Hatch Focused On Semistate TitleWarsaw senior wrestler Kyle Hatch has been here before, heading into semistate competition with a perfect record. Last year he was eliminated at this point, but this time he wanted to take his season to the final match and keep his record unblemished. Hatch takes a 43-0 mark in the 152-pound weight class into Saturday’s East Chicago semistate. He said he used his semistate defeat last year as motivation in the offseason and into his final high school season. “I had a ‘keep going’ attitude. I wanted to make sure I worked harder and continued to get better than I was the previous year,” he said. “I’ve worked on better ways of being patient, and making sure I’m getting to my shot with better set-ups and better ways of riding on top.” After last weekend’s Rochester Regional, where Hatch recorded three pins despite feeling sick, he and his coach had to stop and think about how many matches have gone the full six regulation minutes. “Two,” Warsaw wrestling coach Kris Hueber said. “We counted on the bus ride home. Both of those guys are still in the tournament, and one of those will be at the same semistate.” So avoiding a pin at the hands of Hatch is an accomplishment of sorts, at least to date. Hatch said he likes wrestling at this point of the season the most, when the competition has been thinned and the best wrestlers remain in the tournament. Hatch said he doesn’t think much about this being his senior year, and his last chance to win a state title, “but when I do it’s like ‘this is my last trip here, to this place. Let’s end it on a good note,’” he said. “What’s different is that when you get to this point, everyone has earned their way here, and everybody’s good. I never look past anybody, and you never want to let down, but the competition is much more intense, because of what’s at stake and everyone is so good.” While Hueber said he would like more wrestlers in the program to take advantage of Hatch’s longer season (teams can continue to practice as long as at least one wrestler is still competing), Hatch said this week hasn’t been a lot different that most. “It’s not a lot different in terms of getting ready. I want to stay focused on one match at a time. As long as I don’t get ahead of myself, I should be fine.” Hueber said one of the things Hatch faces is what every elite team or athlete faces; getting everyone’s best shot. “He needs to be patient,” the coach said. “Because of everything he’s done in the offseason, and because of where he is now, he’s always going to get everyone’s best. For example, all three of his matches last week in the regional were against high-level kids, and each of them were coming out with their absolute best.” Hatch won his three regional matches with pins. “I had tried to keep an eye on some of the other matches, and I know that the kids he wrestled, they definitely had their best matches of the day (against Hatch). It’s one of the things that comes with it at this point, and he’s generally up to that challenge. That’s one of the things that makes him the caliber of wrestler that he is,” Hueber said. “But he’s worked hard to get to this point, and he’s been looking forward to this weekend for a long time.” Hatch will be the lone Warsaw Tiger in the East Chicago Semistate. Wawasee will send four wrestlers; regional champ Braxtin Alexander and runners-up Garrett Stuckman, Germin Brooks and Jeremiah Dilley. Triton sends Malachi Greene and Marcus Brown to East Chicago, where action begins at 10 a.m. Eastern time. Manchester’s Delton Moore, Quentin Moore, Braxtin Wilson and Wade France will compete in the New Haven Semistate at Fort Wayne’s Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, with action slated for 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
