Jump to content

  • Feature Articles

    WW and MM

    209 articles in this category

      2788

      #WrestlingWednesday Feature: Kadin Poe Back on the Mat

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      In an instance Kadin Poe went from a wrestling standout, to someone broken so badly he wasn’t sure he’d be able to wrestle again.
       
      It happened on a Monday evening in May, near Murray St., in Indianapolis. Poe and his friend Kyle Dicecco were just walking home. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a dark colored Chrysler 300 came barreling down the street, right into Poe. He hit the windshield and landed on the side of the road. The car never stopped. To this day, the driver’s identity is not known.
       
      But what is known is that Poe, who had qualified for the IHSAA state championships as a wrestler earlier in the year, was now in a battle for his life. He had a broken neck, a concussion, his eyes were swollen, his hands and back were scraped badly.
       
      “I was just walking to get my book bag from my buddy’s house,” Poe said. “He lived two streets over at the time. I was walking back with him. I stopped at the stop sign and then a car came and hit me.”
       
      At first Kyle tried to chase the car down to get more information. But he quickly returned to his friend, picked him up and walked him home. Poe was quickly transported to the hospital, where he spent several days.
       
      Doctors initially weren’t sure if Poe would be able to wrestle again, because of the severity of the neck injury. But soon he was told that he would have no permanent damage. That’s when the recovery began. Poe was going to wrestle again – and nothing was standing in his way.
       
      “My mom really helped me more than anything,” Poe said. “She and my coaches pushed me, even when I didn’t want to be pushed.”
       
      Poe had gained a lot of weight due to the recovery process. At first he wasn’t allowed to exercise, so he sit at home on medication. He quickly got up to over 150 pounds.
       
      “The hardest part of battling back was getting back into shape and getting my weight back down,” Poe said. “A lot of people were doubting me. Everything at that point was just tough.”
       
      But Poe did make it back. This season he opened the year wrestling a match at 138 pound. He pinned his opponent. But in his next match he injured his shoulder and is expected to miss two to three more weeks because of the injury.
       
      He is hoping he can be back sooner, and be trimmed down to 126 pounds in the process.
       
      “I want to win a state title within the next two years,” Poe, a junior at Decatur Central, said. “Then I want to go on and win nationals in college. I will bounce back from this.”
       
      Poe’s coach, Angelo Roble, believes in his wrestler.
       
      “I remember him sitting in the hospital with tubes running all through him,” Roble said. “But I never doubted that he would be back because he’s a tough kid. What makes him a great wrestler isn’t as much his technique, as it is his fight. He hates to lose more than he loves to win.”
       
      Poe believes going through this adversity has just fueled his desire to get stronger, and better on the mat.
       
      “It’s been a real struggle,” he said. “At first I was starting to think my career was over. And now I’m back to wrestling. It hasn’t been easy, but I’m back.”
       
      Roble credits Poe’s mentality for his rapid progression.
       
      “Anything this kid puts his mind to, he does well,” Roble said. “We do a lot of things to have fun in practice, like playing football. He always wants to be the quarterback. He wants to have the ball if he is playing basketball and in the wrestling room he wants center circle so everyone knows it’s his room. I hope that attitude carries over to everything in life. All he has to do is put in the effort and he will be successful.”

      3009 2

      #MondayMatness: Slothing Around with Kyle Hatch

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
      A willingness to learn has led to steady improvement and a bright outlook for one Warsaw Tiger.
      Kyle Hatch began to make a name for himself on the Indiana high school wrestling scene during his freshman campaign at Warsaw.
      As a 106-pounder, he placed fourth at the prestigious Al Smith Classic at Mishawaka in late December and went on to finish eighth in the his division at the 2014 IHSAA State Finals.
      As a sophomore, the son of former two-time state finalist Dan Hatch (qualifier at 135 in 1991 and eighth place at 140 in 1992), grew to 120 and won the Al Smith and placed seventh in the state in 2015.
      Now it’s 2015-16 and Kyle Hatch has begun his junior season with several dominant performances, the most recent during the Raider Super Duals Saturday, Dec. 12, at Northridge.
      Kyle Hatch competed at both 145 and 138 pounds, but said he is likely to go at the lighter weight the rest of the way, including the Al Smith on Dec. 28-29.
      “Technique-wise I’d be OK (at 145), but the strength wasn’t always there,” Kyle Hatch said.
      Eighth-year Tigers head coach Justin Smith supports Hatch supports Hatch on his decision of weight — 138 or 145 — for the rest of the regular season and the IHSAA tournament series.
      “I think he would be successful wherever he went,” Smith said. “A lot of it is what he feels. If he has a lot of confidence at one weight class or the other and wants to charge in, we’re going to let him.”
      Kyle Hatch is improving as he goes along.
      “I’m still learning a lot,” Kyle Hatch said. “I’ve learned that I need to contain my hips and make sure they stay balanced and equal on each side.”
      That is advice from Smith and father Dan Hatch, a Warsaw assistant coach.
      Smith, who has been watching the young Hatch wrestle since “he was knee-high to a grasshopper (Kyle started in second grade and later excelled at Warsaw’s Lakeview Middle School), admires the way father and son operate.
      “They have a good relationship,” Smith said. “I just interject once in a while and give a fresh perspective.”
      Wrestling becomes even more of a family affair when you consider that Kyle’s cousin, Tyler Fitzpatrick, is a junior wrestler at NorthWood High School.
      Dan Hatch said the coaching staff likes for all Warsaw wrestlers to be able to break down their matches to be able to fix flaws. Sometimes this is done with video analysis.
      “Kyle can usually point out the stuff faster than the rest of us can,” Dan Hatch said.
      Smith, a former Homestead High School wrestler who was an assistant at his alma mater and head coach at Fort Wayne Wayne before going to Warsaw, sees an ability in Kyle Hatch to make necessary adjustments.
      “He works on every aspect of his wrestling — neutral position, bottom and top,” Smith said of the young Hatch. “He’s at the point where he doesn’t have to make wholesale changes. We just pick out little things that are going to make him more effective, things like putting the hips in.”
      Kyle Hatch has also learned to use his legs and his strength while on top to turn his opponent.
      “His strength is deceiving,” Smith said. “He does not have a lot of bulk in his upper body, but he is fast and strong.”
      Kyle Hatch notes that he’s getting better at takedowns and riding. His father said it’s hard to get much quality time working on escapes when you need someone capable of holding you down.
      Those opportunities are bound to come at the Al Smith.
      “I can’t wait for that.” Kyle Hatch said.

      5618 6

      #WrestlingWednesday Feature: Parris is the Newest Lawrenceberg Attraction

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Nestled in the southeastern corner of Indiana, the modest town of Lawrenceburg has established itself as a tourism hot spot. The town is home to the Perfect North Slopes skiing resort, as well as the immensely popular Hollywood Casino. But lately, the top attraction has been the 220 pound monster that lurks in the wrestling room at Lawrenceburg High School. He goes by the name of Mason Parris.
       
      Parris took the state by storm last season as a freshman at 182 pounds. He went undefeated until the state finals, where he lost to eventual champion Chase Osborn 11-10. Parris finished third, with a 54-1 record.
       
      Parris was just 15 years old last year, wrestling in a weight class that showcases some of the most physically gifted specimen in the state. He more than proved he belonged.
       
      This season, all he has done is put on about 40 pounds of muscle. He’s bigger, stronger, faster and a lot more confident than he was as a freshman.
       
      “I thought I had a really good freshman year,” Parris said. “I made mistakes, and was able to learn from them. Going to state and placing well was a good experience. But this year, I want to do better. I am not satisfied. I’m working hard. I’m staying dedicated.”
       
      Parris, like most Indiana wrestlers, says he has dreamed of winning a state title since he was very young.
      Lawrenceburg coach Mark Kirchgassner knew the first time he watched Mason practice that there was something special about him.
       
      “I don’t even think Mason was in kindergarten yet,” Kirchgassner said. “I watched him wrestled and told his dad that Mason is going to be something special. He did things naturally that I had a hard time teaching high schoolers to do.”
       
      Parris is undefeated so far this season. He hasn’t faced many upper level competitors yet, but he certainly isn’t shying away from them. In one of his first matches this year Parris bumped up to heavyweight so he could go against Union County’s No. 13 ranked Clark Minges. All Parris did was tech fall the bigger Minges.
       
      “That was my first match wrestling a really big guy,” Parris said. “I knew I had to stay out from underneath him. I kept pressure on him and really tried to wear him out.”
       
      One of Parris’ main partners in the practice room is No. 6-ranked 160 pounder Jake Ruberg. The two have been wrestling together since they were in elementary school. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. Ruberg’s speed helps Parris learn to deal with the faster opponents he will face, and Parris’ power helps Ruberg contend with the stronger guys he will go up against.
       
      “Mason really pushes me,” Ruberg said. “He really helps my wrestling improve because he is so big and overpowering. And he’s very positive in the room and he helps everyone with technique. I know he can throw me around if he wanted to, but he likes to work on countering my speed.”
       
      Parris prides himself on his work ethic. It’s something his coach sees first hand on a daily basis.
      “Mason has just one gear,” Kirchgassner said. “It’s always go, go, go. He works harder than about any kid I’ve ever seen, in every aspect. Even in his matches he works on his craft. He isn’t content to just go out and beat a guy. If there is a move he’s trying to work on, he will work on it in a match just to make sure he can do it.”
       
      Parris is aware that to win a state championship, there is a likelihood he will have to go up against No. 1-ranked, returning state champion Kobe Wood.
       
      “Kobe Woods is a very good wrestler and I’ve been preparing for him all year,” Parris said.
       
      During the offseason Parris wrestled at the UFC wrestling championships in Las Vegas. He competed at 220 pounds in the 18U division, and won.
       
      “That was a great experience, wrestling in the 18U division with a team,” Parris said. “I faced some very good wrestlers.”
       
      Parris is also a gifted football player in the fall. He was a junior All-State in class 3A (he’s a sophomore), and was the defensive MVP in Lawrenceburg’s conference. He plays middle linebacker and offensive guard. This year Lawrenceburg finished with a 7-3 record.
       
      “I like football and wrestling equally,” Parris said. “I couldn’t choose a favorite.”
       
      Right now Parris is solely concentrating on wrestling. He hopes that focus leads to a state title. One thing is for sure, right now Mason Parris is the biggest attraction in Lawrenceburg.

      2495

      #MondayMatness: Demien Visualizes Himself on Top

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
      Tanner DeMien likes to see his success even before he achieves it.
      The NorthWood High School sophomore wrestler has learned to use visualization to take him to the next level. As a freshman, he placed seventh at the IHSAA State Finals at 106 pounds and his sights are set even higher this winter.
      “I see myself running through my moves and getting my hand raised,” DeMien said. “I think about previous matches and how I can fix those mistakes.”
      Fourth-year NorthWood head coach Damon Hummel said DeMien has gotten better in many aspects of wrestling, but it is between the ears where he has shown the most improvement.
      Hummel said DeMien gets the mental game.
      “He understands how to go into a tournament (with four or five matches) and mentally prepare himself,” Hummel said. “Kids have a tendency to wear themselves out by the end of the day. He prepares himself to be better at the end of the day.”
      With his wrestling I.Q., Tanner is able to diagnose his issues about as quickly as Hummel and his staff.
      “He’s been around wrestling enough that he knows what to do and what not to do,” Hummel said. “He picks himself apart more than most coaches do.”
      Between matches at a super dual, Tanner will go into a quiet place and do visualization exercises and run the halls to keep his heart rate up.
      These are lessons that Tanner has learned from the many camps and off-season programs — he toured the western U.S. with the Ohio All-Star Travel Wrestling Team for 45 days last summer — he’s attended.
      Tanner, 16, is thankful for his father, Jason, who got him into wrestling as a 45-pound peewee at around age 6, for his help and guidance.
      “He’s a big part of what I am and what I’ve accomplished,” Tanner said of father, who is also a NorthWood volunteer assistant coach. “I give my props to him. He’s been teaching me ever since I can remember.”
      The DeMiens have heard highly-decorated coaches like Dan Gable speak on the importance of visualization.
      “A lot of camps we’ve been to have really talked about the mental game,” Jason DeMien said. “It’s seeing the match before you step on the mat.”
      While rotating between 106 and 113 pounds, Tanner has also refined his moves on the mat.
      “I’ve gotten better in the top position and I’m able to turn people and put them away,” Tanner said. “It’s more about technique than a strength thing. I want to get more points for my team.”
      Jason DeMien said his son has learned to apply more pressure on top, gotten good at escapes as well as movement on his feet.
      “As he has gotten older, he’s learned to get angles and work those really hard,” Jason DeMien said.
      Tanner goes into each practice with a game plan. He knows what he wants to concentrate on and he does so with intensity and is a believer in Hummel’s insistence on repetition.
      “If I’m going drill high crotch, I’d rather do that 50 times then run five moves 10 times each,” Tanner said. “It’s just getting a couple of moves down and running them.”
      Hummel calls Tanner a “drill king.”
      “He loves to hit the move and hit the move,” Hummel said. “We talk to all of our kids about repetition.”
      Hummel and his coaching staff do not throw the kitchen sink at the Panthers. The idea is to be proficient at the things they do and not how many things they do.
      “When you get close to January, there’s not much more you can teach the kids,” Hummel said. “They’ve learned what they’ve learned. Now we need to fine-tune everything. You need to be ready for sectional at the end of the year.
      “Kids think they can do everything, but you’ve got to teach them two or three good moves. Some of these kids can get a couple nice takedowns and go to state with that if you’re good at it.
      Practice intensity goes up while duration goes down.
      “When you’ve only got one guy per weight class, you can’t beat the heck out of them everyday in 2 1/2 practices,” Hummel said. “A lot of coaches believe in a lot of moves. We believe in a smaller move base and hit them harder and faster.”
      While Tanner sees plenty of mat time during the year, he is not just a wrestler. He plays tennis for NorthWood in the fall.
      “It’s great for a kid to do that,” Jason DeMien said of the multi-sport appoach. “It gives them a break from being on the mat where your body just gets worn down. Doing something different gives your mind a break.”
      Not that Tanner didn’t use his mental skills on the court.
      “There’s a lot of carryover between tennis and wrestling,” Jason DeMien said. “Tennis is a very mental sport and agility is huge. I noticed that his mental game was so much stronger than kids who have been playing a long time.”
      Look for Tanner and his NorthWood Panther teammates Wednesday, Dec. 23, at Rochester’s McKee Memorial Invitational and Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 28-29, at Mishawaka’s Al Smith Classic.

