County teams dominate Crawfordsville Sectional

Jan. 28—CRAWFORDSVILLE — It was a dominate day for two of the Boone County schools during the Crawfordsville wrestling sectional on Saturday.

Zionsville and Western Boone combined for nine of the 14 weight class champions and are sending 21 wrestlers to next week's regional at North Montgomery.

They also took the top-2 places in the team standings, with Zionsville winning their fourth-straight sectional with 261 points and Western Boone placing second with 183.5

"We still have things to work on, but I'm proud of kids effort and for our seniors Eli (Smith) and (Charles) Hodges," Zionsville head coach Doug Welch said. "We have a bunch of good kids that work really hard and pour everything into the sport. We are excited for another week of work before heading to North Montgomery."

For Western Boone, it was the best sectional finish since 1993, when they placed second in a 5-team sectional.

Head coach Wes Mikesell said he was extremely proud of his team's effort throughout the day.

"I am not disappointed at all and so proud of our effort today," Mikesell said. "For us to come in here and get second, that is a huge accomplishment for our program."

It's been a major turnaround for the Stars' since Mikesell took over the program.

Back in 2017, the Stars didn't score a point in the sectional. Since then they have improved every year, going from ninth in 2018, to sixth in 2019 and 2020, to fifth in 2021 and fourth last year.

The big thing has always been numbers for the Stars, and Saturday they had all but one weight class filled and showed what they could do.

"It all comes down to the kids in the practice room," Mikesell said. "They are pushing each other and themselves. That's showing up on the mat and it shows we are progressing and getting better."

It wasn't just the team aspect that stood out for the county teams, but individual success as well.

Zionsville had six champions on the day.

Sully Frazier started things off with a pin of Southmont's Brier Riggle at 106, and older brother Tommy made it 2-for-2 when he pinned North Vermillion's Shawn Martin at 113.

Zionsville made it 3-for-3, when Hank Phenicie beat previously undefeated Aden Rangel of North Vermillion 10-5 at 120.

"That was great for Hank," Welch said. "He did a great job of getting to his offense and scoring points. I'm excited for all our guys today and what they did."

Chase Wagner won the sectional title at 160 with a pin of Crawfordsville's Braeden Hites. Luke Penola won the sectional title at 182 with a pin of Parke Heritage's Jerrid Graves and Eli Smith won the sectional title at 285 win a pin of North Montgomery's Dylan Braun.

Zionsville went 6-for-8 in championship matches.

"We pushed the pace and our guys are getting after it and being aggressive," Welch said. "They are scoring points and making it fun for the fans. We don't want to sit back and win 1-0, we constantly try to score. When guys get after it and you can tell they give it everything they have, that's a lot of fun."

Western Boone was a perfect 3-for-3 in championship matches.

At 145, Mason Adams pinned his way to the title, capping it with a first-period pin of Andrew Botner of North Vermillion.

Adams set the Western Boone single-season record for pins on the day, bumping his total to 30 on the year.

"Mason came in really focused and wrestled great today," Mikesell said. "It just showed all the effort and work in the off-season. It's really paying off for him right now."

The Stars made it back-to-back champs in the next weight class, with Evan Trent tech falling Southmont's Kaden Newgent in the final.

Mikesell said he was proud of what his senior has been able to do this year.

"I'm really happy for him," Mikesell said. "After he fell a little short at conference, for it to play out the way it did today and have him pull off the championship was great. He set the tone early and did his stuff. He didn't change the way he wrestles and it paid off."

For the second-straight year, Trevor Weakley walked away a sectional champion with a first-period pin.

Weakley pinned Zionsville's Jon Mangus, improving to 29-3 on the season.

"Trevor wrestled the way he should be wrestling," Mikesell said. "He was very patient and was in control of the match and wrestled his way. They met earlier in the year and things didn't go his way, so it was great to see him overcome that and roll into next week."

Also advancing for Zionsville were Michael Stanfield (fourth, 126), Daniel Stanfield (second, 138), Blake Wahl (fourth, 152), Mangus (second, 170) and Charles Hodges (third, 220).

Also advancing for Western Boone were Isaac Moore (fourth, 106), Jacob Anderson (third, 113), Trey Fuston (third, 132), Kameron Mikesell (third, 138), Jacob Smith (fourth, 160), Ethan Williams (third, 182) and Wyatt Dickey (fourth, 220).

Both teams head into the North Montgomery Regional next Saturday.

"We have to control the controllables," Welch said. "We have to get to our offense and give ourselves every chance to win. Our schedule is brutal and we have wrestled almost all these guys. They are battled tested and excited for the challenge. They've never backed down from a challenge, they always hit it head on and we are excited for the opportunity."

Mikesell said the Stars won't be changing anything with their approach.

"We have to continue to focus on our drilling and our basics," Mikesell said. "Our conditioning has gotten us to this point and we want to stick with that too."

Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.