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KENDALLVILLE - Wawasee's wrestling team won Saturday's East Noble Sectional.
Yawn. Ho-hum.
Another year, another sectional title. Wawasee has won the sectional championship seven years in a row.
Fourteen weight classes compete. One year ago, 12 Wawasee wrestlers advanced to the finals. Eleven of them were champions.
The Warriors did the only logical thing to follow a year like that: They one-upped it.
That's right, 13 Warriors wrestled in the finals. Twelve of them were champions.
"Our kids have been through this," Wawasee coach Scott DeHart said. "They know what's ahead of them. They've been through this. It's not a new thing."
Of course, Wawasee in this sectional is what the Chicago Bulls are to the NBA, while every other team is the Los Angeles Clippers. Wawasee entered 15-1; the five other teams were a combined 22-89. This is a sectional where coaches talk openly of gunning for second place, like East Noble's Cameron Lahee.
"We were not going after Wawasee," he said, "but we wanted to beat everybody else. The challenge in front of our kids was beating DeKalb."
East Noble, a 2-15 team during the regular season, got its second place with 131.5 points. Wawasee, ranked ninth in the state, won with 278 points. DeKalb, 5-12, settled for third with 125 points.
Westview, 10-20, placed fourth with 77.5 points. West Noble, 4-20, placed fifth with 77 points. Central Noble, 1-22, placed last with 56 points.
Nonetheless, wrestling is an individual sport, and several individuals from those teams boasted good records.
In most cases, not good enough to knock off Wawasee wrestlers. Wawasee's Chet Wortinger (112 pounds), Travis Coy (119), Ken McIntosh (125), Jacen Hendricks (130), Ryan Johnson (135), Tyler Cline (140), Kevin Carr (145), J.J. Davis (152), Jason Carr (160), Jesse Leonard (189), Tom Bryan (215) and Jamie Salazar (heavyweight) won sectional championship titles.
The one other Wawasee guy who didn't win a title was 103-pounder Josh DeGood. He advanced to the finals and settled for runner-up. He's a freshman - with an impressive 23-8 record, to boot.
The one weight class Wawasee did not advance to the finals in was 171. The reason? Wawasee entered no wrestlers in that weight class.
Say you are a prognosticator and wanted to predict how Wawasee's wrestlers would do before the sectional started. If you would have looked at the records on paper, you would have figured Wawasee would be challenged in three weight classes -Ê103, 135 and 152.
Everywhere else, Wawasee wrestlers owned either records even to or better than their competitors.
DeGood lost to an 18-4 wrestler, East Noble's Kevin Rouch, who beat him 12-6 earlier this season.
When Johnson beat Westview's Jarod Miller in the 135 championship match, Miller's record fell to 34-4. Johnson improved to 25-4.
Davis knocked off West Noble's Kevin Replogle in the 152 championship match. Replogle had two things going for him: He owned a 28-6 record and a previous win over Davis. Davis improved to 24-8 with the win.
"I was very pleased with Ryan at 135," DeHart said. "That was a great match with a quality kid. The other one was J.J. Davis at 152. That kid had pinned him earlier this year. Look at Tom Bryan, someone who has come along all year. Last year he was put in a tough weight class at 215 as a freshman. He comes here and wins the sectional."
Jason Carr improved to 32-0 with his win over DeKalb's Adam Harrel, who owns a 22-6 record.
While East Noble's coach chose to put Wawasee a level above every other team, Wawasee's own coach did not.
"Everybody started this week 0-0," DeHart said. "The old records are gone.
"I think our schedule prepares us for this. We go to Mishawaka for two days. That's a meat grinder. The NIC duals, we wrestle state-caliber teams there."
Wawasee competes at the Churubusco Regional on Wednesday.
EAST NOBLE SECTIONAL
Team results: 1. WAWASEE 278, 2. East Noble 131.5, 3. DeKalb 125, 4. Westview 77.5, 5. West Noble 77, 6. Central Noble 56
Championship match results
103 pounds - 1. Kevin Rouch (EN/18-4) def. Josh DeGood (WAW/23-8) 10-9
112 -ÊChet Wortinger (WAW/32-3) pinned Travis Sibery (DK/15-12), 3:11
119 - Travis Coy (WAW/29-7) def. Joe Lortie (CN/26-9) 11-0
125 -ÊKen McIntosh (WAW/17-7) pinned John Dekoninck (DK/11-14)
130 -ÊJacen Hendricks (WAW/22-10) pinned Matt Dice (EN/3-5), 4:59
135 -ÊRyan Johnson (WAW/25-4) def. Jarod Miller (WV/34-4) 4-0
140 -ÊTyler Cline (WAW/22-5) def. Tim Lavin (DK/15-11) 10-4
145 -ÊKevin Carr (WAW/32-1) def. Steve DeWitt (DK/21-6) 27-15
152 -ÊJ.J. Davis (WAW/24-8) def. Kevin Replogle (WN/28-7) 11-3
160 -ÊJason Carr (WAW/32-0) def. Adam Harrel (DK/22-6) 16-3
171 -ÊMing Ling (DK/25-2) pinned Ryan Lutter (EN/17-11), 3:03
189 -ÊJesse Leonard (WAW/19-14) def. Lester Arbogast (WN/9-6)
215 -ÊTom Bryan (WAW/17-15) pinned Martin Fahlsing (EN/14-11), 4:35
275 - Jamie Salazar (WAW/28-5) pinned Paul Fahlsing (EN/11-10), 3:44