      4566

      #WrestlingWednesday Feature: Expecting to Win Put Ellis on Top

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Expect to win. That was the mind set 30 years ago for one small, but mighty Indiana wrestler named Lance Ellis.
       
      Now, three decades later, Ellis is an Indiana legend with perhaps the greatest high school wrestling resume the state has ever witnessed.
       
      Ellis’ numbers are staggering. He wrestled 177 high school matches for Cathedral High School. He won every single one of them. He was the first of only two Indiana wrestlers to win four state titles. Of those 177 victories, he put his opponent flat on his back 151 times for the pin.
       
      But how did Ellis get so good? What separated him from the field during the late 80s when he was the most dominating force in the sport?
       
      “My greatest attribute was my mental toughness,” Ellis said. “I have to give credit to my coach, Lance Rhoades, and the fact that we were on a good team. But we expected to win every match – and we were in a whole lot of big matches. Every time we went out to wrestle we just absolutely expected to win.”
       
      Ellis’s first state championship came in 1986. Mentally, he says that freshman season was his most difficult one.
       
      “That was a really tough year,” Ellis said. “Just because I was a freshman and I was cutting quite a bit of weight. But in the end, it was worth it.”
       
      When Ellis reached the state championship that year, standing across the mat from him was Chesterton’s Scott Schultz, a junior he knew very little about.
       
      “Back then there was no social media,” Ellis said. “You can’t watch matches of guys and know their whole history. But I went out expecting to win. He was a very strong kid. I put him on his back but couldn’t hold him down. I think I put him in a head lock in the first two seconds of the match, but he rolled out of it.”
       
      Schultz was one of only a few opponents Ellis didn’t pin. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t dominate. Ellis won the state championship his freshman year by technical fall.
       
      “I didn’t know much about him going in to the final,” Schultz said. “He was a freshman. But I was astonished at how well he knew my style. I was a powerful wrestler and I used that to control my opponents and won by many falls. He used that against me most effectively and basically controlled me the entire match and scored repeatedly, taking me off my feet several times.”
       
      Schultz was a runner-up the next season as well, losing 16-10 in the finals at 105 pounds to Jay County’s David Ferguson.
       
      Ellis comes from a wrestling family. His dad, Bob, was a two-time state placer. His older brother, Scott, was a state champion for Warren Central.
       
      “I just followed them around from tournament to tournament,” Ellis said. “My dad coached me. It was just the way we grew up. We were a wrestling family.”
       
      One big advantage, Ellis feels, was that he grew up in the Catholic Youth Organization.
       
      “There are so many good kids wrestling today,” Ellis said. “There are so many clubs and year around wrestling. I was doing year around wrestling when nobody else was. A lot of that is because I came up through the CYO where we wrestled folkstyle from kindergarten through eighth grade. The only opportunities you really had at that time were freestyle.”
       
      Ellis’ biggest test in a state championship match came his sophomore year. He was going up against Bellmont junior John Faurote in the 112 pound weight class.
       
      “My sophomore year was my closest final,” Ellis said. “I won 3-2. I gave up an escape point and I gave up a point on cautions. I was kind of nervous on that one. Whenever we had a restart, I had to focus on where my hands and feet were so I didn’t give up another caution point. I felt like I was in control of the match, but I only had a one point lead.”
       
      In his junior season Ellis needed to do more than just win the state championship. He needed to pin Merrilville’s Mark Rosenbalm.
       
      “My junior year it got very interesting,” Ellis said. “We were in a really close team race with Bellmont. Coach told me I had to pin the kid. That’s a lot of pressure in the state finals. We were within a couple of points of Bellmont. I won by a major decision (12-4), so it was bitter sweet. We got second that year, but it actually came down to another match later in the day.”
       
      As a senior Ellis was quickly taken down by Rushville’s Scott Wilson. Ellis was able to stand up, throw Wilson and pin him in 1:15. He ended his high school career with a pin in the state championship.
       
      “I remember the feeling when my hand was raised,” Ellis said. “It was relief and excitement. It was a great way to end it. Everyone I knew was there to see it. I had about 100 people there to watch me.”
       
      Ellis said he never really felt pressure as the wins piled up and the momentum of having a perfect career started to roll. He said he approached his final matches the same way he did that freshman year, with an expectation that he was going to win.
       
      Ellis is now the coach of Indianapolis Roncalli. This is his 11th season as the head coach and his 20th overall as a coach in some capacity in Indiana
       
      “I love coaching,” Ellis said. “It’s an absolute blast. I’ve got to coach my own sons (Brennan graduated in 2012 and Nick is a senior this season). I hopefully have had a positive impact on a lot of other kids, too.”
       
      Ellis said his greatest moments as a coach aren’t always from having the standout wrestlers. He enjoys seeing kids improve and overcome obstacles.
       
      “One of the wrestlers that really stick out to me is a kid named Tony Bell,” Ellis said. “He started out as a freshman and had a lot of health issues. But he worked his butt off. He was always around. He was a great leader. As a senior he qualified for the state tournament and that was probably one of the greatest moments I have had as a coach.”
       
      When asked if Ellis had any advice for New Palestine senior Chad Red, who is undefeated in his career with three state titles already under his belt, Ellis said that Red doesn’t need advice.
       
      “Chad already knows what he is doing,” Ellis said. “He’s already beat all the kids over and over. He’s the best wrestler I’ve seen in my 20 years, no doubt. Jason Tsirtsis, Alex Tsirtsis and Angel Escebedo were very good, but right now, Chad Red, with everything he has done, is amazing.”
       
      Ellis says today’s wrestlers have a lot more technique than when he wrestled. They have more opportunities to wrestle year around and to see great competition. But some of the intangibles that he had when he wrestled, is what he thinks kids today need to succeed.
       
      “When they are in the practice room, they need to go 100 percent the whole time,” Ellis said. “They need to focus on doing everything right. They can’t take breaks. They can’t go half way.
       
      “Wrestling is such a tough sport. It’s so demanding. Especially in the practice room. You have to live on the mat and get as much time as you can. And I can’t stress enough how important it is to drill hard, and drill correctly.”
       
      Ellis isn’t sure when he will step down as a head coach, but he plans to always be around the sport. Thirty years after dominating opponents on the mat, he isn’t slowing down yet.

      3165 1

      #MondayMatness: Glogouski Following in the Family Tradition

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
       
      Blake Glogouski wants to ascend to the top of the IHSAA wrestling hill and he wants to get there quickly.
       
      The Fairfield High School senior sees speed as one of his weapons as he looks to add to a prep resume that already includes two trips to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (he was a state qualifier as a freshman at 106 pounds and placed fifth at 113 as junior). He wants to compete “under the lights” this time around and speed will be part of the package.
       
      “I always push the pace,” Glogouski said. “My coaches always tell me to move faster than the opponent and don’t slow down.”
       
      Falcons assistant Jesse Espinoza is taken with the intensity and toughness packed into an athlete who clocks in at 5-foot-7 and plans to wrestle at 120 on the back side of the 2015-16 season.
       
      “It’s hard to explain,” Espinoza said. “He’s just one of those kids. You tell him to run through a brick wall and he’ll get through it.
       
      “If you are wrestling in the (practice) room and he gets hold of a leg, it doesn’t matter what you do to him he’s not going to let go of that leg.”
       
      Dan Glogouski, Blake’s father and another assistant on Fairfield head coach Jim Jones’ coaching staff, has watched his son became more of a leader to his teammates.
       
      Maturity and off-season work, including an appearance at the Disney Duals and workouts with older brother Forrest who will again be a teammate when he is joined by Blake at NCAA Division II Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, in 2015-16, have combined to make Blake a better Falcon since he went 52-3 last winter.
       
      “Mentally, he’s gotten better,” Dan Glogouski said of Blake. “It’s from growing up, being a senior, being that leader. He’s the guy most of the kids on the team look up to.”
       
      Blake tends to be quiet, but when he uses his deep voice, he commands attention.
       
      “He may be little, but he’s a mighty kid,” Dan Glogouski said of an athlete who was also an impact performer on offense, defense and special teams in football for Fairfield’s NECC big school division co-champions.
       
      While Blake regularly works out with junior 132-pounder Dillon Yoder, he does not shy away from larger wrestlers in practice.
       
      “He’s not scared of anybody,” Espinoza said. “Some kids will go after him, but after about 30 seconds or so they are done.
       
      “He kind of turns it on.”
       
      Blake Glogouski began the season at 126, but intends to drop down to 120 because he thinks it gives him a chance to be stronger and for the most success. Of course, he has the prerogative to change his mind.
       
      The highly-ranked grappler said his biggest area of improvement has come in takedowns. He uses about five or six and goes with the shots that opponents can’t easily stop.
       
      With two State Finals appearances, 125 high school victories and numerous Indiana State Wrestling Association laurels coming into his senior season, Blake knows he will see the best others can throw at him.
       
      “There’s definitely a target on my back,” Blake Glogosuki said. “I’ve just got to work harder.”
       
      As Glogouski and the Falcons head into the 2016 part of the calendar, the heat will go up in practice.
       
      “We’ll turn up the intensity in practice as we get closer to our conference tournament and on into sectionals,” Espinoza said.
       
      On Wednesday, Dec. 23, Glogouski became a four-time champion at Rochester’s John McKee Invitational. He was named the meet’s outstanding wrestler for the second time.
       
      Fairfield is scheduled to host Churubusco in dual Jan. 5 with the West Noble Super Dual Jan. 9 and Goshen Invitational Jan. 16, followed by the Northeast Corner Conference meet Jan. 23 and Elkhart Sectional Jan. 30. After that comes the Goshen Regional Feb. 6, Fort Wayne Semistate Feb. 13 and State Finals Feb. 19-20.

      3278 1

      #WrestlingWednesday Feature: Bane Building Upon Last Year's Success

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

       
      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      In a matter of seconds, Richmond’s Alston Bane caught the attention of the Indiana wrestling community.
       
      Last season Bane entered the state tournament as a relative unknown. He was ranked 18th at the time of the tournament. He advanced to state with a fourth place finish in the New Castle semistate, a tournament in which he was pinned by Trent Pruitt and he lost a decision to Evan Smiley.
       
      His Friday night draw didn’t seem favorable. He had to go up against the No. 2-ranked grappler in the 145 pound weight class in Yorktown’s Cael McCormick. But Bane loved the draw.
       
      “I had wrestled Cael several times when we were younger,” Bane said. “He beat me in Greco each time, but anytime we wrestled and I could touch his legs, I beat him. So I had a lot of confidence going up against him.”
       
      Bane ended up scoring a last-second takedown with his signature dump move to beat McCormick 4-3.
       
      He wasn’t done quite yet. He went on to knock off No. 5-ranked Blake Jourdan and then avenged two earlier losses to Smiley, the No. 4-ranked guy in the weight class, to take third at state.
       
      Bane’s only loss at Banker’s Life Arena was to eventual state champion Jacob Covaciu in a close 4-2 affair.
       
      Bane’s third place finish was better than anyone else from the New Castle semistate in that weight class.
       
      Now, a year later, a lot more people know about Alston Bane. He has bumped up to the 160-pound weight class where he is currently ranked No. 2 behind only Covaciu.
       
      “People knew me before the state tournament last year,” Bane said. “But I never really got a lot of recognition. A lot of people didn’t see me as a threat. Now this year I have a little bit more of a target on my back.”
       
      Last season there was a question as to whether Bane would even be able to wrestle in the state tournament. He tore the meniscus in his knee and had to miss the North Central Conference tournament.
       
