PLYMOUTH - Wawasee's varsity wrestling team followed a rough regular season with a sectional championship Saturday at Plymouth High School.
After finishing the season with a 1-6 mark in the Northern Lakes Conference, the Warriors responded with 189.5 points at the Plymouth Sectional, besting NLC foes Plymouth (175.5) and Warsaw (149)."We play all year for the sectional tournament," Wawasee coach Scott DeHart said. "Everything before that is practice. When we get to the conference tournament, that's our jumping board, so when we hit the sectional, we hit it full run. I feel like we did that today."
Wawasee won the sectional using depth, with only junior Bobby Marcuccilli claiming a championship at 135.
"We knew this would have to be won in the wrestle backgrounds," DeHart said. "We knew the kids that were coming in here. We told the kids how important the wrestle backgrounds were."
With that mentality, Wawasee took second at 112 (Doug Corl), third place at 103 (Greg Newman) and 171 (Joey Melendez), and fourth at 125 (Josh Gohlke), 140 (Raul Rodriguez), 145 (Ryan Lindsey), 160 (Brian Clark), 189 (Lance Wright), 285 and (Dimitri Kaplanis).
The worse the placing, the fewer the points, but Wawasee was able to score enough points and squeezed out its first sectional title since 2002.
Following the seven-year hiatus, two-year sectional champion Marcuccilli was pleased to see his team accept the championship trophy.
"It's an awesome feeling," Marcuccilli said. "We came from not doing so well at all these past couple of years, then we win this sectional. It's telling everybody that we're still here."
Marcuccilli won his championship by defeating Tippecanoe Valley's Austin Nelson 8-2, but he would have liked to have won a little more convincingly.
"I wanted to do a little bit better, but he was defending me the whole time," Marcuccilli said.
With the team victory, Wawasee now gets the pleasure of facing top-ranked Mishawaka Wednesday at Jimtown High School, beginning at 6 p.m.
Individual qualifiers from the sectional, which includes the first through fourth-place finishers, move on to Saturday's Rochester Regional, which gets started at 9 a.m.
At the individual regional, Warsaw sophomore Jarred Brooks will likely be the most automatic qualifier for the ensuing semistate berth.
Ranked as the No. 2 wrestler in the state at 103, Brooks didn't waste much time at the sectional, pinning Rochester's Zech Weese in 31 seconds to claim his second-straight sectional crown.
"I just did what I needed to do on the mat," Brooks, the defending regional champ, said. "When you go out there, you have to have the mindset that you don't take anybody lightly. You have to beat all these kids like you beat other kids. I don't care if it's a state championship match or a sectional match. You still have to wrestle to your full ability."
The win improved Brooks to 28-0 on the season, and 61-2 during his prep career.
As a freshman, Brooks was matched up against older and heavier wrestlers, making his run to the semistate impressive.
This season, he's put on more weight and looks to be much more dominating.
"It's a lot different from last year," he said. "Everything's changed. It's about the puberty aspect, like getting a little bit bigger. Last year, I had to work so hard just to bulk up to 100 pounds. Now, I'm cutting weight and it still feels good."
With his confidence up, Brooks isn't only looking to defeat his opponents, but he's looking to defeat them quickly.
"I'm looking to pin everyone and wrestle under two minutes," he said.
Warsaw's other champion was Paul Manbu at 140, defeating Triton's Darius Stevens 8-2.
Manbu and Stevens met up earlier this year, with Manbu handing the 29-1 Stevens is only defeat of the year.
This time around, Manbu noticed improvement in Stevens, but was still able to get the win.
"He's a lot stronger than before, he's a lot smarter and his technique has gotten a lot better," Manbu said.
"I just stayed on my game, kept attacking and tried to stay in control the whole time," he added.
Manbu was happy with the win, but the No. 6 wrestler at 140 pounds wasn't overly excited.
"It's not that big, because next week, I have to face everybody at regional," the 34-3 Manbu said. "It's OK right now."
Another local champion was Tippecanoe Valley's Isaac Yoder, who improved his season record to 30-0 after pinning Bremen's Trever Berger in 5:31 at 152 pounds.
"It's been a pretty good year, but I haven't obtained my goal yet," Yoder said.
Yoder commented that his ultimate goal is to make a trip to the state finals, which continues Saturday at the regional against South Bend Clay's Davon Alwine.
"It's pretty realistic, but I still have to maintain my focus," Yoder said about making it to state. "I just have to keep my mind focused and keep an open mind on what I can do."
Before Saturday's individual regional, the Warriors will first see what they can do against Mishawaka. However, no matter what happens, DeHart is pleased with what his young team has already accomplished.
"The kids have worked hard," DeHart said. "When we saw the draw, we knew we could be one of the top three teams. They had to come in and battle, and they accepted the challenge. You look at this group, and they're freshmen and sophomores with a couple juniors sprinkled in and one senior. We're real excited with them."
WAWASEE 189.5, PLYMOUTH 175.5, WARSAW 149, CULVER MILITARY ACADEMY 146, CULVER 144.5, ROCHESTER 121, BREMEN 102, T. VALLEY 95, TRITON 69.5
