Northern States Conference Preview

No Clear Favorite in Northern States Race

- Jimtown, New Prairie appear strongest

The theme of the 2009 Northern States Conference wrestling tournament appears to be depth. The team that will take the crown will likely be the one that can place the most wrestlers in the most weight classes as no one team appears to be dominant.

Both Jimtown and New Prairie appear to have the depth necessary to carry themselves to a team title but Knox may have a say in the outcome as they will bring many outstanding grapplers to the clash Saturday at Jimtown High School. Following is a weight class breakdown of the meet:

103 –

Matt Lindsey of Triton brings a 21-1 record to Jimtown Saturday with his only loss coming to Jacob Schroeder of Rochester. Michael Wireman is the second seed with a 20-8 record.

112 –

This class appears to wide open as each of the seeded wrestlers beat one or more of the other seeds. LaVille’s Sean Webb (20-8) is the top seed, followed by Glenn’s Travis Mowery (15-8), Jimtown’s Zach Slough (14-6), and Knox’s Dakota Martin (17-10).

119 –

Knox’s ninth ranked Danny Bradley is the class of the field with his 25-0 record. Second seeded Kaleb McCallum of Glenn has bumped up to 119 late in the season and brings a 24-8 record to the table.

125 –

A two man battle looks to be waged here as number one seed Collin Crume (28-6) of Jimtown might face off with second seeded Kyle Hernandez of Knox (25-4) in the finals.

130 –

Another weight class where the top seeds all own victories over each other, this weight class seeds went based on winning percentage with Bremen’s Justin Bogart (23-5) earning the #1 seed, New Prairie’s Joe Zigler (25-7) at number two, Knox’s Devann Biddle (14-4) at three and Jimtown’s John Michael Moore (23-9) at four.

135 –

Jimtown’s returning semi-state qualifier Jeremy Hill (33-3) is the clear favorite here and he is the one seed, New Prairie’s Aaron Jeske (20-8) and LaVille’s Danny Kline (20-8) are the number two and three seeds respectively.

140 –

New Prairie’s dangerous Dillan Escobedo (15-13) earned the #1 seed based on victories over second seeded Darius Stevens (22-9) of Triton and #3 seed Matt Hill (20-11) of Jimtown.

145 –

Niles Goodman of New Prairie (20-9) is the one seed followed by LaVille’s Preston Pittman (15-12) and largely untested Mike Stout (10-4) of Culver.

152 –

Jordan Martin of New Prairie looks to be the class of the field with his 23-4 record. Knox’s Mike Hernandez (20-9) and Glenn’s Josh Dunbar (21-11) both look to challenge for a spot in the finals as the second and third seeds respectively.

160 –

A three man battle shapes up at 160 where top seeded Jimmy Krause (19-8) will battle New Prairie’s second seeded Ryan Balanow (23-6) and Triton’s third seed, Zach Clark (27-5).

171 –

This may be the deepest weight class of the meet. Jimtown’s Zach Spurgeon enters battle tested and as the top seed. Second seeded Robert Molebash of Culver owns a victory over state ranked Reece Farnham of Northridge and Knox’s Adam Winebrenner (3rd seed) has an outstanding 25-4 record. 4th seeded Dylan Senff (18-5), along with unseeded Jake Cornell (23-6) and New Prairie’s Jeff Jurczak (19-7) appear very capable of upsetting the big guns at this weight class. **NOTE: Triton’s eighth ranked state qualifier Blake Hoffer was injured last Saturday and is taking a week off to heal for sectionals.

189 –

Knox’s Alex Windbigler brings an outstanding 25-5 record to the top seed and he will be chased by New Prairie’s second seeded Eric Singleton (20-8).

215 –

New Prairie’s third ranked Kannon Keigley (31-1) is the clear favorite here. He has one loss on the season to Lowell’s second ranked Nathan Cleveland. Keigley has a win over highly regarded Christain Lentz of Mishawaka and will be looking at the conference meet as way to springboard him to a deep tournament run over the next month.

HWT –

John Glenn goliath Craig Fitzgerald (ranked second in the state) and Jimtown senior Zack Stone (ranked #15) appear to be class of this field. Fitzgerald, undefeated on the year, is the returning conference champ and placed 6th in the state last year. Stone is a semi-state qualifier from last year and placed 3rd at the Al Smith tournament. There was no head to head match-up as Stone was dinged up earlier in the year when Glenn and Jimtown matched up