      “That was very tough on me, mentally,” Bane said. “I knew as soon as it happened what it was. It was my third time doing it. I tore the meniscus once on my left knee and it was the second time on my right knee. I couldn’t walk. I was crying as I was sitting on the trainer’s bench and then my dad (Richmond coach Jeremy Bane) came over and when he saw me he started tearing up, too.”
       
      Bane knew he had to force himself to recover, and quickly if he wanted any shot at wrestling come sectional time.
       
      “I really worked hard and pushed to get my leg where I could walk on it and get stability,” Bane said. “I sat out of the NCC meet, but mentally I knew I just had to push through the pain and get my strength back.”
       
      The recovery process, and then his dramatic run through the state tournament have helped Bane to be much more confident this season. He believes that’s the biggest difference for him between last year and this year.
       
      “My confidence has improved a lot,” he said. “That is a huge factor for me. I really feel now, especially after state last year, that I can wrestle with anyone.”
       
      Coach Bane can see the change as well.
       
      “The big thing for Alston now is his confidence and his belief in himself,” Jeremy Bane said.
       
      Alston grew up wrestling with some of Indiana’s elite wrestlers. He and Chad Red are good friends dating back to when they were in elementary school wrestling tournaments together. Jeremy and Chad Red Sr., coached together at Red Cobra and Lawrence Central.
       
      “We have some of the kids that we coached that are really good at the high school level now,” Jeremy said. “Alston grew up with Chad, Brayton Lee, Blake Rypel and a few others. They are all very successful now.”
       
      Bane, a junior, recently won his 100th match. It was one of several goals he has for himself, which culminates in winning a state championship.
       
      Eventually Bane would like to wrestle in college. He’s a two-sport athlete who stands out on the football field for the Red Devil defense.
       
      As a sophomore Bane recorded 67 tackles and had eight interceptions. This season he moved to strong safety and finished with 88 tackles and an interception.
       
      “I’ve talked to a lot of college coaches and I’ve went to so many wrestling camps,” Alston said. “Coaches make it clear that they really like kids that play multiple sports. I love being competitive and football helps me do that, and plus it’s a lot of fun to play.”
       
      Bane finds himself having to alter his style slightly to deal with the stronger opponents he is facing this year in the 160-pound class. He tries to utilize his technique and speed more than relying on his strength.
       
      “He has unbelievable grip strength though,” coach Bane said. “He isn’t going to get outmuscled by many guys.”
       
      Coach Bane says that guys wrestle Alston differently this season, now that they know more about him.
       
      “We see a lot of the better wrestlers wrestling Alston with a more defensive approach,” Jeremy said. “They try to take away his offense and they look for certain moves. But he has several ways to score the takedown and he’s been pretty successful.”
      Bane is currently undefeated on the season. His closest match came in the New Castle Invitational against Lawrenceburg’s No. 7-ranked Jake Ruberg. Bane won the contest 4-3 in double overtime.
       
      “We have almost identical styles,” Bane said. “So those matches are very close.”
       
      Bane is currently wrestling in Spartan Classic at Connersville. This is a tournament he has never won. He was third as a freshman and lost last year to Evan Smiley.

      5861 4

      #MondayMatness: The Culp Family is Hooked on Wrestling

      By Steve Krah
      When the mat sport attracts a child, it often brings whole family with it.
      Once that flame is lit, it’s next impossible to extinguish.
      An interest sparked into just such a passion for the Culps of Columbia City.
      Two topics come up at family meal time.
      “Wrestling and racing,” Pat Culp said. “That’s all we talk about at our house.”
      Blane Culp, son of Pat and David, loves the mat and dirt track racing and runs a website (http://www.maximumdirt.com/) dedicated to the latter.
      But it’s the love of takedowns, turns and technical falls that has gone on to have a major impact on not only Whitley County but the whole Indiana wrestling community and beyond.
      Introduced to competitive wrestling around age 6, Blane Culp enjoyed early success. He placed second in his weight class in at the Indiana State Wrestling Association state tournament in his second year and was hooked.
      “I lost to a kid named (Angel) Ecobedo (who went on to become four-time IHSAA state champion at Griffith High School and then an NCAA champion and four-time collegiate All-American for Indiana University),” Blane Culp recalls. “I was probably the last one who came close to beating him in Indiana.”
      Blane’s older brother, Josh Ross, also was having a blast and winning matches.
      Around 1996, the Culps — Pat and husband Dave (who had been a wrestler at Lewis Cass High School, where he graduated in 1977) — started the Columbia City Wrestling Club. Blane and Josh were an active part of an organization that went on to be one of the bigger ones around the state with an enrollment consistently over 100.
      While other family members Kayla Culp, David Stahl and Shane Stahl would be involved on the mats at the club and/or high school levels, Josh would go on to compete at 140 pounds in the IHSAA State Finals in his senior year at Columbia City (1998) while 125-pounder Blane placed third in his final prep season (2004).
      Randy Kearby was the Eagles head coach for both boys.
      Blane went on to grappled for two seasons at IU. He was an assistant at Bloomington North High School and is now in his sixth years as head coach at Columbia City.
      With all the knowledge gained as a wrestler and coach, Blane throws a lot of information at his young Eagles and they incorporate what works best for them.
      “I show a lot of stuff and they take what they want,” Blane Culp said. “We have short stocky guys and tall skinny guys. Some run legs and some run cradles. All of our guys are different.
      “There is not a set style in Columbia City and I like that. That’s the way it was when I was in school. I wrestled one way, but could change it for someone else.”
      Columbia City wrestlers generally have three of four options to take on double leg takedowns or finishes and they refine those as the season gets closer to conference and state tournament time.
      “By the end of the year, they’re picking their set-ups and their finishes,” Blane Culp said. “Come January and February, they are fine-tuning their favorite moves. It’s no longer in my hands. It’s in their hands.”
      Pat Culp has kept a hand in the sport because she believes in it.
      “Wrestling builds self esteem,” Pat Culp said. “It’s really good for the kids. That’s why I stayed involved.”
      And involved she is.
      Pat Culp, the Columbia City club president, got so caught up in the fun and excitement that she began helping to organize wrestling tournaments outside her club and became an ISWA Pairing Developmental Director.
      “I love organizing events,” Pat Culp said.
      She routinely runs or oversees multiple tournaments — high school and club — at the same time. She trains workers and is available on-site or by phone as a trouble shooter.
      Mark Dunham, Kyle Keith and Jean Whetstone are other volunteers who keep Indiana wrestling events running like clockwork.
      While more and more tournaments use Trackwrestling for scoring, Pat Culp insists that workers know how to manually score a tournament in case something happens like a computer server going down.
      “We want to keep the tournament running without people realizing what’s going on,” Pat Culp said. “There are a lot of variables, but it’s a lot of fun.”
      She knows that not all tournaments are the same and she tries to cater to each director. Some are ran as duals and other with individual brackets. Scoring for advancement and match points can differ.
      One tournament might be rigid for location of matches and others might go with first available match or use a combination of the two.
      “I don’t put everybody in a box,” Pat Culp said.
      If things are going smoothly at a tournament, like the IHSWCA State Duals which she helped run Saturday, Jan. 2, in Fort Wayne, Pat can watch what’s happening on the mats.
      Blane has noticed.
      “It seems that moms enjoy wrestling more than what dads do sometimes,” Blane Culp said.
      “She’s watched all these (Columbia City) kids grow up. At semistate, I can see her across the arena when we are in a ‘ticket’ round, she’s still biting her nails. She’s still nervous for them. It’s like when I was in school. They’re still her boys.”

      2735 3

      #WrestlingWednesday: Olympians Building with Core Group of Lightweights

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

       
      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Columbus East senior Coy Park has wrestled at 182 pounds his entire high school career. But when coach Chris Cooper told Park it would help the team if he dropped to 170, Park did just that.
       
      “Coy said he would cut the weight and get down to 170,” Cooper said. “When I told him it would help the team, there was never any question in his mind. He was going to do whatever he needed to do to help us succeed. Coy is without question our team leader. He leads by example and he can be vocal. He’s 100 percent about the team all the time.”
       
      That mindset has driven the Olympians to success this season. Every wrestler on the team will do whatever it takes to make the team better. Cooper feels that his squad can be a legitimate contender to win the team state title as long as they keep getting better.
       
      Leading the way for the Olympians is a core of young ranked wrestlers at the lower weights. Freshman Cayden Rooks is the No. 1-ranked 106-pounder in the state. Freshman Jake Schoenegge is ranked No. 14 at 113. Graham Rooks, who finished third last season at 106 pounds, is now ranked No. 4 at 120. Sophomore Dawson Combest is the 14th ranked 126 pounder in the state.
       
      “Those guys kind of give you some hammers in your lineup,” Cooper said. “They are the kind of guys that live and breathe wrestling. They are the kind of kids that have been in big meets before, and big situations. That experience, even at a young age, helps everyone on the team.”
       
      The only other ranked wrestler on the Columbus East squad is senior heavyweight Sean Galliger. Galliger is ranked No. 5.
       
      Rounding out the lineup is sophomore Corbin Pollitt at 132, senior Jake Martindale at 138, freshman Hunter Dickmeyer at 145, senior Ben Wilkerson at 152, junior Austin Wilson at 160, sophomore Lane Goode at 182, junior Seth Turner at 195 and junior Austin Sheckles at 220.
       
      Senior Quade Greiwe was a semistate qualifier last season for the Olympians, but had a season-ending ACL injury earlier this year.
       
      The Olympians started the season out with a loss to sectional rival Jennings County, 37-28. Cooper is hoping the team has improved significantly since that time.
       
      “We are fired up for the state tournament to begin,” Cooper said. “We are not the best team in the state today. We didn’t start out as the best team in the state. But we hope to be one of, if not the best team in the state come tournament time.
       
      “Jennings County is tough. They beat us already. They are returning sectional champions. But we hope we are a different team now and up to the challenge.”
       
      The Olympians last won the Jennings County sectional title in 2013. In 2014 Columbus East finished fifth behind Greensburg, Jennings County, Madison and Columbus North. Twenty points separated the top five teams that season.
       
      Last year Jennings County ran away with the championship – outscoring Columbus East 268-148.
       
      Cooper has stressed the importance of summer wrestling to his team – which has bought in to his philosophy. The kids wrestled over 30 matches during the offseason and also bonded as a team. Now they are also buying into Cooper’s philosophy that they have to improve each and every day.
       
      “I think that’s one of the biggest keys to success,” Cooper said. “You have to use every day to get better. Every day you have to make a conscious effort to improve in something.”
       
      The Olympians have tried to make their schedule very difficult, especially early on.
       
      “We want to find out early what our flaws and our weaknesses are,” Cooper said. “That’s why we start with such a tough schedule. Then we can work on those flaws, and as the season progresses we really show how battle tested we are.”

      3882

      #MondayMatness: Jimmies Rise to the Occasion

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
       
      Plenty of practice and coaching reminders gave Jimtown High School wrestlers to succeed during a recent grueling stretch.
      The Jimmies placed 11th out of 32 teams in the 37th annual Al Smith Classic, held Dec. 29-30 at Mishawaka. Jimtown junior Kenny Kerrn took top honors at 145 pounds.
       
      On Saturday, Jan. 2, the Jimmies finished second out of 12 squads in the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association State Duals at Fort Wayne’s Memorial Coliseum. Jimtown edged Yorktown 31-30 in the semifinals before bowing 46-23 to Bellmont in the Class 3A finals.
       
      Jimtown head coach Mark Kerrn and his staff got the Jimmies ready for the tough week with quality mat time the week after Christmas and through visualization and confidence-building drills.
       
      Repetition in practice and time spent in the high school off-season at tournaments, camps and Indiana State Wrestling Association Regional Training Center sessions at Jimtown, Penn and Mishawaka continues to get the Jimmies ready for whatever they face during a match.
       
      “We work a lot in practice on situations,” Mark Kerrn said. “It’s about knowing what the score is and (getting an extra point or avoiding giving one up). We’ve been making good decisions.”
       
      Kerrn constantly talks about the effort it takes to be a Jimmie wrestler and the family bond that is being built though the shared hard work.
       
      “A lot of kids sacrificed (in the State Duals, especially against Yorktown),” Mark Kerrn said. “They were getting thrown in against better wrestlers, but they were unselfish.”
       
      In giving Yorktown its first-ever loss in State Duals competition in an event began in 2012-13, Jimtown got pin victories from sophomore Hunter Whitman (113), Kenny Kerrn (145) and senior Ben Davis (182), a major decision victory from junior Dalton Heintzberger (170) and decision triumphs from freshman Matt Gimson (120), senior Jarod Hayes (195) and junior Nick Mammolenti (heavyweight).
       
      The Jimmies yielded two pins to the Tigers, but no other “bonus” points (four for a major decision, five of a technical fall or six for a pin or forfeit).
       
      Mammolenti won 4-3 in overtime and freshman Hunter Watts (106) took the final match to overtime before losing 9-6 while giving up no extra points and helping Jimtown to a narrow win.
       
