Published: February 17, 2009 11:42 pm      

WRESTLING: Kokomo’s Green grinds his way to state

Kat junior wants to make first trip to state memorable

FORT WAYNE — Kokomo wrestler Dylan Green has never been to the state finals, but he’s been thinking about it for a long time, and, thanks to the last two weeks, he already knows a lot about what it’ll be like.

“It’s a great feeling,” the junior 215-pounder said of reaching state. “It’s been my goal ever since I was in middle school.”

Green took third place at 215 in the Fort Wayne Semistate on Saturday in the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. He finished 3-1 on the day, winning his first two matches to reach state, losing a semifinal, then winning the third-place match.

He had to go overtime to beat Westview’s Jay Dee Schmucker in the second round — the ticket round to state — and again went overtime to win the third-place match against Winchester’s Anthony Fodrea.

Getting third was important. Third-place wrestlers draw a second-place wrestler from another semistate in Friday’s first round of the IHSAA Individual State Finals at Indianapolis. Fourth-place wrestlers must face semistate champs.

“It sets me up for next week a lot better,” Green said Saturday of taking third.

Green’s got a solid grasp of what the competition will be like in Indianapolis after facing state wrestlers in the last two rounds of the semistate.

“Nobody’s a slouch once you get to this level,” he said. “There’s never going to be any easy wins. You’ve got to be used to winning in overtime, winning by one [point]. You’ve got to be able to keep your cool under the pressure.”

Green said the semistate showed his stamina, and his hard work to get better at scoring on shots. But with two overtime victories at the semistate and another in the regional championship, Green really showed that he’s a tough out.

“Right now it comes down to who wants it more sometimes and Dylan definitely wants it, I know that,” Kokomo coach Ryan Wells said. “You’ve got a lot of one-point matches, you’ve got a lot of overtime matches, and Dylan has won those close matches all year. He’s really good at finding ways to make that happen.

“He’s probably won five or six overtime matches this year. He’s really good at finding a way to score points at the end and keep guys from scoring points on him. That’s how he’s turned the corner from last year to this.”

Green is a little undersized for a 215-pounder, walking around in the neighborhood of 200 most of the time. But his strength has helped him compensate.

“He’s so strong in his lower body that it’s so hard for [opponents] to finish shots and take him down,” Wells said.

Green, 43-2 on the season, wrestles Castle senior Clay Robison (44-1) Friday in the first round of the state finals at Conseco Fieldhouse.