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2761 5
#Wrestling Wednesday Feature: Purdue Ready for NCAA Championships
Brought to you by EI Sports
 

By JEREMY HINES
jerhines@cinergymetro.net
 
When Tony Ersland took the job as Purdue University’s head wrestling coach he knew it would be a challenge to compete in arguably the toughest wrestling conference in the country. He embraced the challenge.
 
Ersland’s Boilermakers finished the season ranked in the top 25 in the country. Purdue finished with a dual record of 10-8 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten. Eight Boilermaker wrestlers will compete in the NCAA National Championships this week, starting Thursday.
 
“There were a lot of positives for us this year,” Ersland said. “This was my first year in the program with the kids. We set the foundation for how we are going to operate. Overall, I’m happy with the progress we made this year.
 
Ersland comes to Purdue from Nebraska, where he was an assistant coach for the past eight seasons. He has coached several top wrestlers, including Craig Brester who was a two-time NCAA finalist and a Big 12 champion.
 
“Craig is one athlete who is near and dear to my heart,” Ersland said. “He started out as a walk on at the University of Nebraska. Then he became a two time All-American. He’s the type of athlete that makes coaching worthwhile. He poured his heart and soul into wrestling. He was a special wrestler, and his work is what made him that way.”
 
Purdue’s Danny Sabatello, Brandon Nelsen, Nick Lawrence, Doug Welch, Patrick Robinson, Chad Welch, Patrick Kissel and Braden Atwood will all be competing in the NCAA Championships.
 
“Our goal is to have national champions and All-Americans,” Ersland said. “That’s the mindset we are going in with. We want to go in and perform at a high level. We’ve wrestled outstanding competition all year long. The Big Ten is a brutal grind. It’s like SEC football. We’ve had four out of the top five teams in the country in the Big Ten.
 
“It’s extremely competitive. It’s tougher sometimes to win in the conference than it is in a national bracket. There are no illusions going into the national tournament. You know exactly what you need to do.”
 
Ersland likes the quality of wrestlers he has been able to look at in Indiana. He feels that there is great talent in the state.
 
“Purdue is in the middle of a great wrestling state,” Ersland said. “Indiana turns out a lot of good talent and we want to see those wrestlers stay at home. We don’t want the Jason Tsirtsis out there to look elsewhere.”
 
When asked about Indiana’s high school tournament format, Ersland said he prefers to keep a one-class system.
 
“Personally I like the one class tournament,” Ersland said. “I can understand a two class format as well. But as far as evaluating talent, I really enjoy the one class. You don’t end up with a watered down system.
 
“I think Michigan’s system sort of waters it down. They have four classes and that’s too many. One or two tops is the way to go.”
 
Ersland is married to wife Carolyn. They have twin sons, Jaxon and Mason.
 
“They will always have a wrestling partner,” Ersland said of his sons. “My hope is that they will fall in love with the sport as much as I have. But right now they are just four years old. They love to come to practice and watch the guys roll around. I try to get them in bed, but sometimes they just want to stay up and watch wrestling on T.V.”
 
The NCAA championships begin at noon on Thursday in St. Louis.

2377 5
IndianaMat Awarded National Website of the Year
Back in early December of 2008 three guys conjured up an idea to give Indiana a website dedicated to the sport of wrestling. Looking around other states we saw what could be and knew Indiana fans would absolutely love a similar website. We had no clue where the adventure would take us, but as they said in the Field of Dreams, if you build it they will come.
 
Eric McGill and Chad Hollenbaugh were telling me to pull the trigger, I balked at it. I said it would be too much time and effort. They pestered me into submission. Eric, even while going to college in New York, said he’d do the rankings. Chad said he’d write articles on events he attended. Others joined up with us within in the next few days.
 
We quickly added people to our “staff” that volunteered their time. Dane Fuelling was on top of the team rankings, while we had guys like Zach Pierson, Mike Reiser, and Dustin Bentz handle semi-state rankings. I also extended the olive branch of peace with longtime messageboard rival Dingo Brigade aka Cameron Drury to write some articles.
 
The first big time exposure was at the Triacoff that year. Chad Hollenbaugh made up some lineup cards with almost every team’s projected line-up with their IndianaMat rankings. These cards were a hit as they ran out of them twice during the event. Even more importantly it got IndianaMat a lot of exposure in da region and across the state.
 
Chad came up with the 800lb Gorilla slogan, saying that no one can stop an 800lb Gorilla and he was spot on with that. We received some backlash from groups of people, people with a lot influence within the state. We kept plugging along, even while others thought we’d be a flash in the pan. We kept doing what we thought was right and soon those doubters became supporters.
 
We have changed up the look of the website many times with our biggest and best change coming in 2014 when we did a total redesign to incorporate wrestler and team profiles along with many other unique features. Go ahead and find a website with those types of features and you will come up empty handed. These types of features along with an extremely dedicated staff and loyal supporters have made this website the best in the country. What we have here in Indiana is very unique and it amazes me it has been eight years this December. Think about that, incoming freshmen were in first grade, seniors were in 4th grade. That means most of the wrestling community ONLY knows IndianaMat!
 
This past weekend at the Olympic Trials we were recognized as the National Wrestling Media Association’s Website of the Year. Being recognized by our peers as we were this past weekend was very humbling. Hearing things said about our website and talking to others opened my eyes to what we have done not only on a state level, but a national level. It really makes the work, the long hours, the trials and tribulations worth it when you hear the things we did this weekend.
 
There are many thanks that need to go out and I hope I don’t miss anyone. The first big thanks goes to my wonderful wife and family. I can’t tell you how difficult it is to leave for a weekend in Pittsburgh, Iowa City, Fargo, or wherever I decide to go. Without that support and understanding this website would only be a fraction of what it is today. The next time you see her tell her thanks as she is as big of a part of the success of this website as anyone.
 
Second in line is Chad Hollenbaugh. He’s the type that will take little to no credit, but about 90% of the ideas we have for the site come from him. His articles are top notch and you can always sense the educator in him when he adds the closest river or town nickname to his articles. He is a behind the scenes type of guy, but his impact on this website is undeniable.
 
Eric McGill, while he has stepped aside, is still one of the biggest influences on the website. He took on the rankings task from the beginning while being at an Ivy League school over 500 miles from Indiana. The task of doing rankings is an immense undertaking especially from scratch. Eric is still one that has great ideas and offers advice on the future of this website. He did an outstanding job on the rankings and set the standard for Mike when he took over.
 
Since the beginning of the website Mike Reiser did the Merrillville Semi State rankings. A few years ago he added to his list of tasks the statewide rankings. I didn’t know what to expect, Eric did an outstanding job and following him was not going to be easy. Mike has hit a home run with the rankings since he has taken over. The accuracy of his rankings is mind boggling and his knowledge of kids throughout the state borders on being insane. One of my favorite stories is from last year when I was at an event and I texted Mike, “hey this kid should probably be ranked, probably 14-16 area.” He replies, “he is ranked 14th.” Mike has not only done an outstanding job on the rankings, he has become one of my closest friends and I am very appreciative of all his work.
 
There are many, many others that deserve credit for the success of this website. Dane Fuelling has done a stand up job with the team rankings. His knowledge of the top 30 teams in the state and their lineups is beyond comprehension. His rankings are up to the minute and have been an outstanding contribution to the site. Dustin Bentz has been with us from the beginning as the dirty south rankings guy. Add to that his awesome semi state preview that combines his wit and wisdom with his knowledge of the southern hemisphere of the state. Zach Pierson started as our New Castle rankings guy and did a great job until he moved out of state. He passed on the job to Howard Cottey and he has stepped in nicely the past two years. Zach has one of the best lines from doing rankings I have ever heard. He said, “don’t worry about getting them right, if they are wrong someone will tell you!”
 
Our rankings are awesome, but what I think sets us apart from the other sites is our articles. Cameron Drury’s articles are top notch. He can make the most boring match sound like an epic match between two titans. On top of that his articles have a feeling of genuine love and respect for all the athletes on the mat. We have also added two weekly features over the past couple years. Jeremy Hines came to me asking about doing a weekly article. It didn’t take long for him to start churning them out. This past season we also added another talented writer to the staff in Steve Krah. He has over 30 years of experience in the business and his articles are of the highest quality. All three of those guys have talents I only wish I had and their efforts are greatly appreciated.
 
One thing I know that has put us over the top is our top notch photography. Whenever I upload pictures to Facebook I prepare myself for hundreds upon hundreds of notifications. Paul Tincher is a very talented photographer and has helped tremendously to get us to the highest level. I know the kids, parents, coaches, and others absolutely adore his photos. It makes it a lot easier for us to get photos for our magazine or any other graphic we need when we have as many great photos to choose from as we do.
 
There are many behind the scenes things that go on with the website that most do not realize. We have two other computer nerds that have helped keep the site online and running. Nick Weisjahn and Andy Oberlin have been very helpful especially since we converted to the new site. They have an immense knowledge that have helped keep the site up to date and as good as possible.
 
Lastly, we wouldn’t be where we are without our fans and supporters. You are the ones that make this site so great. Many of you have contributed rankings information, results, posts on the forums, amongst other things. Without that support we do not have the presence we do. Whether you agree with class wrestling or not, you can’t disagree that our state has some of the most passionate fans in the country. Thank you for all your support as this award was something that is for the whole state of Indiana.
 
Here is the award presentation and acceptance speech. Note I do a lot better with a keyboard.


3046 5
2018 IHSWCA Team State Information
Date: December 23, 2017
Location: 
Allen County Memorial Coliseum
4000 Parnell Ave
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
TrackWrestling Link(Live Video included)
http://www.trackwrestling.com/tw/teamtournaments/VerifyPassword.jsp?tournamentId=262578009
Schedule
9:00 AM – Rounds 1 through 3 (4 mats)
Pool Play – 4 pools with 3 teams in each pool – seeded
Rd 1 Bye – Lower seeded team in each pool
Rd 2 Bye – Higher seeded team in each pool
Rd 3 Bye – Unseeded team in each pool
2:00 PM(approx) – Round 4 
Bracketed event begins based on how teams finished in their pool (4 mats)
Consolation Matches (2 mats – 2nd  – 8th Place teams)
-Pool A 2nd Place vs Pool D 2nd Place
-Pool B 2nd Place vs Pool C 2nd Place
Consolation Matches (2 mats – 3rd Place teams)
-Pool A 3rd Place vs Pool D 3rd Place (winner ties for 9th place/loser ties for 11th place)
-Pool B 3rd Place vs Pool C 3rd Place (winner ties for 9th place/loser ties for 11th place)
4:00 PM(approx) – Round 5 
Bracketed Consolation Matches (4 mats)
Championship Bracket Semi-Finals (2 mats – 1st Place teams)
-Pool A Winner vs Pool D Winner
-Pool B Winner vs Pool C Winner
5th/6th Place Dual and 7th/8th Place Dual (2 mats)
6:00 PM(approx)– Round 6 
Finals for Places 1st – 4th (2 mats per class – 6 mats total for Event)
Teams
3A Teams
Avon
Brownsburg
Carroll
Castle
Center Grove
Columbus East
Evansville Mater Dei
Harrison (WL)
Penn
Perry Merdian
Portage
Roncalli
2A Teams
Bellmont
Edgewood
Franklin County
Garrett
Indian Creek
Jimtown
Lawrenceburg
New Haven
New Prairie
North Montgomery
Wawasee
Yorktown
1A Teams
Adams Central
Attica
Cass
Central Noble
Eastern (Greentown)
Frankton
Knightstown
Milan
North Posey
Prairie Heights
Shenandoah
South Adams
Team State Documents
TeamStateInfo.pdf
Team State Agenda.pdf

2429 5
2018 State Finals By the Numbers
Overall
Rankings are always a heated debate amongst wrestling fans. Over the years we have always locked our rankings before sectional and let them ride throughout the state series. Every year we lose kids due to unforseen circumstances and even the death draws at semi-state. However, they always prove to be quite accurate. This year we had the most ranked wrestlers in 179 or just under 80% in our final rankings. Here is a breakdown by weight and highlight matches to watch on Friday night.
2018- 179
2017- 169
2016- 175
2015- 172
2014- 171
2013- 171
2012- 170
2011- 157
2010- 159
2009- 143
106lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 15
Unranked qualifiers:
Trey Sturgill - Peru
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#1 Jacob Moran- Portage vs. #7 Wyatt Miller- South Adams
#10 Gavinn Alstott- Floyd Central vs. #5 Alex Cottey- Perry Meridian
#13 Zachary Todd- Yorktown vs. #11 Colin Reagan- Frontier
#17 David Pierson- Warren Central vs. #6 Cole Ross- Evansville Mater Dei
#3 Logan Bailey- Indianapolis Cathedral vs. #16 Noah Gardner- Edgewood
#4 Kysen Montgomery- Brownsburg vs. #18 Harrison Hadley- Lapel
#9 Fernando Flores- Goshen vs. #20 Jace Alexander- Wawasee
113lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 15
Unranked qualifiers:
Joe Just - Carroll (Fort Wayne)
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#1 Brayden Curtis- Yorktown vs. #13 Caleb Oliver- Indianapolis Cathedral
#11 Tyler Conley- Avon vs. #2 Jose Diaz- Wheeler
#15 Kade Zadylak- Norwell vs. #10 Carson Eldred- Westfield
#16 Danny Tolin- Chesterton vs. #5 Blake Boarman- Evansville Mater Dei
#4 Andrew Black- New Castle vs. #8 Brayden Shearer- Garrett
#6 Andres Moreno- Lowell vs. #12 Alex Petro- Center Grove
#9 Devon Casebolt- Castle vs. #14 Ricky Hegedus- Portage
120lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 11
Unranked qualifiers:
Alex Bautista - Hanover Central
Logan Mosser - Adams Central
Logan Wagner - Zionsville
Tyler Fuqua - Franklin Community
Vince Sparrow - Penn
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#12 Logan Boe- Danville vs. #13 Zane Standridge- Carroll (Fort Wayne)
#6 Brock Peele- Portage vs. #3 Brendan Mattingly- Carmel
#9 Raymond Rioux- Avon vs. #19 Ian Heath- Leo
126lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Andrew Wilson - Indianapolis Cathedral
Kyle Lawson - Bellmont
Payne Blackburn - Delta
Skyler Gomez - LaPorte
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#2 Cayden Rooks- Columbus East vs. #19 Kaellin Kelly- Crown Point
#3 Alec Viduya- Roncalli vs. #14 Tanner Schoeff- Central Noble
#4 Colin Poynter- Portage vs. #12 Brycen Denny- Monrovia
#6 Ty Mills- Brownsburg vs. #11 Tanner DeMien- Penn
132lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Chris Wilkerson - Mount Vernon (Fortville)
LJ Burdon - Plainfield
Logan Hill - Penn
Ricky Haught - Huntington North
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#1 Graham Rooks- Columbus East vs. #10 Cody Betourne- Harrison (wl)
#12 Hunter Cottingham- Western vs. #7 Carter Noehre- Greenfield-Central
#18 Alex Barr- Yorktown vs. #11 Jarred Rowlett- Warren Central
#2 Manzona Bryant- Culver Academies vs. #5 Eli Dickens- Evansville Mater Dei
138lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 15
Unranked qualifiers:
Dylan Goudy - Western
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#2 Blake Mulkey- Brownsburg vs. #11 Alexander Strueder- Fishers
#4 Zach Melloh- Indianapolis Cathedral vs. #18 Noah Hunt- Bloomington South
#6 Matt Lee- Evansville Mater Dei vs. #15 Brailen Harrington- North Central (Indianapolis)
#7 Bailey Moore- Beech Grove vs. #3 Dawson Combest- Columbus East
#8 Conner Gimson- Jimtown vs. #9 Ian Dembowski- Valparaiso
#10 Austin Moore- Central Noble vs. #13 Adam Davis- Culver Academies
#19 Preston Risner- Penn vs. #20 Bryton Goering- Elkhart Memorial
145lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 15
Unranked qualifiers:
Jorden Douglass - Attica
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#1 Kasper McIntosh- Portage vs. #18 Scott Fitts- Evansville Mater Dei
#10 Dakota Ball- Southmont vs. #15 Giran Kunkel- Central Noble
#17 Jon Ruble- Bellmont vs. #3 Jordan Slivka- Indianapolis Cathedral
#2 Christian Hunt- Yorktown vs. #8 Hayden Lohrey- Shenandoah
#4 Tristan Sellmer- Floyd Central vs. #20 Brock Ellis- Chesterton
#5 Antwaun Graves- Warren Central vs. #19 Eliseus Young- Muncie Central
#7 Jacob LaPlace- Mishawaka vs. #11 Nathan Conley- Avon
152lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Corban Pollitt - Columbus East
Jackson Pettigrew - Columbia City
Stevie Browning - Franklin County
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#12 Joel Arney- Carroll (Fort Wayne) vs. #4 Derek Blubaugh- Bloomington South
#16 Robert Deters- Castle vs. #6 Xander Stroud- Elkhart Central
#19 Aiden Warren- Perry Meridian vs. #3 Donnell Washington Jr.- Portage
#2 Graham Calhoun- Plymouth vs. #5 Kody Wagner- Zionsville
#7 Elliot Rodgers- Indianapolis Cathedral vs. #10 Joseph Walker- Mishawaka
160lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Anthony Mosconi - Indianapolis Cathedral
Ben Kensinger - Mishawaka
Wade Presson - Bloomington South
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#15 Tucker Schank- Southridge vs. #16 Chandler Woenker- F.w. Bishop Luers
#2 Jack Eiteljorge- Carmel vs. #20 Malik Hoover- Merrillville
#3 Diego Lemley- Chesterton vs. #12 Brooks Davis- Perry Meridian
#5 Nick South- Columbus East vs. #14 Ethan Hicks- Carroll (Fort Wayne)
#6 Hunter Reed- Columbia City vs. #1 Gleason Mappes- Center Grove
170lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 14
Unranked qualifiers:
Andy Davidson - Columbus East
Drake Guerrero - Portage
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#1 Noah Warren- Perry Meridian vs. #14 Brigham Kleinhenz- Columbus North
#15 Delton Moore- Manchester vs. #18 Cody Crary- Munster
#2 Zack Fattore- Hobart vs. #12 Brady Wyro- Homestead
#3 Carson Brewer- Avon vs. #11 Elijah Mahan- Roncalli
#4 Jordan Rader- Peru vs. #19 Mario Traficanti- Crown Point
#6 Cody Klettheimer- Frankton vs. #5 Kameron Fuller- Jeffersonville
182lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Brenden Moore - South Spencer
Jamari Washington - Hammond Gavit
Kyler Funk - Mississinewa
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#1 Nathan Walton- Brownsburg vs. #16 Daniel Below- Perry Meridian
#10 Sam Gobeyn- Zionsville vs. #5 Kiave Guerrier- Evansville Central
#4 Conner Graber- Northridge vs. #11 Max Chaffee- Penn
#6 Aaron Mosley- New Albany vs. #18 Jalen Morgan- Elwood
#7 Jonyvan Johnson- New Haven vs. #17 Jeremy Torres- Portage
195lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Dan Wickersham - Northridge
Michael Bohman - Franklin County
Shane Stits - Center Grove
Victor Lee - Marion
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#15 Rockne Hurley- Penn vs. #6 Sam Hansen- Roncalli
#19 Luke Smith- Jeffersonville vs. #4 Draven Rasler- West Noble
#3 Thomas Penola- Zionsville vs. #11 Arthur Fowler- Calumet
#9 Tremor Bynum- Pendleton Heights vs. #10 Bryson Ford- Benton Central
220lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 9
Unranked qualifiers:
Chandler Schumm - Adams Central
Isaiah Baumgartner - South Adams
Jacob Bolte - Columbus East
Jacob Sisk - Pike Central
Joey Kidwell - West Lafayette
Kyle Simpkins - LaPorte
Nate LaFree - Plymouth
Gabe Watkins - Marion
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#3 Jacob McClaine- Lebanon vs. #5 Michael Boots- Evansville Mater Dei
#6 Ryan Hammond- Whiteland vs. #7 Landan Burton- New Palestine
First round match-ups of unranked wrestlers:
Chandler Schumm- Adams Central vs. Nate LaFree- Plymouth
285lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 10
Unranked qualifiers:
Harley Hillenburg - Bloomington South
Jamichael Watts - North Central (Indianapolis)
Marcus Stone - Elwood
Nick Conner - Elkhart Central
Tyler Majors - Lawrence North
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#18 Holden Parsons- Yorktown vs. #16 Elisha Tipping- Wawasee
#2 Eli Pokorney- Chesterton vs. #3 Dakota Ault- F.w. North Side
#8 Jacob Obst- Indianapolis Cathedral vs. #6 Riley McCubbins- Monrovia
First round match-ups of unranked wrestlers:
Marcus Stone- Elwood vs. Harley Hillenburg- Bloomington South

2671 5 2
2020 New Castle Semi-State Preview
This may be the toughest New Castle Semi State I have ever seen.  There will be 20 or more ranked wrestlers staying home next week.  As always, brutal ticket round match ups with two top 10 ranked wrestlers.  5 #1 Ranked Wrestlers in the tournament.
 
106
State Ranked Wrestlers
#3 Suhas Chundi- Carmel
#5 Bryce Lowery- Roncalli
#7 Josh Johnson- Cardinal Ritter
#9 Evan Dickey- Cathedral
#19 Romello Williams- Anderson
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#6 Keaton Morton- Perry Meridian
#7 Nathan Smith- Southport
#8 Garrett Condo- Milan
 
Potential Match-ups
#5 Bryce Lowery vs #19 Romelo Williams ticket round
Lowery has been on fire in his freshman campaign and is looking to take his first trip to state with his older brother.
 
#9 Evan Dickey vs #6ss Keaton Morton
These two have not wrestled this year.  Morton has an awkward style that could give Dickey issues, but Dickey has experience on the floor at New Castle.
 
#3 Suhas Chundi vs #7ss Nathan Smith
Chundi has been here before and the podium at state and it looks like he should have a return trip.
 
#7 Johnson vs #5 Lowery
Rematch from sectionals in the semi finals.
 
#9 Dickey vs #3 Chundi 
Semi-finals
 
#3 Chundi vs #5 Lowery
Finals
 
1st Round Picks
Johnson over Condo (4 over 1)
Rodriguez over Vest
Lowery over Hale
Williams over Coffman
Dickey over Cornelius
Morton over Holcomb
Chundi over Fye
Smith over Lengerich
 
Tickets Punched
Lowery, Chundi, Dickey, Johnson
 
Alpha Dogs
Lowery and Chundi
 
113
State Ranked Wrestlers
#1 Alex Cottey- Perry Meridian
#4 Elijah Anthony- Frankfort
#8 Blake Wolf- East Central
#10 Marquarias Wilburn- Warren Central
#11 Logan Carrender LN
#12 Brac Hooper Carmel
#14 Kody Glithero
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#8 Griffin Ingalls Fishers
 
Potential Match-ups
#11 Carrender vs #4 Anthony ticket round
Anthony has had two incredible seasons so far, but Senior Carrender will be a tough out.  His style is awkward and he is extremely strong.  Anthony knocked him off in ticket round last year.
 
#8 Wolf vs #8ss Ingalls first round
Haven’t seen much about this match-up.  Ingalls has a win over Wilburn and has been competitive all year.  Winner has the privilege of #1 Alex Cottey in the ticket round. 
 
#10 Wilburn vs #12 Hooper ticket round.
These two have had 2 opportunities to wrestle but it hasn’t happened yet.  Wilburn has beat Carrender twice which Hooper lost to in a major decision.  Hooper pinned Ingalls who beat Wilburn early in the year.
 
#14 Glithero vs #4 Anthony Semis
Glithero is coming off a huge win over Alex Cottey and Anthony is coming off two straight losses to Hooper.  Should be a good one.
 
1st Round Picks
Glithero over Ellingwood
Driver over Necessary
Carrender over Bullock
Anthony over Gardner
Wolf over Ingalls
Cottey over Reese
Hooper over Marker
Wilburn over Reyes
 
Tickets Punched
Cottey, Glithero, Anthony, Wilburn
 
Alpha Dog
Alex Cottey
 
120
State Ranked Wrestlers
#1 Zeke Seltzer- Cathedral
#4 Carson Eldred- Westfield
#7 Christian White- New Palestine
#10 Anthony Hughes- Lawrence North
#13 Carleton Perry- Warren Central
#14 Jacob Simone- Hamilton Southeastern
#19 Brevan Thrine- New Castle
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#6 Antonio Jefferson LC
 
Potential Match-ups
#1 Seltzer vs #14 Simone. 
Two state place winners do battle to see who gets a chance to go back to Bankers Life.  Simone had Eldred on the ropes last week and doesn’t want to end his career at New Castle.
 
#6SS Jefferson vs Thrine first round
Thrine has had an amazing freshman campaign with his only loss coming by major to Christian White.  Jefferson has been here before and lost the last two years.  Senior versus freshman.
 
Winner gets #7 Christian White
White would be the favorite over Thrine.  Jefferson may pull the second 4 over 1 here and make the ticket round even crazier.
 
#13 Perry vs #10 Hughes
These two have wrestled several times over the years with Hughes taking the last one at MIC.  Perry is coming off back to back wins over White as well as wins over Glithero and Jefferson who have defeated Hughes.  But Hughes tech falled AJ Gunn from Carmel who has a win over Perry. 
 