      “Going in I knew I had to win to give us (a chance to win) the match,” Mammolenti.
       
      After he was penalized for a fleeing — a call he disagreed with — the Jimmie heavyweight got fired up even more.
       
      “That really made me motivated to take (Yorktown’s Jacob Rhoades) down,” Mammolenti said. “I got up and turned around and shot at him and I don’t think he expected it. Then he was hurt. I just had to ride him out for another three seconds and it was over.”
       
      Mammolenti credits his progression in the sport to all the coaches who train with him in practice. Among those are Paul Bachtel, a state champion for Concord in 197x and a longtime Jimtown assistant.
       
      “If I can do anything on him, I can do anything on anybody,” Mammolenti said.
       
      Also contributing to Jimtown’s 2A runner-up finish were freshman Connor Gimson (126), senior Greden Kelley (132), senior Cole Watson (138), senior John Windowmaker (152), freshman Tyler Norment (160), freshman Aaron Martinez (also at 170) and junior Caleb Fowler (220).
       
      Jimtown followed up the performance in Fort Wayne with a practice filled with a little fun as well as work. With a day off of classes, the Jimmies wore “crazy” singlets and had a dodgeball tournament before being put through drills by assistant coach Anthony Lewis.
       
      “We try to break up the monotony as much as possible,” Lewis said. “We had just had a tough week — mental and physically.”
       
      Lewis, who wrestled for uncle Darrick Snyder at Mishawaka and joined the Jimtown staff in 2012-13 to help the Jimmies place fifth at State Duals and get Nick Crume an individual state championship, said the season is a progression.
       
      In early practices, coaches show wrestlers a large number of moves. As the season goes on, those moves are refined and a wrestler finds the combinations that works best for them. Practices become shorter, but more intense.
       
      The constant is the attack mode.
       
      “We try to push the pace and control the tempo in the match,” Lewis said. “Get the first takedown and then keep lighting the scoreboard up after that.”
       
      Mark Kerrn asks his youth athletes to give it their all during workouts, but he knows that there’s more to life.
       
      “We ask them everyday to touch the sign, just think about wrestling for two hours and then they go back to being a kid,” Mark Kerrn said. “It’s not wrestling 24/7.”
       
      But the dedication needs to be there as Mark’s son will attest.
       
      “You’ve got to love the sport of wrestling,” Kenny Kerrn said. “It’s an intense sport. You can’t dread it.”
       
      After a 3-1 day at the West Noble Super Dual (the loss came against 2015-16 IHSWCA State Duals 1A winner Prairie Heights) on Saturday, Jan. 9, the Jimmies look forward to the Northern Indiana Conference tournament Saturday, Jan. 16 at Mishawaka (the first NIC meet since Jimtown, Bremen, Glenn and New Prairie joined the conference in 2015-16) and then the IHSAA state tournament series.
       
      “The (Elkhart Sectional) is wide open,” Mark Kerrn said of the eight-team field. “There’s about five teams who could win. It just depends who is on that day.”

      3127 2

      #WrestlingWednesday Feature: McKinney Excels on the Mat and in the Classroom

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

       
      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Matthew McKinney approaches academics with the same ferociousness he has when he steps on the mat for a wrestling match.
       
      “Academics is just another competition for me,” McKinney said. “Whether it’s in the classroom or on the mat, I want to be the best at everything I do.”
       
      McKinney is currently ranked No. 15 out of his class of 791 seniors at Warren Central High School. His grade point average is 3.97.
       
      “I really take a lot of pride in my academics,” McKinney said.
       
      He also takes pride in his wrestling. He is currently ranked fourth in the state at 138 pounds. He is a two-time state qualifier. He advanced to state his freshman year at 106 pounds and again the next season at 120 pounds.
       
      McKinney believes he outworks anyone he steps across the mat against. He religiously goes into school early three times a week and either runs or swims. He also stays late after practices and puts in extra conditioning. That hard work has paid off when it comes to the long, three period matches.
       
      “I really pride myself on being able to go six minutes as hard as possible and wearing on my opponent with heavy hand fighting,” McKinney said.
       
      The practice room at Warren Central is full of practice partners for McKinney. If he wants to work on speed and agility, he faces Warren’s 126 pounder Joel McGhee (ranked No. 6). If he needs to work against stronger opponents, he goes up against Trent Pruitt (ranked No. 4 at 152 pounds). If he’s looking to get as much work in as possible, he has a host of partners he can go against.
       
      “We have around 70 guys at practice and we have three mats going on,” McKinney said. “That gives me a lot of partners to push me. For sure that’s an advantage because you never run out of guys to wrestle. When you’re wrestling live, there is always a fresh guy to come in and keep pushing you.”
       
      The Warrior team is absolutely loaded this season. Warren Central has ranked wrestlers in 10 of the 14 weight classes. Jim Tonte took over the program this season, after having a very successful career at the helm of Perry Meridian’s program.
       
      One thing McKinney noticed right away about Tonte’s coaching style, is that he wanted the team to have a good chemistry.
       
      “The biggest difference between last year and this year is that we are a lot closer as a team,” McKinney said. “We hang out outside of wrestling. We have more of a team atmosphere. Coach Tonte stresses team bonding. We’ve gone to the movies together, had hang out sessions. And, a lot of us have been together for four years now so we are naturally close.”
       
      Brownsburg defeated Warren Central in the team state championship this year. That doesn’t sit well with the senior Warriors.
      “We have to give props to Brownsburg,” McKinney said. “They really brought it to us. It was very humbling for our team, but we’re excited for our second chance. Our goal is to win the state championship. I want to win it with my team and individually. We feel we are good enough, and that goal is always on our mind. We break every practice with a ‘Blue Rings’ chant for the blue medal you get when you win state.”
       
      McKinney did not qualify for state last season. He was beaten in the ticket round of semistate. But this year he feels he can see a lot of improvement.
       
      “I’ve faced seven ranked guys and lost just one,” he said. “I’m right there with the top guys. It gives me confidence to know I can go out and beat anyone in front of me. Last year Nick Lee beat me. He took me down, cut me, took me down, cut me and then pinned me real quick. This year I went the distance with him. The score still wasn’t what I wanted, but I can tell I’ve improved.”
       
      Coach Tonte said at the beginning of the season some people wanted McKinney to wrestle at 132 pounds this year.
       
      “Matthew spent so much time in the weight room every day that he eventually filled out and made it to be a true 138,” Tonte said.
       
      Tonte said it was probably a difficult transition for McKinney to have a new coach for his senior year.
       
      “I’ll be honest,” Tonte said. “It was probably somewhat tough for him. He had a competitive match with one of the kids I coached last year and I know it was probably really tough on him to know I was coming in to be his coach. But he has responded very well and he realizes we care about him. He’ll run through a wall for us. He’s responded to everything we are doing.”
       
      McKinney is a two-sport athlete at Warren Central. He is the kicker and backup punter for the Warrior football team. He says football is a sport he does for fun, but he really enjoys being part of the program.
       
      After high school McKinney would like to wrestle collegiately. He is not sure what he wants to study or where he wants to attend.
       
      “Matthew is just one of those kids that you don’t ever have to worry about his future,” Tonte said. “His future is open for whatever he wants to do. He has a great drive, a great family and you can tell he has really been raised well. He will succeed at whatever it is he sets out to do.”
       
      For now, he is setting out to win the 138 pound weight class in Banker’s Life Fieldhouse.

      2723

      #MondayMatness: Eli Working on Another Podium Finish

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
      David Eli got an up-close look at the big stage as a sophomore.
      The Elkhart Memorial High School wrestler placed seventh at 182 pounds at the 2014-15 IHSAA State Finals.
      A year wiser and stronger, Eli has his sights set on loftier heights in 2015-16.
      Working with a Brian Weaver-led coaching staff that includes former successful Memorial wrestlers, Eli is honing his skills for a tournament run.
      Eli spent the time between high school season attending Indiana State Wrestling Association Regional Training Center workouts at Penn and going to freestyle and folkstyle tournaments.
      Just before the start of the current Crimson Charger slate, he went to Las Vegas and went 8-2 in two divisions of the “Freak Show.” Competing at 200 pounds, he won the varsity division and placed fourth in the elite.
      That experience combined with plenty of time in the weight room led the a season filled with grueling training sessions and more victories on the mat.
      “We’ve been working real hard,” Eli said after a recent win at 182. “I feel like I’ve got conditioning on some guys.”
      Weight workouts — especially with his legs — have added the muscle to help put away opponents.
      His regular workout partner at Memorial has been senior 170-pounder Nick Ritchie and both have benefitted from pushing one another.
      “For David to get down to the State Finals again this year, he needs opponents that can push him to his limitations,” Weaver said. “Nick Corpe, Shane Hendrickson and Tieshawn Johnson can push David to his limitations, get him where he needs to get.”
      Corpe and Hendrickson are EMHS assistant coaches and Johnson is a 2014 Memorial graduate.
      Corpe was a state champion for the Chargers at 171 in 2004-05 and went on to compete at Purdue University.
      Hendrickson, a 2010 Memorial graduate and two-time semistate qualifier and Northern Lakes Conference champion, wrestled for Trine University.
      Johnson, who placed fifth at the 2013-14 State Finals at 195, wrestled at Indiana Tech.
      “It really helps me out, them coming into the room and working with me,” Eli said.
      Corpe has been impressed with Eli’s work ethic and athleticism.
      “He doesn’t miss any practices,” Corpe said of Eli. “He just keeps getting better.
      “He digs for his ties and gets to his positions. When he hits his moves, he’s explosive. He stays in control of the match.”
      While Eli has been successful with blast double, high crotch and headlock combinations, Corpe wants him to add to his arsenal.
      “To win a state title, you need more than one shot,” Corpe said. “You’ve got to be able to scramble and know your positions. On top, he’s good. He’s a strong kid. But it usually comes down to the feet game. You need to compete with everyone on your feet.”
      Eli has taken this to heart.
      “I can be one-dimensional,” Eli said. “I’m working on scoring from more positions.
      “No matter who I’m wrestling, I’ve got to make sure I’m finishing my shots. Everything needs to be crisp.”
      Hendrickson said it is the basics that make Eli so good.
      “He is one of the more fundamentally-sound wrestlers I’ve ever seen in high school,” Hendrickson said of Eli. “That’s what we continue to work on. Fundamentals — David has gone them down. That’s why he’s ranked so high. That’s why he’s going to do damage at the state tournament.”
      Hendrickson sees Eli stay in what he calls “power positions.”
      “He’s always in a good stance,” Hendrickson said. “He doesn’t expose his side or his hip as much as he can help it.”
      Weaver, who placed seventh at the State Finals at 130 in 1996, said Eli and other high school (folkstyle) wrestlers have benefitted from freestyle wrestling.
      “There are more angles to freestyle and you can lock hands,” Weaver said. “(Freestyle) helps with mat awareness. Anytime you expose your back to the mat, it’s two points. A freestyle match can go very quick. You have to keep yourself in very good position the entire match.”
      Some folkstyle matches become a contest of playing near the edge of the mat. That’s not the case in freestyle.
      “Freestyle does not allow you to play the out-of-bounds line,” Weaver said. “(The official) will blow the whistle and take you right back to the center. They don’t want the lag time.
      “I’m hoping that Indiana will go to the college rules where if you have any limb inside the circle, it’s still live wrestling. It will eliminate playing the out-of-bounds line game.”
      Taking his knowledge of freestyle and his work ethic, Eli is aiming high this season.
      Next up for Eli and the Chargers is a dual against Northridge Tuesday, Jan. 19, and the NLC Tournament Saturday, Jan. 23 — both at Memorial.

      6777 9

      #WrestlingWednesday Feature: Blast from the Past with Randy May

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

       
      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Randy May’s name deserves to be in the mix when talking about Indiana’s all-time best wrestlers.
       
      May went undefeated as a sophomore, junior and senior at Bloomington South High School in the 1974-76 seasons. He won three state championships during that span.
       
      Perhaps the only thing keeping him off the podium his freshman season was that he was too small (he weighed right at 84 pounds), and he was behind the brother of three-time state champion Jim Cornwell for a spot in the varsity lineup.
       
      “I was just too little to make the varsity team,” May said. “My coach, Kay Hutsell, had already won four state championships as a coach. Bloomington had a tradition back then like Evansville Mater Dei does now. And it was almost as hard to crack our varsity lineup as it was to win a state title.”
       
      Hutsell had coached Bloomington to team state championships in 1969, 70, 71 and 72. During that span Bloomington had seven individual champions.
       
      In 1973 Bloomington split into Bloomington North and Bloomington South. Hutsell became Bloominigton South’s coach, and led them to another state championship in the 1973 season.
       
      That season May lost just one time in the reserve matches – to a varsity junior from Owen Valley.
       
      “I got beat by him,” May said. “It was a good match. He ended up being one win away from going to the state tournament.”
       
      May hurt his back his freshman year and coach Hutsell sent him to help coach the feeder system at Smithville Middle School.
       
