Published: February 09, 2008 11:52 pm            

4 county grapplers are state bound

Peru advances three to the big show

FORT WAYNE — Northwestern wrestling coach Scott Miller walked intently off the mat at 11:45 a.m. Saturday, made eye contact with the Tribune’s reporter, held up an index finger and said, emphatically: “One!”

Seconds earlier his son, Tiger sophomore Matt Miller, scored a 5-2 decision over Elkhart Memorial’s Mike Moore in the second round of the IHSAA Fort Wayne Individual Wrestling Semistate at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum to secure a berth in next weekend’s state finals.

One, as in the first: the first key victory of the day for a local wrestler; the first Northwestern wrestler to get through on a banner day for the Tigers; and the first of seven Tribune-area grapplers to book passage to state.

Within a couple hours, another Purple Tiger, heavyweight Quintin Burkett was safely through to Conseco, along with Western’s Austin Shepherd, Eastern’s Chad Barrett and a trio of Peru wrestlers — Aaron Garretson, Zac Leffel and George Markou.

Matt Miller and Burkett both finished fourth, taking two losses after winning their opening matches. It wasn’t an ideal way to finish the day, but that didn’t put a damper on the achievement.

“We haven’t had a state qualifier since 1991,” said a fired-up Scott Miller. Getting two grapplers to the state finals should add energy to a program on the upswing.

“We brought a lot of teammates here to see that this can be done,” the Purple Tiger coach added.

When Matt Miller walked off the mat after the victory that put him into the state finals of the 103-pound weight class, senior 285-pound teammate Burkett lifted him well off the ground in celebration. About two hours later, Burkett punched his own ticket to state with a 4-3 victory over Clint Wurm of Bellmont.

Matt Miller lost a 10-0 decision to eventual 103 champ Casey Kenney of Jay County, and was later pinned by Prairie Heights’ Travis Barroquillo in the consolation match. After Burkett secured a state berth he was pinned in the third period of the semifinal by Goshen’s Kyle Edlund and suffered another fall in the first period to Winchester’s Adam Chalfant in the third-place match. Scott Miller hopes both wrestlers bounce back next week in Friday’s opening round at state.

“[Matt] needs to learn to wrestle with the top-flight kids and he needs to have the confidence he can do that. Same with Quintin,” Scott Miller said. “Both our kids are going to have semistate champs Friday night.”

Fourth-place wrestlers draw champions from other semistates in the opening round at state while second- and third-place wrestlers square off.

Barrett and Markou scored the top finishes of local wrestlers. Barnett, a junior, took second place at 135 pounds to secure his second straight trip to the state finals. He beat Jay County’s Ben Theurer 8-5 in the second round, then topped Garrett’s Bryce Schendel 7-6 in the semifinals before losing 6-1 to Carroll of Allen County’s Brandon Brown in the title match.

“He had a great day,” Eastern coach Craig Standish said. “At this level you’re going to get a lot of one- and two-point matches and the matches weren’t pretty but a win is a win and Chad understands that. It doesn’t matter if you pin or win in overtime, you’ve got to advance.

“He did a great job putting himself in a better position than last year, and now it’s all up to the draw that comes out [today] at noon. We’ll sit back and see who we get and go down and wrestle on Friday night and see if we can place somewhere in the top eight on Saturday.”

Barrett was shooting for a semistate title after finishing fourth in Fort Wayne last season. He wanted to end up one place higher but wasn’t complaining after positioning himself to draw a third-place wrestler from another semistate Friday.

“I set out a goal earlier. I didn’t quite make it but I think I wrestled well,” Barrett said. “Like I said to my teammates, [Dane] Dewitt and [Blake] Pence, when we go out there you’ve got to —win, loose or draw — make sure you leave it all on the mat. I think I did, especially in that semifinal match. [In the final] I made a couple mistakes and that’s all it takes.

“I like my position. My draw’s going to be a lot nicer [than last season].”

Western 112-pound freshman Shepherd beat Fremont’s Lucas Willams 9-7 in the second round to get to state. Shepherd was pinned by Yorktown’s Derek Bevans with 34 seconds left in their semifinal, then rebounded to score a second-period pin of South Adams’ Josh Ehr in the third-place match.

Western coach Chad Shepherd, Austin’s uncle, was happy to get the freshman to state but wants him to understand how much is within his grasp.

“When he wants to win, he can wrestle with anybody in the state,” the Panther coach said. “He didn’t wrestle a very good match in the semis. [In the third-place match] he had to do something to put himself in good position to win the match, that’s the important thing. He’s done something right or he wouldn’t be here. His first match was a hard-fought match. He wrestled really well.

“I just hope he realizes he’s got the potential to do something next week. I’m proud of him. He’s wrestled his butt off all year.”

Peru senior Markou led the Bengal Tiger contingent with a second-place finish at 145-pounds. He beat Yorktown’s Brenten Hiestand 6-3 in the second round to reach state, then beat Fort Wayne Dwenger’s Dan Nix 6-3 in the semifinals to set up a showdown with Bellmont’s Tyler Baker. Baker had scored a comfortable decision over Markou on Wednesday as Bellmont beat Peru in team semistate competition.

In Saturday’s 145-pound final, Markou and Baker dueled to a 2-2 standoff deep into the match before Baker scored a reversal with 17 seconds left to go up 4-2. Markou escaped to cut the lead to one and was in the process of a match-winning takedown when the buzzer sounded. Peru coach Andy Hobbs said the referees never let him know if Markou’s takedown didn’t count because it came after the buzzer, or if it was out of bounds.

“He wrestled physical, extra physical, tough and very determined,” Hobbs said. “And the thing about him is the draw’s not as critical — he’s at that level.”

Hobbs was already eying the future for Markou, but the Tiger senior was disconsolate after having come so close to winning the semistate crown. Still, reaching state for the first time was a key moment in the Tiger’s career.

“It means a lot. That’s what I’ve been wrestling for,” Markou said. He’s wrestled year-round since seventh grade.

Garretson, a junior, reached state with a third-period pin of New Haven’s Tyler Clark in the second round of competition at 119 pounds. He then lost by pin to Eklhart Memorial’s Brandon Harvey, the eventual champ, before scoring a 6-4 decision over Adams Central’s Ethan Fiechter in the third-place match.

“[Garretson] had a great year and he’s turned the corner into the upper echelon I think,” Hobbs said.

Leffel secured his second straight trip to state with a 5-3 victory over Jimtown’s Jeremy Hill in the second round of competition at 125 pounds. The senior then lost a 5-2 decision to Bellmont’s Will Sheets in the semifinals and lost a 5-0 bout to Churubusco’s Corey Richards in his last match to finish fourth.

The opening round of the state finals are Friday at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Friday’s winners advance to Saturday’s medal rounds.

        

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