#1 Seltzer vs #7 White semis.
#4 Eldred vs #10/#13 Hughes/White 
 
1st Round Picks
Seltzer over Myers
Simone over Haggerty
Jefferson over Thrine
White over Pritchett
Eldred over Thang
Dietz over Schneider
Perry over Farling
Hughes over Bray
 
Tickets Punched
Seltzer, Eldred, Perry, White
 
Alpha Dog
Zeke Seltzer
 
126
State Ranked Wrestlers
#5 Brayden Lowery Roncalli
#6 David Pierson- Warren Central
#16 Luke Gonzalez- Cathedral
#19 Cameron Toole- Lebanon
#20 Joey Langeman- Carmel
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#7 Jeremiah Henderson- Lawrence North
 
Potential Match-ups
#19 Toole vs Brandon first round
Brandon took Pierson down at regionals and is a very hard nosed wrestler.  Wouldn’t be surprised to see an upset here.  Followed with a ticket round with either super frosh Searcy from East Central or Jeremiah Henderson who has had an up and down year but is dangerous.
 
#5 Lowery vs #16 Gonzalez ticket round
Gonzalez has kept matches close with elite level guys all year and had a great Al Smith.  Lowery shouldn’t overlook him.
 
#20 Langeman vs Dennison
Dennison has had a great year at 33-1, but I suspect Carmel will have Langeman ready.
 
#5 Lowery vs #6 Pierson Finals
Lowery won at Marion County 1-0.  Should be another great battle.
 
1st Round Picks
Toole over Ashton
Searcy over Henderson
Lowery over Drilik
Gonzalez over Maitland
Otto over Johnson
Pierson over Lauy
Dennison over Bertram
Langeman over Vinson
 
Tickets Punched
Lowery, Pierson, Toole, Langeman
 
Alpha Dog
Brayden Lowery
 
132
State Ranked Wrestlers
#2 Matt Koontz- Perry Meridian
#7 Aundre Beatty- Warren Central
#9 Andrew Wilson- Cathedral
#10 Luke Goodwin- Southport
#12 Sebastian Bryant- North Central
#16 Jared Brown- Pendleton Heights
#17 Sam Slivka- Roncalli
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#8 Hudson Harreld- Zionsville
 
Potential Match-ups
#7 Beatty vs #16 Brown ticket round. 
Two state qualifiers battling it out to see who goes to the Bank.  Beatty had a great regional beating both #2 Koontz 7-0 and #17 Slivka to take home the title.
 
#10 Goodwin vs Frazier.  4 over 1 potential here. 
Goodwin had a brutal regional with Beatty, Koontz, Slivka and himself.  He has a win over Frazier over the summer.  Winner gets #9 Wilson to punch a ticket.  Wilson only has 7 matches this season due to injury but has been to state before.
 
#8ss Harreld vs #17 Slivka ticket round. 
Slivka was a regional champion year that didn’t make it to state.  Look for him to punch a ticket.
 
#12 Bryant vs #2 Koontz ticket round. 
This is the premier ticket round match as both of these kids should be placers.  Bryant has dominated since dropping to 132 with his only loss being Beatty.
 
1st Round Picks
Beatty over Lonneman
Brown over Merkel
Goodwin over Frazier
Wilson over Lloyd
Harreld over Bustamante
Slivka over Sherwood
Bryant over Barrett
Koontz over Walston
 
Tickets Punched
Beatty, Koontz, Goodwin, Slivka
 
Alpha Dog
Aundre Beatty
 
138
State Ranked Wrestlers
#2 Logan Bailey- Cathedral
#4 Logan Wagner- Zionsville
#7 Brendan Mattingly- Carmel
#8 Jevian Ross- Warren Central
#14 Dylan Dorman- Greenfield-Central
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
 
#6 David Page- Roncalli
#8 Max Naselroad- Alexandria
 
Potential Match-ups
#2 Bailey vs #8 Ross. 
Brutal matchup of two kids that both should place at state.  Both wrestlers have lost in the ticket round twice in their careers.  Bailey lost to Beatty from Warren Central last year and Seth Johnson as a freshman.  Ross has lost to Wilkerson and Caleb Oliver.  Should be some fireworks In this one.
 
#2Bailey/#8 Ross vs #7 Mattingly Semis
 
#4 Wagner waiting in finals
 
1st Round Picks
Walsh over Morgan
Mattingly over Johnson
Bailey over Miles
Ross over Lemieux
Dorman over Smith
Lawson over Crouch
Wagner over Page
Naselroad over Euson
 
Tickets Punched
Bailey, Wagner, Mattingly, Dorman
 
Alpha Dogs
Logan Bailey
 
145
State Ranked Wrestlers
#1 Alec Viduya- Roncalli
#6 Chris Wilkerson- Mount Vernon
#7 Jajuan Anderson- Warren Central
#9 Jeff Dunasky- Guerin Catholic
#13 Jake Shafer- Carmel
#14 Gabe Phillips- Centerville
#14 Reece Luhmann- Hamilton Southeastern
#17 Garrett Stewart- Cathedral
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#8 Brady Mckivitz- Perry Meridian
 
Potential Match-ups
#9 Dunasky vs #7 Anderson ticket round. 
This should be a great ticket round matchup.  Dunasky is trying to be Guerins first ever state qualifier.  He lost to Warren Centrals Antwaun Graves last year in the ticket round.  Anderson has wins over Luhmann, Mckivitz, Stewart, Shafer, and Wilkerson.
 
#8ss Mckivitz vs #14 Phillips first round. 
Mckivitz has had a solid season with some solid wins and some losses in Perrys brutal schedule.  Luhmann is waiting in the wings for the winner for a ranked ticket round matchup.
 
#17 Stewart vs #13 Shafer first round. 
Stewart is a huge 145 but has taken a lot of losses.  Wolf had a great regional tournament overturning some losses from earlier in the year. 
 
#1 Viduya vs #6 Wilkerson ticket round. 
This is another brutal ticket round that leaves behind a projected state place winner.  Viduya has been on a different level this year.
 
1st Round Picks
Dunasky over McDonald
Anderson over Bohan
Luhmann over Nixon
Phillips over McKivitz
Wolf over Taylor
Shafer over Stewart
Viduya over Linkel
Wilkerson over Lindamood
 
Tickets Punched
Viduya, Anderson, Luhmann, Shafer
 
Alpha Dog
Alec Viduya
 
152
State Ranked wrestlers
#1 Brice Coleman- Warren Central
#3 Bryer Hall- East Central
#6 Tyce Frejie- Roncalli
#10 Shane Bates- Zionsville
#18 Aidan Alford- Mount Vernon
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#4 Noah Baker- Perry Meridian
#7 Tyler Jones- Lawrence Central
#8 Tyler Vredeveld- Centerville
 
Potential Match-ups
#4ss Baker vs #18 Alford first round. 
Bake'rs match count is not indicative of his skill.  Should be a great match followed with a ticket round date with #10 Bates.
 
#3 Hall vs #6 Frejie ticket round. 
This is a huge matchup.  Hall is trying to get back to state after losing to Leavell last year in the ticket round.  Frejie has been to the show several times and doesn’t want to end his career at New Castle. 
 
#1 Coleman vs #8ss Vredeveld. 
Centerville's only loss this year is to Bryer Hall in the Regional finals.  Coleman is looking to make his first trip to state after losing to Rodgers in the ticket round last year.
 
#3Hall/#6 Frejie vs #1 Coleman Finals
 
1st Round Picks
Bates over Foster
Baker over Alford
Hall over Ginella
Frejie over Urasky
Jones over Wills
Mobley over McLaren
Coleman over Lemaster
Vredeveld over Fox
 
Tickets Punched
Coleman, Hall, Bates, Jones
 
Alpha Dog
Brice Coleman
 
160
State Ranked Wrestlers
#3 Elliott Rodgers- Cathedral
#4 Cooper Noehre- Greenfield Central
#12 Dante Akins- Indianapolis Lutheran
#14 Damon Mcclain- Warren Central
#15 Andrew Roth- Lawrenceburg
#20 Luke Davis- Zionsville
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#7 Josh Moore- Southport
#8 Max Hayes- Mount Vernon
 
Potential Match-ups
This weight is pretty spread out on the top ranked wrestlers.
 
#8SS Max Hayes vs #14 Damon McClain first round. 
Hayes has been a tough wrestler for years. McClain has been wrestling well winning the Marion County and MIC tournaments. 
 
#14 McClain vs #20 Davis ticket round. 
Davis is coming off a great Regional tournament and is rewarded with the higher ranked McClain in ticket round.
 
#15 Roth vs #12 Akins. 
Akins has to get through a very tough Goodner first from the Deaf school.  He pinned Hayes last week.  I could be wrong, but Akins might be the first state qualifier for Lutheran.
 
#3 Rodgers vs #4 Noehre in semis to rematch the state finals from last year. 
Their matchup earlier this year ended with a crazy funk roll from Rodgers for the win late in the third.
 
1st Round Picks
Rodgers over Moore
Williamson over Carr
Noehre over Butterfield
Mitchell over Lowe
Davis over Payne
McClain over Hayes
Roth over Weakley
Akins over Goodner
 
Tickets Punched
Noehre, McClain, Rodgers, Akins
 
Alpha Dogs
Cooper Noehre and Elliott Rodgers
 
170
State Ranked Wrestlers
#7 Tyler Wagner- Cathedral
#8 Bradley Harrington- North Central
#9 Gabe Davin Carmel
#15 Tytus Ragle- New Castle
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#3 Jajuan Dale- Perry Meridian
#6 Chase Poynter- Zionsville
#7 Ronan Hiner- Hamilton Southeastern
#8 Ty Welliever- Southmont
 
Potential Match-ups
#4SS Dale vs #8SS Welliever first round. 
Winner gets #8 Harrington in the ticket round.  Harrington is a huge 170 after making the drop from 182 earlier in the year. 
 
#9 Davin vs #15 Ragle ticket round. 
Really tough ticket round for Ragle who was winning in Regional finals before getting thrown and pinned. 
 
#6SS Poynter vs Mpole. 
Mpole is an unbelievable athlete with a great story of how he came to the United States.  Winner has Malson/Bishop in ticket round.
 
#7 Wagner vs #7ss Hiner. 
These two have wrestled each other their whole lives.  Don’t expect Hiner to get blown out, he may even steal this ticket from Cathedral.
 
1st Round Picks
Dale over Welliever
Harrington over Calderon
Davin over Mosconi
Ragle over Rice
Bishop over Malson
Mpole over Poynter
Wagner over Rullman
Hiner over Ortel
 
Tickets Punched
Harrington, Wagner, Davin, Mpole
 
Alpha Dog
Bradley Harrington
 
182
State Ranked Wrestlers
#4 Aidan Warren- Perry Meridian
#6 Johnny Parker- Cathedral
#12 Hayden Filipovich- Indianapolis Lutheran
#13 Garret Sharp- Carmel
#16 Kole Viel- East Central
#18 Dawson McCloud- North Montgomery
#20 Gavin Keesee- Franklin Central
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#7 Riley Woodall- Southmont
 
Potential Match-ups
#18 McCloud vs Myers. 
McCloud has had a great season is looking to continue it against the Iron Bear’s son.  Ticket round matchup vs Filipovich who is also trying to get Lutheran to Bankers Life.
 
#4 Warren vs #7SS Woodall. 
Warren has two trips to state in two attempts.  Woodall is trying to match his brothers Middle School State Title last weekend.
 
#16 Viel vs #20 Keesee first round
Followed by a matchup with #13 Sharp in the ticket round.  This quarter bracket is brutal with 3 ranked wrestlers.
 
1st Round Picks
Mccloud over Myers
Filipovich over Lawler
Parker over Broom
Sullivan over Orcutt
Warren over Mcgill
Woodall over Gillespie
Viel over Keesee
Sharp over hanson
 
Tickets Punched
Warren, Parker, Filipovich, Sharp
 
Alpha Dog
Aidan Warren
 
195
State Ranked Wrestlers
#1 Silas Allred- Shenandoah
#3 JD Farrell-cFishers
#4 Kyle Krummen- East Central
#9 Zach White- Carmel
#12 Excell Brooks- Lawrence North
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#5 Jacob Huffman- Cathedral
#6 Jeff McClure- Perry Meridian
#7 Isiah Martin- Brebuf Jesuit
#8 Richard Clevenger- New Palestine
 
Potential Match-ups
Other than Silas, this weight had 2 unranked regional champions and is wide open.
 
#3 Farrell vs #12 Brooks ticket round. 
Farrell has had a great season including taking Silas down at Connersville.  Brooks is incredibly athletic and is a tough matchup for anyone.
 
#8SS Clevenger vs #4 Krummen
Clevenger has had a great junior campaign including winning the brutal Perry Meridian regional.  Krummen just took his first loss to Allred last weekend.
 
White vs McCloud
Rematch from earlier in the year where White took a 7-5 decision home.  Followed by a matchup with Jacob Huffman from Cathedral.  I predict the winner of the first round match will knock out the Pendleton regional champ.
 
#3 Farrell vs #1 Allred
Rematch from Spartan Classic in finals.
 
1st Round Picks
Farrell over Beard
Brooks over Orcutt
Clevenger over Arvin
Krummen over Martin
Huffman over Shaffer
White tossup McCloud
Allred over Lovell
McClure over Dreher
 
Tickets Punched
Allred, Farrell, Krummen, (White or McCloud)
 
Alpha Dog
Silas Allred
 
220
State Ranked Wrestlers
#2 Drew Webster- North Montgomery
#10 Deshawn Young- Franklin Central
#12 David Guhl- Cathedral
#16 Alex Hernandez- Warren Central
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#6 Parker Smitley- Mount Vernon
#7 Cameron Brown- New Castle
#8 Justin Stephens- Pendleton Heights
 
Potential Match-ups
A lot of great matchups first and second round.  Most of the top dogs are separated until semi finals though.  Taylor and Van Beynen should be good.  Young and Smitley.
 
#2 Webster vs #12 Guhl ticket round. 
Webster has been on fire this year.  Guhl got a very unfortunate draw for having such a great season.
 
#16 Hernandez vs #7SS Brown. 
These two have wrestled 4 times this season.  Brown won the first one with Hernandez winning the next 3.  Should be a great first round matchup with winner getting Blaine Pierce from Richmond to go to the Bank.
 
1st Round Picks
Stephens over Lewis
Van Beynen over Taylor
Young over Smitley
Shafer over Arvin
Webster over Rowlett
Guhl over Goodall
Pierce over Schilling
Hernandez over Brown
 
Tickets Punched
Webster, Young, Hernandez, Van Beynen
 
Alpha Dog 
Drew Webster
 
285
State Ranked Wrestlers
#2 Andrew Irick- Hamilton Southeastern
#5 Holder Parsons- Cathedral
#6 Cade Campbell- Pendleton Heights
#9 Antone Alexander- Franklin Central
#12 Dennis Hubbard- Warren Central
 
Semi-State Ranked Wrestlers
#6 Kolt Keller CC
#7 Josh Berger NE
 
Potential Match-ups
#6SS Keller vs #7SS Berger- First Round
Followed up with a match-up with #9 Antone Alexander. 
 
#2 Irick vs #6 Campbell- Ticket Round 
These two have wrestled a few times this year with Irick coming out ahead both times.  Brutal draw for Campbell in his senior campaign.
 
#2 Irick vs #5 Parsons- Finals
 
1st Round picks
Keller over Berger
Alexander over Anderson
Irick over Pandoli
Campbell over Keevers
Hubbard over Snyder
McDaniel over Myers
Parsons over Jackson
Goodall over Platonov
 
Tickets Punched
Irick, Parsons, Hubbard, Alexander
 
Alpha Dogs
Andrew Irick and Holden Parsons

1826 5 2
Two exciting opportunities for the Fort Wayne area
By Dane Fuelling
 
Decades ago, the stretch of land from Fort Wayne to Muncie was the heart of high school wrestling in Indiana. Storied programs like Bellmont, Delta and the now-shuttered high schools of Muncie South and Muncie North won 11 of the twenty-one state championships from 1974 to 1994. Since Bellmont’s title in 1994, the area has fallen behind the rest of the state. While plenty of wrestling fans around the state like to talk about the struggles of the Fort Wayne area, two men have taken big steps in their lives to put actions where others will only speak words. 
Wade McClurg has been hired to a new dual position in the Indiana Tech athletic program. He will simultaneously be assistant coach for the Warrior program and the head of its new Warrior Regional Training Center. 
 
“With the Warrior RTC,” says McClurg, “we have an opportunity to positively impact hundreds of boys and girls in the Fort Wayne community and surrounding area through the sport of wrestling.  In return, we will not only have the ability to produce elite athletes, but we will strive to form servant-leaders and mold outstanding individuals through the world’s oldest and greatest sport.”
 
On the other side of town, coach Andy Oberlin has opened a new wrestling-focused facility on Goshen Road, not far from the Zoo in Fort Wayne. Oberlin has invested much of his own personal money and time into a venture that has no guarantee of success. It is a new idea for the city, a place for clubs and teams to host camps, retreats and for visiting coaches to hold clinics. 
 
Oberlin has hooked up with ONE for sponsorship and his facility has new wall mats and wrestling mats being installed this week. He has enlisted the help of Anton Talamantes, one of the city’s all-time wrestling greats, to host the very first clinic at his facility. That will take place on June 12th. 
 
Coach McClurg was a graduate of Beech Grove High School in Indianapolis who went on to wrestle for the Greyhounds of the University of Indianapolis. In five years at the helm of the Roncalli program, McClurg won 84 duals with 18 losses and had 17 state qualifiers, including three state champions. He qualified for Team State in his final four seasons and won a semi-state title in 2019. 
 
With all that time spent on the south side of Indy, moving to Fort Wayne will be a big change for the coach. A state of the art, 25,000 square feet facility was a good place to start.    
 
For Oberlin, Fort Wayne is home and since wrestling against two-time state champion Tim Myers multiple times in his high school career at DeKalb High School, Oberlin has also seen the drop in competitiveness in the area. 
 
“The question is whether we have gotten worse or everyone else has gotten better,” says Oberlin. “But I think it is a combination of both.”
 
Oberlin feels that the strong group of wrestlers out of Griffith High School in the early 2000s, which included current IU head coach Angel Escobedo, transformed high school wrestling in Indiana and created a new, higher ceiling. 
 
“We have so many more kids competing nationally,” he says. “Just look at how many D1 wrestlers we have produced now. Things are so much more competitive now than they were 25 years ago.”
 
Both Oberlin and McClurg see potential for the sport in the state’s largest school district, Fort Wayne Community Schools. 
 
“Kids today need to see some success to get hooked on the sport,” declares Oberlin. “And when you try to get them to start the sport in high school, there isn’t much of a chance for success against experienced wrestlers. We need to change that.”
 
McClurg’s program will open in September, and with established men’s and women’s wrestling teams at the school, things might just be looking up for wrestling in our area.

2221 5
2022 State Finals #WAYL2
19 wrestlers will enter Friday without a blemish this season, at most only 12 wrestlers will leave Gainbridge Fieldhouse with a perfect season. The only weight classes without at least one undefeated wrestler are 120lbs and 182lbs. At 152lbs three wrestlers will start Friday without a loss. Of the 978 losses on the docket, almost 65% have been to another state qualifier. Here is a listing of everyone's losses that we have been able to track down. If you know of a missing loss please send it our way.
 
Random Stats
Most losses to state qualifiers
Eddie Goss and Liam Begley- 11
Austin Brickey, Jake Sues, and Michael Tharpe- 9
Jayden Lewis, Aidan Costell, Michael Major, and Nayla Sbay- 8
 
Most wins over state qualifiers
Jesse Mendez- 12
Hayden Watson- 11
Logan Frazier- 10
Aidan Torres, Orlando Cruz, and Hayden DeMarco- 9
Gavin Jendreas, Aidan Sprague, Sam Goin, Joey Buttler, Nathan Critchfield, and Leighton Jones- 8
 
Non-State Qualifiers with the most wins over state qualifiers
Dominic Litchfield- 9
Reese Courtney, Evan Cruz, Vincent McDonald, Nolan Skaggs, Michael DeGrado, Sam Peeples, Noah Clouser, Noah Duke(Ryle, Kentucky) and Mason Jones- 4
 
Undefeated Wrestlers
106 Nathan Smith- Southport
113 Ashton Jackson- LaPorte
113 Tanner Tishner- Western
126 Aidan Sprague- East Noble
126 Blake Wolf- East Central
132 Dylan Stroud- Manchester
138 Jesse Mendez- Crown Point
138 Bryce Lowery- Roncalli
145 Matthew Koontz- Perry Meridian
145 Toby Abbott- Cowan
152 Sam Goin- Crown Point
152 Mitchell Betz- Western
152 Kody Glithero- Roncalli
160 J Conway- Floyd Central
170 Brody Baumann- Evansville Mater Dei
195 Connor Barket- West Lafayette
220 Nathan Critchfield- Evansville Mater Dei
220 Christian Carroll- New Prairie
285 Hunter Whitenack- New Prairie
 
#WAYL2
Who are your losses to?
 
Key
*- State Qualifier
(Losses/ State Qualifier Losses/ State Qualifier Wins)
 
106lbs
*As of Wednesday Donnie Feeler has been replaced by Cameron Meier*
Nathan Smith- Southport(0/0/5): 
Jeffrey Bailey- River Forest(1/1/4): Gavin Jendreas*
Levi Johns- Bluffton(1/1/3): Jalen May*
Jake Hockaday- Brownsburg(2/1/7): Luke Rioux*, Beric Jordan(OH)
Donnie Feeler- Crawford County(2/2/0): Jake Hockaday*, Isaiah Schaefer*
Jalen May- Peru(3/2/3): Gavin Jendreas*, Isaac Ash, Jayden Lewis*
Heather Crull- Northeastern(3/3/1): Nathan Smith*, E'Shawn Tolbert*, Julianna O'Campo*
Isaiah Schaefer- Evansville Mater Dei(3/2/2): Luke Rioux(2)*, Jayden Raney(KY)
Gavin Jendreas- Crown Point(4/1/7): Jake Hockaday*, Beric Jordan(OH), Deion Johnson(IL), Seth Mendoza(IL)
Luke Rioux- Avon(4/4/5): Jake Hockaday(4)*
Julianna O'campo- New Haven(4/4/1): Luke Rioux*, Ayden Bollinger*, Levi Johns(2)*
Ayden Bollinger- Delta(4/3/1): Nathan Smith*, Jalen May*, Gavin Ash, Levi Johns*
Oliver Wilson- North Central(5/2/1): Nathan Smith(2)*, Charlie Larocca, Gavin Bragg, ???
E'Shawn Tolbert- Portage(5/5/2): Jeffrey Bailey*, Gavin Jendreas(3)*, Seth Aubin*
Tamir Halevi- Carmel(6/3/0): Oliver Wilson*, Heather Crull*, Gavin Jendreas*, Gavin Ash, Brennan Leonard, Luke Rioux
Cameron Meier- Bloomington South(8/6/0): Isaiah Schaefer*, Charlie Larocca, Seth Aubin*, Gavin Jendreas*, Nathan Smith*, Rollin Douglas, Jake Hockaday*, Luke Rioux*
Seth Aubin- Hobart(11/5/2): Jeffrey Bailey(3)*, Jalen May*, E'Shawn Tolbert*, Rollin Douglas, Mason Jones(4), Gavin Jendreas
 
113lbs
Ashton Jackson- LaPorte(0/0/7): 
Tanner Tishner- Western(0/0/6): 
Evan Dickey- Indianapolis Cathedral(1/1/7): Ashton Jackson*
Braden Getz- Roncalli(1/1/1): Evan Dickey*
Preston Haines- Brownsburg(2/0/5): Jackson Blum(MI), Jameson Garcia(OH)
Jackson Heaston- Indian Creek(2/2/2): Preston Haines*, Evan Seng*
Easton Doster- New Haven(2/2/1): Tanner Tishner(2)*
Evan Seng- Evansville Mater Dei(4/2/5): Evan Dickey*, Preston Haines*, Bryson Terrell(TN), Jordyn Raney (KY)
Trevor Schammert- Hobart(4/3/4): Johnny Cortez(2)*, Ashton Jackson*, Liam Krueger
Wyatt Davis- Rochester(4/4/2): Tanner Tishner(4)*
Gavin Thompson- Carmel(4/2/2): Evan Dickey*, Evan Seng*, Kaptur Nowaczyk, Max Walker
Peter Nguyen- Guerin Catholic(7/3/0): Evan Dickey*, Isaiah Fye, Gavin Thompson*, Braden Getz*, Isaac Ash, William May, ???
Bowen Keith- Cowan(8/3/0): Cody Rowles, Easton Doster*, Wyatt Davis(2)*, Cole Stuffel(2), Alex Thomas, ???
Johnny Cortez- Lake Central(9/6/4): Trevor Schammert(2)*, Ashton Jackson(4)*, Liam Krueger, Kaptur Nowaczyk, Owen Bunton
Dylan Bennett- Penn(9/7/0): Evan Dickey*, Johnny Cortez*, Trevor Schammert*, Ashton Jackson*, Liam Krueger, Preston Haines*, Evan Seng*, Eddie Goss*, Evan Dickey
Eddie Goss- Center Grove(12/11/1): Evan Dickey(2)*, Johnny Cortez*, Trevor Schammert*, Logan Bickel, Preston Haines(2)*, Evan Seng(2)*, Gavin Thompson*, Jackson Heaston(2)*
 
