Carroll High School in lovely Huntertown, Indiana will yet again play host to regional wrestling action on February 7th. For the seventh straight year the Carroll Regional will bring together the top four placers from the New Haven and Carroll Sectionals. In the team action, the host Bulldogs came away with a sectional title at New Haven and the Whitko Wildcats kept the Carroll trophy in Whitley County. This year looks to have many great match-ups that will be held in the old Carroll gym for the last time. Next year Carroll will have a brand spanking new gymnasium to show off to the wrestling community for sectional and regional.
103lbs
Undefeated Senior Austin Vore of Bishop Dwenger leads the field here. Other contenders include Mason Meling of Snider and Logan Ables of Carroll. Meling will have a very tough match-up in the first round with Columbia City's Derek Kissinger. Another great first round match will be between Austin LeTourneau of Whitko and Andrew Bowman of Homestead who only has two losses on the year.
112lbs
This weight class has four wrestlers with four or fewer losses on the season. Leading the way with the best record is Whitko's Jordan Gilbert who has a 33-2 record. Following close behind is South Side's Chase Farrell with a 32-2 record, Homestead's Andy Franklin at 24-3 and Snider's Alex Troy at 27-4. This weight class is a toss-up with all four of these wrestlers having a chance to come away with a championship.
119lbs
The 119lbs weight class will be just as competitive as the 112lbs weight class with three wrestlers having four or less losses. Dylan LeTourneau of Whitko comes in sporting a stellar 30-3 record, while Senior Marquis Williams of Snider and Harding's Cendric Morrison both come in at 25-4. Those three should win their matches in the first round with ease, but the last spot at semi-state will be a very good match. Garrett's Logan Lee and Homestead's Keelan Rushing will battle it out for a chance to wrestle at the War Memorial Coliseum.
125lbs
The headliner of this weight class is Bishop Luers' Tony Lovejoy, who placed 7th at state last year at 119lbs. He comes in with one loss on his record due to disqualification. In an ironic twist of fate, Lovejoy will be going against the wrestler that dealt him that loss in Dwenger's Michael Nix. The surprise Carroll Sectional champion, Whitko's Daniel Rothgeb comes in as a favorite to advance also. The key match-up at this weight class will again pit a Railroader vs. a Spartan as Garrett's Shea Novy and Homestead's Tucker Smith will lock horns. The other 2 vs.3 match-up will have seniors Daniel Thompson of Churubusco going up against New Haven's Jon Menefee.
130lbs
The fans will be chomping at the bit to see a fourth match-up between Carroll's Brock Norton and Columbia City's Austin Egolf. The sectional final match-up was a dozy as Norton dealt Egolf his third loss in an overtime thriller. The other interesting match-ups will be the first round matches between Leo freshman Garrett Weber and Michel Peaks of New Haven and Wade Thiel of North Side battling Cody Zink of Woodlan.
135lbs
This weight class could also have a rematch of the Carroll Sectional finals as the top contenders are Garrett's Jace German and Concordia's Kemlair Touloute. Their sectional final match was back and forth with German coming away with a reversal and nearfall with less than 15 seconds left to pull out the win. Both German and Touloute cannot overlook New Haven's Nate Bloomfield who comes in as the New Haven Sectional champion and Corey Botts of Leo.
140lbs
This weight class has three wrestlers with four or less losses on the year. Garrett's Bryce Schendel comes in with a 34-2 record with his losses at 135lbs. Justin Beck of Leo comes in with three losses, two to Schendel and Carroll's Reece Lefever comes in with three losses also, one to Beck and one to Schendel. The New Haven sectional champion Zack Zurbrugg will also be a competitor to look out for.
145lbs
The headliners at this weight class are state qualifiers Cam Friend of Leo and Corey Richards of Churubusco. Friend has won both match-ups so far this season, but they have both been very close matches with Friend getting the only two takedowns. Jon Timmerman has only three losses on the season and will look to follow in his older brother's footsteps. One interesting match-up could be New Haven's senior and first year starter Nathan Swygart against Garrett's freshman Brayden Moreau.
152lbs
This is probably the deepest weight class in terms of quality in the regional. The headliner is 2008 Cadet All-American Zac McCray, who seems to have hit stride at the right time. He is about the only lock for a first round win as the other match-ups are very intriguing. Lance McParlan of Churubusco comes in at 31-4 and will face Wayne's James Tabb who is 20-6, one of these seniors will wrestle their last match of their careers. Two other seniors will hit the mats when Jayme Schwartz of Woodlan will face Northrop's Austin Hyland. Hyland has four losses on the year, three of them to McCray and one to Anderson Highland's Sammy Bennett. New Haven sectional champion Nick Graham will face off with NHC nemesis Conner Lefever of Carroll in the other first round match.
160lbs
While not quite as deep, this weight class will have some interesting first round match-ups. Carroll sectional champion Jordan Hamilton looks to be the favorite, coming in with a 30-2 record. The New Haven sectional champion, Matt Klemm, look to knock off Hamilton. Ben Sowles of Woodlan will look to avenge a loss just two weeks ago to Austin Bussen of Leo in the first round. The best first round match-up will be Bobby Natusch of Homestead and Jarrod Lewis of Whitko.
171lbs
This weight class boasts four wrestlers with 6 or less losses and will provide some great matches. Defending regional champion Marqueen Suel looks to be the headliner, but he will have to avenge one of his losses in the semi-finals to Garrett's Luke Rieke. In the other half of the bracket Tyler Thomas of Carroll will have his hands full with his first round opponent Tyler Unsicker of Heritage. The loser will have to choose a new first name also. The other quarterfinal match-up could be interesting as Jerrod Hill of Churubusco faces off with Domminick Drummond of New Haven.
189lbs
The wrestler with the most losses here could be the sleeper of the weight class. Whitko's Tanner Larocque comes in with 10 losses as most of them were at 215lbs wrestling up for the team this season.  Other headliners include Kris Pappert of New Haven and Josh Grider of South Side. The first round match-up between Logan DeMarco of Garrett and Taylor Scott of Heritage will again provide the fireworks it did in the ACAC finals. Scott came from behind to beat DeMarco in the last seconds for the conference title, but this match-up holds more at stake as one wrestler will be done for the season after this match.
215lbs
Undefeated Aris Allen of North Side will look to spend a limited amount of time on the mat this week as he did last week. Ben Reusser of Carroll and Brad Mills of Homestead will both look to push Allen to the limit. Northrop's Moe Talamantes of the famous Talamantes bloodline will have a good battle in his first round match with Brad Shuler of Heritage.
285lbs
The heavyweight weight class will have some great match-ups as well. The projected semi-final between Korey Eck of Concordia and Joe Grueb of Woodlan will be a great match. Also, Harry Foster of Homestead will look to hand Whitko's Drake Brainard his 5th loss of the season in the other semi-final. Any of those four wrestlers could come away with the regional title.
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