      “I was mad,” May said. “I wanted to be with the team. I had so much energy for the sport. Eventually coach let me travel with the team on dual meets. That was a privilege. I got to be on the team bus with everyone and I was sort of brought up under their wings. I was with guys like Marty Hutsell and Doug Hutsell (both were two-time state champs).”
       
      May knows living in Bloomington when he did was the best possible place for him to grow as a wrestler. He vividly remembers being allowed to go to Indiana University during their clinics and camps.
       
      “I had great coaching,” May said. “Everyone thought I would one day go to IU. I was able to go there anytime I wanted and I was able to wrestle kids from all over the country that came in for the clinics and the camps.
       
      “In 1975-76 money was very tight and there was a gas shortage. I’d drive to IU after I got off of work and I’d go to one of the wrestling clinics where kids would stay for the whole week from across the country. You would get a new batch of kids each week.”
       
      May would bet the kids that he could take them down. If he took them down, they had to pay him a dime. If they took him down, he would pay a dollar.
       
      “I took all their candy money,” May said. “That always paid for my gas.”
       
      May dominated his foes on the mat during the high school season much like he did at the clinics. He never lost a varsity match.
       
      After high school he chose to wrestle at Cleveland State University, which at the time was a national top 20 program.
       
      “I had dreams of being a four-time National champion,” May said. “I had my whole future mapped out. I wanted to be an Olympian and then I wanted to coach wrestling.”
       
      Things didn’t work out as May had planned. He developed a debilitating disease that changed his life course and took him away from wrestling. He was only able to wrestle one college match.
       
      “The disease shuts down the central nervous system,” May said. “It can kill you. But I worked my ass off. They told me I should have been on bed rest, but I didn’t stop working. When I couldn’t stand, I’d pull myself up. I still went to practice every day.”
       
      May eventually realized his wrestling career would have to be over.
       
      “I was walking with the aid of a cane at the time,” May said. “I was struggling with guys that I knew I should have been able to kick their ass. I wrestled one match against a four-time state champion from West Virginia. He took me down and I said, ‘you have got to be kidding me’. I came back and tied the match and won on riding time. But I knew I wasn’t myself anymore. I knew wrestling was over for me.”
       
      May had to refocus his life goals, and his career. He didn’t want to coach the sport he could no longer participate in. He now runs a business in underground utilities and lives in Florida.
       
      His son, Randy Jr., took up wrestling in high school and quickly found success.
       
      “He was a natural and I loved watching him,” May said. “He took fourth in state his junior year and as a senior he was ranked No. 1 and got very sick and ended up finishing sixth. He won over 100 matches and I was at his practices every day. The team won state his senior year and I was able to travel with the guys.”
       
      Six years ago, Randy Jr., passed away.
       
      May has suffered more than most his age. But he remains positive. He credits his outlook on life on his upbringing.
       
      “I was brought up with a good work ethic,” May said. “We had tasks and chores. My parents wanted them done right. I’d complain, but then I realized if I worked hard and did them right the first time, with a good attitude, I was going to get a reward. I could go play in the woods or go swimming.
       
      “I guess I carried that attitude over into life. I always try to have a good work ethic and a positive attitude. That will make you successful in anything you do.”

      3248 3

      #MondayMatness: Hildebrandts Working Towards the Top of the Podium

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
       
      A bond shared between siblings is a big part of why they are among the top wrestlers in their realm — big sister at the national and international level and little brother near the top of the high school pinnacle.
       
      Sarah Hildebrandt, 22, is a member of Team USA and trying to earn a spot for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The 2011 Penn High School graduate, just completed a national team training camp in Iowa City, Iowa, the site of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Wrestling on April 9-10. She is among those going for spots at 53 kg (116.8 pounds).
       
      Drew Hildebrandt, 18, is coming off a runner-up IHSAA State Finals finish at 113 pounds and a key role in Penn’s 2014-15 team state championship. Now a senior, the Central Michigan University-bound grappler is currently ranked No. 1 in his weight class in Indiana at 120 and was just named MVP of the Northern Indiana Conference for the NIC team champions.
       
      Sarah will have an overseas tour and a few tournaments leading up to the Olympic Trials. One is scheduled for the weekend of the IHSAA State Finals, Feb. 19-20, in Indianapolis.
       
      “Yo! I’m not going to that,” Sarah stated emphatically while visiting family for the holidays and watching her brother compete during break from training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I’ve got to see my little brother.”
       
      Sarah, who got to coach from the corner at Mishawaka High School while her bro won an Al Smith Classic title in late December, is close to all her family members (Chris and Nancy have four children — Cory, Sarah, Amy and Drew).
       
      But the lofty wrestling goals and shared mat experiences have brought Sarah and Drew even closer.
      “We keep in touch (texts and phone calls etc.),” Sarah said. “We send each other silly stuff all the time. But before a competition, he will say, ‘I love you. You’re a beast.’ Drew knows I can do this. He’s been in this position. He trains with me. He knows me.
       
      “I love to hear from him . He’ll say, ‘Sarah, you’ve got this. Keep going.’ At the end of the tournament, he’ll say ‘I’m so proud of you.’”
       
      Through training and listening, Drew has benefitted from Sarah’s experience as a top grappler at King University and with the national team.
       
      Drew has adopted Sarah’s front headlock and slide-by to his bag of tricks.
       
      “People say, ‘you have a nasty slide-by’ and I say, ‘I learned it from my sister,’” Drew said.
       
      As a wrestler elementary school, Drew would get almost sick from anxiety before every match. With plenty of time in the spotlight since, that is no longer an issue.
       
      But Drew and Sarah do have anxious moments.
       
      “When she’s wrestling, I’m twice as nervous as when I’m wrestling and when I’m wrestling, she’s twice as nervous,” Drew said.
       
      On breaks from the national team — like the one in December — Sarah came into the practice room and shared her knowledge with all the Kingsmen, including head coach Brad Harper and his staff.
       
      “With the moves she shows us, she really focuses on the little things,” Drew said. “It’s more about the neutral position since she really doesn’t do bottom of top.”
       
      Harper, who started at Penn the same season as Sarah in 2007-08, appreciates the technician that she has become.
       
      “I told her back then that if she was going compete against boys, her technique and positioning had to be perfect,” Harper said. “She has taken that to heart. It has shown. She has even taken it to the next level.”
       
      Harper, a former standout at Mishawaka High School and Purdue University who has continued to coach Sarah past her high school days, said attention to detail is what she will need to have to earn a spot for Rio.
       
      “It’s about a lot of reps and a lot of practice and knowing you’re ready,” Harper said. “It’s hitting things over and over and over. That makes her makes her a great technician. She realizes her weaknesses and strengths.”
       
      Sarah said its her perfectionist tendencies that help her make adjustments and gives her confidence on the mat.
       
      “I love to just drill,” Sarah said. “Everybody knows I have a headlock and everybody knows I have a slide-by. Everyone in the country knows and people on the other side of the world know. But they don’t know the corrections I am making.”
       
      Sarah has also worked on her quickness.
       
      “I am a very heavy-footed wrestler,” Sarah said. “I’ve really focused on moving my feet, elevating the pace and moving in and out. The first time I executed it, people came up to me and said, ‘wow! you look like a different wrestler.’”
       
      Making Sarah and other Penn athletes better wrestlers is what Harper strives to do, not only with the teaching of technique, but with his encouragement.
       
      “That’s my secret sauce, it’s all about motivation,” Harper said. “I try to keep them focused on the ultimate goal.”
       
      With his current Penn grapplers — like Drew — that goal is individual and team championships.
      For Sarah, it’s an Olympic dream.
       
      Harper, who was in Las Vegas on a Friday night when Sarah qualified for the Olympic Trials and with his Penn team the next morning for a tournament in early December, likes to send motivational quotes.
       
      A recent one to the Hildebrandts came from legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.
       
      The quote read: “It’s not the will to win that matters — everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
       
      The Harpers know Sarah as an athlete, but are very close with the whole Hildebrandt family. Sarah, best friend and national team training partner Jenna (Burkert) Lowry and others could be seen with Brad and wife Christina’s daughter and son — Mackenzie, 2, and Deuel, 5 months — at the Al Smith Classic.
       
      As a motivator and accountability partner, Harper watches film of Sarah and gives pointers. He talks to her about her diet (she has gone down a weight class), her training and her mental game.
       
      “We talk everyday,” Sarah said. “He’ll ask me, ‘have you visualized today?’”
       
      Dropping down to 53 kg (about four pounds lighter than her previous class and her lowest weight since high school), Sarah made a total change to her routine.
       
      “I took the cut very, very seriously,” Sarah said. “I probably started three months out. I complete changed my diet, my cardio and my lifting.”
       
      She continued with wrestling workouts five days a week (twice a day three times) and went from 20 to 40 minutes of running on the treadmill and a sauna session each day.
       
      Then a funny thing happened.
       
      “The day of weigh-in, I was being nice to people. It was a whole new experience,” Sarah said. “(When cutting weight,) I can get a little cranky. I love being down at the other weight. I feel like I can move better.”
       
      While running back in northern Indiana, she noticed how training at 6,000 feet above sea level in Colorado helps.
       
      “I was running 2 to 3 mph faster here,” Sarah said.
       
      It has been quite a run for the Hildebrandts and that run still has miles to go.
       
      Here is a link to a previous story on Sarah Hildebrandt
       
      http://www.elkharttruth.com/sports/2010/02/11/Prep-Wrestling-Hildebrandt-winning-matches-breaking-ground.html

      2163

      #WrestlingWednesday Feature: Two New College Programs in Indiana

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

       
      By JEREMY HINES
      thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Two Indiana Wrestling Hall of Famers will be at the forefront of expanding the state’s college wrestling reach next season.
       
      Steve VanDerAa will be Ancilla College’s first wrestling coach beginning in the 2016-2017 season. Steven Bradley will be at the helm of Marian University’s first year program, also beginning next season.
       
      “Obviously being the first coach, nobody has been before me,” Bradley said. “There are no footsteps to follow and not a lot of pressure. I get to create my own footsteps. It’s a good thing. When I’m all done, many years from now, hopefully I will have set a standard that other people will want to strive to acheive.”
       
      Bradley was a three-time state champion wrestler from Beech Grove High School. He has coached at the college level for 10 seasons. The move to Marian was exactly the kind of job he was looking for. It enables Bradley to be closer to his family.
       
      For VanDerAa, who coached Winimac High School for 20 seasons, he couldn’t resist the chance to get back into the coaching game.
       
      “I’ve officiated the last couple of years, but I’ve really missed coaching,” VanDerAa said. “I can’t wait to get back into it.”
       
      VanDerAa is the first lay coach to be inducted into the Indiana Wrestling Hall of Fame. He has a coaching record of 404-96 and says all but six of his career losses came at the hands of schools larger than Winimac. He has helped coached Indiana legends like Angel Escobedo and Alex Tsirtsis.
       
      Both coaches are excited about the chance to build their programs from the ground up.
       
      “That’s the most exciting part,” said VanDerAa. I have a say in how we’re going to put the wrestling room together. We’re ordering all new equipment and when we are recruiting we get to tell them that they are the first and they are going to be the foundation of our program.”
       
      Bradley said recruiting has been relatively easy from the start.
       
      “It’s been nice,” Bradley said. “I’ve receive a lot of interest already. There are a lot of people contacting me and talking about the school. I’ve started talking to kids. The interest has been amazing at how many people in the first few weeks have sent emails, calls and text to get information. They love that there is another choice out there.”
       
      Bradley sees wrestling rising in popularity, especially at the small college level.
       
      “The interest is increasing across the country,” Bradley said. “We give kids another option. They can stay close to home and compete. I think it’s a good thing Indiana has more options. It will help Indiana wrestling as a whole. It will help high school kids. The more kids going to college and wrestling, the more young kids will see that and want to follow behind.”
       
      Both Bradley and VanDerAa have similar characteristics they look for in a recruit.
       
      “Academics are important,” VanDerAa said. “But I’m also looking for athletes that want to be part of our charter program. I want kids dedicated to the sport. I want guys that will do hard work, follow directions and be model young men for the sport.”
       
      Bradley is also looking for hard workers.
       
      “They have to be able to work hard,” Bradley said. “We need kids with integrity. We want kids that want to do well academically and kids that want to do well on the mats. I want kids that constantly want more for themselves and push themselves towards their goals.”
       