120lbs
Hayden DeMarco- Chesterton(1/0/9): Reese Courtney
Isaac Ruble- Bellmont(1/1/6): Noah Lykins*
Kyrel Leavell- Warren Central(1/1/4): Toby Billerman*
Lane Gilbert- Sullivan(1/0/3): Caleb Klopfenstein
Christopher Bohn- Munster(1/1/2): Hayden Demarco*
Neal Mosier- Delta(3/2/1): Isaac Ruble(2)*, Dylan Tom
Hayden Brady- Garrett(4/2/5): Isaac Ruble(2)*, Evan Cruz, Reese Courtney
Toby Billerman- Perry Meridian(4/3/4): Logan Miller, Lane Gilbert*, Kyrel Leavell(2)*
Noah Lykins- Columbus East(5/3/5): Isaac Ruble*, Lane Gilbert*, Toby Billerman*, Reese Courtney, Justice Thornton
Jared Dunn- Princeton(5/1/1): Blake Zirkelbach(2), Logan Ellis, Lane Gilbert*, Reed Egli
Elliott Cornewell- Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger(5/5/0): Hayden Brady(4)*, Neal Mosier*
Braxton Vest- Westfield(6/5/3): Isaac Ruble*, Aden Reyes*, Joey Buttler*, Kyrel Leavell*, Hayden Demarco*, Seth Syra
Dominic McFeeley- Cascade(8/2/1): Logan Miller, Noah Lykins*, Jared Dunn*, Reese Courtney, Seth Syra, Ethan Holloway, Branson Weaver, Kameron Mikesell
Aden Reyes- Indianapolis Cathedral(9/7/2): Noah Lykins(2)*, Braxton Vest(2)*, Toby Billerman(2)*, Kyrel Leavell*, Seth Syra, Rider Trumble(KY)
Jayden Lewis- New Prairie(10/8/2): Aden Reyes*, Braxton Vest*, Evan Cruz, Hayden Demarco(3)*, Christopher Bohn*, Dominic McFeeley*, Guillermo Rivera*, Aaron DeLaLuz
Guillermo Rivera- Lake Central(10/7/1): Noah Lykins*, Hayden Brady*, Evan Cruz(2), Hayden Demarco(3)*, Christopher Bohn*, Jayden Lewis*, Bobby Conway(IL)
 
126lbs
Aidan Sprague- East Noble(0/0/8): 
Blake Wolf- East Central(0/0/3): 
Logan Frazier- Crown Point(1/0/10): Sergio Lemley(IL)
Joey Buttler- Whiteland(1/0/8): Caleb Wyss
Kamariyon Nelson- Castle(1/1/1): Joey Buttler*
Matteo Vargo- Penn(2/2/5): Logan Frazier(2)*
Isaac Ward- Carmel(3/3/6): Blake Wolf*, Logan Frazier*, Keaton Morton*
Tony Wood- Jay County(3/2/6): Dominic Litchfield, Aidan Sprague(2)*
Braden Haines- Brownsburg(7/6/3): Logan Frazier(2)*, Keaton Morton*, Joey Buttler(2)*, Matteo Vargo*, Justin Gates(MI)
Keaton Morton- Perry Meridian(7/3/3): Griffin Ingalls*, Isaac Ward*, Matteo Vargo*, Caleb Wyss, Trevor Hott, Miller Brown(KY), Trayce Eckman(KY)
Griffin Ingalls- Fishers(7/7/1): Aidan Sprague*, Blake Wolf*, Braden Haines*, Joey Buttler*, Isaac Ward(3)*
Gavin Cook- Adams Central(7/6/1): Landon Bertsch*, Aidan Sprague*, Kelby Glenn, Tony Wood(3)*, Keegan Schlabach*
David Maldonado- Merrillville(7/5/1): Dylan Tom, Logan Frazier(3)*, Mikey Kallimani, Matteo Vargo*, Hayden Demarco*
Beau Brabender- Mishawaka(8/6/0): Michael Tharpe*, Blake Wolf*, David Maldonado*, Logan Frazier*, Josh Johnson, Mikey Kallimani, Matteo Vargo(2)*
Keegan Schlabach- Lakeland(9/6/1): Aidan Sprague(4)*, Isaiah McCue(2), Gavin Cook*, Tony Wood*, Drake Montelongo
Michael Tharpe- Center Grove(12/9/1): Kamariyon Nelson*, Logan Frazier*, Braden Haines(2)*, Keaton Morton*, Josh Johnson(2), Joey Buttler(2)*, Isaac Ward(2)*, Justice Thornton
 
132lbs
Dylan Stroud- Manchester(0/0/2): 
Zeke Seltzer- Indianapolis Cathedral(1/1/5): Jesse Mendez*
Elijah Anthony- Frankfort(1/1/3): Zeke Seltzer*
Brady Ison- Brownsburg(2/2/7): Cheaney Schoeff(2)*
Landon Bertsch- Bluffton(2/2/5): Dylan Stroud*, Tony Wood*
Cheaney Schoeff- Avon(2/2/4): Brady Ison(2)*
Brevan Thrine- New Castle(3/3/1): Zeke Seltzer*, Julius Gerencser*, Tony Wood*
Zar Walker- Mishawaka(4/4/5): Anthony Bahl(2)*, Wesley Harper*, Wyatt Krejsa*
Anthony Bahl- Crown Point(4/4/4): Zeke Seltzer*, Brady Ison(2)*, Zeke Seltzer*
Wyatt Krejsa- Center Grove(5/5/6): Zeke Seltzer*, Cheaney Schoeff*, Luke Gonzalez*, Gavin Garcia*, Brady Ison*
Eli Brooks- Whiteland(6/5/0): Cheaney Schoeff*, Brady Ison*, Wyatt Krejsa(3)*, Blake Nicholson
Bryce Denton- Penn(6/5/1): Ethan Roudebush, Jasper Graber*, Anthony Bahl*, Brady Ison*, Zar Walker(2)*
Jasper Graber- Northridge(6/4/1): Landon Bertsch*, Logan Stuckman, Logan Uhlman*, Mikey Kallimani, Zar Walker(2)*
Logan Uhlman- Adams Central(6/4/1): Landon Bertsch(3)*, Dylan Stroud*, Calvin Faurote, Chase Stephens
Mason Stanley- Rensselaer Central(7/3/0): Caleb Solomey, Xavier Horton, Joey Buttler*, Bryce Denton*, Zar Walker*, Brock Hagewood, John Bussard
Michael Major- Carmel(8/7/0): Elijah Anthony(3)*, Brevan Thrine*, Anthony Bahl*, Wyatt Krejsa*, Cheaney Schoeff, Wyatt Krejsa*
 
138lbs
Jesse Mendez- Crown Point(0/0/12): 
Bryce Lowery- Roncalli(0/0/3): 
Cash Turner- Edgewood(1/1/4): Gavin Garcia*
Ashton Hayhurst- Castle(1/1/1): Gavin Garcia*
Gavin Garcia- Brownsburg(2/2/5): Jesse Mendez*, Nick Tattini*
Julius Gerencser- Daleville(3/2/4): Jake Necessary, Cameron Clark(2)*
Cameron Clark- Jay County(3/0/3): Dominic Litchfield(2), Hunter Miller
Cole Solomey- Kankakee Valley(3/3/1): Jesse Mendez(3)*
Carson Johnson- Mount Vernon (Fortville)(4/6/3): Dominic Litchfield, Luke Gonzalez(4)*, Wesley Harper*, Ike O'Neill*
Wesley Harper- Penn(6/4/4): Jesse Mendez(2)*, Gavin Garcia*, Lucas Clement*, Thadeus O'Neill, Conner Kleinberg(OH)
Dillon Tuttle- Delta(6/5/1): Dominic Litchfield, Carson Johnson*, Cash Turner*, Julius Gerencser(2)*, Cameron Clark*
Luke Gonzalez- Indianapolis Cathedral(7/6/5): Jesse Mendez(2)*, Bryce Lowery(2)*, Wesley Harper*, Evan Roudebush*, Cole Thomas(KY)
Lucas Clement- Merrillville(7/4/1): Jesse Mendez*, Cole Solomey*, Caleb Solomey, Lakin Webb, Wesley Harper*, Evan Roudebush*, Anthony Streib(IL)
Ike O'Neill- Westfield(10/6/1): Jesse Mendez*, Blaze Garcia*, Dominic Litchfield, Carson Johnson*, Bryce Lowery*, Gavin Garcia*, Luke Farling, Cayden Shelton, Keegan Grandinetti, Jesse Mendez*
Evan Roudebush- Bloomington South(10/5/2): Ashton Hayhurst*, Dominic Litchfield, Carson Johnson*, Lou Knable, Cash Turner(3)*, Drew Mills, Silas Stits, Tyler Vanover
Allan Maggard- Columbia City(14/2/0): Dominic Litchfield(2), Dillon Tuttle*, Julius Gerencser*, Luke Teusch, Jadyn Gilbert, Kaleb Lounsbury, Cody Biddle, Giovanni Arsini, Luke Teusch, Spencer Hart, Anden Ankney(OH), Ethan Mitchell(OH), Gavin Owens(OH)
 
145lbs
Matthew Koontz- Perry Meridian(0/0/4): 
Toby Abbott- Cowan(0/0/2): 
Hayden Watson- Center Grove(1/1/10): Matthew Koontz*
Aidan Torres- Chesterton(1/1/9): Hayden Watson*
Brody Arthur- Oak Hill(1/1/2): Ben Miller*
Rider Searcy- East Central(2/2/1): Matthew Koontz*, Corbin Walston*
Brac Hooper- Zionsville(3/2/3): Hayden Watson*, Matthew Koontz*, Dillon Graham
Ben Miller- Lakeland(4/1/3): Sam Levitz(2), Toby Abbott*, Conner Watts
Denny Wendling- Frontier(5/2/0): Nick Tattini*, Andrew Kline, Gunnar Krause*, Dylan Barron, Toby Abbott
Nick Tattini- Crown Point(6/5/6): Hayden Watson*, Aidan Torres(4)*, Nolan Gessler(OH)
Blaze Garcia- Brownsburg(6/4/4): Hayden Watson(2)*, Nick Tattini*, Sam Goin*, Aiden Davis(MI), Nate Cleaver((MI)
Nate Lommock- Terre Haute South(6/2/0): Hayden Watson*, Nicolas Castelluccio(2), Anfernee Oliver*, Jude Barger, Tyler Lee
Gunnar Krause- Knox(7/5/1): Nick Tattini*, Aidan Torres(4)*, Logan Sertic, Caden Ellenberger
Anfernee Oliver- Ben Davis(7/6/1): Blaze Garcia(3)*, Hayden Watson(2)*, Brac Hooper*, Garrett Hicks
Brayden Baker- Garrett(11/6/0): Nick Tattini*, Ben Miller(2)*, Sam Levitz, Toby Abbott*, Brody Arthur(2)*, Zymarion Hollyfield, Gavin Davis, Braxton Miller, Jackson Todd
Nayl Sbay- Carmel(13/8/0): Hayden Watson(2)*, Matthew Koontz*, Brac Hooper(2)*, Nick Tattini*, Rider Searcy*, Hunter May*, Eitan Halevi, Andrew Goodwin, Zach Strueder, Kolten Rhonemus, Tyler Lee
 
152lbs
Sam Goin- Crown Point(0/0/8): 
Mitchell Betz- Western(0/0/6): 
Kody Glithero- Roncalli(0/0/4): 
Delaney Ruhlman- Bloomington South(1/1/5): Anthony Rinehart*
Alex Currie- Adams Central(1/1/2): Mitchell Betz*
Anthony Rinehart- Zionsville(2/2/3): Kody Glithero*, Sam Goin*
Corbin Walston- Lawrenceburg(2/2/1): Tyler Jones*, Anthony Rinehart*
Chase Leech- Garrett(4/4/4): Alex Currie*, Delaney Ruhlman*, Mitchell Betz*, Aidan Costello*
Tyler Jones- Warren Central(4/3/2): Landon Boe*, Kody Glithero(2)*, Clay Guenin
Tristen Hood- Harrison (WL)(5/4/2): Sam Goin*, Mitchell Betz(3)*, Jamason Roll
Nick Cicciarelli- Brownsburg(5/3/2): Landon Boe*, Sam Goin*, Delaney Ruhlman*, Andre Merritt, Kyle White(MI)
Hunter May- Evansville Mater Dei(5/2/2): Hayden Watson*, Nick Cicciarelli*, Dillon Graham, Ian McGhee(TN), Jacob Roaten(TN)
Kenneth Bisping- Lowell(6/5/5): Sam Goin(3)*, Garrett Manley, Anthony Rinehart*, Austin Brickey*
Tyce DuPont- Tell City(7/4/0): Alex Currie*, Delaney Ruhlman(2)*, Brenden Chew, Hunter May*, Jaden Grant(2)
Aidan Costello- Hobart(10/8/3): Kody Glithero*, Sam Goin*, Aidan Torres*, Tristen Hood*, Delaney Ruhlman*, Keagen Mabie, Grant Mallery, Kenneth Bisping(3)*
Austin Brickey- Carroll (Fort Wayne)(10/9/1): Tristen Hood*, Elijah Talamantez, Mitchell Betz*, Chase Leech(4)*, Kenneth Bisping*, Aidan Costello(2)*
 
160lbs
J Conway- Floyd Central(0/0/5): 
Landon Boe- Avon(1/1/5): J Conway*
Logan Farnell- Maconaquah(1/1/3): Landon Boe*
Kade Law- Columbus East(2/2/7): J Conway(2)*
Cody Goodwin- Crown Point(2/0/5): Collin Kelly(IL), Gunnar Cramblett(OH)
Charlie Euson- East Central(2/1/3): Kade Law*, Sam Mason(OH)
Leo Calderon- Centerville(2/2/1): Charlie Euson(2)*
AJ Steenbeke- Penn(3/2/4): Cody Goodwin*, Nick Cicciarelli*, Julian Weems
Duke Myers- Bellmont(3/3/3): Cody Goodwin*, AJ Steenbeke*, Logan Farnell*
Chris Newman- Mount Vernon (Posey)(4/3/1): J Conway*, Kade Law*, Landon Boe*, Vincent Tinoco
Kaden Lone- NorthWood(5/3/3): Aiden Reynolds, Duke Myers(2)*, Julian Weems, Jared Landez*
Bradey Pittman- Plymouth(6/3/1): AJ Steenbeke*, Kaden Lone*, Keagen Mabie, Cameron Powell, Caleb Carter*, ???
Caleb Carter- Merrillville(6/5/1): Cody Goodwin*, Kaden Lone*, Cameron Powell, Kenneth Bisping*, Cody Goodwin(2)*
Jared Landez- Carroll (Fort Wayne)(6/5/1): Aiden Reynolds, AJ Steenbeke*, Bradey Pittman*, Duke Myers*, Logan Farnell(2)*
Chase Wagner- Zionsville(7/5/1): J Conway*, Landon Boe*, Charlie Euson*, AJ Steenbeke*, Kaden Lone*, Julian Weems, Jackson Anderson
Zach Huckaby- Perry Meridian(11/5/0): Griffin Ison, Chris Newman*, Tyler Jones*, Leo Calderon*, Chase Wagner*, Nathan Powell, Andrew Stuck, Andre Merritt, Kade Law, Dylan Forbus, Trey Cranfill(KY)
 
170lbs
Brody Baumann- Evansville Mater Dei(0/0/6): 
Connor Svantner- Valparaiso(1/0/4): Anthony White
Eli Johnson- Norwell(1/1/2): Brodie Porter*
Ryan Cast- Hamilton Southeastern(1/0/2): Hayden Shepherd
Brodie Porter- Eastern (Greentown)(1/0/2): Jack Lesher(IL)
Codei Khawaja- Floyd Central(2/2/2): Brody Baumann(2)*
Ben Phillips- Charlestown(2/2/0): Aiden Farmer*, Codei Khawaja*
Landon Buchanan- Jimtown(3/3/1): Kade Law*, Brodie Porter*, De'Alcapon Veazy*
Jesse Herrera- Highland(4/2/1): Connor Cervantes, Connor Svantner(2)*, Tom Bennett(IL)
Braxton Russell- Delta(5/3/0): Landon Buchanan*, Eli Johnson(2)*, Chase Gardner(2)
Aiden Farmer- Evansville Memorial(6/5/1): Brody Baumann(4)*, Codei Khawaja*, Gavin Ricketts(KY)
Clifton Johnson- North Central(6/3/2): Noah Clouser, JJ Braun*, Ryan Cast*, Ethan Popp*, Vincent Tinoco, Anthony Cashman
Anthony Cashman- Warren Central(6/3/1): Hayden Shepherd(2), JJ Braun(2)*, Clifton Johnson*, Carter Messerly(KY)
Isaac Valdez- Mishawaka(6/3/1): Kade Law*, Noah Clouser, Luke Penola, Connor Svantner(2)*, Landon Buchanan
JJ Braun- Indianapolis Cathedral(7/4/3): Kade Law(2)*, Noah Clouser(2), Ryan Cast*, Clifton Johnson*, Carter Messerly(KY)
Ethan Popp- Harrison (WL)(8/3/1): Jesse Herrera*, Isaac Valdez*, Joshua Hubbard, Zach Wagner, Anthony Cashman*, Camari Kirk, Evan Tilton, ???
 
182lbs
Orlando Cruz- Crown Point(1/1/9): Drake Buchanan*
Evan Tilton- Hamilton Heights(1/1/4): Luke Hansen*
Drake Buchanan- Center Grove(1/1/4): Gunner Henry*
Gunner Henry- Brownsburg(2/1/5): Drake Buchanan*, Vincent McDonald
Luke Hansen- Roncalli(2/1/3): Jake Simpson*, Lane Kiser (KY)
Hunter Page- Monroe Central(2/2/1): De'Alcapon Veazy(2)*
Reid Schroeder- Southridge(3/1/3): Drake Buchanan*, Wyatt Willman, Wyatt Ferguson(OH)
De'Alcapon Veazy- Fort Wayne Snider(4/2/6): Drake Buchanan*, Jake Sues*, Tristan Statler, Titus Hackworth
Jake Simpson- Hobart(4/4/4): Jake Sues*, Orlando Cruz(3)*
David Nash- East Central(4/1/1): Evan Tilton*, Tristan Statler, Lane Abrams(OH), Jonathan Sanchez(OH)
Jaquan East- Kokomo(5/3/1): Evan Tilton(2)*, De'Alcapon Veazy*, Liam Farmer, Cael Albaugh
Kooper Kinsler- Delphi(5/1/1): Orlando Cruz*, Cael Albaugh, Josh McKelvin, Cael Albaugh, Josh McKelvin
Tommy Hannon- Indianapolis Bishop Chatard(5/4/0): Evan Tilton*, David Nash*, Jerry McBee, Luke Hansen(2)*
Alex Rose- Terre Haute South(7/3/0): Gunner Henry*, Luke Bullock, Reid Schroeder(2)*, Zach Wagner, Jerry McBee(2)
Trey Tobias- NorthWood(9/4/0): Orlando Cruz*, Hunter Page*, De'Alcapon Veazy*, Jaquan East*, Austin Farris, Jackson Lynch, Tim Shortt, Matthew McCrum, ???
Jake Sues- Lake Central(10/9/2): Jake Simpson(3)*, Orlando Cruz(4)*, Brandon Hammer, Kooper Kinsler*, De'Alcapon Veazy*
 
195lbs
Connor Barket- West Lafayette(0/0/4): 
Aataevon Jordan- Franklin Central(1/0/5): Vincent McDonald
Gabe Sollars- Evansville Mater Dei(2/1/6): John Purdy*, Stephen Little(KY)
Alex Deming- Rochester(2/1/1): Armen Koltookian*, Devon Ulshafer
John Purdy- Castle(3/3/5): Gabe Sollars(3)*
Jacob Behm- Fremont(3/3/1): Alex Deming*, Armen Koltookian(2)*
Will Clark- Crown Point(4/4/6): Connor Barket*, Gage Demarco*, Gunner Henry(2)*
Christian Chavez- Mishawaka(5/3/2): Gage Demarco*, Will Clark(2)*, Jaden Durnil, Peter Obergfell
Samuel Saunders- Terre Haute North(5/4/0): Gabe Sollars*, Wyatt Willman*, John Purdy*, Max Broom*, Colten Hubbell
Wyatt Willman- North Posey(6/5/4): Gabe Sollars*, John Purdy(2)*, Nathan Critchfield(2)*, Kelton Farmer
Armen Koltookian- Concord(6/3/4): Vincent McDonald, Christian Chavez(2)*, Will Clark*, Wyatt Woodall, Paul Dewitt
Max Broom- Hamilton Southeastern(6/4/2): John Purdy*, Vincent McDonald, Aataevon Jordan(3)*, Austin Hastings
Gage DeMarco- Chesterton(6/4/2): Connor Barket*, Will Clark(3)*, Jack Cummings(IL)(2)
Jackson Ingenito- Daleville(6/3/0): Jacob Behm*, Wyatt Woodall, Dylan Kwiatkowski, Reid Schroeder*, Armen Koltookian*, Noah Duke(KY)
Ryan Bovard- East Central(9/2/0): Van Skinner, Max Broom*, Ronin Hammond*, Jaden Durnil, Evan Clayton, Chase Hamilton, Noah Duke(KY)(2), Tanner Smith(OH)
Ronin Hammond- Perry Meridian(11/4/1): Gabe Sollars*, Aataevon Jordan(2)*, Gunner Henry*, Sam Peeples(4), Jaden Durnil, Grayson Harvey, Quentin Keesee
 
220lbs
Nathan Critchfield- Evansville Mater Dei(0/0/7): 
Christian Carroll- New Prairie(0/0/3): 
Blake Heyerly- Adams Central(1/1/3): Connor Barket*
Juan Grange- Penn(2/2/5): Leighton Jones*, Christian Carroll*
Tommy Morrill- Columbus East(2/2/4): Juan Grange*, Nathan Critchfield*
Brady Beck- Rochester(2/2/2): Blake Heyerly*, Juan Grange*
Kelton Farmer- Evansville Memorial(5/5/1): Wyatt Willman*, Tommy Morrill*, Nathan Critchfield(3)*
Chance Harris- Fort Wayne Concordia(6/4/4): Blake Heyerly*, Julante Hinton(2)*, Brady Beck*, Joel Kennedy, Dylan Bennett
Julante Hinton- Fort Wayne Northrop(6/5/2): Blake Heyerly*, Chance Harris(4)*, Dylan Bennett
Devin Kendrex- Mount Vernon (Fortville)(6/3/1): Corey Hill, Keagan Martin, Jackson Weingart(3)*, Isaac Beam
Jordan Cree- Rensselaer Central(7/5/1): Wyatt Willman*, Connor Barket*, Christian Carroll*, Isaac Benjamin, Paul Clark*, Brady Beck*, Zack Vanderwal
Royce Deckard III- Center Grove(7/4/0): Michael DeGrado, Isaac Benjamin, Juan Grange*, Nolan Skaggs, Kelton Farmer*, Nathan Critchfield*, Jackson Weingart*
Paul Clark- Crown Point(8/2/2): Christian Carroll*, Corey Hill(2), Michael DeGrado(2), Juan Grange*, Nolan Skaggs, Peyton Cross
Jake Long- Noblesville(8/4/0): Justin Lewis*, Jordan Cree*, Cole Chicoine, Jackson Weingart(2)*, Josh Brown, Seth Richardson, Josh Brown
Justin Lewis- Roncalli(9/4/1): Wyatt Willman*, Tommy Morrill*, Aaron Butts, Nolan Skaggs, Devin Kendrex*, Garron Jenkins, Jackson Weingart*, Cole Branigan, Corithian Seals-Porte(KY)
Jackson Weingart- Indianapolis Cathedral(11/4/7): Isaac Benjamin, Juan Grange*, Tommy Morrill*, Paul Clark*, Nolan Skaggs, Nathan Critchfield*, Brayden Rouse, Anthony Proctor, Noah Duke(KY), Onya Nwosisi, Zyair Anderson(OH)
 
285lbs
Hunter Whitenack- New Prairie(0/0/4): 
Marshall Fishback- Rochester(1/1/4): Makhi Watts*
Leighton Jones- Brownsburg(2/0/8): Charlie Jagusah(IL), Nolan Neves(OH)
Ian Clifford- Columbia City(2/1/1): Jason Orr, Marshall Fishback*
Jacob Johnson- Franklin Community(3/2/6): Leighton Jones(2)*, James Ralph
Ashton Hartwell- Columbus East(3/3/2): Jacob Johnson*, Leighton Jones*, Mihail Platonov*
Makhi Watts- North Central(5/4/5): Mihail Platonov*, Nate Johnson*, Hosia Smith*, Riley Anderson, Hunter Branham*
Theodore Sparks- Merrillville(5/2/5): Hunter Whitenack*, Brayden Jellison*, Anthony Popi, Vincent Arebalo(IL), Michael DeGrado
Hunter Brahnam- Frankton(6/3/1): Makhi Watts*, Mihail Platonov*, Ryan Latimore, Hosia Smith*, Jacob Etchison, Tyler Wright
Nate Johnson- Center Grove(6/6/2): Jacob Johnson(3)*, Leighton Jones*, Ashton Hartwell*, Mihail Platonov*
Mihail Platonov- Westfield(7/2/5): Leighton Jones*, Dom Burgett(3), Jack Milligan, Hosia Smith*, Andrew Just
Hosia Smith- Indianapolis Cathedral(7/3/4): Makhi Watts(2)*, Tommy Morrill*, Jack Ruess(2), Ryan Latimore, Skyler Horn(OH)
Trey White- Portage(7/5/3): Jacob Johnson*, Hunter Whitenack*, Theodore Sparks(2)*, Jack Milligan, Hosia Smith, Theodore Sparks*
Brayden Jellison- Elkhart(8/7/1): Hunter Whitenack*, Ashton Hartwell*, Brandon Villafuerte, Nate Johnson*, Marshall Fishback(3)*, Josh Clark*
Josh Clark- New Haven(10/2/1): Makhi Watts*, Ian Clifford*, Dalton Robinson(2), Cooper Williams, Ethan Dodson, Parker Hennessey, Ethan Michael, Landon Armstrong, Zach Chrisman
Liam Begley- Crown Point(14/11/0): Jacob Johnson*, Leighton Jones(2)*, Hunter Whitenack*, Mihail Platonov*, Theodore Sparks*, Trey White(2)*, Jack Milligan, Hosia Smith*, Theodore Sparks*, Trey White*, Bryson Vandermeulen(MI), Ryan Boersma(IL)

