By PEDRO VELAZCO
Tribune sportswriter
February 07, 2008 11:57 pm
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For local wrestlers hoping to advance to the state finals at Conseco Fieldhouse, there has been one clear path as of late — standing atop the podium at the Peru Regional.
While no guarantee of success down the road, a regional championship has been a prerequisite recently. In the last three years — the time current seniors have been competing — each of the 15 Tribune-area wrestlers to advance to state via the Fort Wayne Semistate won regional titles the week before, earning the all-important bye at the semistate.
Wrestlers who won titles last Saturday at the Peru Regional need to win just one match this Saturday at the Fort Wayne Semistate in order to ensure passage to state. Wrestlers who took second or third must win twice to become one of the four grapplers at each weight class to advance to Conseco. The semistate begins at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
This year, with a big crop of wrestlers at Fort Wayne, local coaches hope to buck that trend.
“Our regional’s stronger than it has been in the past,” Kokomo coach Rob Leavitt said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of our second- and third-place finishers get through.
“I don’t think our regional is stacked with outstanding teams, but we’ve got some very solid individuals whereas in the past I don’t think we’ve had that.”
Western coach Chad Shepherd agrees.
“I think this year our regional is better than it’s ever been,” he said. “If we get 10 kids [from the regional] out, we’ll be doing pretty good. We have the possibility of getting 16 kids out of our regional, that’d be a pretty good day. Normally we get five or seven, if we could get 10 or more out, that’d be pretty good and I don’t think that’s out of the question.”
Peru leads the locals with 10 wrestlers at the semistate, including five regional champions. Eastern has advanced three, Northwestern three, Kokomo three, Western two, Maconaquah two and Taylor one.
Shepherd rattled off a long list of wrestlers from local schools that he thinks have a shot to advance to state. He hopes they’re hungry, whether they were regional champions or finished second or third at Peru.
“You’ve got to be willing to go a little extra this year, it’s that time of year,” he said. “A lot of it comes down to how bad those kids want to get out. They don’t know what they’re missing walking out on the floor at Conseco.”
• Western’s contingent includes 112-pound freshman Austin Shepherd and 140-pound sophomore Logun Taylor. Shepherd was the champ at Peru and has a bye to the second round.
The Panther staff hopes the two will be loose, and have a special edge when they hit the mat Saturday.
“I want them to wrestle with a little attitude,” Chad Shepherd said. “I don’t know if a lot of people will understand that, but there’s a difference between going out and being cocky and arrogant, and what I call wrestling with attitude. That’s wrestling with confidence, a lot of high energy, not out of control but kind of fast-paced, and staying in their game plan. That’s the big thing, staying with what they do well.”
• Northwestern takes a pair of regional champs to Fort Wayne in 103-pound sophomore Matt Miller and 285-pound senior Quintin Burkett, as well as 145-pound junior C.J. Hansen.
“They’re going to have to wrestle their best match,” NW coach Scott Miller said. “They’re going to have to be aggressive and intense and look to score first and score often. We’ve been trying to work our practices that way this week.”
Scott Miller said the step up in competition can be eye-opening.
“It really is because now you’ve got the dedicated wrestlers, the ones who’ve been successful,” he said. “You can’t take anybody lightly up there.
“There’s several matchups [in the second round] of kids who many presumed would be state finalists. But obviously, one of them is not going to make it.”
• Kokomo’s contingent grew by one this week when 189-pound sophomore Dylan Green was added to the field as an alternate in place of Maconaquah’s Jerome Yoder. Also qualifying for the Kats are 171-pound senior Rico Duke and 119-pound junior Joey Surack. Each must win twice to get to state.
Leavitt said to advance to state, it will require “perfect effort. One thing we have talked about this week is you’ve got to be comfortable with a low score. You’ve got to be comfortable being up by a point. You’ve got to know how to wrestle a match being up a point or two. You’ve got high-level wrestlers vs. high-level wrestlers so you’ve got to think your way through these matches.”
Surack is facing West Noble’s Ty Alles who pinned the Kat in a tight match earlier this season. If Surack wins, he’ll face Adams Central’s Ethan Fiechter, whom former Kat Eddie Castro beat last season in the semistate championship. In Surack’s bracket, the Kats know a lot about his potential opponents, but that’s not always the case. Either way, success is up to the individual.
“They have the tools to get the job done,” Leavitt said. “It’s just a matter of getting out there and doing it. Don’t worry about your draw. It wasn’t a very good draw for them [your opponent] to have you. You have to go in with that mindset that it’s not going to be an easy match for your opponent.”
• Eastern’s contingent includes 112-pound freshman Blake Pence, 135-pound junior Chad Barrett and 140-pound junior Dane Dewitt. Barrett and Dewitt were regional champs last week and Barrett is looking for his second straight trip to state.
“This year, all three of our kids are going up against unknown opponents,” Eastern coach Craig Standish said. “We don’t have a super good idea of what we’re getting ourselves into. Maybe that’s a good thing because all we focused on this week in practice was doing our things well and not worrying too much about what the other kids are going to do.
“At this stage of the game, it’s just go out … and worry about the things you can control. We’re good enough to get this far so keep doing things we’ve been doing all year long.”
• Taylor coach Justin Palmer is encouraged about the chances of Taylor’s last survivor, 215-pound senior Will Hawkins, who has a bye to the second round after his regional title.
“A lot of it is going to take the same dedication that he’s had the last couple weeks,” Palmer said. “I’ve seen something just kind of change in his demeanor and his attitude ever since sectional. He’s wrestled good all year, it’s just something about how he’s wrestling the last couple weeks — he can go on to state.
“I just want to see him wrestle hard, aggressive and confident and not give up. That’s one thing that is going to hurt somebody is if they go out there and see the kid they’re wrestling and maybe he’s bigger and stronger and they just give up. I want him to be confident and steadfast and hopefully he can get through that first round.”
• Peru’s crew includes 103-pound sophomore Shannon Garretson, 119-pound junior Aaron Garretson, 125-pound senior Zac Leffel, 130-pound senior Joe Beck, 135-pound sophomore Dalton Sparks, 145-pound senior George Markou, 152-pound senior Sam Mitchel, 189-pound junior Brett Worden, 215-pound senior Matt Sturch, and 285-pound junior Jacob Clark.
Aaron Garretson, Leffel, Beck, Markou and Worden won regional titles last week. Leffel is shooting for a repeat trip to state.
• Maconaquah freshman 125-pounder Austin Waite and 285-pound senior teammate Ryan Ware round out the local crew at Fort Wayne.
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