106 – Much of the talk this season at 106 has been focused on the boys from Evansville but a couple of young lions from the region might have something to say about who's the best at this weight class next week. Griffith's Jeremiah Reitz is the odds on favorite and should have little difficulty navigating his quarter bracket. The second quarter bracket contains the most question marks. Senior Daniel Davis from Lafayette Harrison comes in with experience and a regional title. His ticket round match will either be Hanover Central's Issac Cortez who wrestled well at regionals or Warsaw's freshman Kyle Hatch. The bottom half of the bracket leads off with a barnburner between state placer Drew Hildebrandt of Penn versus super frosh Jack Tolin of Chesterton. The final quarter bracket should provide an entertaining ticket round match between Lowell's Colton Cummings and Merrillville's Michael DeLaPena.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Reitz, Cummings, Hildebrandt, Cortez
113 – This bracket appears to be well balanced through all four quarter brackets. Prior to this weekend, Munster's Jason Crary was the clear favorite. Michael Garza of Merrillville upset the freshman phenom at regional and making life difficult for others in his quarter bracket. I see South Bend Adams Austen Laughlin navigating a tough quarter bracket in defeating Rickie Rodriguez of Morton and regional champ Chris Trent of New Prairie. Crary's loss potentially gave him a tougher road to state but I feel he will handle Mishawaka's Jake Chadwick and the largely unknown Justin Porter of Logansport. It feels like Merrillville's Mike Garza has been around forever as a threat. The lil Pirate should not be distracted by the high top fade of South Bend Washington's Tondrew Tyler nor the grittiness of Valpo's Austin Line. The last quarter bracket should come down to a ticket round match between Penn's Austin Slates and Crown Point's Austin Torres. I see Austin as a winner.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Garza, Crary, Slates, Laughlin
120 – The top half of this bracket appears to be wide open with up to 5 grapplers legitimately trying to vie for 2 tickets to the state finals. I like Valpo's Tristan Dembowski to come from under the radar to qualify from the top quarter bracket. To do so, he must defeat '13 state qualifier Cody Allmon of Plymouth and most likely regional champ Cole Lukaszka. The second quarter bracket will probably feature the top ticket round match between Portage's Gaige Torres and South Bend Clay's Jake Hartman. The bottom half of the bracket appears to be dominated by Mishawaka's Jake Sinkovics. The tough Caveman will have the scrappy Zack Wells of LaPorte in round one and then tough Brendan Black of Hobart for the ticket to Indy. The final Indy slot will most likely come down to a tough ticket round battle between Crown Point's Daylan Schurg and Ruben Rodriguez.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Sinkovics, Torres, Schurg, Dembowski
126 – Unfortunately the bracket gods did the fans no favors at 126 when the placed Penn's Zack Davis and Hanover Central's two time state champ Stevan Micic on the same side of the bracket. The fans at Merrillville and a semi-state runner up from somewhere will not be happy. These two studs wrestled an awesome match under the lights in Indy last year are are the class of the field this year at Merrillville. The rest of the bracket features an interesting ticket round possibility between Merrillville's Clarence Johnson and Duneland Conference rival Riley Akers of Crown Point. I like Rochester's John Hunting to sneak through for the last ticket to Banker's Life.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Micic, Johnson, Davis, Hunting
132 – The Merrillville semi-state at 132 will be one of the most wide open of the day. McCutheon's Seth Carithers is another one of those athletes that has been seemingly around forever but has yet to break through at the state level. I look for him to qualify this year after a tough opener versus Triston Rodriquez. The second quarter bracket should feature a barnburner in the ticket round between Scott Warner of South Bend Riley and Zach Dondaldson of Crown Point. Calumet has their best chance to produce a state qualifier in a number of years with regional champ Alec Noworul. Waiting for him in the ticket round will be the winner of the Devin Childers/Walker Alderman match up. The final quarter bracket is loaded with solid kids. The top gun here should be regional champ Jacob Gross of Lowell.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Gross, Donaldson, Carithers, Childers
138 – A three horse race for the top spot at 138 appears to be developing. Drew Hughes of Lowell wrestled for a state championship last year and is on the bottom half of the bracket. Crown Point's Josh Fuqua and Merrillville's Jacob Covaciu both got the draw of death and will likely be facing each other in the ticket round. A shame as both young men deserve to wrestle in Indy. I am looking to a couple of dark horses to emerge in this bracket; Mishawaka Marian's Derek Glon was impressive at regionals and got a favorable draw. Senior Justin Atkinson of Benton Central is a pick to click at the bottom of the bracket. That bottom quarter looks extremely balanced and it wouldnt suprise me if any of the four earn a trip to Indy.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Hughes, Covaciu, Atkinson, Glon.
145 – This is one weight class that I don't anticipate a lot of drama. The four regional champs appear to be the favorites for the four slots in the state bracket. Crown Point regional champ Denton Schurg should coast into the semis as long as Ian McLuckey doesn't live up to his name. Returning state champ Tommy Forte might have a physical battle on his hands with his round one opponent Jaren Young. The third quarter bracket might contain the most potential ticket round match if both Isaac Rentes from Merrillville and Tommy Varner of Penn win their openers. At the bottom I like the Blonde Bomber out of Francesville, Parker Fritz. West Central has had some talented grapplers the past few years that have come up short at the semi-state level but I think Fritz is good enough to break through for the Trojans.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Forte, Rentes, Schurg, Fritz.