1746 5
2022 Folkstyle Nationals Entries
Here are the current entries for Folkstyle Nationals, the Recruiting Showcase, and Bill Farrell World Team Qualifier
 
Division Weight Name Club 10U 120 lbs Calavito Hoskins Merrillville Pirates Wrestling Club 10U 56 lbs Haley Guard Princeton Wrestling Club 10U 63 lbs Kullen Eckley Valparaiso Wrestling Club 10U 63 lbs Oscar Obregon Merrillville Pirates Wrestling Club 10U 67 lbs Jon Luke Austin Contenders Wrestling Academy 10U 77 lbs Paxton Turner Princeton Wrestling Club 10U 84 lbs Lane Kolb Princeton Wrestling Club 12U 70 lbs Jeremy Carver Delta Wrestling Club Inc. 12U 82 lbs Alexander Ponce   12U 98 lbs Azarius Overstreet Peacock Wrestling Club, LLC 14U 106 lbs Braylon Reynolds Red Cobra Wrestling Academy 14U 110 lbs Gavin Lewis Peacock Wrestling Club, LLC 14U 136 lbs Lucas Boe   14U 149 lbs Benjamin Clark Bulldog Premier Wrestling Club 14U 165 lbs Zachary Clark Bulldog Premier Wrestling Club 14U 165 lbs Jett Goldsberry Patriots Wrestling Club 14U 187 lbs Ceasar Salas Merrillville Pirates Wrestling Club 14U 71 lbs Alex Huddleston Red Cobra Wrestling Academy 14U 71 lbs Cameron Schofield Red Cobra Wrestling Academy 14U 77 lbs Karson Kahalekomo Daleville Broncos Wrestling Club 14U 97 lbs Colin Strayer Bulldog Premier Wrestling Club 16U 106 lbs Jude Heaston Indian Creek Wrestling Club 16U 113 lbs Matthew Maldonado Merrillville Pirates Wrestling Club 16U 120 lbs Terry Easley Warren Wrestling Academy 16U 126 lbs Oscar A Baca III Bulldog Premier Wrestling Club 16U 132 lbs Silas Foster Legends of Gold 16U 132 lbs Christian Arberry Warren Wrestling Academy 16U 132 lbs Jarred Harlow Greenfield Wrestling Club 16U 138 lbs Kristian Blake Warren Wrestling Academy 16U 145 lbs Terran Williams   16U 152 lbs Hunter Wagers Warren Wrestling Academy 16U 152 lbs Brenton Russell Warren Wrestling Academy 16U 160 lbs Anthony Rinehart Contenders Wrestling Academy 16U 182 lbs Brilyn Smith Warren Wrestling Academy 16U 182 lbs De'Alcapon Veazy Legends of Gold 8U 49 lbs Sophia Gatewood Princeton Wrestling Club 8U 56 lbs Cory Buckley   8U 56 lbs Braxton Whitlow Contenders Wrestling Academy 8U 70 lbs Collin Hoskins Merrillville Pirates Wrestling Club HS Recruiting Showcase 113 lbs Jackson Heaston Indian Creek Wrestling Club HS Recruiting Showcase 126 lbs David Maldonado Merrillville Pirates Wrestling Club HS Recruiting Showcase 126 lbs Kyrel Leavell Warren Wrestling Academy HS Recruiting Showcase 138 lbs Lucas Clement Merrillville Pirates Wrestling Club HS Recruiting Showcase 160 lbs Cody Goodwin Bulldog Premier Wrestling Club HS Recruiting Showcase 182 lbs Gunner Henry Red Cobra Wrestling Academy HS Recruiting Showcase 195 lbs Connor Barket Red Cobra Wrestling Academy HS Recruiting Showcase 285 lbs Trey White Portage Wrestling Club Masters A 88 kg Cory Graham Legends of Gold Masters B 100 kg Christopher Myers Carroll Wrestling Club Masters B 100 kg Michael Burke Yorktown Wrestling Club Open High School 100 lbs Brady Byrd Maurer Coughlin Wrestling Club Open High School 120 lbs Tanner Tishner Western high School Open High School 120 lbs Nasir Christion Merrillville Pirates Wrestling Club Open High School 126 lbs Joshua Johnson Red Cobra Wrestling Academy Open High School 126 lbs Dawson Brooks Daleville Broncos Wrestling Club Open High School 126 lbs Christopher Bohn Region Wrestling Academy Open High School 138 lbs Julius Gerencser Daleville Broncos Wrestling Club Open High School 145 lbs Isaiah Holden Greenfield Wrestling Club Open High School 145 lbs Gavin Phillips Greenfield Wrestling Club Open High School 152 lbs Cohen Hager Greenfield Wrestling Club Open High School 152 lbs Manolo Hood Portage Wrestling Club Open High School 160 lbs Cameron Crisp Merrillville Pirates Wrestling Club Open High School 160 lbs Gage Gulley   Open High School 160 lbs Cody Goodwin Bulldog Premier Wrestling Club Open High School 170 lbs Clay Guenin Greenfield Wrestling Club Open High School 182 lbs Orlan Foster Legends of Gold Open High School 182 lbs Michael Durham Warren Wrestling Academy Open High School 195 lbs Connor Barket Red Cobra Wrestling Academy Open High School 220 lbs James Veal   Open High School 220 lbs William Clark Bulldog Premier Wrestling Club Open High School 220 lbs Caleb Asa Warren Wrestling Academy Open High School 220 lbs Gregory Johnson Warren Wrestling Academy Open High School 285 lbs Paul Clark Bulldog Premier Wrestling Club Open High School 285 lbs Dominic Burgett Legends of Gold Bill Farrell        Freestyle 86 kg Santos Cantu Indiana RTC Freestyle 86 kg Dylan Lydy Indiana RTC Freestyle 65 kg Henry Porter Indiana RTC Freestyle 70 kg Deondre Wilson  
5109 5
NHSCA National Duals Rosters
Link to brackets
https://arena.flowrestling.org/event/1fbb2aae-19bb-433b-ad34-ae370a48d3a9
 
Wrestling runs Saturday through Monday
 
High School Rosters
 
Elite Athletic Club  
106 #14 Jamarcus Smith 
113 HM Kade Kluce 
120 HM Ashton Jackson 
126 Blase Mele 
132 Hayden Brady 
138 Anthony Bahl 
145 HM Aiden Torres 
152 Kegan Knapp 
160 Connor Svantner 
170 Jesse Herrera 
182 Lane Kiser 
195 Rob Atwood 
220 Paul Clark 
285 Will Clark 
285 Trey White 
  
Fight Barn Wrestilng Club(Columbus East)  
106 Talon Jessup 
113 Cole Wright 
120 Caleb Cooper 
120 Gage Rutan 
126 Liam Krueger 
126 Rolando Ruiz-Tapia 
132 Braden Isbell 
132 Bo Wagner 
138 William Anderson 
138 Caleb Kirkpatrick 
145 Nate Anderson 
152 Kyler Rimer 
160 Tyler Lake 
170 Juan Puello 
182 Braxton Schaefer 
195 Jackson Fox 
220 Tommy Morrill 
285 Patrick McMahon 
  
High Rollers  
106 Charlie Larocca 
113 Edward Goss 
120 Michael Tharpe 
126 Blake Wolf 
132 Alex Plahitko 
138 Eli Brooks 
145 Zach Wilson 
152 Tyler Jones 
160 Kody Glitter 
170 Hayden Shepherd 
182 Jacob Skinner 
220 Trey Deckard 
285 Josh Clark 
  
Indiana Flash North  
113 Seth Aubin 
120 Daniel Mata 
126 Kaydon Kingery 
132 Xavier Roberts 
138 Tive Delgado 
145 Giancorlo Laterzo 
152 Ben Taborski 
160 Kenneth Bisping 
170 Aidan White 
182 Anthony White 
195 Demetrus Dean 
220 Michael Degrado 
285 Mitch Krolikowski 
  
Indiana Flash South  
106 Adrian Origel 
113 Zachariah Reno 
120 Anthony Fortenberry 
126 Caleb Oliver 
132 Avery Stanley 
138 Larz Hughes 
145 Mason Stanley 
152 Lody Cheatham 
160 Ben Phillips 
170 Ethan Popp 
182 Keaton Loudermilk 
195 Treton Simmons 
  
Indiana Mafia  
106 Eli Collier 
113 Jackson Emery 
120 RJ Taylor 
126 Mikey Wilson 
132 Keaton Morton 
138 Branson Weaver 
152 Quaid Hinshaw 
182 Jaylen Young 
195 Ronin Hammond 
285 Nolan Martin 
  
Indiana Outlaws Black  
106 Jalen May 
113 #13 Jake Hockaday 
120 Toby Billerman 
126 HM Kyrel Leavell 
132 Joey Buttler 
138 HM Cheaney Schoeff 
145 Dillon Graham 
152 Bryce Lowery 
160 HM Matthew Koontz 
170 Delaney Ruhlman 
182 HM Orlando Cruz 
195 HM Gunner Henry 
220 Jacob Navarro 
285 Hosia Smith 
  
Indiana Outlaws Gray  
106 Jude Heaston 
113 Jaden Farr 
120 Sam Bustamante 
126 Will May 
132 Gabriel Clay 
138 Kannon Zuber 
145 Paul King 
152 Connor Hoefling 
160 Chase Mayes 
170 Lucas Esposito 
182 Collin Casad 
195 Gregory Johnson 
220 Luke Raines 
285 Peyton Kendall 
  
Indiana Outlaws Select  
106 Cameron Meier 
113 Logan Bickel 
120 Dominic McFeeley 
126 Tylin Thrine 
132 Gavyn Whitehead 
138 Cooper Baldwin 
145 HM Rider Searcy 
152 JJ Lowe 
160 Michael Hutchison 
170 Noah Clouser 
182 Liam Farmer 
195 Eli Hinshaw 
220 Walker Van Ness 
285 Trevi Hillman-Conley 
  
Indiana Outlaws White  
106 Levi Johns 
113 Jackson Heaston 
120 Preston Haines 
126 Trevor Hott 
132 Braden Haines 
138 Romeo White 
145 Silas Stits 
152 Logan Fite 
160 Landon Boe 
170 Jude Powell 
182 Caden Brewer 
195 Wade Mettling 
220 Will Clark 
285 Paul Clark 
  
Indiana Outlaws Yellow  
106 Brennan Leonard 
113 Tanner Tishner 
120 Bryce Doss 
126 Braden Getz 
132 Mason Day 
138 Logan Stuckman 
145 Hunter miller 
152 Jackson Neibert 
160 Nick Cicciarelli 
170 Anthony Cashman 
182 Kaden McConnell 
195 Bryce Crump 
220 Jackson Weingart 
285 Liam Begley 
  
Team Iron Bear  
106 Cooper Doucette 
113 Porter Temple 
120 Kaden Golden 
126 Brian Harris 
132 Jaylyn Pugh 
138 Kaleb Jacobs 
145 Carson Fettig 
152 Hank Temple 
160 Michael Cain 
170 Charles Brown 
182 Evan Tilton 
195 Caleb Cohee 
220 Michael Henderson 
285 Josh Brown 
285 Mason Moran 
  
The Fort Hammers  
106 Tyler Tun 
113 Carter Krouse 
120 DeJuan Clardy 
132 keegan schlabach 
138 gabe miller 
145 ethan rodriguez 
152 wayne wells 
160 chase leech 
170 ethan smith 
182 De`Alcapon Veazy 
195 Mickey Daring 
220 Preston Howard 
 
Random Teams
106 Luke Rioux- Team Shutt Nation
106 Nate Rioux- Team Shutt USA
160 AJ Steenbeke- Team Shutt USA
160 Cody Goodwin- Team Shutt Dethrone
220 Peyton Kendall- Team Shutt GT
138 Noah Sessions- Roundtree Wrestling Academy Black
 
Middle School Rosters
Elite Athletic Club
75 takoda parker
80 Zayden Mansfield
85 Declan Mckee
90 Drayton DeKay
95 Matt Diley
100 Cullen Edwards
105 Logan Bellis
112 Braylon Price
119 Hunter Shike
127 AJ Kroft
135 Cooper Miller
142 JACK HARTY
154 Josh Heath
165 Diego Irizarry
230 Raul Martinez

High Rollers
75 Zavier Acuna
75 Elio Gil
85 Camden Hook
90 Tomi Campian
90 Ryder Gardner
100 Tegan Newell
105 Gunner Butt
112 Sean Breedlove
119 William Vander Luitgaren
127 Porter Kleeberg
135 Jack Davis
142 Wyatt Hoppes
154 Ben Clark
165 Zach Clark
180 Tristan Lanum
 
Indiana Flash M
80 Bella Wesley
90 Jacoby Moore
95 Aidan Diaz
100 Max Quiroz
105 Cooper Wilkins
112 Gavin Lewis
119 Chase Pekny
127 Jacob Hill
135 Aleksandar Tatum
142 Cayden Webb
154 Lucas Anderson

Indiana Outlaws Red
75 Sebastian Gracia
80 Luke Neid
85 Eli Ogle
90 Peyton Schoettle
95 Justin Williamson
100 Lucas Day
105 Braylon Reynolds
112 Cade Zuber
119 Landon Haines
127 Angelo Vargo
135 Peyton Hornsby
142 Lucas Boe
154 Mj Morton
165 Camden Jeeninga
180 Spencer Fain
230 Alan Ortiz
 
Indiana Outlaws Silver
75 Symon Schoettle
80 Blake Doss
85 Gavyn Kemp
90 Blake Getz
95 Lincoln Underwood
100 Justus Thrasher
105 Jett Mcguire
112 Trevor Bennett
119 Wayne Harden
127 Tyler Lavin
135 Tucker Billerman
142 Mason Thompson
165 Brodie Melzoni
180 Collin Whetsel
230 Mark Gonzalez

POWA
75 Alex Huddleston
119 Clinton Shepherd
127 Evan Stanley

The Fort Hammers
75 Remington Waldron
80 ramon sierra
85 brock mccartney
90 Abrum Swathwood
100 kaid jackson
105 Grant Howard
112 Carter Fielden
119 evan omelian
135 rylee biddle
142 Hartley hoover
180 aiden hunt

Elementary Rosters
The Fort Hammers
52 Layten Marsh
56 Karsten Castetter
60 Henry Riesen
65 Wyatt Melchi
70 drew hiesler
75 Maximus Kleeberg
80 Isaac Brown
85 Lane Williams
90 Joseph Warner
95 Lathen Janes
100 Braxtyn Bauer
100 Luke Oberlin
110 Tatum jones
120 Brennan mccartney

High Rollers
52 Tino Acuna
56 Ian Weber
60 Parker Stanzis
65 Parker Kleeberg
70 Logan Brickley
75 Conner Maddox
80 Xavier Flores
85 Dallas Rosenbarger
95 Jude Bratt
100 Griffan Kline
110 Issac Suddarth
110 Justus Suddarth
120 Jordan Parrett
150 Dylan Stanley

Indian Creek
52 Chase Dowty
56 Ryder Dowty
60 Tyson Doll
65 Tucker Dowty
70 Esdon Morphet
75 Ella Neibert
80 Colton Stinson
85 Maverick Smith
90 Isaac Smith
95 Patrick Dowty
100 Noah Fitzgerald
110 Bo Jackson
120 Gavin Brown
150 Wyatt Horton

Indiana Outlaws Gold
52 Joey Brown
56 Cecil Nelson
60 Lennon Jaggers
65 Henry Antrobus
70 Cameron Schofield
75 Ashton Scott
80 Kellen Schoeff
85 William Smith
90 Charlie Hutchinson
95 Nik Freeze
100 Ashton Goney
110 Hayden Mullins
120 Cohen Wuethrich
150 Jackson Smith
 
Indiana Outlaws Green
52 Joey Graham
56 Cory Buckley
60 Alexander Schnurstein
65 Jack May
70 Richie Graham
70 Jace Largent
75 Maxwell Schnurstein
80 Chase Shirley
85 Jax Hanson
90 Jonathan Nordyke Jr.
100 Vinny Berberena
110 Ezra Ostler
120 Ava Strayer
 

2189 5
2023 Fargo Women's Preview
By Mark Maldonado
 
Team Indiana is rostering 32 women to compete at Fargo this year. In this preview we are looking at the girls who have seeding criteria from their prior nationals success at the 16U/Junior divisions.
 
We start with the Junior division. We have a few girls who have an immense amount of experience who can contend for a national title with seven girls having seeding criteria. At 106, we have two girls who have had a lot of freestyle success. Heather Crull (Northeastern) won U17 World Team Member this year and finished 2nd and 7th at Fargo the past two years. Mackenzie Smith (Heritage Hills) is also at this weight and was a 16U Fargo Champion in 2021. She finished 7th last year in the Junior division. At 122 Rose Kaplan (West Lafayette) has had quite the year and could find herself competing for a title. In the past four months, Rose won USA Folkstyle Nationals, placed in the U20 world team trials, and went undefeated at Junior Duals in Tulsa. Looking to get back on the podium, Joy Cantu (Merrillville) at 112 and Kaylie Peterson (Evansville Central) at 152 both were Fargo All-Americans in 2021. Indian Creek’s Phoebe Dowty at 122 and Hannah Seitzinger at 127 were both place-winners at USA Folkstyle Nationals. 
 
In the 16U division, eight of our sixteen wrestlers placed at 16U Folkstyle Nationals. Kendall Moe (Hamilton Heights) at 94 pounds is a Folkstyle National Champion and the only returning Fargo All-American for the 16U women. Elly Janovsky at 144 (Lake Central) will be a top seed after placing 4th at the U17 world team trials. She was a folkstyle national runner-up in 2022. Aleksandra Bastaic at 138 (Highland) is making her Fargo debut and is another title contender. She finished 2nd at 16U Folkstyle and 2nd at U15 Pan-Am Trials in her past two national tournaments. Southport has two Folkstyle national runner-ups who could make deep runs, Kyla Johnson (122) and Ava Mosconi (180). At 112, Amelia Murphy (Wyoming Seminary) looked stellar at Junior Duals finishing 8-0 and should be high on the podium stand this year. Isabel Kaplan (West Lafayette) has had a lot of 14U national success. She placed 4th at 16U Folkstyle nationals this year. Other national placers are middle school wrestlers Maddie Marsh (Pendleton Heights) at 132 and Ava Strayer (Crown Point) at 122. Both placed at both U15 national team trials in Spokane and at 16U Folkstyle nationals. 
 
Rounding out the roster 
Juniors: Kirsten Cortez (Lake Central), Omotola Aluko (Ben Davis), AnnaMae Mosconi (Southport), Emily Anderson (Hamilton Southeastern), Sian Rogers (Jeffersonville), Katelynn Hernandez (Purdue Poly), Kera Parke (Fort Wayne North Side), Michela Clifford (Columbia City).
 
16U: Olivia Crull (Northeastern), Gracie Smiley (Brownsburg), Jaden Hughes (Frankton), Ella France (Northfield), Kylie Benoit (Hanover Central), Paige Cook (Boonville), Fanta Sall (Hamilton Southeastern)
 
WOMEN FARGO COMPETITION SCHEDULE (Central Standard Time)
Saturday, July 15th 
Session I - 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM 
16U/Junior Girls: Championship (2 Rds) and Consolation (2 or 3 Rds)
 
Session II - 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
16U/Junior Girls: Championship & Quarterfinals (3 Rds) and Consolation (2 or 3 Rds)  
 
Sunday, July 16th 
Session III - 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM 
16U/Junior Girls: Semifinals (2 Mats); Consolation and Consolation Semifinals (5 Rds)  
  
Session IV - 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
16U/Junior Girls: 3rd-8th Medal Matches  
 
Session V - 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
16U/Junior Girls: Parade of Champions and Finals    

 
USA Wrestling Nationally Rankings (7/7/23)
100 - Kendall Moe #26
106- Heather Crull #5
112- Amelia Murphy #25
127- Rose Kaplan #5
138- Aleksandra Bastaic #25
138- Maddie Marsh #26
144- Elly Janovsky #10
 
2023 PIN Ranking in Bracket (Top 15)
JR 106- Heather Crull #1
JR 106- Mackenzie Smith #11
JR 112- Omotola Aluko #15
JR 117- Emily Anderson #7
JR 122 - Rose Kaplan #7
JR 152- Kaylie Peterson #6
 
16U 94- Kendall Moe #3
16U 112- Amelia Murphy #6
16U 122- Kyla Johnson #6
16U 122- Ava Strayer #9
16U 132- Maddie Marsh #8
16U 138- Aleksandra Bastaic #5
16U 144- Elly Janovsky #7
 
Total Female Fargo All-Americans in the past 10 years
2022 - 8 All-Americans
2021 - 7 All-Americans
2020 - No Tournament
2019 -  4 All-Americans
2018 - 1 All-American
2017 - 3 All-Americans
2016 - 1 All-American
2015 - 1 All-American
2014 - 2 All-Americans
2013 - 3 All-Americans

1687 5
2023 Carnahan Memorial Invitational Finals
2758 4
2014 Mater Dei Holiday Classic Preview
By John Johnson
 
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water....
 
As 2013 was regarded as the toughest field in the 29th year of the event, this season's edition of the Mater Dei Holiday Classic provides a triple threat to fans: High-end talent, top teams and exceptionally deep weight classes.
 
Chad Red of New Palestine, Nick Lee of Mater Dei and Paul Konrath of Mt. Vernon return to the Classic with gold from Fargo. Lee bested the trio, as he earned the Most Outstanding Wrestler at the North Dakota summer extravaganza.
 
Eight wrestlers enter Mater Dei's gym with a top state ranking, while four more are ranked second. 29 additional grapplers tout a top-ten ranking.
 
Kentucky offers a veritable who's who from the Bluegrass state. Always-tough Union County is ranked #1, while St. Xavier is ranked third, followed by Trinity, who is ranked fourth.
 
The hosts sport Indiana's top ranking, while Franklin is ranked ninth, Avon is tenth and New Palestine is eleventh.
 
Belleville West is the lone representative from Illinois. Ranked 22nd in the 3A (large school) division, do not be fooled by Belleville's won-loss records. Belleville wrestles a brutal December schedule. Their wrestlers consistently place above their seeds and act as spoilers.
 
While Mater Dei is the returning team champion and a favorite to repeat, the race for the top slots will be a wild scramble. Upsets, wrestling to a seed and scoring bonus points will be crucial in the final team standings. Eight teams have a legitimate shot at one of the top two spots.
 
106- Union County's Saul Ervin brings his top Kentucky ranking to the Classic and will look to jump from last years' third place performance to the top of the podium. New Pal's Cameron Diep and St. Xavier's Konner Kraeszig will likely come through the other side of the bracket.
Spoiler Alert! Avon's Mason Miranda.
 
113- Mt. Vernon's Paul Konrath is the returning Classic champion and Indiana runner-up; look for him to repeat. Ranked wrestlers in New Pal's Alec White, Mater Dei's Kyle Luigs, Floyd Central's Tristan Sellmer, St. Xavier's Austin Cook and Union County's Micah Ervin populate this incredibly deep bracket. There will not be a dull moment at 113 pounds. Good luck seeding this one!
 
120- Will Egli and Paul Konrath earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Match award in 2013. Egli and Bryce Scheffer, Union County's returning State Champion, will likely lock horns in the final. Both are dynamic, wide-open wrestlers. One might find the top match of the finals at 120 pounds.
Spoiler Alert! New Pal's Eugene Starks. Starks is strong and physical. Coach Chad Red will have him ready to roll.
 
126- CJ Red owns two Indiana state titles and has yet to lose a high school match. Look for a rematch of the 2013 Holiday Classic final between Red and Mater Dei's Alex Johnson.
Spoiler Alert! Trinity's Danten Rice. Rice is tough and is wrestling very well.
 
132- Mater Dei's Nick Lee is the overwhelming favorite to repeat his 2013 title performance. Trinity's Keegan Duncan and Union County's Chance Oxford will wrestle for the right to meet Lee in the
final on December 30.
 
138- Joe Lee headlines at 138 pounds. Lee will likely earn the number-one seed. As it was in 2013, 138 is very deep. New Palestine's Jared Timberman, St. Xavier's Dallas Miles and Steven Matheny from Trinity are potential semi-finalists. Time your breaks around this weight class; every match should be good.
Potential Spoilers- Mt. Vernon's Austin Bethel is a race car. On any given day, Bethel can beat virtually anyone. Avon's Quinn Harris and New Albany's Hunter Castleberry. Harris is a worker; do not be surprised to see him defeat a higher seed. Castleberry is dangerous. Overlook him at your peril.
 