      Ancilla College is a part of the National Junior College Athletic Association, while Marian is a part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

      2537 2

      #MondayMatness: Flatt Encourages Individualism for the Wildcats

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
      Bill Flatt does not try to fit a square peg in a round hole.
      The 17th-year head wrestling coach at South Bend Riley High School knows that each athlete is different.
      Flatt gets his Wildcats to play to their strengths and it has paid off with plenty of mat success.
      “I don’t try to put them into a mold,” Flatt said. “It’s not ‘here’s how I want all of you to wrestle.’ I emphasize their individuality.”
      Flatt encourages his wrestlers to find what style best suits them and go with that. He will be there to help them refine it.
      The veteran coach and is a former Mishawaka High School (Class of 1979) and Columbia University (Chicago) grappler. As an MHS junior, Flatt went 22-1 for Hall of Fame coach Al Smith. Flatt’s only loss came in the semistate semifinals to the defending state champion.
      After college, Flatt was an assistant to Smith for one season before taking over the Riley program.
      With all his time on and around the mat, Flatt knows that some wrestlers are better on their feet and others excel on top.
      “The guys who are good riders and pinners, when they are on bottom, I don’t want them getting to their feet and getting escapes,” Flatt said. “I want them to get the reversals to get into their best position and score from there.
      “I’m always looking to get them to their best positions, whichever that is. It may be a match-to-match situation.”
      With seniors Austen Laughlin (40-2 at 145 pounds) and Kassius Breathitt (38-4 at 152) and junior Tristan Goering (33-2 at 170) winning weight-class titles and senior RZ Teague (27-15 at 160) finishing fourth, again bolstered Riley as the Wildcats [laced third at the Mishawaka Sectional. Next up is the Rochester Regional.
      “The middle of our lineup has really set the tempo for the team,” Flatt said. That tempo helped the Cats go 17-8 in 2015-16 duals and is leading to wins in the postseason.
      “We want to just keep that momentum going,” Flatt said. “Get the points you need and get off the mat. This time of the year, it’s nothing but the W. Keep going to the right on that bracket. Go to the left and you lose another match and you’re done. So we want to keep going toward that championship bout.”
      Goering placed fourth at 160 at the 2015 IHSAA State Finals. Laughlin is a two-time State Finals qualifier and a 46-match winner in 2014-15.
      “Tristan’s run in the semistate and state finals last year was tremendous,” Flatt said. “For Austen, it’s all about confidence. He’s wrestled so much, there’s always another trick in his bag, one more thing he can do. He breaks people and just gets them to submit.”
      Ultra-competitors Laughlin, Breathitt, Teague and Goering are regular sparring partners during intense Riley workouts.
      “We hate losing,” Laughlin said. “That’s what motivates us to get better. It definitely gets heated in (the practice room).”
      When Breathitt looks at Laughlin, Teague and Goering, he sees driven athletes.
      “They’re determined,” Breathittt said. “They want to go places. They love the sport.”
      “We all work hard in here and push each other to be better,” Teague said.
      Goering said it’s a matter of iron sharpening iron.
      “Austen is one of the best on our team technically,” Goering said. “Kassius stays in really good position. RZ is a combination of the two. He’s real-rounded overall. My strengths are my athleticism, my explosiveness. I’ve been told I’m hard-nosed. I’m not the most skilled, but I go out there real hard and that tends to break guys down.”
      One bit of advice from Flatt that sticks with Goering is focusing on each period instead of the whole six-minute match.
      “If you win two minutes at a time, you will win the match,” Goering said.
      The junior also serves notice about the 2016-17 Wildcats and sees Riley having a good shot at ending Penn’s stranglehold on the top spots in the sectional and Northern Indiana Conference.
      “We’ll be better next year than we are this year,” Goering said.
      Laughlin said it is his ability to adapt to many styles and to go against teammates in practice that know how to scramble to helps him win close matches.
      While Breathitt is strong as a bottom wrestler, it’s also what he has between the ears that helps him be successful.
      “It’s that mental toughness and staying strong throughout the match no matter what happens,” Breathitt said. “You’ve got to believe in yourself. You’ve got to think that you can do it.
      “I’m pretty decent on my feet, but nobody can hold me down. I’m not staying on the mat. A sit-out hip-heist is kind of my go-to thing. I keep running those. I also have moves like Granbys and such.”
      Having drilled so much, Breathitt has confidence in his best set of moves.
      “I keep running it until they stop it,” Breathitt said. “I don’t like to change it up for other people. I like to keep doing what I’ve trained to do.”
      It’s a pretty smart group, too. Flatt said Breathitt, Teague and Goering are on the their way to academic all-state honors.
      Many Riley wrestlers compete throughout the year as a part of the South Bend Wrestling Club, which holds most workouts at Riley and South Bend Joseph.
      The current pack of Wildcats are continuing a strong tradition of South Bend’s South Side. From 1960-15, Riley racked up 53 indivudal State Finals.
      Jon Galloway (1964-65-66) was a three-time state champion for the Cats. Larry Katz (1963), Matt Wills (1991), Matt Nowak (1995) and George Malone (2007) also took state titles.
      “We just keep producing,” Flatt said. “We bring kids in, give them the idea they can be successful and try to put their name on (Riley Wrestling Wall of Fame) list.”

      2260

      #WrestlingWednesday: Basketball Not Rypel's Cup of Tea

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

       
      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Indianapolis Cathedral’s Blake Rypel is one of Indiana’s most dominating forces on the wrestling mat. His name is recognized by just about everyone who cares even a little bit about the sport in the Hoosier state. Rypel wants more though – he wants everyone in the country to know his name.
       
      “I want to be one of the most recognizable names in college wrestling as well,” Rypel said. “I want to be a four-year contender for the National Championship.”
       
      Rypel, a senior at Cathedral, will wrestle next season for the Indiana Hoosiers. He currently is 34-0 this season and is riding an 80-match winning streak.
       
      “Blake is the kind of wrestler that is tough to coach,” Cathedral coach Sean McGinley said. “He can do so many things that you really don’t practice. You kind of let him go on that. He’s so good on the mat, he’s teaching us in the room. He’s a very special wrestler.”
       
      Last season Rypel was the state champion at 195 pounds. This year, in order to benefit the Cathedral team, Rypel has cut down to 182 pounds.
       
      “Here’s a guy that is committed to IU,” McGinley said. “He’s a returning state champ. He’s ranked No. 1 in the state at 195 pounds. But he decides to drop weight and go down to 182 for the betterment of the team. That right there tells you what kind of kid Blake is.”
       
      Rypel’s decision to drop to 182 was for the benefit of the team, but it was also to help out his good friend Ben Stewart.
       
      “Ben is a football player,” Rypel said. “He wants to play in college and he wants to be bulking up, not cutting weight. So I said I would go down to 182 so he didn’t have to.”
       
      Stewart is currently ranked No. 2 in the state at 195.
       
      “If Blake doesn’t go down to 182, Ben doesn’t wrestle,” McGinley said. “So obviously his decision to drop has greatly helped our team.”
       
      Rypel finished seventh as a freshman at 160 pounds. He was second his sophomore season at 182 and he won last year at 195.
       
      His freshman year was one of his most trying seasons because his father passed away unexpectedly a few weeks before the start of the season.
       
      “That was terrible,” Rypel said. “I used it as motivation though. I dedicated a lot of my wins to my dad. Every once in a while I start to dwell on his death, but I try not to.”
       
      Rypel comes from a basketball family. His dad, brother and sister were all basketball standouts. Ironically, Blake was introduced to wrestling through basketball.
       
      “My basketball coach at the time, I think it was around 2005 or 2006, had a son that wrestled and he told me that I might like it,” Rypel said. “The first year I thought wrestling was OK, but in the second year I really started winning and fell in love with the sport.”
       
      Rypel is already focused on his college wrestling. He has dreamed of going to Indiana University ever since he was little, and he can’t wait to put on that Hoosier singlet.
       
      “Every college I visited was pretty cool,” Rypel said. “But I already knew everyone on IU’s team. I have been a Hoosier fan all of my life. I never thought that one day I’d be good enough to wrestle for them.”
       
      McGinley believes Rypel will have a lot of success in college because he is a dominating wrestler on top, which suits the college style.
       
      As far as finishing his high school career, he said anything less than a state championship would be a disappointment.
       
      Rypel won the Lawrence Central sectional last week, beating No. 3 ranked Cameron Jones 8-6 in the final.
       
      He hopes Cathedral can also claim the team state championship. The Irish have seven ranked wrestlers still competing: Lukasz Waldensak (No. 13, 106), Jordan Slivka (No. 12, 113), Breyden Bailey (No. 2, 126), Zach Melloh (No. 6, 132), Rypel (No. 1, 182), Stewart (No. 2, 195) and Ryan Guhl (No. 9, 220).
       
      “I really believe we have some of the strongest wrestlers in the state,” Rypel said. “As long as our guys can place, we have a real good shot at winning.”

      9089 1

      #MondayMatness: Wrestling a Hard Sell for the Davis Brothers

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
       
      It took a little convincing to get brothers Bo, Blake and Beck Davis to see that wrestling is for them.
       
      But once they committed to the mat sport, success followed and Garrett has been the beneficiary.
       
      Bo Davis represented the Garrett High School Railroaders twice at the IHSAA State Finals, qualifying as a junior in 2014 and placing third in 2015 — both times at 195 pounds. He became a collegiate wrestler at Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne.
       
      Blake Davis (220) was a State Finals qualifier as a junior in 2015 just won Carroll Sectional and Carroll Regional titles as a senior in 2016. He will be a No. 1 in the Fort Wayne Semistate at Memorial Coliseum.
       
      Beck Davis, who was at 182 as a freshman in 2015, has won at the sectional and regional stages as a sophomore at 195 in 2016. He, too, will be a top seed at semistate .
       
      Bo, Blake and Beck are part of a family athletic legacy that includes father Chad Davis and mother Lisa (Leichty) Davis (a pair of 1990 Garrett graduates) and grandfather Steve Dembickie (GHS Class of 1971).
       
      In a family where they take their sports and their academics seriously (Bo, Blake and Beck have all excelled in football for Garrett and Blake and Beck are ranked in the top five of their respective classes), it took some serious coaxing to become wrestlers.
       
      “In our school wrestling was the weird thing to do,” Bo Davis said after being recruited to wrestling in sixth grade following a less-than-satisfying basketball experience. “I was forced into it, but I loved it.”
       
      Blake Davis soon followed his older brother into wrestling. But, at first, there was resistance.
       
      “All of us thought wrestling was a joke,” Blake Davis said, speaking for himself and both his brothers. We didn’t take it seriously. Bo went out and we made fun of him.”
       
      But something clicked for Bo and Blake. They began to really enjoy wrestling and the all work it takes to do well.
       
      It took a little more work coaxing Beck to join them.
       
      “We offered him $250 to come to one practice,” Bo Davis said.
       
      No sale.
       
      “I was probably the most stubborn at the start,” Beck said. “I thought it was weird.”
       
      It was Garrett coach Nick Kraus, who had Beck in a weight training class, that persuaded him to became a wrestler.
       
      Kraus, in his fifth season with the program and third as head coach, watched the oldest Davis brother grind to make himself into a decorated wrestler.
       
      “Bo is very coachable and he hated to lose,” Kraus said. “He was very, very persistent.”
       
      After not placing at Mishawaka’s Al Smith Classic as a senior, Bo bared down week by week and it paid off during the IHSAA state tournament series.
       
      “He’s a strong kid with an athletic build who got very good at a couple things he did consistently,” Kraus said. “I’ve never coached anybody who worked as hard as Bo Davis.”
       
      That kind of drive in the classroom turned Davis into Garrett’s 2015 valedictorian and he is now studying biomedical engineering at Indiana Tech. Blake and Beck are ranked in the top five of their classes at Garrett.
       
      A mean streak has also served Blake well.
       
      “Blake is the meanest of the brothers,” Kraus said. “He imposes his will on people. He’s almost a bully on the wrestling mat.”
       
      Lisa (Liechty) Davis, a standout athlete during her time at Garrett (she is a 1990 GHS graduate) and the boys’ mother, has witnessed the rage.
       
      “Blake is mean,” Lisa Davis said. “If Bo was beating them when they were wrestling, they might throw a punch or two. Five minutes later, they are each others’ best friend.”
       
      Blake does not shy away from the mean label.
       
      “I guess since I was little I had anger problems,” Blake Davis said. “I’ve gotten better over the years of channeling it. If you are a competitive person, you don’t want to lose. If you live with them, you’re going to hear about it.”
       
      Kraus appreciates the hate-to-lose attitude.
       
      “That’s not a bad thing in wrestling and it’s trickled down throughout the team,” Kraus said. “All the kids are getting that chip on their shoulder.”
       
      Superior conditioning has been Blake’s calling card.
       
      “I know I’m not the most talented wrestler, but I can outwork them,” Blake Davis said. “I prefer to pin the guy as quickly as possible, but I can go six minutes.”
       
      After an injury-filled football season, Blake just reached the wrestling shape of his junior season in recent weeks.
       
      Using his competitive nature, Blake has avenged early losses or beaten opponents even more convincingly in rematches.
       
      “(Blake) does have finesse,” Kraus said. “But for the most part, it’s a physical brute style of wrestling.”
       
      Even at 220, it’s not all bulldozer with Blake.
       
      “He’s pretty slick,” Bo Davis said of Blake. “He’s athletic for somebody that size. He can pull off some lighter-guy moves that stop people in their tracks sometimes.”
       
      Kraus said Beck has the potential to be the best wrestling Davis brother.
       
