H.S. state wrestling: Three from area move into semifinals
What would be a state wrestling tournament without some scary moments?
Ashton Jackson certainly had his Saturday morning at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. With 23 seconds remaining in his quarterfinal match against Isaiah Schaefer of Evansville Mater Dei, the LaPorte senior was on his back, on the verge of being pinned.
But Jackson isn’t a two-time state champion for no reason. He rolled out of the jam, survived the period, and with the match in double overtime, he sank Schaefer with a couple nearfalls to claim an 11-5 victory in the 120-pound weight class.
That sent the Slicer senior, now 52-0, into Saturday afternoon’s semifinals, where he was to face Eddie Goss of Center Grove.
LaPorte's Ashton Jackson focused on state title No. 3 at weekend's IHSAA wrestling finals
Besides Jackson, only two other area wrestlers made the semifinals, which had not started at presstime.
At 138, New Prairie freshman Jeffrey Huyvaert dispatched previously undefeated Michael Major of Carmel, 5-2. Huyvaert, now 50-1, was to face Reese Courtney of Center Grove in the semis.
And at 152, Mishawaka’s Beau Brabender looked absolutely dominant, pinning Fort Wayne Carroll’s Jackson Todd in 1:32. Brabender (42-4) was to face Roncalli’s Bryce Lowery in the next round.
The IHSAA state wrestling championships began Friday afternoon, and for most of the opening round, things more or less went as expected at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Then the 182-pound weight class came up, and Tribune-area wrestlers turned the tournament on its head.
Could IHSAA wrestling state finals have its first female medalist? Julianna Ocampo hopes so
First, there was Goshen junior Laish Detwiler, scoring five points in the final 30 seconds to upset Brownsburg’s Caden Brewer, 10-7.
Brewer was ranked No. 6 in the state by the wrestling Website, IndianaMat. He was champion of the 182-pound class at the Evansville semistate. Meanwhile Detwiler finished fourth in the semistate at Fort Wayne.
But down two points with 30 seconds to go, Detwiler landed a takedown and turned his opponent for a three-point nearfall with seven seconds left. The two wrestlers went at it so hard that at one point, Brewer was vomiting on the mat.
Immediately after that, Penn freshman Vinny Freeman – who was unranked – scored a takedown 25 seconds into overtime to upset No. 7-ranked Mike Durham from Warren Central, 5-3.
Durham had a clear height advantage, but Freeman stayed in tight, survived an ankle pick takedown, scored a couple escapes, and in a wild last four seconds of regulation, Durham was penalized for stalling, tying the score at 3-3.
That sent the match to overtime, where Freeman countered for a takedown and the win.
And at the same time THAT was going on, NorthWood’s Kaden Lone was scoring a takedown four seconds into overtime to beat Floyd Central’s Bray Emerine, 11-9.
Lone was trailing, 9-6, with 20 seconds to go, but managed an escape and takedown with three seconds remaining to force the overtime.
In the space of about 10 minutes, three local wrestlers managed three amazing, unpredictable victories on Indiana’s biggest stage.
“Anything can happen on Friday night,” said Penn coach Brad Harper, who saw two of his Kingsmen advance to Saturday morning’s quarterfinals, Freeman and 160-pound AJ Steenbeke.
“Vinny stuck to the game plan and it worked,” said Harper. “The plan was to just keep pressuring (Durham). By the end he was just backing up, backing up. That’s how we got the stalling call.”
Friday’s victorious wrestlers are guaranteed a spot on the IHSAA awards stand Saturday evening. The question becomes, which spot? Wrestling resumes at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Team scores mean nothing, really, at this point. But as expected, defending champ Crown Point leads the pack with 38 points, while Brownsburg is second at 29 1/2. Crown Point advanced nine wrestlers through the opening round.
Though the crowd was on her side, Fort Wayne Snider sophomore Julianna Ocampo fell, 5-0, to Bloomington South’s Cameron Meier in the 106-pound weight class, thus ending her quest to become the first female to earn an IHSAA award medal.
The most controversial match of the evening also yielded an unexpected result, as Center Grove’s Kaden McConnell scored a criteria decision in overtime to defeat previously undefeated Christian Chavez from Mishawaka in the 195-pound class.
Chavez, ranked No. 5, was semistate champion at East Chicago, while No. 7-ranked McConnell placed fourth at Evansville.
Regulation ended in a 1-1 tie, as each wrestler managed only an escape. Three overtime periods didn’t accomplish much, though in a bizarre sequence, Chavez was penalized for stalling and McConnell was penalized for fleeing the mat in the final 14 seconds.
In the seventh and final period, Chavez was in the down position and the Center Grove junior repeatedly grabbed his ankle and held on. Though there were several opportunities for the official to call stalling, that didn’t happen, and McConnell won on ultimate tie-break criteria.