145- Mater Dei's Blake Jourdan and Trinity's Hudson Heidorf are the prohibitive favorites as finalists. Heidorf is ranked number one in Kentucky, while Jourdan is ranked sixth in Indiana. Both are very exciting. All of the elements exist for a thrilling final. Franklin's veteran Shane Wilkerson and Union County's Tim Pike will also compete for spots on the podium.
Potential Spoilers- Watch for Belleville's Nate Smalling. If you are planning your breaks, lump 145 in with 138There are too many physical, quick and risk-taking wrestlers in this weight for upsets not to happen. Don't blink or you might miss it.
 
152- Out of staters write the script at 152 pounds. Belleville West's Nick Foster sports a three-ranking in Illinois, while Trinity's Ben Barton and Union County's Jackson Oxford are ranked second and third, respectively. New Albany's Tre Lynch will be also reaching for a high medal placement.
Spoiler Alert! Look for a break out performance by Franklin sophomore Burk Van Horn.
 
160- Mater Dei's Ashton Forzley beat New Pal's Nick Brickens in the consolation semifinal in 2013. Look for a 2014 rematch for the gold. Depending upon the seeding, one of the two will have to get past St. Xavier's very tough Nathan Haddad.
 
170- Returning State Champion, Jacob Stevenson of Franklin sees his primary competitor as Kentucky's returning State Champ, St. Xavier's Dominic Lampe. Avon's Brendon Helm is no underdog; he lost to Stevenson in the 2013 final 8-6 and will look for revenge.
Spoiler Alert! Evansville Memorial's Noah Huelsing. Huelsing has a big motor will never say "die."
 
182- Trinity's Tyler Frankrone is the returning State Champion. The seeding is crucial as Avon's Evan Elmore, Mater Dei's Sam Bassemier and St. Xavier's Elijah Allgeir will compete for the other slot in the final.
 
195- Lucas Miozza of Trinity and Cole Sherman of Union County headline this group. 195 has the lightest credentials of any of the weight classes. A solid wrestler that puts together a couple of good days of wrestling should find himself wearing the gold.
 
220- Gunnar Larson of Avon finished second at the 2013 Classic to eventual State Champion, Conner Tolley of Franklin. Tolley has graduated and Larson is the next man up. Joseph Green of St. Xavier and Connor Sherman of Union County look to be factors.
Spoiler Alert! Tristan Choate of Mt. Vernon. Choate is wrestling well; it will be no surprise for him to perform.
 
285- The weight class formerly known as "heavyweight" should be...big. Franklin's Quinn York beat Union County's Raynel "Ray-Ray" Brown for the title last year; the two could also dance for the top spot in 2014.
Potential Spoilers- Who wants to bet against Avon's Brett Henson, Trinity's Landon Carolla, Mater Dei's Adrian Butler or Belleville West's Rickey Nelson? I didn't think so.
 
Hook's Predictions for the Big Winners:
The Coaches- The Holiday Classic's hospitality room has the reputation of some of the best food available in southern Indiana. Burgoo (ask any Evansville resident what it is), bar-b-q and Frank Schaefer's home-grown buffalo bratwursts headline the menu. Be jealous.
Fans Not Married to Chain Hotels- Le Merigot is a boutique hotel on the Tropicana property. Shop around and you can get a deal. You will not be disappointed.
Fans Not Married to Chain Restaurants- A strong arm can hit the Hilltop Inn with a rock from Mater Dei's parking lot. Frosty beverages and brain sandwiches led the Hilltop to be voted the "Manliest Restaurant in America." For carryout, Marx's Bar-B-Q is next door to the Hilltop; Tony Marx is the man. If you want pizza, Turoni's is a don't-miss. Go to Dilegge's for Italian and the Gerst Haus for authentic German cuisine. If you are an early riser, visit Hagedorn's Tavern on Franklin Street for a great breakfast and a fishbowl of beer. Trust me, everybody does it.
People That Do Not Like to Drive a Lot When They are in Evansville- All of these recommendations are within ten minutes of Mater Dei.
Hook's Predictions for the Big Losers:
People who Stay/Shop/Visit the East Side- The Lloyd "Expressway" is under construction. You have been warned. If you ignore this advice, expect to be late and in a bad mood.
Those Who do not Bring a Stadium Bleacher Chair- Have you ever been to Mater Dei's gym?
Last Tidbit for 2014- The bathrooms are at the top corners of the gym, above the bleachers.

2178 4
Rochester Regional Preview
By Chad Hollenbaugh
IndianaMat Senior Writer
 
106
#15 Cavanaugh – Penn (24-7)
Kazmierczak –SBSt.Joseph (32-6)
Greene – Triton (29-7)
Zahl – SBAdams (22-8)
 
Records are deceiving here, at first glance this appears to be a balanced class of flyweights. Penn’s Kory Cavanaugh is the clear favorite due to the tough schedule that the Kingsmen wrestle. Cavanaugh is ranked 15th in the state and his losses are all to ranked kids. Triton’s Greene is intriguing because he wrestled 113 all season before a sectional cut to 106.
 
Rochester Royal Rumble (Match of the Day) – Malichi Greene vs. Joey Zahl – This battle looks to be even on paper and the winner will possible avoid an early morning date with Cummings or Triana next week.
 
113
Fans should be treated to a reunion of sorts in the finals at 113. Drew Hildebrandt is a clear front runner but fellow St. Joe County resident Adam Davis has quietly put together an outstanding frosh season for Culver Academy. The third ranked Hildebrandt should breeze here, he has too much experience for the young Eagle. Davis will be fun to follow as he continues his state series run.
 
Royal Rumble – Aaron Brooke vs. Bryton Goehring (South Bend Riley) – Brooke has the far better record but Riley’s Goering has wrestled a much better schedule. Should be an early morning donnybrook with the winner earning a trip to Merrillville.
 
#3 Hildebrandt – Penn (28-0)
Davis – CMA (29-5)
Brooke – Bremen (36-4)
DeVault – Plymouth (18-7)
 
120
#9 Hatch – Warsaw (36-1)
#10 Hartman – SBClay (41-0)
Hardesty – Mishawaka (27-6)
Tyler – SBWashington (20-5)
 
The finals at 120, should Warsaw’s #9 Kyle Hatch and Clay’s #10 Jake Hartman hold chalk, will be one of the marquee match ups of the day. With a combined record of 77-1, regional supremacy should be a whale of a match. Both are hammers in their top game so the margin might comedown to an escape, reversal or even an overtime scenario.
 
Royal Rumble – The potential 3rd/4th place match between Washington’s Tondrew Tyler and Mishawaka’s Ryan Hardesty should be filled with scoring as both these young men fight for the right not to face a regional champ next week.
 
126
After a promising freshman campaign, Wawasee’s Tristin Ponsler struggled last year and didn’t even qualify for regionals. Much like Austin Powers, Ponsler has found his mojo this season. He looked very sharp in the sectional finals where he defeated state ranked John Hunting of Rochester. These two should face off again this week.
 
Royal Rumble – Season survival will be on the line in the first round when Penn’s Jarrett Selis and Plymouth’s Cody Allmon do battle. The outcome between these to savvy vets should be very close in this deep weight class.
 
Ponsler – Wawasee (38-1)
#20 Hunting – Rochester (32-5)
Allmon - Plymouth (28-7)
Beaver – Mishawaka (18-13)
 
132
Another very deep and talented weight class with very little separation at the top. Valley’s Devin Childers has a state ranking and state experience. Riley’s Austen Laughlin has had an outstanding season with a conference and sectional title to add to his third place finish at Al Smith. Rishod Cotton of Clay has taken losses to both by the narrowest of margins. Throw in Bremen’s Joey Bailey, who wrestled most the season at 138, and you have a real meat grinder here.
 
Royal Rumble – Both semifinal matches should be wars. I love the talent in this class.
 
#15 Childers – Tippy Valley (37-1)
Laughlin – SBRiley (41-4)
Cotton – SBCotton (36-6)
Bailey – Bremen (35-3)
 
138
Wow! The great wrestling continues in this weight class where any of six grapplers have a legitimate shot at making the finals. Penn’s Cameron Beam was the titlist at Mishawaka and Culver’s Triston Rodriguez took the crown at Plymouth. Tippy Valley’s Wyatt Nelson is wrestling as well as I have ever seen him in his senior season. Rochester’s Josh Heckathorn and South Bend Adams’ Tarvis Evans are studs. Culver Academy’s young Miles Krintz will look to continue his season.
 
Royal Rumble – First round tilts featuring Nelson/Beam and Heckathorn/Evans would be the equal of final matches in many of the regionals around the state. Great weight class.
 
#17 Rodriguez – Culver Community (33-1)
Beam – Penn (9-0)
Krintz – CMA (28-9)
Evans – SBAdams (27-7)
 
145
A couple of super sophs headline the 145 class where Adams’ Tavonte Malone is the big dog. Not far behind is his conference rival Kassius Breathitt. Malone won by a single point in the sectional final. Rochester’s Justin Schroder had a disappointing Al Smith tourney but is wrestling lights out right now. He was very impressive in shutting out Culver Academy’s Noah Trevino last Saturday.
 
Royal Rumble – I’m keeping my eye on the semifinal matchup between Rochester’s Schroder and Riley’s Breathitt. It should be a doozy.
 
#14 Malone – SBAdams (29-2)
#20 Breathitt – SBRiley (28-8)
Schroder – Rochester (32-4)
Hochstetler – Penn (24-11)
 
152
This class is obviously top heavy with Tommy Forte and Jared Swank. They both have an excellent change to medal at state. Forte seems to be rounding into form as he stuck Swank last Saturday. Swank is a tough customer and will be back for more this week. Triton’s Stichter impressively beat Bremen’s Bollenbacher in the sectional final.
 
Royal Rumble – The finals match is state semifinal quality.
 
#1 Forte – Mishawaka (26-0)
#4 Swank – Penn (27-3)
Stichter – Triton (27-9)
Bollenbacher – Bremen (30-8)
 
160
Penn’s Denzyl Prentice has had an outstanding first full season in the Kingsman lineup as evidenced by his #9 state ranking. Triton’s Gage Waddle and St. Joe’s Norm Hezlip are not that far behind. The athleticism in this class will make many of the matches highly entertaining.
 
Royal Rumble – The potential semifinal matchup between Waddle and Hezlip will be epic. They matched up about six weeks ago in the same gym and Hezlip came away with an exciting one point victory.
 
#9 Prentice – Penn (26-2)
Waddle – Triton (26-6)
Hezlip – SBSt. Joseph (36-3)
Goering- SBRiley (33-8)
 
170
The Penn parade of champions will continue here as #3 ranked Joey Mammolenti should have little trouble with this field. Mishawaka’s Chase Deal had a nice upset win over James Malone of South Bend Riley last week. Triton’s Nate Spangle is the Plymouth sectionals best and looks to be the fourth Trojan to qualify for semistate.
 
Royal Rumble – A semifinal tilt between Caveman Deal and Triton’s Spangle has potential to be a good one. Deal is wrestling well at the right time and Spangle has a sterling record mostly fashioned at the 182 pound weight class.
 
#3 Mammolenti – Penn (29-2)
Deal – Mishawaka (24-9)
#20 Malone – SBRiley (36-9)
Spangle – Triton (33-3)
 
182
Penn’s top ranked Chase Osborn should dominate the field at 182. If he has to spend more than five minutes on the mat it would be surprising. That is not a knock on the rest of the field, it is a testament to how dominant Osborn has been this season. He should be tested again at semi state.
 
Royal Rumble – If the bracket holds, we should see a 3rd place matchup between Plymouth’s Jeremy Splix and Clay’s Mason Cao. These two battled in the semis of the McKee invite six week ago and Splix came away with a narrow one point win.
 
#1 Osborn – Penn (28-0)
Bell – Tippy Valley (35-2)
Splix – Plymouth (29-4)
Cao – SBClay (39-4)
 
195
The list of weight classes deep with talent is long at the Rochester regional this year and the 195 pound class is more evidence of the point. Wes Beck was dominating in the Plymouth sectional and Tanner Bradley battled to a slim one point victory Gabino Perez of South Bend Riley.
 
Royal Rumble – A semifinal matchup of Beck and Perez has great potential. Beck is a clear favorite but if he is looking past Perez he could find himself on the short end of a tight match.
 
#14 Beck – Rochester (36-3)
#16 Bradley – Mishawaka (20-3)
Perez – SBRiley (23-8)
Nolin – Warsaw (32-4)
 
220
#1 Woods – Penn (32-0)
Ernst – Mishawaka Marian (22-7)
Troxel – SBRiley (31-14)
Hess – Mishawaka (12-12)
 
Top ranked Kobe Woods is in much the same situation as his teammate Chase Osborn. He should dominate this field and not have to spend much time on the mat. Athletic, strong, experienced and technically sound, Woods is joy to watch on the mat. The battle here is for 2nd place.
 
Royal Rumble – I like the first round match up between big Andrew Brock of Warsaw and the .500 Caveman Jake Hess. Hess was able to clip him at the Al Smith Invite. He will have to repeat to continue his season.
 
285
Penn big man Cory Christman is a strong favorite to become the 7th Kingsman regional champion. His pin over Riley’s Brian Shaw makes me think he is peaking at the right time.
 
Royal Rumble – The semifinal matchup between Shaw and Jordan Shafer of Rochester is probably the most compelling contest in this bracket. Both are athletic heavyweights who like to score.
 
#9 Christman – Penn (27-3)
Shaw – SBRiley (24-9)
Shafer – Rochester (34-4)
Koebel – SBSt. Joseph (25-13)

4421 4
2016 State Finals By the Numbers
Overall
Once again we have shown how accurate our rankings are with another great year for the final rankings. Note that our rankings are locked before sectional and these do not take into account injuries or semi-state draws as the state series progresses. This year we had a record 175 ranked wrestlers that made it to state. The top weight classes were 120 with 15 of the 16 state qualifiers being ranked. Also 132 had 14 ranked wrestlers and 106, 126, 152, and 182 all had 13. Unfortunately bringing up the rear was 195lbs with only 10 ranked wrestlers. That shows you how crazy of a weight that was.
 
2016- 175
2015- 172
2014- 171
2013- 171
2012- 170
2011- 157
2010- 159
2009- 143
 
106lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Devon Casebolt-Castle
Hunter Watts-Jimtown
Trey McCartney-Harrison (WL)
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#2 Ty Mills- Brownsburg vs. #16 Gavin Rose- Greenfield-Central
#5 Tanner DeMien- Northwood vs. #9 Jacob Moran- Crown Point
#4 Kory Cavanaugh- Penn vs. #20 JC Herring- Oak Hill
#11 Brycen Denny- Monrovia vs. #6 Sammy Fair- Perry Meridian
#13 Lukasz Walendzak- Indianapolis Cathedral vs. #8 Asa Garcia- Avon
 
113lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Jabin Wright- Kokomo
Hunter Whitman- Jimtown
Donovan Johnson- Logansport
Hayden Lohrey- Shenandoah
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#3 Skylour Turner- Warren Central vs. #16 Dalton Craig- Jennings County
#8 Baxter Annakin- Castle vs. #12 Jordan Slivka- Indianapolis Cathedral
#2 Alec White- New Palestine vs. #10 Alex Mosconi- Indian Creek
#7 Austin Slates- Penn vs. #14 Geoffrey Davis- F.w. Wayne
#20 Christian Mejia- Elkhart Memorial vs. #15 Colin Poynter- Portage
 
120lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 15
Unranked qualifiers:
Adam Davis- Culver Academies
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#7 Blake Mulkey- Brownsburg vs. #18 Mason Mendez- Bellmont
#15 Jonathan Moran- Crown Point vs. #14 Ethan Smiley- Beech Grove
#4 Hunter Langeloh- Columbia City vs. #12 Noah Hunt- Bloomington South
#10 Caleb Bocock- Lebanon vs. #2 Jeremiah Reitz- Griffith
#1 Drew Hildebrandt- Penn vs. #20 Isaac Castro- Lawrence North
#6 Kyle Luigs- Evansville Mater Dei vs. #5 Blake Glogouski- Fairfield
#11 Christian Hunt- Yorktown vs. #3 Graham Rooks- Columbus East
 
126lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Travis Davenport- Oak Hill
Reese Rodriguez- Hammond Morton
Bryce Niewoehner- Kankakee Valley
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#8 Marcus Mejia- Elkhart Memorial vs. #7 Logan Dilbeck- Gibson Southern
#4 Austin Holmes- Hamilton Southeastern vs. #9 Michael DeLaPeña- Merrillville
#3 Gaige Torres- Portage vs. #11 Johnny Loos- Franklin County
#19 Dawson Combest- Columbus East vs. #15 Jon Becker- Bellmont
#14 Jack Franklin- Homestead vs. #6 Isaac Gomez- Plainfield
 
132lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 14
Unranked qualifiers:
Nathan Conley- Avon
Aaron Orr- Rochester
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#4 Brendan Black- Hobart vs. #17 Josh Elpers- Evansville North
#16 Boone Welliever- Southmont vs. #8 Owen Doster- New Haven
#11 Fernando Luevano- West Noble vs. #13 DJ Brookbank- Perry Meridian
#5 Drake Rhodes- Homestead vs. #18 Skyler Collins- Frankfort
#3 Elliott Molloy- Danville vs. #7 Kris Rumph- Portage
#1 Chad Red- New Palestine vs. #9 Daniel Gunsett- Bellmont
 
138lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Nathan Housholder- East Noble
Cole Lukaszka- Benton Central
Gabe Lane- East Central
Jerrod Smith- Carmel
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#3 Evan Eldred- Westfield vs. #16 Brooks Wathen- Jennings County
#14 Riley Rasler- Prairie Heights vs. #8 Jason Crary- Munster
#11 Tristan Dembowski- Valparaiso vs. #18 Colt Rutter- Yorktown
#10 Cale McCoy- Northview vs. #4 Matthew McKinney- Warren Central
 
145lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Matthew Cullen- Avon
Szhantrayle Roberson- Kokomo
Clay Jones- Lafayette Jefferson
Clayton Cowan- Hamilton Heights
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#8 Austen Laughlin- South Bend Riley vs. #20 Derrick Motley- North Central (Indianapolis)
#2 Jared Timberman- New Palestine vs. #6 Triston Rodriguez- Culver Community
#19 Tyler Crowl- Floyd Central vs. #7 Kenny Kerrn- Jimtown
#5 Isaac Eicher- Leo vs. #10 Austin Bethel- Mount Vernon
 
152lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Jacob Clark- Avon
Matt Burns- Hobart
Jacob Ferris- Hamilton Southeastern
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#3 Trent Pruitt- Warren Central vs. #15 Mitch Lehman- Evansville Mater Dei
#12 Diego Lemley- Chesterton vs. #17 Hunter Bates- Adams Central
#13 Peyton Sturgill- Peru vs. #9 Denzyl Prentice- Penn
#1 Steven Lawrence- Portage vs. #19 Cross Dietrich- Columbia City
#5 Elijah Dunn- Indian Creek vs. #6 Brett Johnson- Perry Meridian
 
160lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Mitchell Mundy- Southridge
Jed Levitz- Prairie Heights
T.C. Perry- Southern Wells
Sam Bublick- Carmel
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#18 Gleason Mappes- Center Grove vs. #9 Tavonte Malone- South Bend Adams
#10 Jarod Swank- Penn vs. #7 Burk VanHorn- Franklin
#5 Cayden Whitaker- Martinsville vs. #13 Oszkar Kasch- Crown Point
#8 Tony Busse- Bellmont vs. #2 Alston Bane- Richmond
 
170lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Jacob Hendrich- Northview
Nick Ritchie- Elkhart Memorial
Zach Davis- F.W. Concordia Lutheran
Steven Trammell- Lawrence Central
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#2 Nathan Walton- Brownsburg vs. #6 Tristan Goering- South Bend Riley
#15 Tanner Webster- North Montgomery vs. #3 Jacob Gray- Delta
#9 Thomas Dull- Terre Haute North vs. #8 Ismael Cornejo- Portage
#5 Bryce Baumgartner- Bellmont vs. #13 Dezmen Goddard- Warren Central
#4 Hunter Mote- Delphi vs. #12 Kameron Fuller- Jeffersonville
 
182lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Bristen Dial- Brown County
Grant Goforth- Indian Creek
Russell Gibbs- Lake Central
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#2 Andrew Davison- Chesterton vs. #16 Spencer Irick- Hamilton Southeastern
#5 Andy Kohler- Jay County vs. #13 Hunter Dalton- Bloomington North
#6 CJ Damler- Brownsburg vs. #10 Caleb Hankenson- Bellmont
#9 Zach Worm- Southmont vs. #7 Isaac James- Lowell
#17 Ashton Mutuwa- Hanover Central vs. #3 Cameron Jones- Lawrence North
 
195lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 10
Unranked qualifiers:
Keith Barclay- South Spencer
Derrick Craig- New Albany
Luke Elliott- Eastbrook
Beck Davis- Garrett
Damari Embery- South Newton
Cedrick Vakalahi- Penn
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#8 Nick Fox- Carmel vs. #11 Isaac McCormick- Brownsburg
#5 Kurtis Wilderman- Evansville Mater Dei vs. #10 Kolby Ferris- Hamilton Southeastern
#20 Scottie Evans- Delta vs. #17 Evan Larsen- Hanover Central
 
220lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Joey Pier- Yorktown
Patrick Ernst- Mishawaka Marian
Donnie Crider- Harrison (wl)
Brandon Streck- Merrillville
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#4 Evan Ellis- Eastern (Greentown) vs. #16 Scott Fuller- Zionsville
#8 Sam Hipple- Carmel vs. #10 Derek Paz- Goshen
#1 Kobe Woods- Penn vs. #15 Tristin Choate- Mount Vernon
#13 Blake Davis- Garrett vs. #9 Ryan Guhl- Indianapolis Cathedral
 
285lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Austin Fleck- Evansville Mater Dei
DeAndre Hodge- Marion
Dan Phifer- Tipton
Austin Dollens- Westfield
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#15 Owen Perkins- Oak Hill vs. #17 Isaiah McWilliams- South Bend Washington
#19 Chris Ridle- Perry Meridian vs. #4 Quinn York- Franklin
#1 Shawn Streck- Merrillville vs. #12 Braxton Amos- Prairie Heights
#6 Robert Samuels- Lawrence North vs. Austin Fleck- Evansville Mater Dei
#18 Nick Mammolenti- Jimtown vs. #11 Givoni Murillo- Portage

2338 4
Indiana Takes the Mat Against the WPIAL
Over a year of planning and petitioning will come to fruition this week at the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic. Last year in late February I poked a couple people about the possibility of Indiana participating in the “Rose Bowl of Wrestling.” After many discussions with the event organizers they chose Indiana over a couple other states. As Uncle Ben told Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility, and thus the planning for this prestigious event began.
 
The Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic, formerly known as the Dapper Dan, has been around since 1975. The event has always featured the Pennsylvania All-Stars vs. the USA All-Stars as the main event with the WPIAL(Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League) All-Stars taking on a state All-Star team in the preliminary bouts. The WPIAL is easily the toughest area for wrestling in the country. This year alone there were 17 wrestlers that qualified for the NCAA’s including NCAA Champion Nico Megaludis and runner-up Jason Nolf. Add in others like Olympic medalists Coleman Scott and Cary Kolat and you get a little sense of how good this area is in wrestling. Over the past five years the WPIAL has won two of the undercard bouts defeating Michigan and Virginia.
 
Indiana has had six previous participants in the event, with all six earning victories. The first participant was Steven Bradley in 1998. In 2004 we had two participants in Alex Tsirtsis and Blake Maurer. We also had two participants eight years later in 2012 when Jason Tsirtsis and Jarred Brooks both took part. Our latest participant was Stevan Micic in 2014, he also took home the Outstanding Wrestler award for Team USA.
 
This year the main event will see the 7th and 8th participants from Indiana in Chad Red at 132lbs and Shawn Streck at heavyweight. Red has been a consensus #1 in the nation guy for the past two years, while Streck has been in the top 5 during the same period. Red will take on rival Luke Pletcher whom he is 2-1 against over the past two years. Red has won the past two meetings at last year’s FloNationals and at Who’s #1. Shawn Streck will take on state champion Jacob Beistel in his match. Beistel was Southmoreland High School’s first state champion this past year. He will play football next year at Saint Francis University.
 
The undercard is always a great match with the WPIAL taking on a state all-star team. Look for all of these matches to be great with some very good wrestlers from Indiana and Pennsylvania. Leading off for Indiana will be two-time 4th place finisher Geoffrey Davis of Fort Wayne Wayne. His opponent will be Aaron Burkett who is a three-time placer, finishing 6th, 2nd, and 3rd during his career at 106lbs. Burkett will wrestle for Lehigh next year and should be a career 125lber.
 
At 120lbs we should have a great match with Indiana being represented by one of four state champions in Drew Hildebrandt. The four-time state medal winner will face a three-time placer in Ethan McCoy. McCoy placed 2nd at National Preps as a freshman and followed that up with 3rd as a junior and 7th as a senior in PIAA. This might not be the last match-up between these two as McCoy has committed to wrestle for Kent State next year.
 
One of two Portage Indians will be the Hoosier representative at 126lbs in Gaige Torres. Torres has a long list of accolades that includes three state medals. His opponent will be Chris Eddins who finished 6th at state this year. Eddins was also a state qualifier as a junior at 120lbs.
 