152 – Although not quite as epic as the Micic-Davis potential semifinals matchup, the 152 class will try to match it with a possible matchup between unbeaten Tristan Macri of Mishawaka and once beaten Darden Schurg of Crown Point. Macri and Schurg are clearly the top dogs in this weight class but one wrestler from the other side of the bracket will be the runner-up. I like senior Willie Armstrong from Merrillville to be the runner up. The last qualifying spot comes from the most balanced quarter bracket in the weight class. Alex Rinehart's experience as a two time state streeter should be enough to prevail.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor - Macri, Armstrong, Schurg, Reinhart
160 – The 160 pound class might be one of the deepest at Merrillville as many of the quarter brackets contain multiple contenders for a trip to Indy. The lead dog is undefeated Kennith Hughes from Lowell; he sports a sparkling 39-0 record and his section of the bracket is not as difficult as some of the others. Hughes is coming off a tight regional win over John Glenn's Adam Dodson. Dodson has an excellent 36-2 record and will likely face regional champ Jake Kleimola from Lake Central in a ticket round match up. The second quarter bracket could feature an entertaining ticket round match between junior studs Sawyer Hallas of Chesterton and Joey Mammolenti of Penn. The final quarter bracket is probably the deepest and any of the four wrestlers could realistically punch their ticket to state. Edmond Hogan is my pick to click.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Hughes, Mammolenti, Dodson, Hogan
170 – As difficult as it was to pick the 160 weight class, 170 seems a lot clearer to me. New Prairie's tough as nails Wade Young is wrestling his best at the right time of the year. What he lacks in technique, he more than makes up for it with toughness. Scotty Sopko has been there and done that. Already a 2 time state qualifier, Sopko won the Calumet regional and will likely face the winner of a great first round match up between Jade Doty and Michael Bates. Penn's Chase Osborn has quietly fashioned and outstanding 33-1 record and should cruise into the semis. Chesterton's Alex Katsafaros has run into the Wade Young hammer the past two weeks but possesses the skill and athleticism to hang with anyone in this semi-state.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Osborn, Young, Katsafaros, Sopko
182 – The 182 class features a couple of returning state placers in LaPorte's Mike Eldridge and South Bend St. Joe's Ryan Jankowski. Eldridge should be able to make a return trip to Indy if he can top Penn senior Jeff Wiseman for a second time this season. Jankowski is also a heavy favorite to return to Banker's Life but must deal with white hot wrestling of Chesterton's Jaycee Jensen. A third spot in Indy will likely be the winner of a potentially outstanding ticket round match between Merrillville's Matthew Hollins and Kankakee Valley's Tim Schoonveld. The final ticket looks to be a crap shoot but I will take a stab and say Calumet's Nick Fowler will be making the trip down I-65 with veteran coach Jim Watkins.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Jankowski, Eldridge, Schoonveld, Fowler
195 – Super soph Kobe Woods is my pick here. The youngster from Penn was very impressive last week at the Rochester regional and I think he is poised to become one of Indiana's elite upper weights. He will likely face off with Crown Point junior Morgan Kral in the semifinals. Kral is looking to avenge a disappointing semi-state in 2013 where he came into Merrillville with an unblemished record but was defeated in the ticket round. Also looking to avenge a disappointing 2013 semi-state is Hanover Central's Tyler Scott. Scott's regional title last week put him in a great position to qualify for state. Twin Lakes' Kevin Winkle is looking to match his older brother by qualifying for state in his senior year. Winkle must win two tough matches, the first with Knox' powerful Michael Sustaita.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Woods, Scott, Kral, Winkle
220 – It's the last go round for Lake Central's Gelen Robinson and the other 15 qualifiers in should provide little resistance for Mr. Robinson. The bigger questions are who will join Robinson in Indy. Stephen Potosky was the second best 220 in the Duneland conference and should navigate his quarter bracket and meet Robinson in the semis. On the top side of the bracket, I like another Kougar, Alex Berdine in a slight upset over regional champ and state qualifier Seth Meyer. Penn's big man, Clayton Stohler has fashioned an excellent senior season and will likely be Penn's seventh state qualifier for 2014.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Robinson, Stohler, Berdine, Potosky
285 – Although it rarely happens, I see all four regional champs punching their tickets to state this year. The clear front runner is super soph, Shawn Streck of Merrillville. There are probably only 4 or 5 heavies in the state that can hang with the Pirate big man. Streck will likely see Duneland conference rival Landon Blackburn of LaPorte in the semifinals. The one regional champ I see struggling to hold chalk is big John Duvall of West Lafayette. He will likely have his conditioning tested by a one loss Robert Yanez of River Forest. Big Caleb Coffel of Bremen is front runner in the final quarter bracket where he will likely face off with Valpo's Ian Suttles in the ticket round.
Hungus' 4 on the Floor – Streck, Duvall, Coffel, Blackburn
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