Ptownfan

11 Returning Sectional starters with numerous others who saw some other Varsity matches. They also have a very tough 8th grade class coming in that will set this team up very well for the future. A summer of hard work and this team will be challenging the top 5 in the state, I have no doubt about it. Alex Guerrero would have been at least a Semi Stater, had his elbow not been injured and their 106 lber who stepped in when Tyler Joseph decided not to wrestle 106 anymore definitely looked like he could be good. Also their Freshman HWT, looks like if he put some time in the weight room and a little bit more time in the wrestling room he could also be very good. (I heard one of the volunteer coaches talking to someone about how much he has gained wrestling wise since the beginning of this season). I am very excited for the future of Portage Wrestling!

At Merrillville- 120- Jake Hartman wins by disqualification over Portage's Gaige Torres. Torres was up 4-1 at the time with :10 left in the third period. Not sure of the exact occurrence but what I have seen it was an illegal slam. Terrible ending to the Sophomore's 30-1 (2) season. If anyone knows what happened further please let us know!

Are these your predictions OnTheRise?

Portage Indians Leroy Vega- 2Xer Sean McMurray- 3Xer, 7th - Vega gets the nod because 1 he's the head coach now, and 2 McMurray grew up in Vega's Club. Fred Joseph- 2Xer Eric Keith- 1Xer- gets the nod over the rest because of his style of wrestling Honorable Mention- Darren Elkins, Frank Colon, Jake Warner, Chad Biddle (All 1Xers)

Are you saying that you have a problem with taking blood time? I have never had any issue with blood time, it is just injury time that bothers me. Probably do not have a problem with it because my nose bled in about 1/4 of my high school matches. More than 10 times at state there was a situation that an athletic trainer went to the "injured" wrestler and was sent away while the wrestler was sitting on the mat drinking water. I am not saying that people do not have real injuries when sitting on the mat but all of those times? I can almost be positive that they all were not injured. Taking IT for non injury situations is unethical plain and simple.

I do not believe that it is a new rule by any means. I was called for it numerous years ago. By you standing up you are technically "avoiding wrestling" because you know that the official is going to call potentially dangerous. I do not disagree with you, but I have been told by a few officials that it is avoiding wrestling...but they also state that the first two normally will be called potentially dangerous. Therefore they give you two free opportunities not to allow that top man to get a leg in.

EV=Evansville Semi State MS= Merrillville Semi State NC= New Castle Semi State

Eric Peek wrestles for Griffith now.

I have a question! In the individual rankings at 132 you have Julian Torres behind Carithers and Burlisson. However in the MVille semi state you have it Carithers, Torres, then Burlisson. So what I am getting out of this is that you think Torres will do better at semi state but Burlisson is a better state meet wrestler? Obviously I am just giving you a hard time. Thanks for your rankings.

http://hometownsportsindiana.blogspot.com/ for the finals

OR..... Maybe kids would actually actively try to escape since the top guy would be getting a point. Too many times this year I have watched the bottom man turtle up, this makes me more mad than the kid on top just trying to ride. And with officials being too afraid to call stalling on the bottom man (except Colburn, who would call stalling on a kid who is about to tech fall someone in the first minute of a match), I believe this should be a rule change. This would also show the importance of a good ground game, thus we would (possibly) see less take him down, cut him situations.

In 11 years at Portage Ed Pendoski accrued: 11 Sectional Titles 10 Regional Titles 9 Semi-State Titles 7 Team State Final Four Appearances 2 Team State Runner ups 55 IHSAA State Qualifiers 42 State Placers 8 Individual State Champions - 14 Matches Under The Light! Coach of 8 Division I Wrestlers

I don't want an argument either. Just was asking how you think it would go with the South Bend schools. Personally, I do not care if it moves or stays. I think that Merrillville is electric and overfilled, but believe that it would be the same with any venue they decide to change it to.

Lafayette may be the logical choice to some. However, how do you feel that Mishawaka and the other South Bend schools will feel when they have to drive 2 hours and 35 minutes from school to lets say Mackey Arena? Based on Map Quest.

What I can tell you is from 1996-2004 his Crown Point Bulldogs teams finished at highest 3rd (twice) in the Duneland Conference, so I cannot say they were one of the toughest wrestling schools in the region. He also did not have a state champ until 4 years ago. I would have to give much more credit to Pendoski (very little), Leroy Vega(moderate amount of credit), and Bill Hawkins(A LOT OF CREDIT) for all of the success that Vlink has had lately. He also has been coaching since 1979, and got his first state champ 4 years ago. I personally do not believe that he is that great of a coach, but I certainly have a bias also.