One of New Haven’s finest, Owen Doster will represent Indiana at 132lbs. This multi-sport superstar qualified for state as a junior and finished 5th this past season. He will take on 2015 state qualifier Mike Heinl in his bout.
 
At 138, two-time state placer and Fargo All-American Evan Eldred will represent Indiana. One of Westfield’s best wrestlers will take on Waynesburg’s Shaun Wilson in his match. Wilson placed 5th this year at 138lbs.
 
We have probably one of the premier matches of the event at 145lbs. Two-time state placer Jordan Vaughn of Franklin Central will face off against state champion Damon Greenwald. Vaughn placed 4th this past year and was a runner-up in 2015. Greenwald was a state champion this year after placing 7th as a junior. Greenwald will wrestle for DII’s Seton Hill next year.
 
Three-time state medalist Steven “BAM” Lawrence will take the mat for Indiana at 152lbs. He placed 7th as a sophomore and followed that up with two runner-up finishes. He will have a tough opponent in state 4th place finisher Derek Verkleeren. Verkleeren’s younger brother was a Cadet World Champion this past summer.
 
Due to an injury this week to Cayden Whitaker, Indiana will now have three-time medalist and Army West Point recruit Cael McCormick manning 160lbs. He will face off with state qualifier Mitch Hartman of Belle Vernon in his match. Hartman has committed to wrestle for Bucknell next year.
 
The string of state champions for Indiana starts at 170lbs with top master Drew Hughes of Lowell. Hughes brings a lot of accolades both in-state and on the national scene to the event. He is a two-time Super 32 placer along with winning the prestigious IndianaMat Hoosier Preseason Open twice. His opponent will be two-time state placer Anthony Welsh. Welsh placed 5th and 3rd during his career and is going to wrestle at Clarion next year.
 
At 182lbs we have another two-time state champion in Blake Rypel. Rypel has four state medals along with a Super 32 championship belt hanging in his room. He will have a tough opponent in state runner-up Milton Kobaly. Kobaly will head to West Virginia and wrestle for West Liberty, a DII school, next year.
 
State champion Jake Kleimola had a great run at state and looks to continue his streak. The recent Indiana Hoosier commit will take on nationally ranked Drew Phipps. Phipps qualified for state all four years coming back with placements of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th during his last three years. Phipps will be attending Bucknell next year to continue his wrestling career.
 
Due to an emergency surgery Sam Hipple will not be able to participate. He will be replaced by his teammate Nick Fox who placed 5th at 195lbs. He will take on PIAA runner-up Mike McAleavy who was a runner-up this year for Peters Township posting a 38-4 record.
 
At heavyweight 3rd place finisher Sean Galligar of Columbus East will take the mat for Indiana. He will face off with state qualifier Hayden Rice in his bout.
 
The event will being at 4pm EST and take place at the University of Pittsburgh’s Fitzgerald Field House. FloWrestling will stream the event live, so people back home can watch the action. Before the event even takes place there will be numerous activities the participants will take part in. On Friday the wrestlers will practice with the Team USA team in the afternoon. In the evening there will be a welcome banquet that will feature team introductions, dinner, and some guest speakers. Saturday morning before the event takes place all the wrestlers will get a tour of Pittsburgh. The activities will culminate with the undercard at 4pm and the main event scheduled to start at 6pm.

2553 4
2017 New Castle Semi-State Preview
106
 
Six state-ranked competitors will do battle in the opening weight, including #2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The other ranked wrestler is Al Smith champ, #12 Gabe Smith of Lawrence Central. Smith will have to find a way to get past #5 Brayden Lowery of PM to punch his ticket. Perhaps even nastier is the bottom portion of the bracket, where #6 Logan Bailey of Cathedral and #2 Seth Johnson of North Montgomery should meet in the ticket round. #3 Brendan Mattingly of Carmel and #4 Andrew Black of Shenandoah have slightly less brutal potential paths to the state finals. This is one of the most loaded weights at New Castle. Legitimately, 5 or 6 different wrestlers could stand atop the podium at the end of the day.
 
Last year's champ: Keyuan Murphy, Warren Central
 
Potential matchups:
#5 Lowery vs. #12 Smith (Ticket round) – A couple of stud freshmen should vie for state advancement. Lowery beat Smith comfortably earlier in the year.
#4 Black vs. Josh Vaughn, Franklin Central(Ticket round) – Black is clearly one of the favorites at this weight, but he still must get by a tough senior and returning semistate qualifier.
#2 Johnson vs. #6 Bailey (Ticket round) – This could be one of the early matches of the day, as Johnson was unbeaten until regionals and the baby-faced assassin Bailey is peaking and looking better and better each week.
#3 Mattingly/ #5 Lowery vs. #4 Black/ #2 Johnson/ #6 Bailey (Finals) – There are several combinations of these 5 who could wind up competing for the coveted #1 seed at state. Quite obviously, the semifinals and 3rd place match will be huge for the individuals and a handful of teams.
 
1st round picks:
Mattingly over Slivka
Hadley over Lonneman
Lowery over Luhmann
Smith over Lee
Black over Harshbarger
Vaughn over Eldred
Bailey over Vredeveld
Johnson over Stewart
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Mattingly, Bailey, Lowery, Black
 
The Alpha Dog:
Brendan Mattingly
 
113
 
Five more state-ranked athletes will lace 'em up at 113. Despite the big loss of #5 Sammy Fair, this is still a very tough and deep weight. #3 Skylour Turner of Warren Central--3X state placer, #2 Alec Viduya of Roncalli--0 losses to anyone he will face going forward, and #7 Gavin Rose of Greenfield-Central--returning state qualifier, are joined by tough seniors #13 Nick Brady of Noblesville and #16 Kody Conaway of Beech Grove. Viduya appears to be improving as the season progresses, and has to be considered the favorite.
 
Last year's champ: Alec White, New Palestine
 
Feature matchups:
 
#13 Brady vs. #3 Turner (Ticket round) – Assuming Turner gets by 3X semistate qualifier Reid Hutson of Westfield, he should face a big, strong 113 lber who has been nearly flawless in the postseason thus far. While it's hard to bet against the Millers senior, it's even harder to bet against Turner booking another weekend date at Banker's Life.
Kyle Holman, Carmel vs. #16 Conaway (Opening round) – Holman initially looked to face #7 Rose, and then Pike freshman KeShon Edmunds, and finally wound up with a ranked senior in Conaway. The winner of this match should be in the driver's seat in the ticket round.
#7 Rose vs. #3 Turner (Semifinal round) – These two faced off in the 3rd place match of regionals, with the senior Turner winning a squeaker 4-3.
 
1st round picks:
Owens over Williams
Rose over Surber
Brady over Condo
Turner over Hutson
Viduya over Moseley
Seymour over Sollars
Holman over Conaway
Oliver over Joya
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Viduya, Turner, Rose, Holman
 
The Alpha Dog:
Alec Viduya
 
120
 
One of the most wide open weights of the day features 4 ranked wrestlers. Only #13 Lukasz Walendzak has advanced beyond semistate among this group. #12 Sunny Nier of Perry Meridian is a hungry senior and returning ticket-rounder. Regional champ #15 Carter Noehre of Greenfield-Central has had an outstanding season and has a convincing win over likely ticket round opponent Reid Seymour of Chatard. #18 Tyce Freije is another nasty Roncalli freshman, and looks to join Viduya at BLF.
 
Last year's champ: Dylan Culp, Warren Central
 
Feature matchups:
 
#13 Walendzak vs. #12 Nier (Ticket round) – This is just one of those unfortunate matches that we see at each semistate every year. Nier majored Walendzak earlier this season. Walendzak's teammate Slivka edged Nier in the ticket round last year. Will Irish eyes be smiling at 120? Or will the Falcon reach the crest in the form of a state advancement? Tune in.
 
#15 Noehre / Dominic Pecoraro, Carmel vs. #18 Frieje / #13 Walendzak / #12 Nier (Semifinals, Finals)– There isn't a lot of consensus regarding a favorite at this weight, and any of these 5 could be competing in the finals.
 
1st round picks:
Noehre over Boggs
Seymour over Hall
Ragle over Wilkerson
Pecoraro over Pettiford
Greene over Vaughn
Freije over Walsh
Walendzak over Forbes
Nier over Taylor
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Noehre, Freije, Walendzak, Pecoraro
 
The Alpha Dog:
Carter Noehre
 
126
 
Five ranked athletes grace this weight class, including 2X state placer and 3X qualifier #5 Alec White of New Palestine, the defending semistate champion at 113. Right behind him is #6 Jordan Slivka of Cathedral, 3rd place state finisher last season and runner-up in OT to White at semistate last year. #9 Adam Jerde of Carmel has been close to breaking through, but this is his last and best shot. #17 Dylan Culp of Warren Central is a returning state placer and semistate champ, but will have to get by Slivka for a chance at returning to BLF. Lastly, #13 Dallas Pugsley of Shenandoah has had an outstanding season and comes into New Castle with a regional crown. Pugsley was a ticket-rounder last year and should have a date with former state qualifier Alexander Strueder of Fishers in the ticket round.
 
Last year's champ: Breyden Bailey, Cathedral
 
Feature matchups:
 
#6 Slivka vs. #17 Culp (Ticket round) – Two returning state placewinners should meet in the ticket round. Culp really put it all together at semistate last year, besting another state placer in Ethan Smiley in the championship match. He will need to do it again this year to get past the tough Irish sophomore, and he appears to be heating up, as he took White to OT at regionals. First things first for Culp--he has to get by returning ticket rounder Garrett Walton of South Dearborn.
 
#13 Pugsley vs. Alexander Strueder (Ticket round) – Strueder very nearly made a return trip to The Fieldhouse last year, losing in UTB to Gavin Rose in the ticket round. He'll have his work cut out for him again this year, as Pugsley has a number of big wins this season.
 
#6 Slivka vs. #5 White (Finals) – This could be a repeat of last year's 113 championship, won by the Purdue recruit White in OT. If they each navigate the minefield in front of them to meet again, look for a tight match that could go either way.
 
1st round picks:
Slivka over Garcia
Culp over Walton
Jerde over Miles
McMillan over Negangard
Pugsley over Evans
Strueder over Long
White over Deal
Harrington over Gobeyn
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
White, Slivka, Jerde, Pugsley
 
The Alpha Dog:
Alec White
 
132
 
132 is a deep weight class, led by 6 ranked wrestlers including Cathedral's #2 Breyden Bailey (#12 nationally, 3X state 3rd place finisher). Returning state placer #5 Ethan Smiley of Beech Grove and former state qualifier and semistate champion #9 Cainan Schaefer of South Dearborn bring unbeaten records into this weekend. #10 Zak Bowling of Lebanon won a solid regional last week and seeks to finish his HS career with a bang. #14 Jack Servies of Perry Meridian is one of many Falcons with a great shot to advance to state. Servies was denied in the ticket round last year by Bailey, by a mere 3-0 decision. #15 Hayden Lohrey of Shenandoah is yet another returning state qualifier, but he has the misfortune of drawing Bailey in the ticket round. Last year's 132 competition featured All-World Chad Red, Jr. winning another semistate title, but perhaps more importantly, DJ Brookbank of Perry Meridian caught fire and upset Zach Melloh in the ticket round. Could that be an omen of upsets to come this year at 132?
 
Last year's champ: Chad Red, Jr., New Palestine
 
Feature matchups:
 
#5 Smiley vs. Azariah Ellis, Zionsville / Elijah Phillips, Centerville (Ticket round) – While Smiley is a strong favorite to advance, he gets an experienced, long and crafty Dheontae Unseld of LN in his opening match. Should he win that match, either a tough senior in Ellis or a returning semistate qualifier in Phillips awaits.
 
#10 Bowling/ Stevie Browning, Franklin County vs. Chris Loy, Hamilton Heights/ #14 Servies, Perry Meridian (Ticket round) – Bowling has had a very strong season and enters the fray as a regional champion. Bowling beat Loy in the opening round of semistate last year before dropping a ticket match to state place Joel McGhee of Warren Central by 8-4 decision. Browning was also a ticket rounder, pinning LC's Jesus Mancera before losing to Red. Loy and Servies could provide fireworks, with Servies coming in hot, losing to Smiley by a razor thin margin in OT at regionals. Bowling and Servies is likely a 50/50 match.
 
1st round picks:
Bailey over Hiatt
Lohrey over Douglass
Smiley over Unseld
Ellis over Phillips
Bowling over Browning
Servies over Loy
Schaefer over Tunstill
Wright over Avey
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Bailey, Schaefer, Smiley, Bowling
 
The Alpha Dog:
Breyden Bailey
 
138
 
Another 6 ranked athletes populate another tough bracket. Leading the charge is former 4th place state finisher #2 Zach Melloh of Cathedral. The tough Irish junior has wins this year over a relative who's who at 138. #6 Riley White also has some very impressive wins this season and has a very solid shot at advancing to state this year. #10 Brooks Davis of Perry Meridian also has some nice wins, and has been competitive with some of the best in the state at 138. #13 Kody Wagner of Zionsville was a semistate qualifier last year and is part of an impressive group of Eagles grapplers competing this weekend. #17 Jesus Mancera of Lawrence Central is as battle-tested as they come and is capable of surprising this weekend. Rounding out the ranked wrestlers is #18 Bailey Moore, Connersville champion this year and ticket rounder last year. While Melloh is a fairly prohibitive favorite, the battle for positions 2-4 should be ferocious and possibly unexpected.
 
Last year's champ: Evan Eldred, Westfield
 
Feature matchups:
 
#13 Wagner vs. #10 Davis (Ticket round) – Wagner's reward for winning his regional is a ticket round match with Davis. Zionsville wrestles a very tough schedule, but it's unlikely that any team in central Indiana has had a more difficult schedule than Perry. Davis is the slight favorite, but Wagners at Zionsville have had a lot of success in past postseasons.
#18 Moore vs. #17 Mancera (Ticket round) – Mancera owns a win over Moore this season, but this one is anyone's match. The winner has a solid shot at a 2 seed at state.
Ryan Surguy, Shenandoah vs. #6 White (Ticket round) – While White is a solid favorite on paper, Surguy is a strong sleeper pick at this weight and in this potential match. The Shenandoah senior is a returning semistate qualifier, and White is a returning ticket rounder.
 
1st round picks:
Wagner over Gardfrey
Davis over Redd
Melloh over Lowe
Humbert over Noehre
Moore over Otto
Mancera over Estes
Surguy over Keener
White over Ball
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Melloh, Surguy, Wagner, Mancera
 
The Alpha Dog:
Zach Melloh
 
145
 
This is another relatively wide open weight class, lacking a consensus favorite. #4 Clayton Cowan of Hamilton Heights, a returning state qualifier, faces a particularly nasty potential ticket match. Waiting for him is #9 Kain Rust of Perry Meridian, a semistate qualifier last year. Rust has had a particularly impressive senior campaign thus far, with numerous wins against 'name' opponents. #13 Antwaun Graves of Warren Central beat Rust in the regional finals, avenging an earlier loss to the Falcons' 145. He's a sly pick to win this weight. Rounding out the ranked competitors is returning state qualifier and undefeated regional champion #15 Boone Welliever of Southmont.
 
Last year's champ: Jordan Vaughn, Franklin Central
 
Feature matchups:
 
Mike Humbert, Franklin County vs. Darian Padgett, North Central / Beau Wilbrandt, Fishers (Ticket round) – Humbert, a returning semistate qualifier, could have his hands full with Chad Rothwell of Southport, a semistate qualifier last year at 160!, in his opening round match. If he gets by Rothwell, the winner of Wilbrandt and Padgett awaits. Both are seniors with 10 losses, but each is dangerous and capable of advancing. Wilbrandt is also a returning semistate qualifier.
 
#4 Cowan vs. #9 Rust (Ticket round) – Certainly one of the rougher ticket matches of the day, each senior will be ready to brawl when the whistle blows. This could be one of the best matches of the day and could greatly impact the team race.
 
#13 Graves vs. #4 Cowan / #9 Rust or #15 Welliever (Finals) – While Graves appears to have a slightly less treacherous path to the finals, the survivor of Cowan/Rust/Welliever may be pretty tired upon reaching the finals. This is a hard one to handicap.
 
1st round picks:
Humbert over Rothwell
Padgett over Wilbrandt
Graves over Wills
Rodgers over Sauder
Cowan over Williamson
Rust over Roth
Welliever over Lane
Gosnell over Fletcher
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Welliever, Graves, Rust, Padgett
 
The Alpha Dog:
Boone Welliever, Southmont
 
152
 
Returning 7th place state finisher #2 Noah Warren of Perry Meridian leads a solid group at 152. #7 Jack Eiteljorge of Carmel is a returning ticket rounder and has just one loss all season, to 160 lb Gleason Mappes of Center Grove. He can go with the big boys. #11 Andrew Negangard of East Central was a ticket rounder last year as well. This year, he's a one-loss senior with a favorable draw. #18 Cody Klettheimer of Frankton and #19 Tucker Coffman of Union County meet in one of the roughest opening round matches of the day. The winner likely faces Eiteljorge. There are no free lunches at semistate, unless you're allowed in the hospitality room. Last year, regional runner-up Trent Pruitt parlayed a hot day at semistate into a state title the following weekend.
 
Last year's champ: Trent Pruitt, Warren Central
 
Feature matchups:
 
#18 Klettheimer vs. #19 Coffman (Opening round) – Each is a returning semistate qualifier and precocious sophomore. As mentioned earlier, the winner must get through Eiteljorge to advance.
#11 Negangard vs. Walter Ballinger, Beech Grove (Ticket round) – Negangard comes in as a solid favorite, but Ballinger won't be a pushover. Negangard must also get by senior Alex Johnson of Pendleton Heights to advance to a potential match with the game senior Ballinger.
David Kitko, Noblesville vs. Sam Gobeyn, Zionsville (Ticket round) – While the win/loss record of each wrestler doesn't jump off the page, the reality is that one of the two will likely advance to BLF. Kitko, like many Noblesville wrestlers under Coach Knotts, is formidable with Greco throws. Gobeyn, like his fellow Eagles, has been through the gauntlet all season.
#7 Eiteljorge vs. #2 Warren (Semifinals round) – Both should punch a golden ticket, but each has designs on a top seed at state, which means this match takes on extreme importance individually, as well as for the team race. Warren is the favorite, but Coaches Pendowski and Geter will have a solid gameplan at the ready for Eye-tul-hor-hay.
#2 Warren / #7 Eiteljorge vs. #11 Negangard (Finals) – Each member of this trio is capable of a tough run at Banker's Life. Warren is the favorite, but Negangard could be a fly in the Perry ointment.
 
1st round picks:
Warren over Bischoff
Despain over Hines
Eiteljorge over Rebein
Coffman over Klettheimer
Negangard over Johnson
Ballinger over Wagner
Kitko over Webster
Gobeyn over Smith
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Warren, Negangard, Eiteljorge, Gobeyn
 
The Alpha Dog:
Noah Warren
 
160
 
This stacked weight is led by 2X state placer #2 Alston Bane of Richmond, an undefeated senior. However, he's far from alone at the top, as #3 Laine Frazee of Fountain Central, an 8th place finisher last year, #4 Christian Warren of Perry, another undefeated senior, and #9 Dru Berkebile of Frankton, a 2X state qualifier and former 5th place state finisher, lead the field. #19 Elijah Mahan of Roncalli is one of three sophomores in the bracket, and has been impressive all season long. Expect a tight match between Mahan and Bane if Mahan can get by the gritty Sam Hauke of North Central in his opening match. There are 4 grapplers here with a legit shot at the strap on Saturday.
 
Last year's champ: Noah Warren, Perry Meridian
 
Feature matchups:
 
#4 Warren vs. #3 Frazee (Ticket round) – Just brutal. Frazee was upset by Westfield's Justin Miller in UTB at regionals, which led to this draw of death. Warren has done nothing but win in this, his final season. Frazee's only loss at semistate last year was a one point decision to Bane. This is essentially a pick 'em, and the winner is fully capable of winning the weight.
 
#9 Berkebile vs. Justin Miller, Westfield (Ticket round) – Ignore Miller's record, as he has shown throughout his career that he has the ability to elevate his game when necessary. Berkebile is a proven commodity, but he could have his hands full with Miller, who is solid in all aspects and positions. Berkebile had better not overlook Southport's senior Brett Wright in his opening match.
 
#2 Bane vs. #19 Mahan (Ticket round) – It's tough to bet against the highly proven Bane, unless the opponent is Batman. Mahan will be a force the next two years, and he could give the senior all he wants.
 
Matthew Wertz, Zionsville / Ryan Mitts, East Central vs. JT Lazzara, Guerin / Drake Tackett, Mount Vernon (Ticket round) – No rankings to speak of among this group, but Wertz comes in with momentum as the regional champ. All 4 are seniors and will be fighting tooth and nail.
 
1st round picks:
Warren over Booker
Frazee over Gee
Berkebile over Wright
Miller over Massey
Bane over Davis
Mahan over Hauke
Wertz over Mitts
Lazzara over Tackett
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Bane, Warren, Berkebile, Wertz
 
The Alpha Dog:
Alston Bane
 
170
 
While just four ranked wrestlers will be competing at 170 on Saturday, among them are a returning state placer, a former state qualifier, an Al Smith champ and a freshman wunderkind. #2 Tanner Webster of North Montgomery was a 6th place finisher at state last season, but was defeated at regional by #3 Thomas Penola of Zionsville, an impressive Al Smith champ earlier this season. Snake-bitten #9 Jake Ruberg of Lawrenceburg impressed the state with a state qualification as a freshman, but has battled injuries and tough semistate draws since then. The freshman everyone is buzzing about is #4 Silas Allred, the undefeated stud from Shenandoah. Some folks think he's going to keep a clean sheet through semistate, but nothing will come easy for him or any of the other favorites.
 
Last year's champ: Ricky Samuels, Lawrence North
 
Feature matchups:
 
#4 Allred vs. Joe Mazero, HSE / Cameron Amos, Perry Meridian (Ticket round) – Allred's first real test at semistate should come in his ticket match. Mazero is perpetually underrated and was a ticket rounder last year. He's wrestled a high level of competition. The same is true of Amos.
#3 Penola vs. #9 Ruberg (Ticket round) – This is another of the ticket round matches that screams for wrestlebacks. Tough draw for both--the loser could easily place at state. Penola has been on the roll of all rolls this season. He has wins over #2, #5, #6 and #7 this year, among many more game opponents.
#2 Webster / #4 Allred vs. #3 Penola / #9 Ruberg (Finals) – There are a lot of different ways this could play out. Will Webster avenge his loss to Penola after besting the stout freshman in the semis? Will the stout freshman show the rest of the state that he is a legitimate state title threat by knocking off the #2 and #3 wrestlers in the state? Will Penola continue his unearthly momentum and head to BLF as a top seed? Or will the unlucky senior Ruberg spoil Penola's plans en route to a finals matchup with Webster or Allred?
 
1st round picks:
Murry over Simmons
Webster over Acevedo
Allred over Todd
Mazero over Amos
Penola over Willis
Ruberg over Najem
Lowe over Hart
Miller over Orschell
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Webster, Penola, Allred, Lowe
 
The Alpha Dog:
Tanner Webster
 
182
 
With just 3 ranked wrestlers, this is probably the most wide open weight class at New Castle. Leading the way is former state qualifier #6 Evan Stambaugh of Lebanon, who comes in with just one loss all year. #9 Alec Jessop of HSE brings an impressive 20-2 record into the mix. #10 Cameron Simmons of Lawrence Central was a semistate qualifier last year. There are plenty of sleepers in the group, including Josue Hill of Zionsville, Jalen Allen of Perry Meridian, Sam Hansen of Roncalli and Jonah Rolfes of Lawrenceburg.
 
Last year's champ: Blake Rypel, Cathedral
 
Feature matchups:
 
#10 Simmons vs. Josue Hill, Zionsville (Ticket round) – Both grapplers were semistate qualifiers last year and, despite the ranking difference, there probably isn't much of a separation between these two battle-tested seniors. If Zionsville is going to figure in the team race, they need to win matches like this one.
#9 Jessop vs. Jalen Allen, Perry Meridian (Ticket round) – Allen is unranked despite a 34-4 senior campaign, and Jessop is a big, strong 182 generating a lot of buzz from knowledgeable spectators. Consider this one of the big team scoring matches of the ticket round.
#6 Stambaugh vs. Sam Hansen, Roncalli (Ticket round) – Like Allen, Hansen has an oustanding record at 37-4. Stambaugh was upended last year in the ticket round and had better not overlook the tough Rebels' junior.
Jonah Rolfes, Lawrenceburg vs. Bryce Sharp, Carmel (Opening round) – Sharp's 21-7 record isn't as spectacular as Rolfes' 41-4 record, but Carmel's schedule is much, much tougher. This is a 50/50 match.
#9 Jessop / Allen vs. #10 Simmons / Hill (Semifinals) – On paper, this should be Jessop vs. Simmons, but it's far from a lead pipe lock. All 4 seniors are hungry and capable. The winner of this nasty pool should face Stambaugh for the semistate title.
 
