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- Val T.
- 6 hours ago
- 8 min read
Wilson: Horn belongs on ‘Mount Rushmore’ of wrestlers, adds ‘You’re going to see another Beck out there soon. I promise you.’
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The top eight wrestlers in the 132-pound weight class climbed the podium at the IHSAA boys wrestling state finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Saturday. Rochester’s Layne Horn, pictured here third from the left, finished fourth. Horn also placed seventh at 132 in 205.
The top eight wrestlers in the 165-pound weight class climbed the podium at the IHSAA boys wrestling state finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Saturday. Rochester’s Brant Beck, pictured here sixth from the left, finished third. Beck also finished third at 165 in 2024 and seventh at 157 in 2025.
INDIANAPOLIS — “Brant Beck! Brant Beck!” a section of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd chanted.
Rochester boys wrestling was once again drawing attention as the aforementioned Zebra senior took on Evansville Mater Dei’s Camden Baumann in the third-place match at 165 pounds at the IHSAA state finals Saturday.
Beck trailed 5-3 in the second period, but seemingly spurred on by the crowd, he got an escape and a double-leg takedown to take a 7-5 lead.
An escape and two more takedowns followed in the third period, and Beck earned a 14-6 major decision win.
Rochester wrestling was hard to ignore during the weekend with four state qualifiers and two state placers.
In addition to Beck’s third-place showing, Layne Horn finished fourth at 132 pounds.
Horn started his day with a 14-0 major decision over New Haven’s Sean Harris. He got a takedown early and stayed attacking, getting a pair of back points on a cradle before the official stopped the clock for blood time for Harris. A side headlock resulted in two more back points and a 7-0 lead.
The score was 10-0 by the end of the second period, and another escape and takedown in the third period completed the scoring.
“I came out pretty aggressive and got into my shot right away, locked up a cradle and went to take him to his back, and they stopped it for blood time,” Horn said. “Got right back to it and got some back points and just kept putting points on the scoreboard and finished out 14-0.”
However, Avon’s Nate Rioux ended his state championship ambitions with a 16-3 win in the semifinals.
Rioux, who also beat Horn in the first round of the 2023 state finals when both were freshman and weighed a 106 pounds, continued to attack Horn’s legs throughout the first period in notching four takedowns and building a 12-3 lead.
“Finally in the second period, I finally woke up a little bit and was like, alright, well, I’ve got to do something different and change the game plan a little bit and do something different,” Horn said. “I think once the second period hit, I was hanging in there a little bit better. … He’s a completely different wrestler than what he was three years ago. But he’s very fast. I will say that, probably one of the fastest wrestlers I’ve ever wrestled.”
Horn then lost to Center Grove’s Royce Malone 4-0 in the third-place match.
“He had like a two-on-one, and he went to go roll, and I went to go stand up, and I tripped and fell, and he rolled me through and got a near-fall,” Horn said. “It is what it is at the end of the day. You can’t change it. It’s a great tournament.”
Rochester coach Tristan Wilson said Horn suffered an injury in the Rioux match.
“Layne had a really hurt shoulder,” Wilson said. “And once he got a cross-wrist on it, it was really hard for Layne to break that wrist. And it just ended up with that being his number one tilt. Happy he only gave up one set because it was really fishy there, but he did alright. He battled well.”
Horn finished his senior season 47-3. His losses were to Rioux, the eventual state champion; Jensen Boyd from Delta, who beat Horn at the Mooresville tournament in December and who finished second; and Malone.
“Pretty good,” Horn said. “Finishing the career off fourth at state, you can’t ask for much more.”
Wilson was asked what Horn meant to Rochester wrestling.
“He holds the pin record, I think the win record, and I think it’s going to be very hard for somebody to break those records,” Wilson said. “He wrestles really hard and really well. He’s going to be a Mount Rushmore kid.”
Beck’s day started with a 5-2 win in an ultimate tiebreaker over Indian Creek’s Oliver Hallett in the quarterfinals.
Hallett got an escape to start the fifth period to take a 2-1 lead, but Beck stayed aggressive and got the takedown of the backtracking Hallett with eight seconds left, making sure to keep his toes inbounds for the go-ahead takedown and a 4-2 lead.
Hallett chose neutral to begin the final 30-second period in the tiebreaker to give Beck another point. But he could not get the takedown he needed and Beck was on to the semifinals.
“I kind of flipped my mind from last week,” Beck said. “I kind of just came out here taking little steps to score points and improving positions to score points and not worry about the outcome of the match and just pushing to score points.”
Beck then lost to Noblesville’s undefeated and third-ranked Aidan Kincaide 4-2 in the semifinals.
Kincaide opened the scoring with a double-leg takedown from behind, but Beck got an escape. Beck got another escape to start the second period and trim the lead to 3-2.
But Beck could not square him up, and Kincaide scored another point when Beck chose to start the third period in neutral.
Kincaide appeared to backtrack during the match. Pro-Beck fans booed the officials – it was a smattering of boos but loud enough to be noticed – thinking Kincaide should have received at least one stalling penalty point. Beck said that he and Kincaide clashed heads in the first period and that Kincaide was gassed.