      “He’s had his brothers to work with all the time,” Kraus said. “He didn’t want to do it at first. Once he started to do it, he was all in. Now he doesn’t miss summer sessions, camps or weight room workouts. There are high expectations with his brothers’ accomplishments, but he doesn’t let it get to him.”
       
      Following coaching advice, Beck tries to keep moving on the mat and believe in himself.
       
      “I’ve been working on (constant motion),” Beck Davis said. “And to keep having fun and stay confident.
       
      “I’m not really technical sound, but I have a decent gas tank and I like to shoot.”

      4216

      #WrestlingWednesday: Monrovia Seeing Success on the Mat and Gridiron

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

       
      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
      Two wrestlers. That is all Monrovia’s high school team had competing in the first meet of the season. A few months later the Bulldogs were claiming third place at Team State, with 22 wrestlers on the roster.
       
      That is typical for wrestling at Monrovia, a powerhouse football school. The Bulldogs highly encourage wrestlers to play football, and football players to wrestle. They believe the two sports go hand-in-hand.
       
      Monrovia won the class 2A football state championship on November 28. That was one week after the school’s first wrestling meet.
       
      “We went from two kids to 22 after football was over,” Monrovia coach Kevin Blundell said. “I get a lot of freshmen and sophomores that have never wrestled before. The kids that wrestle are really good on the football field. They say wrestling helps them. The football coach pushes all the linemen, especially, to wrestle.”
       
      Monrovia is used to early struggles in wrestling. Kids come in after football in football shape, not in wrestling shape.
       
      “It’s harder than what you think to get these guys in wrestling shape,” Blundell said. “A lot of people see a running back and think he’s in shape. But wrestling is a totally different thing. It’s challenging. A lot of these kids come in way over weight. We focus initially on getting in shape, and then we start to hit the technique side in practice.”
       
      Junior Garrison Lee, the team’s only returning state qualifier, is a prime example. Lee was the starting fullback on the football team. Any time the Bulldogs needed five yards on the ground, Lee was their go-to-guy. But he came in to wrestling quite a bit over weight and not at all ready to go three long periods on the mat with an opponent.
       
      “He was a monster,” Blundell said. “I didn’t think he would make 195. I think I talked to him at football regionals and asked him what he was weighing, and he just told me that I didn’t want to know.”
       
      Eventually the Monrovia wrestlers settled in to their weight classes, and then the successes started rolling. The team had three champions at the Mooresville sectional, and sent six to regional. Lee won regional, with sophomore Brycen Denny finishing third at 106 pounds and 220 pounder Dristin McCubbins, a senior, finishing second.
       
      “Brycen (39-2) has worked very hard to get to where he’s at,” Blundell said. “He’s been in football forever, but he’s only 106 pounds so he decided this season he’s just going to wrestle. Then the team wins state. But he’s still happy with the decision he made. It was what was best for him.
       
      “Garrison was our only qualifier last year. He knows what he needs to do. He’s been there and lost a really close match last year. He has had that lingering in his mind. He’s has a motor on him and he’s mentally tough.”
       
      Also advancing for the Bulldogs is Dristin’s younger brother Riley, a 29-11 sophomore heavyweight.
       
      “When Riley qualified I was very happy to see that,” Dristin said. “We became the first brothers in Monrovia history to both qualify for semistate at the same time.”
       
       
      For Blundell, those early days with just two wrestlers competing seem like a distant memory. He knows that will probably always be the case at Monrovia, where football reigns supreme. But he’s fine with that. He knows, once football is over, wrestling really begins.
       
      “This is a school where the parents are really great,” Blundell said. “They don’t want their kids sitting around doing nothing, so they put them in a lot of sports. They push their kids to do their best and they give me a green light to do whatever we need to do. This is a football school, but we’re becoming a wrestling school as well.”

      2215

      #MondayMatness: Clicking at the Wright Time

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
      Confidence and conviction can take you a long way.
      Kokomo High School wrestlers like junior 113-pounder Jabin Wright (45-5) and senior 145-pounder Szhantrayl Roberson (42-10) have taken that and landed in the IHSAA State Finals — Wright for the second time and Roberson for the first.
      These two Wildkats are the 14th and 15th state qualifiers in Ryan Wells’ eight season as head coach.
      “My coach said I can be the best in the state if I continue to attack and continue to put pressure and I did that today,” Wright said after winning at the Fort Wayne Semistate. “He told me I can beat anybody if I keep working hard. I can’t thank him enough for that.”
      Wright said he “turned it up a notch” as the 2015-16 postseason has approached.
      “I want to get better and better and I want to be on top of the podium on Saturday,” Wright said. “Coached told me, ‘Now’s your time. Now is when it really matters.’”
      Wells, a former Kokomo wrestler who graduated in 2001, asks his Kats to keep it simple and to stay aggressive and in good position. He has seen Wright stick to that plan and it has him back at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
      “He is really peaking at the right time,” Wells said of Wright. “He’s just wrestling so well with his takedowns. He’s really confident.
      “He’s getting deep on shots, finishing and staying in great position all the time. He’s really, really wrestling well.”
      Wright placed third at semistate and lost in the first round in 2015. As a returnee, he will have familiarity with the situation this time.
      But not only that.
      Wright’s first-round draw on Friday night (Feb. 19) is Logansport junior Donovan Johnson, a fourth-place finisher at the East Chicago Semistate. It will be the fourth meeting between the two during the 2015-16 season.
      After losing 7-2 and 17-6 to Logansport’s Donovan Johnson during the season, Wright topped the Berries grappler 8-2 in the finals of the Jan. 24 North Central Conference tournament.
      Like many wrestlers, Wright listens to music before his matches. He was scene doing dance moves prior to wrestling moves at Fort Wayne’s Memorial Coliseum.
      “It calms me,” Wright said. “The music kind of just takes me. I don’t want to stress out about my matches and go out there and not stick to my gameplan.”
      And Wright’s pre-match tunes of choice?
      “Music you can dab to,” Wright said.
      Besides former successful Kokomo wrestlers coming into the practice room to give athletes like Wright and Roberson a different look, there are current Kats like Rafael Lopez (126) and T.T. Allen (138) to help make them better.
      “Since he’s a little guy, he’s real quick,” Roberson said of Wright. “His quickness makes my reaction time better. My strength and my length makes him better because he sometimes has to face tall, lanky guys who are strong. We help each other throughout the season.”
      Roberson lost to Yorktown’s Brad Laughlin in the “ticket” round at semistate last year and now he’s going to the Big Show where he will face Evansville Mater Dei sophomore Joe Lee, a champion at the Evansville Semistate, in the first round.
      What has gotten this Kat to Indy?
      “I’m pretty good on my feet,” Roberson said. That’s my strength. “I like to use a Russian into a sweep single on the right side. A duck-under into a high crotch. I finish a lot with that, too.”
      Roberson also has a pre-match routine. After a talk with his coaches, he puts on his headphones for “hype-up” rap and R&B songs.
      “I turn the music up real loud and get in my zone,” Roberson said. “I get my adrenaline going for the match. It usually helps.”

      2904 3

      #WrestlingWednesday Feature: Eldred Just Trying to be the Best for Six Minutes

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

       
      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Evan Eldred’s dad taught him a valuable lesson when it comes to wrestling. He taught him that Evan doesn’t have to be the best wrestler in the state.
       
      Ironically, that advice has molded Edred into a semistate champ and the No. 3-ranked 138 pounder this season.
       
      “The best advice I’ve been given in wrestling is when my dad tells me that I don’t have to be the best,” Evan said. “I just have to be better than my opponent for six minutes. It doesn’t matter who I’m wrestling or what they’ve done. I took that to heart. If I go out there and do my best, it doesn’t matter if the guy across from me is the best in the state or whatever, you can’t let that make you nervous.”
       
      Eldred has been nearly flawless this year on the mat. He’s 39-1, with his lone loss coming at the hands of No. 1-ranked Brayton Lee in a close 5-3 match.
       
      “Last year I started my season off with a close loss to Brayton Lee,” Eldred said. “This year I ran into him at conference and had a close match with him. It was probably the best thing for me because it made me realize I’m close, but I wasn’t to where I needed to be.”
       
      Eldred is a superb student. He has a 3.78 GPA, was Academic All-State honorable mention, and will wrestle next season for the Indiana Hoosiers.
       
      Eldred’s older brother, Dillon, attends IU and Evan always dreamed of going there as well.
       
      Westfield coach Terry O’Neil knew about Eldred’s desire to go to IU, so when he had a chance meeting with Hoosier coach Duane Goldman, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk about his talented senior.
       
      “I crossed paths with Coach Goldman at the Indiana wrestling coaches clinic,” O’Neil said. “I told him we had a kid whose brother goes to IU and that is where he really wants to go as well. I told him that Evan has flown under the radar and told him about Evan’s wrestling and academic resume. He called Evan that night.”
       
      O’Neil has the highest praise for Eldred.
       
      “I’m pretty biased,” he said. “But if I had only one 138 pounder in the state to pick to be on my team, he would be my choice. I know he can compete with anyone.”
       
      O’Neil says he has never coached a kid with the ability to learn and utilize technique as well as Eldred.
       
      “Several factors go into making Evan special,” O’Neil said. “You can show him a technique on a Tuesday and he will use it in a match on Wednesday. His ability to recognize technique is like nothing I’ve ever seen in a high school athlete.
       
      “Another factor is that he never lets the moment get to him, no matter how important the match is or how big the stage is. He is even tempered and able to maintain an incredible focus.”
       
      Eldred had goals to be Westfield’s first four-time state qualifier. He qualified as a freshman at 120 pounds, but then fell short his sophomore season, losing in the ticket round of semistate. He bounced back last year and placed sixth at 132 pounds.
       
      Not making it to state his sophomore year was heartbreaking for Eldred, but it showed Coach O’Neil just how good of a kid Evan was.
       
      “Evan’s older brother Dillon wrestled for us,” O’Neil said. “He was two years older than Evan. When Evan did not make it to state as a sophomore he was very upset. But when his brother qualified for the first time for state as a senior, the same year, Evan was so proud and so happy for him. His joy for his brother superseded any of his disappointment about not making it himself.”
       
      Evan has worked extremely hard to improve every season. The best semistate finish he had up until this year was fourth. This year he broke through by winning the New Castle semistate. He’s hoping this is also the year he gets to wrestle under the lights in the championship match.
       
      “My dad has been taking me to the wrestling finals since I was about five years old,” Eldred said. “He would always tell me that someday I could be there. Every single year I went I just dreamed about what that day would be like.
       
      “My best wins in high school would be a tie between last year winning on Friday night and knowing I was going to be a state placer – and when I placed at Fargo Nationals two years ago. But getting under the lights would blow both of those two wins away.”

      3412

      #MondayMatness: Red Finishes Stellar Career

      By STEVE KRAH
      stvkrh905@gmail.com
      It was one of the most highly-anticipated championship matches in the 78 years of the IHSAA State Finals.
      There was a buzz around the Indiana wrestling community for months.
      On Saturday, Feb. 20, before 12,602 leather-lunged fans at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis, New Palestine’s Chad Red and Evansville Mater Dei’s Nick Lee — ranked No. 1 and 2 in the nation and holding four previous state titles between them — stepped under the lights with the 132-pound title on the line.
      Here they were, what long-time State Finals public address announcer Kevin Whitehead called “two of the finest high school wrestlers on the planet.”
      The crowd and the television audience was treated to a tussle between the two Big Ten Conference-bound grapplers.
      Red had never lost a match as a high schooler and yet he found himself behind 4-0 early in the match. He cradled his way back into the lead and wound up with his hand being raised after a 6-5 victory.
      “I just feel like I wrestled through that match calmly and, other than giving up that four. I wrestled pretty good,” Red said. “(Lee’s quick 4-0 lead) definitely caught me off-guard. I noticed I had to move a lot more. Once I started moving a little more, I started changing the momentum of the match. Once I locked up that cradle, I started changing the momentum of the match and the crowd got a little more quiet. It was back to us wrestling. I had to control the lead.”
      The New Pal Dragon sprinted off at 183-0 with state titles at 106, 120, 126 and 132.
      Red is only the third Indiana high schooler to go unbeaten throughout his career and the ninth four-time IHSAA state champion, joining Crown Point’s Jason Tsirtsis (2009-12), Griffith’s Angel Escobedo (2002-05) and Alex Tsirtsis (2001-04), Mater Dei’s Blake Maurer (2001-04), Indianapolis Cathedral’s Lance Ellis (1986-89), South Bend Central’s Howard Fisher (1949-52), Muncie Central’s Willard Duffy (1930-33) and Bloomington’s Estil Ritter (1924-27).
      Lee, who was at the top of the podium at 132 in 2015 and third at 126 in 2014, finished his junior season at 16-1.
      He’s been on big stages and won championships all around the country, but Saturday in Indianapolis was special.
      “This is crazy,” Red said. “This is one of my favorites, if THE best.”
      Ellis, the first Indiana grappler to run the table, was there to present Red with his medal and later reflected on the moment.
      “That was good for our sport, good for Indiana wrestling,” Ellis said. “What Chad Red did is amazing. He’s put himself in the record book as probably the greatest high school wrestler in Indiana history.”
      What makes Red so good?
      “A lot of things,” Ellis said. “It’s the time he puts in on the mat, the dedication, athleticism, just the will to win. He’s just a phenomenal wrestler. The bond he has with his dad (Chad Red Sr.) is special. Once you start winning, it becomes contagious.”
      But what it boils down to for Ellis is that Red has what it takes to go into an early deficit, in front of a huge crowd with many rooting against him and still dig deep and come out on top.
      “It comes down to mental toughness,” Ellis said. “And you’ve got to give (Nick) Lee all the credit in the world. For him to go after Red and challenge himself says a lot about him. Most people would do that. No one would do that. He’s a competitor.”
      Ellis said as impressive as the showdown was now, it will be even more important years from now when Red and Lee can look back on even bigger titles at the national and international levels.
      What did Lee think about the experience?
      “You don’t get to wrestle the best kid in the country all the time,” Lee said. “You don’t take it for granted. You go out there and give it 100 percent. The hype is the hype. There’s always hype every year in every weight class. The opportunity to wrestler somebody with that many great credentials is just exciting for me.”
      The moves that built the 4-0 lead?
      “An inside tie to a Fireman’s (Carry) and I got him to his back, so two (points) for a takedown and two for a near fall,” Lee said. “You can’t panic when you get down and he didn’t panic and he took the lead. That’s something you can admire in wrestlers at this level. They’re always in the match no matter what the score is.”
      Red will take his talents to the college mat at Nebraska while Lee has committed to Penn State.
      Who knows, but these two could meet again many times in the future?
      As for the immediate future for Red, he does not plan to be back in the wrestling room on Monday.
      “I’m going to take a long time off,” Red said. “I’m about the chill-ax right now, kick my feet up and sit back.”
      But Red will be back in the spotlight again soon enough when he takes on the Pennsylvania 132-pound champion March 26 at the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic.