1st round picks:
Simmons over Sterrett
Hill over Bohman
Allen over Mills
Jessop over Thorp
Stambaugh over Mitts
Hansen over Morgan
Rolfes over Sharp
Baker over Keesee
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Jessop, Stambaugh, Simmons, Rolfes
 
The Alpha Dog:
Alec Jessop
 
195
 
This weight has to qualify as New Castle's main event. Warren Central's #1 in the state and 2X state runner-up Tristen Tonte (#17 in the USA per Intermat) and #2 Ben Stewart of Cathedral will almost certainly do battle, yet again, this time in the finals. This could be a preview of the state finals the following weekend. Stewart and Tonte were both beaten by decision by eventual state champ Jake Kleimola. Tonte is a 3X qualifier, and had a hand in Stewart's status of 1X state qualifier, as they met in the ticket round as freshmen (Stewart got Mason Parris in the ticket round the following year). Tonte got him again in the finals of last year's semistate, winning 1-0. Stewart is absolutely gigantic this season. Tonte is long and as slick as the day is long. This should be an incredible finals matchup. Joining the elite two as ranked competitors are #10 Liam Jagow of Westfield, who has had an incredible season, #11 Cole Slavens of North Montgomery, who has the misfortune of drawing Stewart in the ticket round (for the 2nd year in a row!), #12 Drew Williamson of Zionsville, who has just 3 losses and a regional title under his belt, and #14 John Owensby, who finished 4th at regionals, setting up a dynamic first round match with Williamson. Additionally, unranked David Delph of Frankton is 37-2 on the season and has some excellent upper weight practice partners in the Eagles' room.
 
Last year's champ: Tristen Tonte, Warren Central
 
Feature matchups:
 
#12 Williamson vs. #14 Owensby (Opening round) – Williamson got a big win over Jagow at regionals, giving him great momentum heading into his first match of the day. The Franklin Central senior had a rough regional experience, but was a semistate qualifier last year at 220, so he will be plenty dangerous. The winner will face the winner of Delp and John Rorig of Milan, both of whom have impressive records.
 
#2 Stewart vs. #11 Slavens (Ticket round) – This is one of those strange phenomena that happens at New Castle. For the 2nd year in a row, Slavens must beat Stewart to advance, which is a tall order for anyone. Stewart, who will attend Boston College on a football scholarship, absolutely manhandled his regional opponents. This is man-strength on display.
 
#1 Tonte vs. #2 Stewart (Finals) – The loser will likely get another crack at the victor next weekend at BLF. To this point, Tonte has a significant edge in the head-to-head series, but Stewart looks primed to execute a crackback. They don't come much bigger and better than this matchup.
 
1st round picks:
Williamson over Owensby
Delph over Rohrig
Tonte over Pigg
Sturm over Bynum
Stewart over Snipes
Slavens over Kenney
Tibbetts over Snyder
Jagow over Ruhana
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Tonte, Stewart, Jagow, Williamson
 
The Alpha Dog:
Tristen Tonte
 
220
 
Four ranked athletes, none of whom are seniors, will compete at 220 on Saturday. Leading the way is returning state champ and #1 Mason Parris of Lawrenceburg, a 2X state semifinalist and #3 in the country per Intermat. Parris is the biggest lock of the semistate, and might be the biggest lock at state as well. He's a unique, rare talent, as evidenced by his tremendous accomplishments in multiple sports. Joining Parris in the rankings are: #7 Jacob McClaine of Lebanon, who hasn't been beaten this year after falling in the ticket round last year, #10 Kyle Cornwell of Elwood, who has just one loss on the season and was also a ticket rounder last year, and #19 Landon Burton of New Palestine, who was a semistate qualifier at 195 last year. Watch out for sleepers Rilee Miller of Perry, Ryan Leslie of Noblesville, Darrione Gregory of LC, Joe Myren of HSE, Andy Guhl of Cathedral and Blake Ripperger of Franklin County. Yes, that's nearly the entire bracket.
 
Last year's champ: Mason Parris, Lawrenceburg
 
Feature matchups:
 
#10 Cornwell vs. Joe Myren, HSE (Ticket round) – Cornwell was impressive at regionals and already has two wins over Myren this year. That said, semistate produces upsets and Myren is very dangerous.
 
#19 Burton vs. Andy Guhl, Cathedral (Opening round) – It was a different Guhl last year that stormed through the semistate to take 2nd, but the similarities are obvious. The elder and younger Guhl are both large, athletic 220s and are as battle-tested as they come. The winner likely gets regional runner-up Blake Ripperger of Franklin County, a semistate qualifier last season.
 
1st round picks:
McClaine over Thomas
Miller over Leslie
Parris over Boleman
Gregory over Greene
Cornwell over Laws
Myren over Dick
Burton over Guhl
Ripperger over Mata
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Parris, Cornwell, McClaine, Burton
 
The Alpha Dog:
Mason Parris
 
285
 
Three ranked wrestlers, as well as a former state qualifier, lead the field at heavyweight in New Castle. Defending state runner-up #9 Robert Samuels of Lawrence North was a semistate champion last year and a state qualifier the year before. He is one of the smallest, most physically vascular and ripped heavyweights you will ever see. Strangely, he has struggled somewhat this year, dropping 5 matches and losing at regionals. Still, he was a two seed last year as well, and it worked out pretty well for him. He is still a strong candidate to finish high at state. #10 Elijah Bailey of North Central has had a phenomenal season, which includes a couple of impressive wins over Samuels. Look for them to lock horns yet again, this time in the semistate finals. #17 Peyton Wuerch of Mount Vernon faces returning state qualifier Austin Dollens of Westfield in the opening round for the 2nd year in a row. Dollens got him 3-0 last year and rolled all the way to state. Wuerch will be looking for payback. Unfortunately for each, the winner gets Samuels in the ticket round. Clark Minges of East Central is a former three time ticket rounder for Union County.
 
Last year's champ: Robert Samuels, Lawrence North
 
Feature matchups:
 
#17 Wuerch vs. Austin Dollens, Westfield (Opening round) – Dollens used his large frame and nimble feet to win a lot of close matches last year. He'll be seeking to repeat his performance from last year against Wuerch, and it will be interesting to see if Dollens holds an advantage with the big win last year, or if Wuerch is hungry and looking for payback. Again, it's slightly moot, as the winner gets Samuels to advance to BLF.
 
Jaden Powell, Speedway vs. Juggernaut Williams, Carmel (Opening round) – Both were semistate qualifiers last season, with Powell making it to the ticket round. Powell has the superior record, while Williams has the superior schedule.
 
Clark Minges, East Central / Marcus Stone, Elwood vs. Connor Bettis, Rockville / Steve Woolbright, Perry Meridian (Ticket round) – Minges, Bettis and Woolbright are all seniors with strong records and Stone is a big, agile heavyweight who could surprise. Look for Minges or Woolbright to lock up for a ticket.
 
#9 Samuels vs. #10 Bailey (Finals) – They met at sectionals and regionals, as well as during the regular season. They are both on the smaller, more agile side, although neither seems to be overpowered during matches against larger opponents. Each is capable of a strong state run, but each is also capable of getting knocked off by a beefier opponent on Friday night as well.
 
1st round picks:
Dollens over Wuerch
Samuels over Robinson
Powell over Williams
Selm over Obst
Minges over Stone
Woolbright over Bettis
Bailey over Wisner
Kunkelman over Roland
 
Dingo's picks to advance, in order:
Samuels, Bailey, Powell, Woolbright
 
The Alpha Dog:
Robert Samuels

2738 4 1
2019 State Finals by the Numbers
Overall
Rankings are always a heated debate amongst wrestling fans. Over the years we have always locked our rankings before sectional and let them ride throughout the state series. Every year we lose kids due to unforeseen circumstances and even the death draws at semi-state. However, they always prove to be quite accurate. This year we had the most ranked wrestlers in 175 or just under 78% in our final rankings. On top of that 206 of the wrestlers were in our state or semi-state rankings. Here is a breakdown by weight and highlight matches to watch on Friday night.
2019- 175
2018- 179
2017- 169
2016- 175
2015- 172
2014- 171
2013- 171
2012- 170
2011- 157
2010- 159
2009- 143
106lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 14
Unranked qualifiers:
Chris Newman- Mt. Vernon
Dominic Skees- Lafayette Central Catholic
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#5 Stephen Roberson- Crown Point vs. #11 Isaac Ruble- Bellmont
#3 Alec Freeman- Evansville Mater Dei vs. #9 Elijah Anthony- Frankfort
#16 Alex Ocampo- Central Noble vs. #6 Malik Hall- Merrillville
#2 Brennen Cernus- Culver Academies vs. #20 Aidan Sprague- East Noble
#7 Carlton Perry- Warren Central vs. #8 Logan Miller- Brownsburg
#12 Blaze Garcia- Avon vs. #4 Suhas Chundi- Carmel
113lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Harper Dedman- Oak Hill
Jake Armstrong- Winamac Community.
Landon Bertch- Bluffton
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#12 Preston Teusch- Huntington North vs. #14 Jacob Simone- Hamilton Southeastern
#9 Gavinn Alstott- Floyd Central vs. #7 Martin Cruz- Merrillville
#2 Zeke Seltzer- Indianapolis Cathedral vs. #16 Jett Boots- Angola
#4 Giovanni Diaz- Wheeler vs. #17 Kamariyon Nelson- Brownsburg
#1 Jacob Moran- Portage vs. #5 Cole Ross- Evansville Mater Dei

120lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 14
Unranked qualifiers:
John Robinson- Delta
Logan Galbraith- North Central
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#19 Beau Humphrey- FW Snider vs. #8 Trey Finnearty- Culver Academies
#4 Brayden Lowery- Roncalli vs. #11 Tyler Conley- Avon
#16 Jace Alexander- Wawasee vs. #17 Kade Zadylak- Norwell
#2 Blake Boarman- Evansville Mater Dei vs. #10 Chris Stewart- Warren Central
#12 Evan Beasley- Northridge vs. #14 Ty Haskins- Portage
#5 Carson Eldred- Westfield vs. #6 Kysen Montgomery- Brownsburg
126lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Brendon Mark- Mishawaka
Hayden Shepherd- Western
Jared Brown- Pendleton Heights
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#9 Chase Wilkerson- Mt. Vernon (Fortville) vs. #16 JJ Conway- Floyd Central
#3 Hunter Watts- Jimtown vs. #15 Evan Burge- McCutcheon
#12 Kane Egli- Evansville Mater Dei vs. #7 Logan Wagner- Zionsville
#6 Lukasz Walendzak- Indianapolis Cathedral vs. #14 Cade Meier- Bloomington South
#5 Brock Peele- Portage vs. #2 Brayden Curtis- Yorktown
132lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Aundre Beatty- Warren Central
Eli Hickman- Rensselaer Central
Hunter Brown- Cambridge City Lincoln
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#4 Geremia Brooks- Wawasee vs. #11 Clay Egli- Evansville Mater Dei
#13 Seth Johnson- North Montgomery vs. #17 Logan Mosser- Adams Central
#7 Logan Boe- Plainfield vs. #16 Reese Rodriguez- Hammond Morton
#2 Alec Viduya- Roncalli vs. #15 Owen Krider- Carroll (FW)
#10 Ricky Hegedus- Portage vs. #9 Drake Campbell- Brownsburg
138lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
AJ Poindexter- Harrison (WL)
Cameron Worley- Lafayette Jefferson
Gabe Weeks- Mishawaka
Treyton Mucker- Tell City
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#1 Cayden Rooks- Columbus East vs. #20 William Fiechter- Southern Wells
#3 Conner Gimson- Jimtown vs. #8 Drew Kreitzer- Brownsburg
#4 Braxton Alexander- Wawasee vs. #5 Gabe Phillips- Centerville
#15 Jaden Reynolds- Avon vs. #11 Dylan Goudy- Western
145lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 14
Unranked qualifiers:
Kade Law- Columbus East
Scottie Saylor- Carroll (FW)
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#8 Jacob Burford- Crown Point vs. #5 Antwaun Graves- Warren Central
#20 Terrell Leavell- Lawrence Central vs. #10 Jacob Maldonado- Merrillville
#3 Alex Mosconi- Indianapolis Cathedral vs. #13 Jeffrey Harper- Penn
#7 Jonathan Kervin- Floyd Central vs. #11 Jake Jenkins- Homestead
#6 Jorden Douglass- Attica vs. #4 Aiden Warren- Perry Meridian
#14 Ryan Rasler- Prairie Heights vs. #12 LJ Burdon- Plainfield
152lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 12
Unranked qualifiers:
Cody McCune- Huntington North
Isaiah Mohmed- Wheeler
Mathew Mangus- Zionsville
Noah Hollendonner- Crown Point
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#3 Cooper Noehre- Greenfield-Central vs. #15 Ellisston Ross- Bloomington South
#10 Cole Cervantes- Griffith vs. #11 Eric Hiestand- Yorktown
#7 Nathan Conley- Avon vs. #2 Elliott Rodgers- Indianapolis Cathedral
#9 Sam Fair- Perry Meridian vs. #5 Jake Schoenegge- Columbus East
160lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 11
Unranked qualifiers:
Abel Verbeek- Lowell
Braden Welch- Culver Academies
Drew Sailors- Rochester Community
Gabe Sollars- Evansville Mater Dei
Jaymiere Johnson- Hammond Gavit
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#6 Jackson Pettigrew- Columbia City vs. #18 Hayden Lohrey- Shenandoah
#2 Jordan Slivka- Indianapolis Cathedral vs. #19 Joe Parrish- Homestead
#11 Jon Ruble- Bellmont vs. #12 Jake Lowe- North Montgomery
170lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 14
Unranked qualifiers:
Bryce Buckley- Eastern (Greentown)
Delton Moore- Manchester
Jason Streck- Merrillville
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#11 Kyle Saez- Westfield vs. #6 Macartney Parkinson- Evansville Mater Dei
#7 Derek Blubaugh- Bloomington South vs. #10 Logan Hart- Carmel
#5 Elijah Mahan- Roncalli vs. #14 Thierry Jean-Baptiste- Brownsburg
#16 Colin Kwiatkowski- Valparaiso vs. #18 Zane Gilbreath- Rochester Community
#1 Nick South- Columbus East vs. #13 Josh Lowe- North Montgomery
182lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Austin Leech- Garrett
Jacob Combs- Hagerstown
Zachary Flynn- Jasper
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#7 Mason Winner- Jay County vs. #19 Devontay Moore- North Central (Indpls.)
#17 Noah Perez- LaPorte vs. #3 Levon Bellemy- Edgewood
#1 Carson Brewer- Avon vs. #15 Noah Brown- Penn
#14 JD Farrell- Fishers vs. #6 Jake Lone- NorthWood
#5 Evan Bates- Chesterton vs. #9 Trizton Carson- Danville Community
195lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 13
Unranked qualifiers:
Chandler Chapman- Jay County
Griffin Stine- Martinsville
Kyle Krummen- East Central
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#9 KJ Roudebush- Tipton vs. #17 Dakari Kenny- Pike
#5 Nick Willham- Greenwood Community vs. #12 Austin Lane- Perry Meridian
#2 Ewan Donovan- Hebron vs. #8 Stewart Mossholder- Oak Hill
#7 Cale Gray- Norwell vs. #18 Ethan Potosky- Crown Point
220lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 10
Unranked qualifiers:
Christian Graft- Huntington North
Cullen Browning- Northeastern
Damari Dancy- Portage
Grant Johnson- New Prairie
Josh Howell- Terre Haute South Vigo
Reese Wicker- Churubusco
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#6 Joey Kidwell- West Lafayette vs. #4 Kyle Cornwell- Elwood Community
#3 Andrew Irick- Hamilton Southeastern vs. #10 Drew Bailey- Merrillville
#13 Will Stewart- South Spencer vs. #9 Jayden Elwood- Leo
285lbs
Number of Ranked Wrestlers Qualifying: 11
Unranked qualifiers:
Aidian Rea- Heritage Hills
AJ Jones- Madison-Grant
Logan Swallow- Monroe Central
Matthew Munoz- Jeffersonville
Sam Jones- Perry Meridian
Vince Yoder- Fairfield
First round match-ups of ranked wrestlers:
#1 Jamichael Watts- North Central vs. #19 Anthony Atria- Merrillville
#17 Crae Kunkleman- Hamilton Southeastern vs. #2 Yehezquel DeVault- Penn
#18 Will Crider- Harrison (WL) vs. #10 John Harris- Roncalli
First round match-ups of unranked wrestlers:
Matthew Munoz- Jeffersonville vs. Vince Yoder- Fairfield

1629 4 1
Indiana heading back to the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic
Official Press Release from the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic
Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic 2022 Date Announcement Press Release 1 v1 12-10-2021.pdf
 
The Steel City is known for having great sports teams and the Rose Bowl of Wrestling the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic. For the second time Indiana has been invited to participate and take on the WPIAL. A team of 12 seniors will face off with a team from Pennsylvania on March 25th in Pittsburgh. This is a first-class event from start to finish with a banquet on Thursday night and team activities planned for during the day on Friday. As coach Trent McCormick said after the event in 2016, “Our wrestlers were treated like royalty leading up to the dual.”
 
As organizer of this once again I am extremely excited to take another group of Indiana hammers to this event. The organizers are some of the best people in the sport and profits from the event go to charity. The kids are treated great with a nice banquet on Thursday evening with team announcements along with a guest speaker. On Friday plans are being worked out for a team activity. The last time we were there we had a boat ride and lunch along the river and got to see the city of Pittsburgh.
 
Our seniors this year are loaded from top to bottom. We will have matches in 12 weights that we are working together with the PWC committee to align in the best way possible. Pennsylvania high schools currently utilize 13 weights with the major differences from 170 on up.
 
Last time out we lost the WPIAL beat us 27-18 winning 7 matches by two points or less! I think it’s time we roll into Pittsburgh looking to dominate and come away with a big win in hostile territory. That was on top of having to make a couple last minute replacements due to injuries the week of the event.
 
In the main event Indiana is 8-1 with wins from greats like Alex and Jason Tsirtsis, Stevan Micic, Blake Mauer and more! This year both Jesse Mendez and Zeke Seltzer are likely both on the short list for an invitation to wrestle for Team USA in the event.
 
Once tickets are on sale I will post information on the website. The last time we brought a big contingent and the PWC committee was extremely impressed with how well we traveled. I told them we want to fill up half the gym and make it a home match this time!
 
Stay up to date with Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic information on social media and their website. Web site is www.papowerwrestling.com/pittsburgh-wrestling-classic/
Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PWrClassic and Twitter @PWrClassic
 

2016 Indiana vs. WPIAL
WPIAL 27, Indiana 18
113: Aaron Burkett (WPIAL) dec. Geoffrey Davis (Indiana), 2-0 OT.
120: Ethan McCoy (WPIAL) dec. Drew Hildebrandt (Indiana), 7-4.
126: Chris Eddins (WPIAL) dec. Gaige Torres (Indiana), 6-3.
132: Mike Heinl (WPIAL) dec. Owen Doster (Indiana), 6-4.
138: Shaun Wilson (WPIAL) dec. Evan Eldred (Indiana), 8-4.
145: Damon Greenwald (WPIAL) dec. Jordan Vaughn (Indiana), 5-4.
152: Steven Lawrence (Indiana) FALL Derek Verkleeren (WPIAL).
160: Mitch Hartman (WPIAL) dec. Cael McCormick (Indiana), 2-1.
170: Drew Hughes (Indiana) FALL Anthony Welsh (WPIAL), :33.
182: Blake Rypel (Indiana) dec. Milton Kobaly (WPIAL), 10-5.
195: Jake Kleimola (Indiana) dec. Drew Phipps (WPIAL), 4-3.
220: Mike McAleavey (WPIAL) dec. Nick Fox (Indiana), 2-1.
285: Hayden Rice (WPIAL) dec. Sean Galligar (Indiana), 2-1.
 
Past Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic participants and their results
2016 285- Shawn Streck (USA) vs. Jacob Beistel (PA), 8-4.
2016 132- Luke Pletcher (PA) tech fall Owen Doster (USA), 23-8.
2016 160- Drew Hughes (USA) dec. Jake Wentzel (PA), 6-0.
*Hughes won the Turning Point award for winning the match that sealed the dual for Team USA
2014 126 - Stevan Micic Hanover Central, Indiana MD Zeke Moisey, Bethlehem Catholic 13-4
*Micic was selected as the Outstanding Wrestler for Team USA
2012 113- Jarred Brooks Warsaw, Indiana DEC Billy Rappo, Council Rock South 8-5
2021 145- Jason Tsirtsis Crown Point, Indiana MD Zach Beitz, Juniata 13-4
2004 140- Alex Tsirtsis Griffith, Indiana DEC Isaiah Britton, Loyalsock 6-4
2004 171- Blake Maurer Mater Dei, Indiana DEC Kurt Brenner, Freedom 8-6
1998 130- Steven Bradley, Beech Grove, Indiana, DEC. Mark Conley, Dennington, 5-3

19340 4 4
2023 State Finals Info Center
Schedule
Friday, Feb. 17, 2023
Session 1
Gates open at 12:30 pm ET
Parade of Champions at 1:30 pm ET
First Round Weight Classes 106 - 145 begin at 2 pm ET 
First Round Weight Classes 152 - 285 begin at 5:30 pm ET
 
Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023
Session 2
Gates open at 8 am ET 
Quarterfinals begin at 9 am ET with Semifinals to follow
Fieldhouse cleared of all spectators following Semifinals
Session 3 
Gates open at 3:30 pm ET
Consolations at 4:30 pm ET with State Championships to follow at 7:30 pm ET
 
Location
Gainbridge Fieldhouse, 125 S. Pennsylvania St., Indianapolis 
 
Admission 
$15 per session; $25 all sessions. Reserved seating only (no general admission). Tickets are not available yet but tickets will be digital only through your mobile phone and may be purchased via Ticketmaster.com (service fees apply). Show your ticket purchase verification on you mobile phone at the admission gate. 
 
Television
Saturday's state championship bouts in each weight class will air live on Bally Sports Indiana.
 
Streaming
All matches on Friday and Saturday, including Saturday night’s championship round, may be viewed via live stream for a subscription fee of $15 via IHSAAtv.org.  If you have a FloPro+ plan, you may also view the livestream at FloWrestling.com.  Saturday night’s championship round can also be found on the Bally Sports+ app.
 
State Finals Pairings Show
Click here to watch the pairings show
 
Social Media
IHSAA on Twiiter
IndianaMat on Twitter
 
Brackets
IndianaMat Brackets with both State and Semi-State rankings
State-StateSSRankings.pdf
IndianaMat Brackets with State Rankings only
State-StateRankingsOnly.pdf
TrackWrestling Brackets
 
Semi-State Results
East Chicago Semi-State Results
Evansville Semi-State Results
New Castle Semi-State Results
New Haven(Fort Wayne) Semi-State Results
 
Pick'em Contests
Pick'em Standings after semi-state
State Pick'ems

Gorilla Radio
High School Wrestling Weekly State Preview
Gorilla Radio episode 154 bracket breakdown
 
Featured Articles
State Finals by the Numbers
State Finals #WAYL2
State Finals Media Guide
Who do you want in your corner?

2554 4 7
February Madness
By Andrew Oberlin
 
It’s that time of year again here in Indiana, February Madness, and I’m not talking about basketball. There is a very strong community of diehard wrestlers, fans, and coaches in Indiana for whom late January and early February is a time of excitement, anxiety, and sleepless nights. Those involved know what is at stake this time of year and for many it has been a 13 year journey . I’m going to attempt to give you some insight. In my humble opinion, Indiana’s state wrestling tournament is the toughest in the nation for a wrestler to punch a ticket through to the Indiana high school state because of the number of wrestlers in the state, the single class system for wrestling, and the lack of wrestlebacks. Indiana competes well at the national level and is one of only 5 states that has a single class for their state tournament. Furthermore, Indiana is the only state that doesn’t have wrestlebacks in their State High School Tournament.
 
There are a lot of wrestlers in Indiana. This year, Indiana has nearly 10,000 USA Wrestling (USAW) cardholders, which earns us the rank of 5th in the nation for the number of USAW participants. USAW is the largest national organization that governs folkstyle, freestyle, and Greco-Roman wrestling in the United States; it is a separate entity from the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA). This figure doesn’t  include the middle school and high school wrestlers who do not compete in USAW events. In addition, the number of wrestlers in Indiana continues to grow as girls wrestling gains popularity. 
 
Seedings and Wrestlebacks
At most top-level tournaments, wrestlers are seeded so that the best wrestlers don’t face each other early in the tournament. Seeding is not an exact science, and many times decisions are based on opinions. Whoever is seeding the tournament can use things such as results of past head-to-head matches, common opponents, or individual win-loss records to determine placement. 
 
Head-to-head is the best way to seed a tournament but many times head-to-head matches haven’t taken place, so organizers look for a common opponent and how each wrestler did against that opponent. This can be a valid way to seed, but does not always take body type and wrestling styles into account.  Individual win-loss records are generally given the least consideration when seeding wrestlers because schedules and levels of competition vary greatly. There is no perfect way to seed wrestlers.
 
Wrestlebacks allow a wrestler to prove a seeding wrong or provide a second chance to overcome a mistake.   Wrestlebacks are done at almost every tournament wrestlers will participate in from the time they are 5 all the way through college; however, because of Gene Hackman and the movie Hoosiers, Indiana is only concerned with crowning the state champion and our state wrestling tournament does accomplish that. I kid about the movie Hoosiers... kind of. 
 
To be clear, my point is not to go on a rant about why Indiana needs to have wrestlebacks (which I strongly believe we do). That is a battle the coaches association and wrestling community has fought ad nauseam for decades and at this point it just doesn’t look like it is going to happen. I am explaining the factors that go into the emotions our wrestlers, coaches, and fans experience every year at this time.
 