“If I were a ref, that kid would have been stalled out of the match for sure,” Beck said. “First period, he was done for. … We bumped head to head, and it looked like his eyes rolled back.”
Beck’s next assignment was Baumann, who lost by a 13-3 major decision to top-ranked Matthew Staples of New Prairie in his semifinal match. Though he lost, Baumann had been the first wrestler to make it a full six minutes against Staples, who would eventually go on to win his second straight state title with a tech fall over Kincaide.
Evansville Mater Dei’s cheering section is loud and unmistakable in their navy blazers, shirts, ties and khaki pants. They even started the wave through the stands on multiple occasions.
As seemingly a counter, a red-clad group a couple sections to the left of the Mater Dei group started the “Brant Beck! Brant Beck!” chant.
As for Beck himself, he credited his win to “staying composed” and “pushing everything I can to score points.”
Beck, a Wabash College recruit, said many were from Wabash and a few were from Fishers High School, who also has red as a school color.
“That was awesome,” Beck said. “Coach Wilson told me some Wabash guys. And then I know there were some Fishers guys over there too, but that was pretty cool. I know some of them, but it was cool to end my high school career out there with everyone cheering my name.”
The win capped a 45-3 season in which Beck’s only non-disqualification losses were to the eventual state champion in Staples and the state runner-up in Kincaide.
Beck later revealed he suffered a dislocated left AC joint in his shoulder during football season that lingered through wrestling season. He also said he has two torn patellar tendons.
“It’s just a battle every day going to practice wrestling,” Beck said. “Sometimes I say I don’t want to be here because everything hurts, but I love the grind of it.”
Rochester would finish in 13th place with 29 points. Center Grove won with 137 points.
Hanover Central, who finished five points ahead of the Zebras at the semistate, finished 15 points behind them Saturday.
Penn, who won the regional on their home mats and finished 37.5 points ahead of Rochester two weeks earlier, finished in a tie for 32nd place and 17.5 points behind Rochester.
In addition to Beck and Horn, the other graduating seniors include Declan Gard (HWT), a two-time state qualifier at heavyweight who will join Beck at Wabash College next year; Braddock Behling, who made the semistate ticket round in 2025 at 150 but who did not wrestle in the state tournament series this year due to injury; Clarence Garrett, who just started wrestling in the fall of 2024 and was a regional qualifier at 157; and Mason Hisey, a semistate qualifier at 215.
“You can put all of the seniors that we have all in that category,” Wilson said when asked about the long-term legacy of the seniors. “Especially Brant, Declan and Layne. Those three, they demonstrated that it can be done where we’re at. And they learned it from Brady (Beck) and Alex (Deming) and all of those guys who were placing back then and Zane (Gilbreath) before that. It all just builds on each other.”
Rochester returns state qualifier Jackson Robbins (120) next year along with semistate qualifiers Tanner Horn (113), Grant Holloway (126), Kale Shotts (175) and Derek Wortley (190).
“I think it’s really hard,” Wilson said. “We have a very small room. We practice, and we roll out half of our mats in a gym. I think it’s really hard for people to see we can accomplish great things here. They are showing you we can year after year after year. It all just builds on each other.”
While Horn, Beck and Gard had uniquely great careers, Wilson said the younger generation has paid attention.
“We have a bunch of youth wrestlers up there,” Wilson said. “They’re all in fifth, sixth and seventh grade. They’re all watching this. Their goals are to do what they’re doing right now. It all builds off each other. It’s a full-circle moment. You’re going to see another Beck out there soon. I promise you. It’s awesome.”
IHSAA BOYS WRESTLING STATE FINALS RESULTS SATURDAY (TOP 15 TEAMS): 1. Center Grove 137, 2. Brownsburg 133.5, 3. Crown Point 86.5, 4. Lowell 73.5, 5. Delta 71, 6. New Prairie 68, 7. Avon 61.5, 8. Columbus East 48.5, 9. Indianapolis Cathedral 47.5, 10. Evansville Mater Dei 40.5, 11. New Palestine 38.5, 12. North Miami 36, 13. ROCHESTER 29, 14. Westfield 28, 15. Chesterton 27.5
ROCHESTER INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
120 – Jackson Robbins – DNP, 132 – Layne Horn – fourth, 165 – Brant Beck – third, HWT – Declan Gard – DNP
WINAMAC INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
215 – Tearson Wolford – DNP
NORTH MIAMI INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
120 – Braylon McIntire – eighth, 126 – Rex Moore – fourth, 190 – Jordan Simon – DNP, 215 – Hartley Hoover – second, HWT – Logan Smith – DNP
IHSAA STATE CHAMPIONS
106 – Connor Maddox (Westfield), 113 – Traevon Ducking (Brownsburg), 120 – Case Bell (Brownsburg), 126 – Maximus Quiroz (Chesterton), 132 – Nate Rioux (Avon), 138 – Evan Stanley (Lowell), 144 – Braylon Reynolds (Brownsburg), 150 – Clinton Shepherd (Crown Point), 157 – Linkin Carter (Eastside), 165 – Matthew Staples (New Prairie), 175 – Sean Breedlove (Center Grove), 190 – Michael White (Lawrence North), 215 – Ceasar Salas (Crown Point), HWT – Kameron Hazelett (Lowell)
