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All your questions about the Lafayette Jeff sectional answered by the scholar. Question 1: What's new at the Lafayette Jeff Sectional? Answer: 1st of all due to sectional re-alignment we have two new teams, Seeger and Attica. Gone is Benton Central and Frontier. The latter moved up to Twin Lakes and are rewarded with much higher placings. Good for them. Also not there, is Iconic Harrison Coach Scott Vander Aa. He was the winning coach of the last 6 sectionals. Love him or hate him, it’s sad to see him not in the corner. Replacing Scott at Harrison is Coaching prodigy Jonny Henry who is a new father and 2 time Greater Lafayette athletic trainer of the year. Question 2: Who will take 2nd place in the sectional? Answer: Ok, Everybody knows Harrison is the heavy favorite. Harrison with a 100 point win at NCC and ranked 18 will be tough to beat. 2nd is Interesting though. Jeff and McCutcheon will be very close and the exciting back and forth in the NCC final round might be duplicated. Attica comes in with a good record ranked 6th in 1A, a 6th place finish at 1A Team State and some other tournament wins including the Wabash river conference last week. Attica Coach Branstetter just got his 500th dual win. The Red Ramblers, even though not as strong of a schedule, shouldn’t be overlooked and could push for 2nd. Never forget dangerous West Lafayette. They have some solid wrestlers with good chance at winning some weights, but they have a few weights that won’t score which make it difficult. Anyway, the coaches from the mentioned schools will be stressing to score extra bonus points as they might make a difference this weekend. Question 3: Does Donnie Crider tie the state fall record this weekend? Answer: Maybe, I think he needs 3 to tie as I think he has 154 (give or take one). State record is 157. He should have Jeff’s Kelon Williams in the Semi’s. He gave Donnie a tough match at the dual and survived Donnie’s Pin. Also, likely in the finals will be Sebastian Trent from WL. Hopefully, if he does have 156 going into finals, people stick around to watch the extra suspense. Question 4: Where does everybody eat for the Jeff sectional? Answer: If you want to impress wife or girlfriend, go to Mountain Jacks. If you want to have a fun place to watch a game or Australian Open, go to DT Kirby’s downtown. If you want something Iconic, then go to Triple XXX in West Lafayette and get a burger named after great Purdue athletes. Be warned that Buffalo Wild Wings on the West side will be busy as that’s where the sectional winner normally celebrates. I think it’s an unwritten rule; sectional winner gets Buffalo Wild Wings. Question 5: Are the small schools in the sectional getting better? Answer: Yes, Tom Devaney hard work has Faith Christian with a winning record and won a tournament this year. Their 182 pounder David Lambeth is undefeated. Central Catholic has improved every year since restarting about 4 years ago. They have a 12-24 record and have a few guys that can compete like Jordan Turpin at 145 (see good J&C write up on him). Carroll(Flora) has a new coach who’s moving them in the right direction. Delphi has always been a tough small school, but down a little bit. Question 6: What weights are wide open? Answer: 145 looks fun. With Jorden Douglass from Attica with a 36-1 record, Sr Turpin from CC and Brock Merkel from Harrison will all have a shot. Good matches here. 182 also could blow up, with tough Lambeth, WL Ahsan has real shot and don’t be fooled by Younkers record at 26-12 as he’s had a tough schedule this year. Moore from Jeff and 182 is a long shot but has talent to win. 138 have a lot of possibilities. Fauber with the #1 seed is favorite and capable, but SS ranked Linder from McCutcheon and Hunter Purple (best name) from Attica will push him. Expect some close matches. Question 7: Are there any locks? Answer: Yes, #10 Cody Betourne should dominate the field like last week at NCC. #13 McCartney from Harrison should get another sectional title as last year he had a tough weight, this year not so much. I also throw in Hein whose been wrestling well at 106. Question 8: Are there some good rivalries? Answer: Yes, Lopez vs Fair for one. Great OT match last week with Lopez with comeback and gutting out OT win. These guys should have also again next week at Regional and winner might have a shot at going state. Also Ruiz from Harrison will have another shot at Ruble. Attica’s Kerr will try to stop that from happening. Also Mykiel Stallings from West side knows Jeff’s Jacob Barron well and these two good athletes will provide an entertaining match with the winner being in better position at Regional with ranked Ford from BC looming. Last but not least, lets add the Conklin vs Adkins rivalry. Conklin is 2-0 and surprisingly widened the gap last weekend. I expect this to be closer and the winner next week has a possible shot at state. Question 9: Why does this cat not have hair? Answer: Because he’s a sphynx and they’re born without hair. They're muscular, bald and beautiful. This is Orion and why is he relevant to the Jeff sectional? Uhh, he likes to wrestle and because he’s cool. Question 10: How many kids make it to state from the Lafayette Jeff sectional? Answer: Don’t know for sure? Ill estimate 4 to 5. The average from this sectional over the last 3 years is 4.7 wrestlers. Anyway, OnTheRise will be watching as Tacos are on the line. With that said, every year after sectionals, some guy from the Region or South Bend will be amused by making the annual post called “Logansport Regional over/and under”. Does the Logansport Regional amuse you? Probably will, at least until they put some results up, and I don’t know about this year. On the bright side, there was a hypothesis put out at Harrison that if they wrestled a tougher schedule they might do better at semi-state thus the Harrison tougher schedule experiment was born. Harrison implemented this experiment by competing at Team state and the tough Fairfield, OH tournament. We won’t know the results of the experiment until semi-state, but at least we will here less of the Region crowd annual complaining about over inflated records. Question 11: Will another Kidwell win the sectionals? Answer: Yes, Sophomore Joey Kidwell of West Lafayette is the third brother to compete here. Kidwell's are fixtures here, and the youngest version might end up being the best. He has a tricky bracket, but I think the extra time in the weight room will be the difference and compensate for the wrestling the longer Will (little) Crider who provides all kind of leverage and reach advantages from Harrison.