Rockies claim the crown

[grappler87]

Plymouth?s Sam Tomasik, top, grapples with Rochester?s Kyle Calhoun in a 160-pound Plymouth Sectional wrestleback bout Saturday. Tomasik finished sixth at the meet. Pilot photo/ James Costello

 

Monday, 02 February 2009

 

By James Costello Sports Writer

 

PLYMOUTH ? Last year, the Rockies were able to slip into the South Bend Clay team regional with a runner-up finish at their own sectional. Due to a realignment in the state series this year, they had to win to advance.

 

No problem.

 

Every Plymouth wrestler placed in the top six in their weight class, and the Rockies earned championship bout berths in six of 14 divisions, claiming four individual titles in the process to top the nine-team field with a score of 227 at the Plymouth Wrestling Sectional Saturday.

 

?We talked about 13 men stepping on the mats, and every kid scored,? said Plymouth wrestling head coach Bob Read. ?We had some that had no business there.

 

?The kids really did come together. They came to wrestle today. I was proud of them. We won some matches where we?d gotten beaten before.?

 

On its way to sectional domination, Plymouth held off tourney runner up Warsaw, which had beaten the Rockies at the Northern Lakes Conference meet a week before, as the Tigers racked up 209.5 points. Triton finished fifth with 156, while Culver Academies placed seventh with 110 points ahead of Culver Community with 98 points and Bremen with 82.5.

 

One of the deciding matches in Plymouth?s sectional victory over Warsaw Saturday came in the 135-pound championship bout, where senior Chase Lewandowski won a 4-2 decision over Warsaw?s Paul Manbu for one of the Rockies four individual titles. The victory was a redemption win for Lewandowski as he had fallen 6-5 to Manbu in an NLC championship bout at Northridge the previous weekend.

 

?The first time when I wrestled him I kind of was timid and spent the first period trying to figure him out,? said Lewandowski of the rematch. ?It ended up going against me. This time I knew what was coming and just prepared with my coaches all week long and just really took it to him.?

 

Besides Lewandowski, 125-pounder Chuck Holmquest, 140-pounder James Letsinger and heavyweight Damon Howe all won sectional championships.

 

?I definitely wanted to go out on this one,? said Holmquest, a senior. ?This is our last meet at home. I was trying to help my team, too.?

 

Holmquest topped CMA junior Josh Brown 5-1 in Brown?s first trip to the sectional finals, while Howe pinned Wawasee?s Dmitri Kaplanis in just 1:43 of his title bout, and Letsinger eked out a 2-0 win over Rochester?s David Pitts in the 140 championship. The Plymouth senior recorded a takedown to go up 2-0 in the first half-minute of the bout, then struggled to a stalemate on offense in the second period and held off Pitts starting down in the final two minutes of the match.

 

?My goal was to escape, but obviously that wasn?t happening,? he said. ?I just wanted to keep the movement on bottom so I wasn?t giving up any stalling. It worked out pretty good.?

 

Also for the Rockies, Plymouth?s Nolan Ludwig and Brock Vermillion earned tourney runner-up honors at 119 and 189 respectively, while Trent Keyser and Caleb Kelly finished in third at 145 and 152.

 

In fifth place at sectional, Triton placed in nine weight classes.

 

Among those, the Trojans recorded two championships as Dylan Senff claimed the crown at 189 with a 7-0 win over Vermillion, and Blake Hoffer was preeminent at 171 with a 9-3 decision over Culver Community runner-up Robert Molebash.

 

Hoffer?s sectional championship was remarkable for the fact that the senior had only wrestled three practices leading up to the meet, newly recovered from the latest round of injuries that have plagued him throughout the year. He entered Saturday with just 14 bouts under his belt this season.

 

?It?s been a rough year,? said Hoffer. ?You see my record?s only 13-1 to come into this. I had a torn meniscus after the first week of the season. I got back two weeks after Christmas, wrestled one tournament and did good, then wrestled another one and separated my shoulder.

 

?I didn?t hurt it today, so I figure I can get a full week of practice in then come back a little more prepared for regional,? he continued. ?It?s nice getting first place here, it gives you a good spot at regional.?

 

Also struggling with a dislocation, CMA 215-pounder, Jack Crawford, who had just two losses this year,  was forced to sit out sectionals with a dislocated shoulder, effectively ending his season.

 

?He came in with two losses on the season and the last one was when he injury defaulted,? said CMA head coach Matt Behling. ?But we didn?t want to risk it. He?s just a sophomore so he?s got two more years.?

 

Although the Eagles struggled in the sectional team standings, they did have some strong individual performances as Brown finished second at 125, while Daniel Young continued to rack up the wins with the 145-pound championship Saturday. His record now stands at 37-0 on the year.

 

?We started this today thinking 0-0,? said Behling of Young. ?Our record?s 0-0 in the tournament. He?s on a mission. He knows what he wants and he knows what he has to do, so this just kind of starts him off on the right foot... He?s eying for the state title. He took third last year at state, and he?s been ranked No. 1 all year long, so that?s what we?re going after. He?s got his mind set on it.?

 

CMA?s neighbor down the way, Culver Community reached the championship bout in two weight classes Saturday but had to settle for runner-up status in each. Molebash took second behind Hoffer at 171, while Dalton Overmyer finished second at 112.

 

Also for the Cavs, Tommy James took third in the 215-pound class, while Jacob Sheridan was fifth at 189 and Ian Randolph was fifth at 103.

 

Bremen had top-four performances from Ethan Starke and Brock Molebash at 112 and 160 pounds and a top-three outing from Alan Bollenbacher at 189, but the Lions? most pleasant surprise came from 215-pound freshman Abraham Hall, who earned second behind Wawasee?s Tom Schwartz at the meet.

 

?I think we did pretty good,? said Bremen head coach Chris Prendergast. ?All of our kids came here and they wrestled as hard as they could. We had a freshman come in and get to the finals. He?d never wrestled before, he was a freshman and he got into the finals.?

 

Top four winners in all weight classes at the Plymouth Sectional all earned the right to advance to the Rochester Individual Wrestling Regional next Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

 

Plymouth meanwhile advances to the Jimtown Team Regional Wednesday at 6 p.m. along with East Noble, Elkhart Memorial and Mishawaka. The Rockies will have their hands full with a quick turnaround as they take on the top-ranked Cavemen ? who won the team state tournament last year ?

 

Wednesday before individual qualifiers head off to the Rochester meet Saturday.

 

?It does throw you off with what your schedule probably would have been, but on the other hand, it?s mid-week,? Read said. ?We?ll put in two hard days early on. We?ll put in a hard Thursday. We?ll come back and drill like crazy Friday and be ready to go... I don?t know if it screws them up or not, but you go on up there and you wrestle hard and see what happens Saturday.?