up 12 points almost every match. We've never wrestled a full match all year. Give credit to Carroll, they battled and got the wins when they needed to."
Sophomore Josh Roa worked his way to a technical fall over senior Jordan Barnett in the 140-pound match, cutting Carroll's advantage from 20-5 to 20-10. Sophomore Lucas Speakman pinned freshman Nate Emerick in 4:40 in the 145-pound class to cut the lead to four, 20-16.
But a Logan Pilcher loss to Rory Barroquillo at 152, and a forfeit in the 160-pound class, and the Warriors were quickly down 14, 30-16.
Wawasee got a win from senior Shane Heimann in the 171-pound class to cut the deficit to 30-19. Heimann defeated sophomore Shawn Lazoff 7-0.
But Wawasee's second forfeit of the evening put the match out of reach.
"When you wrestle a solid team you can't afford to give up two forfeits," said Taylor. "If you do you have to get the cruicial wins, and our inexperienced kids couldn't do that."
With two matches left on the slate, Wawasee trailed 36-19. The Warriors could get pins in both matches and still only get as close as 36-31.
The Warrriors got one pin in the final two matches, from senior Craig Jensen, who pinned senior Chris Wilson in the 215-pound clash.
Wawasee senior Tom Bryan, who came into the regional with a 30-3 individual mark, defeated senior Mike Gambino in the 275-pound confrontation, accounting for the 36-29 score.
The Warriors were 13-4 going into last year's regional.
"It's frustrating," said Taylor. "It's not like a Wawasee team to have a losing record. We knew going into the season we'd have our hands full with two forfeits. But we only lost to Bremen by one and Northridge by two."
Wawasee will graduate only three grapplers from this year's roster: Heimann, Jensen and Bryan.
The Warriors will send nine grapplers to Carroll Saturday for the individual regional.
CARROLL 36, WAWASEE 29
103 - Hunter Paris (C) def. Eric Vallejo 11-2
112 - Josh DeGood (W) def. Mike Snyder 18-2
119 - Kyle Brown (C) def. Mike Speakman 11-5
125 - Justen Paris (C) def. Mike Hanlin 12-7
130 - Kevin Eubanks (C) pinned Joe Thompson, 3:00
135 - Rob McElwain (C) def. Grant Gibson 5-3
140 - Josh Roa (W) def. Jordan Barnett 15-0
145 - Lucas Speakman (W) pinned Nate Emrick, 4:40
152 - Rory Barroquillo (C) def. Logan Pilcher 16-2
160 - Brian Dilanni (C) won by forfeit
171 - Shane Heimann def. Shawn Lazoff 7-0
189 - Chris Welch (C) won by forfeit
215 - Craig Jensen (W) pinned Chris Wilson, 1:33
275 - Tom Bryan (W) def. Mike Gambino 14-1
Carroll record: 11-6 (11-7 after loss to Bishop Luers in championship match)
Wawasee record: 6-11