Indiana High School State Wrestling Tournament Format
To understand the passion that goes on at the state tournament, one must  understand what it took to get there. Many wrestlers in Indiana start their wrestling journeys between the ages of 5 and 8. They likely had thousands of hours of year-round training and more than 500 youth matches. High school wrestlers survived the gauntlet of youth wrestling and continued intense training into high school... This requires a lot of blood (literally), sweat, and tears on the part of the wrestlers, their families, and their coaches. By the time a wrestler is in high school, there is an entire support system that is emotionally invested in that wrestler’s career. There are  only 14 state champions out of thousands of high school wrestlers, so the majority of wrestlers will not end their careers reaching their ultimate goal.
 
If you understand how our Indiana state wrestling tournament is run, you can skip this part. There are 315 schools in the state that participate in wrestling. The state tournament is 4 weeks long. Competitions take place each Saturday during the first 3 weeks and on Friday and Saturday during the 4th week. Week 1 is sectionals which consists of 8 to 10 teams with 14 weight classes. Week 2 is regionals which combine the top wrestlers from 2 sectionals. Week 3 is a semi-state which combines the top wrestlers from 4 regionals. Week 4  is a state which combines the top wrestlers from 4 semi-states. Sectionals is the only part of the tournament that uses the seeding process. After sectionals everything else is based on how the wrestler placed the week before. For regionals the first place sectional winners wrestle the 4th place winners from the opposite sectional. Second place sectional winners wrestle 3rd place sectional winners. Since there are no wrestle backs if a wrestler loses the first round of regionals they are done for the season. If a wrestler wins at regionals they advance to semi-state. Things start to get tricky at semi-state.. With 4 regionals feeding into semi-state there are a total of 16 wrestlers in each weight class and 4 different regional champs for each weight class. It’s the same formula as regionals with 1st place wrestling 4th and 2nd place wrestling third but since the pool of wrestlers has expanded match-ups are drawn at random every year. To advance from semi-state to state a wrestler must win their first two matches. For every semi-state mini bracket of 1st through 4th place regional placers only one wrestler will continue to state by winning their first two matches. The state finals are Friday and Saturday of week 4. The same type of formula used for semi-state is applied to state. At state Friday night the walk of champions takes place where they announce all the schools that have a wrestler represented at the meet. Wrestlers all wrestle once on Friday; if they don’t win that match they are done and do not advance to wrestle on Saturday.
 
Here is an example random Semi-State bracket that could be used:

 
February
I hear the term March Madness all the time when they talk about the NCAA basketball tournament. For me it pales in comparison to the February Madness that happens right here in Indiana during our high school wrestling state tournament. If you have the opportunity to watch any part of the 4 week state tournament know that with every win and loss, especially when the wrestler is a senior,  you are seeing the hopes and dreams of a small community either being fulfilled or coming to end after thousands of hours of hard work. In the end winning doesn’t care about you and neither does wrestling, but those that have been part of a wrestler’s journey do and that is what matters. If you truly know what wrestling is about you know the wrestler has become a better person because of it and that is something to be proud of.  
 
I wish you all the best during this post season and know that wrestling is training for the life that follows.
 
 
Indiana wrestling has been a part of my life for over 35 years. I had my high school dreams come to end without reaching my ultimate goal. I have now coached for 27 years and I have been a part of this walk and moment more times than I can remember. The photo below captures it all, a wrestler and part of his support system walking off the mat for the last time while coming to terms with the finality of it. 
 

 
Austin Farris, the wrestler in this photo, first stepped on a wrestling mat at 4 years old with his father by his side. This is a picture of Austin walking back to the bleachers for the last time in his high school career after losing a close match. Dee Farris, his father and coach, has his hand on Austin’s back; following behind the father and son are coaches that have been with Austin on his journey since he was young.
 
 

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#WrestlingWednesday with Jeremy Hines: Patience and Perseverance have paid off for Byrd
By JEREMY HINES
Thehines7@gmail.com
 
When Brady Byrd was young, he would wake up early, pack his wrestling gear in his parent’s vehicle and make the long journey to whatever tournament they could find. Often, hours later, he would return with a couple of losses to show for his effort.
 
“Brady started wrestling in fifth grade,” his father, Sean said. “Every tournament around us was at least an hour drive. Normally he would go 0-2. But he kept doing it and kept doing it. Sometimes he would even move up weight classes just to get matches.”
 
While the losses piled up, so did Byrd’s determination. If wrestling was easy, he might not have ever fallen in love with the sport. The losses helped build him into one of the best wrestlers in Washington High School history.
 
“That prepared me,” Brady said. “Not a lot of kids at this level have been on the losing side like I have. It took me a long time before I started to see success. For the longest time my worst sport was wrestling. Being on that losing side taught me to never shy away from anything. I was not going to quit just because I wasn’t good at it. That’s never a valid reason to quit. You have to get better. That’s the only option.”
 
Now, Byrd is the first Fargo double All-American to ever come out of the prestigious Maurer Caughlin Wrestling Club. Byrd finished third in freestyle this year and seventh in Greco-Roman. He is currently ranked No. 5 in the state at 106 pounds and has his sights set on taking the top of the platform at the state finals. He’s come a long way – but it was never easy.
 
“The biggest thing with Brady, is that a lot of guys see him now, succeeding and being a good wrestler,” Washington coach Aaron Cissell said. “But nobody looks deep enough to see all the struggles and tournaments where he would lose. He stuck with it. It’s all paying off now. He has overcome all of that and fought to be successful.”
 
Brady started wrestling 106 pounds as a freshman. At the time he weighed just 91 pounds. He’s always been a smaller guy. This, his senior season, is the first time he’s had to cut any weight at all. And even now, the cut is minimal.
 
Sean, his dad, was a state placer in high school.
 
“I placed seventh my senior year at 112 pounds,” Sean said. “Our styles are similar except that I was all heart and toughness and didn’t have technique. Brady is heart, toughness and has excellent technique.
 
“I was a Region guy who was coached by Hall of famer Walt Prochno Kankakee Valley. Brady wrestles the region style in southern Indiana - tough and gritty.”
 
Brady agrees that toughness and grit are keys to his success.
 
“The grit is what makes me successful,” Brady said. I’ve always had it. A lot of kids don’t like to wrestle me. I stay in their face and stay physical.”
 
Injuries have plagued Brady in his young career. He has suffered an ankle and a knee injury but has bounced back from both.
 
“Brady is the most determined and hardest working guy I’ve ever seen,” Cissell said. “He is tough in all areas.”
 
Brady owns Washington’s winning percentage record, but he wants to set the school’s win record and pin record this season. Both are well within his grasp. He also wants to become the third wrestler from his school to qualify for the state finals (Mark Kelsey did it in 1984 and Aaron Brower in 2003). He also wants to become the first Washington wrestler to place at state.
 
Brady also does whatever is necessary to help his team. Coaches have learned to rely on him with helping teach moves in a way the other wrestlers can understand.
 
“People really respect Brady,” Sean said. “So, when we are teaching moves, it’s better to have a Brady show them because he can speak their language and they really feed off of him.”
 
Brady would like to wrestle in college and even the Olympics one day. He has excellent grades and was named to the Academic All-State Team. Outside of wrestling Brady enjoys competitive bass fishing, hunting and playing pickle ball.
 
“Brady is the most determined kid you’ll ever meet,” Sean said. “He works hard at everything, and the work is finally starting to pay dividends.”
 
Brady has started this young season off with 15 consecutive wins. He hopes for much more as the year goes on. He loves the sport and enjoys working at it.
 
“Wrestling is one-on-one,” Brady said. “People call me crazy because I train so much. I don’t like relying on other people to win. I like relying on myself. What I put in is what I get out.”

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2015 Fort Wayne Semi-State Pick'ems
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2017 State Finals Information Center
State Finals Hashtag: #INStateFinals17
Site: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, 125 S. Pennsylvania St., Indianapolis | Website
Admission: $8 per session or $20 both days. Order Tickets
Match Results: TrackWrestling.com
 
Schedule
Friday, Feb. 17, 2017
Wrestler Check-in Time | 3:00-4:30pm ET
Wrestler Weigh-in | 4:30pm ET
Doors Open for General Public | 5:00pm ET
Parade of Champions | 5:45 pm ET.
First Round | 6 pm ET.
 
Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017
Wrestler Weigh-in | 8:30am ET
Doors Open for General Public | 8:30am ET
Quarterfinals | 9:30 am ET with semifinals to follow. Fieldhouse will be cleared after this session
Doors Open for General Public | 4:00pm ET
Consolations | 5 pm ET.
Finals | 7:30 pm ET.
 
Brackets
TrackWrestling Link
IndianaMat brackets(with rankings)
 
Video via TrackWrestling's Trackcast
$10 fee to watch all weekend
TrackWrestling Link
 
Television: Saturday's state championship bouts in each weight class will air live on Fox Sports Indiana.
List of stations carrying the finals
http://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/boys%20sports/wrestling/2016-17/IHSAA%20Wrestling%202017%20on%20FOX%20Sports%20Indiana.pdf
 
Webstream: Friday's first round and Saturday's quarterfinals and consolations will be streamed at TrackWrestling.com. For Saturday night's championship round, viewers outside of the Fox Sports Indiana coverage area, a live stream will be available at IHSAAtv.org. For those within the FSI coverage area, the stream will be available only on delayed basis following the conclusion of the telecast.
 
Pick'em Contests
State Finals Pick’ems
Mat Burns Pick the Champions
 
Featured Articles
Rankings by the Numbers
 
Karl's Komments: First Round Fights
 
Karl's Komments: Quarterfinal Clashes
 
IHSAA Preview
 
Traffic Alert
 
Saturday, Feb. 18
South Street between Delaware and Alabama streets will be completely closed from 7:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. for the Polar Bear 5 Mile and 5K Run/Walk. Additional streets along the route will have single lane closures from 9 - 11:30 a.m.
 
Construction Closures
Pennsylvania Street between Michigan and New York streets will be closed through Feb. 16 for installation of utilities. Detour on Capitol Avenue via Michigan Street.
 
Davidson Street and the easternmost lane of College Avenue will be closed between Maryland and Georgia Streets through the June 1 for construction of the Vue Apartments. Maryland Street is also closed, because it has been vacated for the apartment project. Northbound should detour on College Avenue. Southbound should detour on I-65/70.
 
During 2017, Fall Creek bridge reconstruction projects will result in closures of Capitol, Central and College avenues at Fall Creek. More details on timing of the closures will be provided as they become available. Please see www.dfcindy.org for additional details.
 
For these events please plan your travel through Downtown, accordingly. There may be parking and sidewalk restrictions for the events. Log onto www.downtownindy.org for additional information about Downtown events.

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Karl's Komments: First Round Fights
Bracketology 101 just got a whole lot more interesting.
 
A wild semi-state Saturday in all four locations, with plenty of upsets, made for some very interesting early matchups between top wrestlers. The most talked about is, of course, the battle between two time state champion, Colton Cummings of Lowell, and two time placer from New Palestine, Alec White. Cummings has signed to wrestle for Army this year and White will don the black and gold for the Purdue Boilers next year. Have two division one signees ever met up on a Friday night?
 
As you go through the brackets, it seems like nearly every weight class has some tougher than usual first round fights.
 
First Round Fights
106
You might want to “get sick” at work Friday afternoon so you can get to Banker’s Life on time for this match up on Mat 3. It will begin right at 6pm. Have your popcorn and soda pop read and buckle up for the battle between:
 
#1 Brayden Curtis of Yorktown vs. #3 Brendan Mattingly of Carmel
 
The New Castle semi-state was obviously brutal to put the freshman Mattingly in this spot on Friday night. That semi-state contained the second, third, fourth and fifth ranked flyweights in the state. Mattingly drew the short straw and got hooked up with the state’s top ranked wrestler in the sophomore Curtis. The Fieldhouse should be rocking early with this one.
 
113
The top Friday night tilt will pit seventh ranked Gavin Rose of Greenfield Central versus ninth ranked Seth Horty of Evansville Memorial. Horty is in his last go round as he is a senior, whereas Rose navigated a bracket with the #2 and #3 ranked kids in the state. This should make for a nice Friday night battle to see who gets to wrestle for hardware on Saturday morning.
 
120
This weight class is extremely deep and features several grapplers with loads of state level experience. Two veteran, highly ranked studs, facing off on Friday night attest to talent in this bracket.
 
#5 Colin Poynter of Portage vs. #6 Jabin Wright of Kokomo
Wright is a two time state streeter looking for his first state medal. He will be matched up with Poynter, who came on strong last year to qualify for state and made another big step this year to put himself among the state’s elite. Wright comes at you from angles with speed whereas Poynter has an in your face, grinding style. Should make for an interesting style contrast
 
126
Wow! Wow!! WOW!!! Three, count ‘em three, awesome Friday night fights will leave the fans with sore necks if they all happen to be simultaneously contested. Leading off this trio at the top of the bracket is Fort Wayne semi-state champ Matt Gimson of Jimtown versus Evansville Mater Dei’s super frosh Matt Lee. The sophomore Gimson is a bona fide stud who made huge gains between his first and second seasons. However, most would not be surprised if the 12th ranked Jimmie was toppled by the 4th place finisher from Evansville. The 7th ranked Lee finishing fourth behind Graham Rooks, Blake Mulkey, and Noah Hunt is nothing to be ashamed of.
 
The second nasty battle pits Indy Cathedral’s 6th ranked Jordan Slivka against Valparaiso’s underappreciated and 11th ranked Ian Dembowski. Slivka was a third place finisher last year at 113. Dembowski has been on the verge of breaking out statewide and a win over the established Slivka would do just that.
 
Finally, the match up that has been getting the most notice is the Friday night tussle between two time state champion and 3rd ranked Colton Cummings of Lowell versus two time medal winner and three time state finalist Alec White of New Palestine. Two seniors with stellar resumes and one will be without a state medal after this weekend. The downside of not having wrestle backs has never been so evident. The one positive is that both young men seem to have their future well planned.
 
132
Fifteen of sixteen wrestlers in the 132 pound bracket are state ranked so the probability of some nasty first round scuffles was going to be high. Amazingly, the same two schools involved in one of the 126 first round rumbles are also involved here.
 
#3 Kyle Luigs – Mater Dei vs. #6 Conner Gimson – Jimtown
 
Even though these two schools are over 300 miles apart, they do have a common opponent in Columbus East’s Dalton Combest. Gimson beat Combest at the Al Smith meet in late December and Luigs just suffered his first lost of the season to Combest in the semifinals at semi-state. Gimson has lost each of the last two weeks to Central Noble’s Austin Moore and Yorktown’s Christian Hunt. Both will be on point trying to scratch and claw to get to Saturday.
 
138
The best first rounder in this weight class matches up two blue blood programs and two wrestlers with something to prove.
 
#3 Kris Rumph – Portage vs. #11 Grant Gutierrez – Bellmont
 
Rumph has had a great junior season highlighted by an Al Smith championship and one of the state’s best rivalries with #1 Brendan Black of Hobart. The rivalry had a little hiccup in the semi state finals where Black put it on Rumph, 17-1. Most believe that Rumph wasn’t “right” but no one is making excuses. Whatever the case may be, Rumph can erase the bad memories with a Friday night win.
Gutierrez struggled somewhat early but has had a nice run late in the season where he avenged many of his earlier losses. The senior Brave will look to win on Friday night for himself and to become the first Bellmont state placer in a four years.
 
145
The middleweights always give us some of the best action overall and the 145 class should provide some great early round action this Friday. Three first round battles between highly ranked wrestlers should provide some fireworks.
 
Leading off is a match that looks like it should be in the semis between #2 ranked Kasper McIntosh of Portage and #5 Joel Arney of Fort Wayne Carroll. Both had minor stumbles last week and they will pay for that mistake by having to meet up in a sudden death situation on Friday night. Good for the fans but bad for the loser who will be a fan for the rest of the weekend.
 
Next up on the Friday night list is a match up between schools that are less then 15 miles from each other but as far as I know, they don’t face each other during the regular season and go in different directions once the season begins. Center Grove senior, #8 ranked Logan Coyle has only lost to #1 Brayton Lee at 145. He will do battle with #9 ranked senior Kain Rust of Perry Meridian. Rust has been around the block and is making his first trip to state. Both southsiders will be intense Friday night.
 
The final Friday flap will pit Crown Point junior #10 Mario Traficanti against Jay County’s #7 Mason Winner. Winner was having an outstanding freshman campaign that most thought would end last Saturday. He then shocked most of northeast Indiana by taking out the third and fifth ranked kids in the state on the way to an improbable semi-state title. Don’t be fooled by Traficanti’s fourth place finish. He can and has wrestled the state’s best very tough. These two have similar styles. The might not light up the scoreboard but it should still be an exciting show.
 
152
This bracket has some of the state’s most exciting wrestlers. The type of guys that will throw caution to the wind and let the fur fly. I see two Friday night fur flying possibilities. The first involves seniors Kassius Breathitt from South Bend Riley and Jacob Clark of Avon. The 6th ranked Clark has a state medal on his resume and a fine 29-5 record. Breathitt has been on the state radar but this is his first Indy trip. The 8th ranked Wildcat will be looking for a fowl meal on Friday night.
 
The second intriguing opening round tilt is at the bottom of the bracket where giant slayer Austin Bethel of Mount Vernon will put his #4 ranking on the line against Crown Point’s #12th ranked Noah Lamore. Bethel looks to finish matches early while Lamore likes to take his prey into the deep water.
 
160
The best candidate to provide excitement in the 160 class on Friday night is probably the tilt between Princeton’s 11th ranked junior, Chase Wilson and Bellmont’s 12th ranked senior, Tony Busse. Both of these proud programs have not had a state medalist in some time and Busse will be looking to avenge his loss to Wilson at the Al Smith.
 
170
At 170 the last match on the bracket looks to be the best match up for Friday night. Senior Jake Ruberg of Lawrenceburg qualified as a freshman and has yet to be back. The 9th ranked Tiger will be hungry for state hardware. Another Tiger, Jordan Rader will be his foe. Rader is from Peru, is a state qualifier from last season and is ranked 15th in the state. Should be some fireworks to see who will be on the podium.
 
182
As we enter the land of the big boys, the great first round matches continue. Don’t leave early, you might regret the decision. At 182, a battle between two grapplers ranked in the top 8 should peak your interest. Prairie Heights’ program has received some state wide attention the past couple of years. Most of us have heard of the Rasler and Levitz families. However, 8th ranked senior, Joey Blakely, is a important to their program as any kid. He already has state hardware and would be very disappointed if he were to go home empty handed. Trying to do just that is, Lebanon’s senior stud, Evan Stambaugh. Stambaugh is ranked 6th and is rolling this year. Both kids have confidence and are willing to brawl.
 
195
A Friday night fight that is seemingly under the radar is a clash between two football studs as well as top five ranked wrestlers. Cathedral’s Ben Stewart is a beast on the football field (Boston College recruit) as well as on the mat. He is ranked 2nd in the state and was third in this weight class a year ago. He will be match up against Evansville Mater Dei’s Kurtis Wilderman. Wilderman was the QB for the always tough Wildcat football team and that toughness carries over to the mat where he finished 6th a year ago and is ranked 5th this year. This has the making for an instant classic.
 
220
The featured matchup at 220 might not be that close on the scoreboard but it needs be talked about regardless. Third ranked Clayton Scroggs of Martinsville is a three time state finalist who placed fifth a year ago. By the luck of the draw, Scroggs got paired with Mason Parris, maybe the most dominant upper weight Indiana has produced since Mitch Sliga. Some will say he should have done better at semi-state to avoid the bad draw and they have a point but that will still not prevent me from feeling bad for kids who are clearly deserving of top 8 recognition but are denied by tournament system virtually no one else in the world uses.
 
285
Two BIG BIG men with a history will be the Friday night feature at heavyweight. Brownsburg will be looking to capture a team state title and they need a placer at 285 to bolster their score. Slick Rick Clark is a load and ranked 7th in the state. He will be paired with the massive Jessie Lawson of Fort Wayne Carroll. Lawson has taken a couple of losses from Clark but I’m pretty sure he has also slayed the Purple big man at least once. Clark is ranked #14th and put together a phenomenal run to get an Al Smith crown back in December. It’s the last match of Friday night, I will be watching…..will you??

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This week in wrestling December 22nd-28th
Dual Schedule
Date/Time Event Dec 23 06:00 pm Crawford County at Borden Dec 23 06:00 pm Southwood at Cass Dec 23 06:30 pm Fort Wayne Wayne at Fort Wayne Concordia  
Multi-Dual Schedule
 
Date/Time Event Teams Dec 23 07:00 pm Grant 4 at Eastbrook Teams: Eastbrook Madison-Grant Mississinewa Oak Hill Dec 27 08:30 am Giant Invitational at Ben Davis Teams: Ben Davis Brebeuf Jesuit Indianapolis Arsenal Tech Indianapolis Emmerich Manual Indianapolis Howe Academy Dec 27 09:00 am North Montgomery Holiday Tournament at North Montgomery Teams: Hamilton Southeastern Heritage Hills Huntington North Leo McCutcheon Mount Vernon (Fortville) New Haven Noblesville North Central North Montgomery Pendleton Heights Rochester Warren Central West Vigo Western Dec 27 09:00 am Willey Holiday Duals at Lafayette Jefferson Teams: Cascade Clinton Central Crawfordsville Delphi Kokomo Lafayette Central Catholic Lafayette Jefferson New Castle New Prairie Rensselaer Central Rossville West Lafayette Dec 27 09:00 am Eastern Comet Duals at Eastern (Greentown) Teams: Alexandria Carroll (Flora) Eastern (Greentown) Fremont Northwestern Sheridan Taylor Tipton Tri-Central Dec 27 09:00 am Kankakee Valley Duals at Kankakee Valley Teams: Griffith Kankakee Valley Munster Purdue Polytechnic Wheeler Winamac Dec 28 09:00 am Frankton Invitational at Frankton Teams: Batesville Frankton Indianapolis Lutheran Indianapolis Scecina Memorial Knightstown Madison-Grant Dec 28 10:00 am Michigan City Super Dual at Michigan City Teams: East Chicago Central John Glenn LaVille Michigan City River Forest West Central Tournament Schedule
Date/Time Event Teams Dec 27 08:00 am Mooresville Holiday Classic at Mooresville Teams: Bloomington North Carmel Castle Decatur Central Delta Edgewood Evansville Central Franklin Central Greenwood Guerin Catholic Hamilton Heights Jennings County Martinsville Monrovia Mooresville Northview Owen Valley Plainfield Seymour Southridge Terre Haute North Terre Haute South Westfield Yorktown Dec 27 09:00 am Defiance Border Brawl at Defiance(OH) Teams: Allen East(OH) Angola Antwerp(OH) Archbold(OH) Ayersville(OH) Berkshire(OH) Bluffton(OH) Central Noble Columbus Grove(OH) Coventry(OH) Defiance(OH) DeKalb Eastside Lima Bath(OH) Otsego(OH) Patrick Henry(OH) Sandusky(OH) Springfield (OH) Swanton(OH) Sycamore(OH) Tinora(OH) Wayne Trace(OH) Woodlan Dec 27 09:00 am Spartan Classic at Connersville Teams: Beech Grove Calumet Charlestown Columbus North Connersville Daleville Danville East Noble Eastern (Pekin) Fishers Fort Wayne Snider Franklin County Greenfield-Central Greensburg Hagerstown Harrison (WL) Indianapolis Bishop Chatard Jasper Knightstown Lapel Lebanon Mississinewa New Palestine Northeastern Richmond Shelbyville Shenandoah Southern Wells Triton Central Union County Valparaiso Western Boone Dec 27 09:00 am Dekalb Invitational at Dekalb(IL) Teams: Brownsburg Dekalb(IL) Dec 27 09:00 am Brecksville Invitational at Brecksville(OH) Teams: Avon Brecksville(OH) Dec 27 09:00 am Fern Creek Invitational at Fern Creek(KY) Teams: Evansville Reitz Fern Creek(KY) Dec 27 10:00 am Al Smith Classic at Mishawaka Teams: Bellmont Bloomington South Carroll(Fort Wayne) Center Grove Chesterton Columbus East Crown Point Elkhart Central Elkhart Memorial Fort Wayne Snider Garrett Goshen Hobart Indianapolis Cathedral Jimtown Lake Central LaPorte Lowell Merrillville Mishawaka Northridge NorthWood Penn Perry Meridian Peru Plymouth Prairie Heights South Bend Adams South Bend Riley Warsaw Wawasee Zionsville Dec 27 10:00 am Evansville Mater Dei Holiday Classic at Evansville Mater Dei Teams: Belleville West(IL) Downers Grove South(IL) Evansville Mater Dei Evansville Memorial Father Ryan(TN) Floyd Central Franklin Community Gibson Southern Indian Creek Lawrence County(TN) Louisville Trinity(KY) Mount Vernon (Posey) New Albany North Posey Portage Roncalli St. Xavier(KY) Sullivan Tell City Union County(KY) Vincennes Lincoln Dec 28 08:00 am Whitko Invitational at Whitko Teams: Bremen Churubusco Fairfield Fort Wayne Bishop Luers Fort Wayne Northrop Hebron Heritage Whitko Dec 28 09:00 am East Central Indiana Classic at Jay County Teams: Bluffton Fort Wayne Wayne Frankfort Jay County Lawrence Central Marion Monroe Central Muncie Central Norwell Union City Wes-Del Winchester