Cavemen Survive Another Gauntlet

-- 5-0 at Bellmont Invite

Nobody would accuse the Mishawaka Cavemen of dodging the competition in their bid to repeat as team state champions for 2009. By looking at their schedule alone, everyone would get a pretty clear picture of whether Mishawaka would be the force they were last year.

The regular season schedule is now nearly complete. Saturday, the Cavemen defeated sixth ranked Bellmont 38-21, downed #2 Perry Meridian 29-25 along with defeating Whitko, Bloomington South and Evansville Memorial to run their season dual record to 16-0.

It does appear that Mishawaka is poised to make a strong run in defense of its state championship as they have faced nearly half of the states top twenty teams and beaten them all. If the schedule were not enough, the Cavemen have also had to battle injuries and ineligibilities that has left nearly a third of their projected preseason varsity line up either not wrestling or wrestling at something less then 100%. Rather then make excuses and wonder about 'what could have been', coach Darrick Snyder has used these hurdles as opportunities, not obstacles, for other wrestlers to step up and contribute against some of the state's best.

Saturday it was 152 pound backup, Marty Friedman who came up huge for the Cavemen. Subbing for an ailing, Tim Forte, Friedman scored a key win over #8 Blake Wood to help Mishawaka stay undefeated on the season. This was the swing match in a dual that saw Josh Harper get pinned in a tight cradle early in the second period and the Cavemen give up six uncontested points by forfeiting at the 103 lb. weight class.

It surely will be interesting to see if Mishawaka can stay healthy enough through the individual series to make it two straight or whether the likes of Mater Dei, Yorktown, Crown Point, Cathedral or Perry Meridian will be able to come up with the formula to defeat these resiliant Cavemen.

The match-ups between state champ Josh Harper of Mishawaka and state placer Will Sheets along with top ranked Billy Baker of the Braves squaring off against #7 Christain Lentz highlighted this battle of longtime state powers.

With Mishawaka holding an early 8-3 lead, Baker scored an first period takedown by dumping a single. Lentz escaped late in the period to narrow the score 2-1 at the end of the first period.

In the second Lentz escaped early to tie the score at two until Baker was able to work a front headlock into a snap down position and was able to get behind the burly Lentz to take a 4-2 lead. Lentz was able to escape before the end of the period and the score was 4-3 at the end of the second period.

Baker chose down, quickly escaped and finished a third takedown midway through the third period, extending his lead to 7-3. Lentz made a flurry late, garnered an escape and takedown to narrow the lead to 7-6. The Caveman was forced to cut Baker and attempt a takedown to tie the match but Baker was able to counter and score, ending the match 10-6.

In the second battle of ranked wrestlers, #1 Josh Harper decisioned #6 Will Sheets of Bellmont, 8-2. Harper had a minor scare as he got a tad high riding with legs and Sheets sucked him under. Sheets was unable to hold him and only got a reversal.

#2 Perry Meridian 37 - #6 Bellmont 24

Bellmont started fast with wins at 215 and HWT. At 215 #1 Billy Baker rode #5 Chris Schafer the entire 2nd period and then escaped in the third, added a late takedown to take the win 3-0. AT HWT, tiny Daniel Meyer, who doesn't look like he weighs over 200 lbs muscled Devin Schafer to his back to collect a pin in 23 seconds. Just like that the Braves had a 9-0 lead and momentum.

Perry's line-up is too strong to let momentum build and just like a number one starter is expected to end a losing streak in baseball, the Falcon's young stud, Jared McKinley made short work of Bellmont's Blake Adams, pinning him with a cradle to cut the difference to three points.

Bellmont regained the momentum by picking up three close decisions at 112, 119, and 125. The Braves led 18-6 after six matches. Next up for Perry was #4 ranked Samson Cook who cut the lead to 18-12 with a pin in 1:02.

Sticking with the baseball analogies, Cook's pin was just the start of the Falcon's 'murderer's row' from classes 130 to 160. #8 Chris Goodwin @ 135, #10 Jacob Tonte @ 140, and #7 Jacob Taseff @ 145 all collect first period pins to swing the meet score to 30-18 in the Falcon's favor.

#14 Tyler Baker of Bellmont was able to momentarily stop the bleeding with his narrow 3-2 victory over #8 Blake Wood. At 160, Perry's #9 Chris Hudgins overcame two defeats earlier in the day to major John Mahlan, and 171 Jordan Robinson decisioned Grant Melcher to put the match out of reach at 37-21.

Both Mishawaka's coach Darrick Snyder, and Perry Meridian's coach Jim Tonte issued promises earlier in the week. Tonte said that he thought his team was overrated but still could could contend for a state title. Snyder only promise was that his grapplers would handle both winning and losing in a better fashion than they did last year. It turned out that Snyder was correct, the Cavemen had no issues with attitude, and Tonte was wrong, the Falcon do not appear to be overrated at all.

Mishawaka started off hot, Dustin Boyd secured a decision on Perry freshman Andre Richards 4-0 and #7 Christain Lentz scored a minor upset with his 3-0 win over #5 Chris Schafer. Lentz rides with legs as well any big man in the state and used the hook to control Schafer the entire 2nd period, despite many strong scramble attempts by Schafer. Lentz was able to get off bottom in the third and finished a low double leg takedown to take the win.

Junior HWT Caveman, Travis Thomas kept things rolling for his team when he bundled up Devin Schafer in a crossface butcher to secure a pin with 20 seconds left in the first period. At 103 Perry's Jared McKinley took a forfeit to narrow the score to 12-6.

At 112 and 119, Mishawaka got rolling again with Paul Beck picking up a major decision and Matt Guerra defeated Jason Simmons 7-1 to stretch the Caveman lead to 19-6. Perry rebounded at 125 when freshman Kirk Johnson defeated Nick Schrader 8-3.

The score was 19-9 when 130 lb. wrestlers Samson Cook and Josh Harper took to the mat. Number one versus number four in the state, it had the makings for a great matchup. Harper gained the early advantage by using a wrist tie to pass Cook and get the initial takedown. Harper then rode Cook for the remainder of the period. Cook had choice to start the second and took the top position. The long armed senior proceeded to hook up a crossface cradle on Harper. The Mishawaka faithful probably were not to worried as Harper had fought off a similar cradle attempt by Cashe Quiorga at the Al Smith meet 10 days ago. It was not to be however as Cook turned Harper with surprising ease and garnered the pin.

The Falcons cut the lead to 19-18 when eighth ranked 135 lber. Chris Goodwin defeated gritty Aaaron Mersich 7-4. In a most entertaining contest, returning state champ Steven Sandefer avoided enough close calls and headlocks that came from all angles to major Jacob Tonte 22-13. This stretched the team score to 23-18. At 145, Jacob Taseff nullified Sandefer's major with one of his own defeating Alex White of Mishawaka 14-5.

Down by one point, the Perry fans had to be feeling good as they had favored wrestlers at the next two weight classes. At 152, Mishawaka backup, Marty Friedman took eighth ranked Blake Wood to overtime and was able to finish a takedown to win 3-1. Mishawaka's Dick Morin followed up Friedman's inspiring win with a minor upset of ninth ranked Cory Hudgins, 5-2. This put the Cavemen up 29-22 with one match left. Jordan Robinson narrowed the team score to 29-25 with his decision over Mishawaka's Drew Childress.