      3482 3

      #WrestlingWednesday: The Man Behind the Mic, Kevin Whitehead

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       
      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Thirty-two years ago a spur of the moment idea by Kevin Whitehead resulted in a monumental change to the Indiana high school wrestling state finals.
       
      Back then, Whitehead was a table helper at the finals. He had filled in occasionally on the microphone, announcing some matches for Homer Hawkins, the main announcer at the time. Whitehead thought something was missing going in to the finals. So, he grabbed a notebook and a pencil and went on the mat asking each wrestler for information about themselves.
       
      "I was interested in finding out a little more about the kids," Whitehead said. "So I went kid-to-kid and asked them what year they were in school, what their records were, how many falls they had and such."
       
      At the time, all of the wrestlers in the championship round were lined up across the mat and everyone's name was announced along with their opponent. The two would run across the mat and shake hands. That was it.
       
      But now that Whitehead had all of this extra information scribbled down in his notebook, Hawkins asked if he would like to announce introductions.
       
      "After I announced everyone, Homer looked at me with a smile and told me to keep the microphone and announce the championships," Whitehead said. "I haven't given it up since."
       
      Now the introductions of the finalists are a large part of the finals. Whitehead announces each wrestler, and reads off their list of wrestling accomplishments as the wrestler joins his coaches under a spotlight. After one wrestler is announced, the spotlight moves to his opponent across the mat. Then, the two wrestlers meet at center circle and shake hands.
       
      Whitehead has been the announcer at the state finals since 1984. He lives in Kentucky, but looks forward each year to his annual trip to Indianapolis for the finals.
       
      During his time as the announcer for the finals, Whitehead said he has witnessed major changes in the state format.
       
      "The tournament has gotten bigger in just about every way it can," Whitehead said. "There were fewer wrestlers when I started. When I first got involved the tournament had just expanded. When I was in school there were 12 weights and four wrestlers in each weight. There were 24 semifinal matches and that gave you the finalists and the consolations. After 48 matches, it was over.
       
      "Now we hit match 48 by about 7:30 on Friday night."
       
      Whitehead remembers when the finals moved to Market Square Arena and when the Friday night sessions were added. He has watched as the talent level in Indiana has gotten better, and interest in the sport has greatly increased.
       
      "Wrestling has really grown in the state in terms of the caliber of wrestling, the number of matches, the fan interest and the amount of schools that are represented," Whitehead said. "Right now it sort of gets taken for granted that we have guys wrestling for, or going to wrestle for schools like Wisconsin, Michigan State, Nebraska and Penn State. That was unheard of not so many years ago. You might have one or two outstanding guys that would break the mold, but the quality of wrestling has increased multi-fold and that's very gratifying. That is the driving force as to why there were 33,000 people going there and watching it this year."
       
      Whitehead has announced over 8,000 matches in his long career. He doesn't have a favorite match, but said the atmosphere this year at the state finals was great. He misses the old scoring system for the team title, and believes that created a big interest throughout the tournament.
       
      That was what separated the great sessions from the average sessions," Whitehead said. "The team race was great when you had a few teams battling for the team title. That really hasn't happened since we went to the new format."
       
      One of Whitehead's best memories from the finals came in the 80s. The weather was exceptionally bad and the finals got bumped from Market Square to the New Castle Fieldhouse.
       
      "They had to wrestle it all on one day," Whitehead said. "It started early and ran late. The crowd was huge and New Castle was absolutely packed. When it was over, we all knew we can through a tough time with the weather for wrestling. We had this sense of community afterwards."
       
      As far as announcing, Whitehead said when he calls out for the wrestlers to clear the mat for the second time, that's when things start to get serious. He says he doesn't have any go-to catch phrases from behind the microphone, but he does love the unique names. He prints the finals brackets off as soon as they are available and practices how he will say the names.
       
      Whitehead wrestled for Franklin Central in the early 1970s. He never got past regional but was a Marion County runner-up and a sectional runner-up.
       
      He retired from the Kroger Corporation after a long career spent in packaging development. He lives in Louisville now and spends time golfing with his son when he gets a chance, working around the house and tending to his vinyl record collection.
       
      "I have a 45 vinyl collection with about 3,000 records," Whitehead said. "I started collecting in the 60s, but I really started in earnest when I found a great Goodwill Store near Indiana State University. At the time, vinyl was junk. But now it's very collectible."
       
      Whitehead said he has no intentions of quitting his announcing gig at the state finals. He plans on announcing for as long as he's allowed to do so.

      1699

      #WrestlingWednesday: Former Mat Rivals Share in Collegiate Success

      Brought to you by EI Sports
       

       
      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Travis Barroquillo and Collin Crume developed an intense rivalry on the mat their senior seasons in high school. Back then they had no idea that they would eventually become college roommates and share the NAIA All-American stage together.
       
      Barroquillo and Crume squared off in the Goshen regional final in 2011. Barroquillo won that match and then defeated Crume again a week later in the Ft. Wayne semistate championship. The two had very good showings in the state finals that year, both eventually losing only to state champion Neal Molloy of Danville.
       
      Barroquillo lost to Molloy in the semifinals, and then went on to finish third. Crume fell to Molloy in the final, finishing second. Barroquillo finished his senior season with a 55-1 record. Crume ended his senior campaign with a 49-4 mark.
       
      Now the two are teammates at Indiana Tech. They are roommates and workout partners. The relationship has pushed both wrestlers to a level they didn’t think was possible.
       
      Recently Barroquillo finished fourth at 133 pounds in the NAIA championships, and Crume finished seventh in the same weight class. Both earned All-American honors. In NAIA, schools can have multiple competitors from the same weight class competing.
       
      The road to Indiana Tech was vastly different for the two wrestlers. Barroquillo, a Prairie Heights graduate, became the first wrestler to ever sign with Tech.
       
      “My sister went to Indiana Tech and it was pretty close to home,” Barroquillo said. “When I found out I could be the first to ever sign there, that really helped with my decision.”
       
      Barroquillo will graduate this spring with a degree in business management.
       
      “I couldn’t be where I am today without wrestling,” he said.
       
      Tech’s first-year head coach Thomas Pompei had worked with both wrestlers when they were in high school.
       
      “Travis has done everything for this program,” Pompei said. “He put this program on the mat. He was a three-time All-American. These freshmen coming in can look up to him. He’s grooming freshmen to be like he was.”
       
      Tech finished the season ranked No. 3 in the NAIA polls. In addition to Barroquillo and Crume, the Warriors also had an All-American in Mitch Pawlak. Pawlak became Tech’s first NAIA champion this season when he claimed the 125-pound title.
       
      Crume started his collegiate career out wrestling at Wisconsin Parkside. He then transferred to King University in Tennessee. He took a year off last year to help coach at Jimtown High School, before finally deciding to finish college at Indiana Tech.
       
      “Coach Pompei was a great top wrestler, and that is probably my biggest strength,” Crume said. “He helped me a lot with the technical side of everything. Before, I wasn’t very technical at all.”
       
      Both Barroquillo and Crume said their favorite part of wrestling for Tech is the family atmosphere the team has.
       
      “The guys on that team are my family,” Barroquillo said. “Everyone pushes each other to get better.”
       
      Coach Pompei said his team has a good mix of wrestlers from mainly Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. He believes the talent pool in Indiana keeps getting better.
       
      “I go on Team Indiana trips every year and the talent seems to be rising,” Pompei said. “You have unbelievable studs coming through now. This year was a great year for Indiana. We won our regional and were sitting on the bus and everyone had their cell phones out watching the state finals. The talent level in Indiana is phenomenal.”
       
      At Tech, Pompei feels he gets the chance to help wrestlers peak.
       
      “At Indiana Tech we want someone that is coachable and willing to give everything he has at the next level to make our team better,” Pompei said. “They don’t have to be state champs. They have to be someone that can make people better in the process. A lot of the athletes we get haven’t come close to peaking yet. I get to see them grow and become All-Americans and national contenders.”

      2637

      #WrestlingWednesday: Alara Boyd Aiming for Gold

      By JEREMY HINES
      Thehines7@gmail.com
       
      Alara Boyd firmly believes that she can compete with any female wrestler in the world. That confidence has Boyd, a sophomore at Yorktown High School, setting her sights on winning a gold medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
       
      “I for sure feel I’m there, skill-wise, with anyone in the world,” Boyd said. “I want to be a world champion. But more than that, I want to win the Olympics in 2020. I know what I have to do to get there. I have to keep working. I have to keep practicing and I have to keep improving.”
       
      The idea of Boyd wrestling in the Olympics is not a far-fetched one by any means. Boyd recently earned a bronze medal at the World Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia. Her lone loss came at the hands of Japanese gold medalist Atena Kodama, who tech-falled her opponent in the gold medal match.
       
      “I took a few shots I shouldn’t have taken against Japan,” Boyd said. “They put me on the shot clock and I started to get a little anxious. That really hurt me.”
       
      Boyd bounced back to win the bronze medal, defeating Canada’s Kirti Saxena 8-1.
       
      “My family and friends were super excited for me,” Boyd said. “When I got back they were all telling me how proud they were of me. I thought I wrestled well, but I want to win the world championships next time.”
       
      Boyd is a first-year cadet. She has two more years in the division.
       
      Boyd began wrestling when she was 4-years-old. She fell in love with the sport right off. Her dad, Jimmy Boyd, was her coach.
       
      As with most female wrestlers in Indiana, the majority of Boyd’s opponents are boys. Her practice partners are all seasoned veterans. Yorktown’s Christian Hunt, Josh Stephenson and Alex Barr all take turns wrestling Boyd at practice.
       
      Boyd has had success against the guys. Last year, as a freshman, she posted a winning record for the Tigers. She wrestled at 132, 138 and even 145 in some meets.
       
      In 2015 Boyd won the ISWA Freestyle and Greco Roman state championships, wrestling against a field of all male competitors.
       
      “Alara is very, very physical, even by the boys’ standard,” Yorktown assistant coach Kenny O’Brien said. “She’s very strong. She’s fantastic from an underhook. Her physicality is overwhelming at times. She’s extremely good on top in freestyle and she has one of the best leg laces in the world.”
       
      O’Brien also attributes some of Boyd’s success to her fight. It doesn’t matter who is in front of her, she will fight for the victory.
       
      “Her toughness and her fight are her best attributes,” O’Brien said. “If a girl or a guy hits her, she’s hitting back. She doesn’t back down from anyone. She’ll never back down from anyone. She’ll get right in their face and hit them back if they mess with her.”
       
      Boyd’s trip to Tblisi, Georgia was her first endeavor outside of the United States.
       
      “Things were a lot different there,” she said. “The people were overall pretty friendly. They live a lot differently than we do here. They don’t have all the luxuries we have, but it was neat to experience their culture. You see what they have went through, and you see all of the hard working people over there. It was neat to experience.”
       
      Boyd is currently undecided on whether she will wrestle for Yorktown during the high school season or concentrate more on training for the Olympics. She said she will most likely still wrestle for the school.
       
      In addition to be an Olympic hopeful, Boyd also wants to wrestle in college. Although she’s undecided on what she wants to study. Currently she’s leaning toward dentistry.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.