Published: February 17, 2007 11:38 pm            

Dickey takes 5th at state

Western 140-pounder goes 3-1 in state finals competition.

INDIANAPOLIS — Western senior Trevor Dickey took fifth place in 140-pound competition at the IHSAA Individual Wrestling State Finals at Conseco Fieldhouse Saturday, bouncing back from a quarterfinal loss to win his next two matches.

Dickey lost 9-1 to Munster’s Eric McGill Saturday morning in quarterfinal action. He was disappointed, but regained his focus to beat Jennings County’s Bobby Willis 2-1 in the wrestleback round. Dickey scored a reversal with about 30 seconds left in the third period to take the victory.

Then in the fifth-place match, Dickey and Indianapolis Cathedral’s Gavin McGinley battled to an 8-8 tie through regulation before Dickey scored a takedown to win in sudden-death overtime. The victory avenged Dickey’s lone regular season loss, which came against McGinley in tourney action at Connersville.

“I feel pretty good. Senior year, finally made it down [to state], placed fifth,” Dickey said. “My final match, takedowns were key again. The takedown in overtime really made me feel good about myself.

“I had my goals set for top four, but I’m happy with fifth.”

The only wrestler to beat Dickey at state, McGill, went on to win the state title.

“That makes me feel a lot better about myself too,” Dickey said just before the finals were to start at Conseco. “At least I got beat by somebody who will place first or possibly second.”

Dickey finished his senior season with a 43-3 record. He was 3-1 in state matches, winning his opening match Friday before going 2-1 Saturday.

“I made a comment to some of the fans that you come down to the state finals and you win three matches, you’re doing something right,” Western coach Chad Shepherd said. “He wrestled a tough kid from Munster who is in the finals. Other than that, Trevor wrestled really well all weekend. He won 7-2 [Friday], 2-1 and 10-8 in overtime. They’re close matches, but in the state finals you’re expected to have close matches, and he fought and won. I was proud of him, it was a good weekend.”

Dickey was the lone local at state after 10 other Tribune-area wrestlers were eliminated in Friday’s opening round.

“I think it goes to show the type of mentality he had this weekend,” Shepherd said. “When everybody else got put out, and he’s all alone, it makes it tough warming up — not as many people to joke around with and take your mind off things. But he buckled down and wrestled hard and had a pretty good performance this weekend.”

Dickey was grateful to be put in a situation where he could medal at state.

“If it wasn’t for Chad, I probably wouldn’t be here,” he said. “I’m really happy he’s my coach; helped me get here.”

        

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