Mishawaka still has a pair of wrestlers in the hunt, as Zar Walker took an 8-2 decision from Rossville’s Jacob Weaver at 132, and Beau Brabender was dominant in a 13-1 major over Westfield’s Jason Rooney at 152.
No surprise: LaPorte’s Ashton Jackson pinned his first-round opponent at 120 as he heads toward a third state championship.
New Prairie’s Jeff Huyvaert won at 138, as did Plymouth’s Wes Smith at 145. Jimtown’s Conner Watts won at 160, as did Penn’s Steenbeke.
Elkhart had a pair of winners in Nash Shupert (195) and Brayden Jellison (285). Concord’s Armen Koltookian won at 195.
IHSAA STATE WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
CURRENT TEAM SCORES (Top 10 After Quarterfinals): Crown Point 100 ½, Brownsburg 81 ½, Center Grove 74 ½, Warren Central 42, Evansville Mater Dei 28 ½, Delta 27, Bloomington South 26, New Castle 26, Avon 24, Mishawaka 17, Kokomo 17, Roncalli 17.
QUARTERFINALS
(Tribune-area wrestlers)
120: Ashton Jackson (LaPorte) dec. Isaiah Schaefer (Evansville Mater Dei), 11-5 in 2OT.
132: Brady Ison (Brownsburg) dec. Eleazar Walker (Mishawaka), 5-1.
138: Jeffrey Huyvaert (New Prairie) dec. Michael Major (Carmel), 5-2.
145: Wyatt Krejsa (Center Grove) dec. Wesley Smith (Plymouth), 7-2.
152: Beau Brabender (Mishawaka) pinned Jackson Todd (FW Carroll), 1:32.
160: Luke Kemper (Evansville Central) dec. AJ Steenbeke (Penn), 12-6; Brenton Russell (Warren Central) dec. Conner Watts (Jimtown), 10-7.
182: De`Alcapon Veazy (Fort Wayne Snider) pinned Vincent Freeman (Penn), 0:55; Orlando Cruz (Crown Pt.) pinned Kaden Lone (NorthWood), 2:40; Connor Cervantes (Griffith) dec. Laish Detwiler (Goshen), 7-0.
195: Reid Schroeder (Southridge) pinned Armen Koltookian (Concord), 4:56; Kaden McConnell (Center Grove) dec. Nash Shupert (Elkhart), 10-5.
285: Paul Clark (Crown Pt.) maj. dec. Brayden Jellison (Elkhart), 8-0.
FIRST DAY RESULTS
(Tribune-area wrestlers)
106: Gunner Butt (New Palestine) dec. Xavier Chavez (Mishawaka), 5-4.
120: Ashton Jackson (La Porte) pinned Linkin Carter (Eastside), 5:06.
132: Zar Walker (Mishawaka) dec. Jacob Weaver (Rossville), 8-2; Odin Fortune (Evansville Reitz) pinned Mikey Kallimani (Jimtown), 5:42.
138: Jeffrey Huyvaert (New Prairie) dec. Kelby Glenn (Tell City), 10-4; Cheaney Schoeff (Avon) dec. Wesley Harper (Penn), 6-0.
145: Wesley Smith (Plymouth) dec. Cameron Clark (Jay County), 5-2; Braxton Miller (DeKalb) maj. dec. Jayden Lewis (New Prairie), 11-1.
152: Beau Brabender (Mishawaka) maj. dec. Jason Rooney (Westfield), 13-1; Bryce Lowery (Roncalli) pinned Bryce Denton (Penn), 0:21.
160: Aaron Steenbeke (Penn) pinned Levi Abbott (Cowan), 4:37; Conner Watts (Jimtown) maj. dec. Ben Shaffer (Chesterton), 13-1.
170: Kyle Harden (Indianapolis Cathedral) dec. Isaac Valdez (Mishawaka), 5-1.
182: Laish Detwiler (Goshen) dec. Caden Brewer (Brownsburg), 10-7; Vincent Freeman (Penn) dec. Mike Durham (Warren Central), 5-3 in OT; Kaden Lone (NorthWood) dec. Bray Emerine (Floyd Central), 11-9 in OT.
195: Kaden McConnell (Center Grove) dec. Christian Chavez (Mishawaka), 3-3 in Ultimate Tiebreaker; Nash Shupert (Elkhart) pinned Wyatt Woodall (Southmont), 5:45; Armen Koltookian (Concord) dec. Orlan Foster (Connersville), 5-3; John Purdy (Castle) pinned Neil Johnson (New Prairie), 1:59; Reid Schroeder (Southridge) tech. fall Bazle Owens (Tippecanoe Valley), 17-2 in 5:22.
220: Alex Rose (Terre Haute South) pinned Clayton Deutscher (New Prairie), 5:20.
285: Brayden Jellison (Elkhart) dec. Eli Smith (Zionsville), 4-1; Leighton Jones (Brownsburg) pinned Anthony Popi (Plymouth), 0:27.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Opening rounds of IHSAA state wrestling tournament.
