Of the nine local wrestlers competing at the semistate level of the IHSAA postseason, three punched their tickets to this weekend’s state finals. Moving on to the state finals, which begin with the first round Friday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis were Warsaw freshman Kyle Hatch (106), Tippecanoe Valley junior Devin Childers (132) and Manchester junior Clayton Moore (132). The top four finishers from semistate move on to state, as Moore and Childers were each runners-up and Hatch finished fourth. At Merrillville, Hatch punched his ticket to the 106-pound state finals by pinning Hanover Central senior Issac Cortez in 5:45 in the opening round then defeating Lafayette Harrison senior Daniel Davis 9-4 in the second round. In the semifinal, Hatch went up against the top-seeded Jeremiah Reitz, a freshman from Griffith, and suffered a technical fall after falling behind 18-3. Moving to the third-place match, Hatch again lost, as Lowell freshman Colton Cummings major decisioned him 18-3. At state, Hatch will face the top-seeded Lukas Long, a sophomore out of Lakeland. Also at the Merrillville Semistate, Childers picked up an invitation to the state finals at 132 pounds, finishing second. Beginning the day against Delphi senior Walker Alderman, Childers got the 10-3 victory, then downed Calumet senior Alec Noworul 6-4 in the second round. Already qualified for the state finals, Childers then defeated Mishawaka sophomore Daniel Hesch 7-6 in the semifinals, but was pinned by McCutcheon senior Seth Carithers in the championship match. At state, Childers will square off against Heritage junior Sam Lovejoy in Friday’s first round. Childers’ teammate, sophomore Garrett Bell also competed at 170 pounds, but fell 9-2 in the opening round against Delphi sophomore Hunter Mote, 9-2. Warsaw senior Anthony Hendrickson had his semistate appearance cut short, losing 3-1 in the 195-pound opening round against Portage junior Matt Hedrick. At the Fort Wayne Snider Semistate, Moore advanced to the championship match at 132 pounds by pinning Adams Central’s Hunter Bates in the opening round, then defeating Fremont senior David Schmucker (10-8) and Heritage junior Sam Lovejoy (15-10) in the second round and semifinals, respectively. In the championship match, Yorktown senior Logan Campbell got a narrow 3-2 victory over Moore. Moore will face Mishawaka sophomore Daniel Hesch in Friday’s opening round of the state finals. Also from Manchester, sophomore Bryce Zook was pinned in the opening round against East Noble’s Connor Knapp, who went on to win the semistate championship. Manchester’s Quentin Moore also suffered a first-round loss, getting major decisioned at 145 pounds by DeKalb junior Logan Williams, 11-1. At 195 pounds, Manchester senior Neil Snep was pinned by Carroll senior Corey Rickman in the first round. From Whitko, freshman Jake Rothgeb was major decisioned by Yorktown freshman Brad Laughlin, ending his postseason run. With a win Friday night, wrestlers then advance to Saturday’s action back at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
