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- Val T.
- 12 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Winamac’s Wolford advances to state for first time
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester’s Layne Horn won his second consecutive semistate title at 132 pounds at East Chicago Saturday. Ranked No. 3 in the state per IndianaMat.com, Horn will face Southridge’s Owen Blessinger at the IHSAA state finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Friday. Horn will be participating in his fourth state finals.
EAST CHICAGO — Three Rochester wrestlers added to their already considerable legacies by advancing to the state finals Saturday, and they will be joined by an up-and-comer who narrowly missed standing atop the podium.
The other area wrestler moving on with those four is the Winamac wrestler who is following in a tradition of strong 215-pounders.
Brant Beck Jackson Robbins Declan Gard
The three Rochester wrestlers adding to their legacy included Layne Horn, the semistate champion at 132; Brant Beck, who finished second at 165; and Declan Gard, who placed third at heavyweight.
The up-and-comer is Jackson Robbins, a junior and a transfer from Caston who finished second at 120.
While they go on, five wrestlers had their state dreams denied: Grant Holloway (126) and Kale Shotts (175) lost in the ticket round while Tanner Horn (113), Derek Wortley (190) and Mason Hisey (215) lost in the first round.
As a team, Rochester scored 94 points and finished in fifth place out of 50 teams. Crown Point won with 236.5 points.
Winamac junior Tearson Wolford finished fourth at 215 and advanced to state for the first time. His teammates Asher Jones (150) and Rian Shell (157) both lost in the first round.
Wolford accounted for all 15 of Winamac’s team points. The Warriors finished in 21st place.
Rochester
Horn, ranked third per IndianaMat.com, repeated his semistate victory from last year and qualified for state for the fourth time.
His day started with a fall in 1:10 over New Prairie’s Colton Newgent, in which he turned a hammer lock and quickly put Newgent to his back. Newgent spent much of the match struggling to get off his back before the official stopped it.
Then came a 43-second fall over Lake Central junior Aidan Witry in the ticket round.
That set up Horn against Crown Point’s Gavin Lewis. Ranked fifth, Lewis had placed at state the previous two years.
After a scoreless first period, Horn started the second period on bottom. Horn was able to wriggle free to get an escape to take a 1-0 lead.
“If you tell yourself you’re going to get up from bottom, then you’re going to get up from bottom,” Horn said. “It’s all a mind game.”
Then came the match’s biggest moment. Lewis went in for a shot at Horn’s legs, but Horn defended it, stuffing Lewis’ head and grabbing his ankle for a takedown. The lead had grown to 4-0.
Lewis got an escape in the third period, but Horn won 4-1 to get to the final.
His final was against Hanover Central’s Isaiah Buikema, whom Horn had pinned at the Chris Traicoff Memorial Invitational Dec. 16 and whom Horn later said is a frequent practice partner during the summer. This match was not as one-sided as the Traicoff match against the muscular Buikema, but Horn rolled 10-0 as Buikema never came close to scoring.
Horn’s first-round opponent at state is Southridge senior Owen Blessinger, who finished fourth at the Evansville semistate.
“He held center really well today,” Rochester coach Tristan Wilson said. “He did not wrestle on the edge at all. He stayed in the middle. He was willing to hand fight. He’s confident in his defense. We knew that Gavin Lewis was really good on re-attacks and really good from his defense. So we just knew that going into the match. We knew that he was going to go, and we were just ready for it. Not really many adjustments, and then after that, he just needed to go out and wrestle.”
Robbins came in ranked seventh among wrestlers in the semistate and 14th overall, according to IndianaMat.com.
He started his day by getting the first takedown against Lafayette Jeff’s Parker Barnard before finally finishing him off with a cradle in 1:51. His ticket match was even more one-sided as he pinned Griffith’s Jeffery Fleming in 1:10.
His semifinal match was against Portage’s No. 8 Zavier Acuña, a wrestler to whom he lost 15-2 when he faced him at the Traicoff tournament. Acuña got the first takedown this time, but Robbins was able to get an escape before the period was out. Acuña got an escape in the second period to lead 4-1, but Robbins got an escape to start the third period to get within 4-2.
And finally, for the first time in six periods of wrestling him, Robbins was able to take down Acuña and take a 5-4 lead. He was able to hold on for the win.
That win meant a match with Merrillville’s fifth-ranked freshman Ethan Alvarez. This time, Robbins got the first takedown, but Alvarez answered with a takedown of his own in the second period.
Robbins chose the bottom position to start the third period. Alvarez chose neutral, giving Robbins a point and 4-3 lead while betting that he could get a takedown with both wrestlers on their feet.
The bet paid off. Alvarez charged at Robbins and got a takedown to take a 6-4 lead, and he held on to win 6-5.
Robbins will face North Miami’s Braylon McIntire in the first round of the state finals Friday. McIntire, who finished third at the Fort Wayne semistate, defeated Robbins in both of their previous matches. McIntire decisioned Robbins at both the Rochester John McKee Memorial Invitational Dec. 20 and the Class 1A Team State Duals at Franklin three weeks later.
“He is only going to continue to get better at a rapid rate,” Wilson said of Robbins. “Because he is the most disciplined, organized, takes-care-of-everything type of kid that you could ask for. He’s been a blessing on the team. He models it. He’s a captain for a reason. And for him to lose to a kid 15-2 to then beating him at the semifinals of semistate, it just shows how hard he works.”
As for the second-ranked Beck, he got a rematch in the final against New Prairie’s top-ranked Matthew Staples, a sophomore who has not yet lost a match in his prep career. Staples’ margin over Beck was 9-4 last year in the 157-pound semistate final. This time, it was more lopsided as Staples prevailed by tech fall 19-3 in 4:37.
Staples showed excellent skills in hand fighting and footwork while continually going after Beck’s legs. Beck’s only three points came on escapes; meanwhile, Staples notched six takedowns.
In his four years of high school wrestling, Beck finished fourth, second, second and second in his weight class at semistate.
“Re-attacks,” Beck said when asked what makes Staples so tough. “He does this year-around. He moves his feet well. He knows how to pressure you and gets to his attacks.”
Beck said he had “not a terrible day.” Clearly, the loss to Staples bothered him.
“You can’t get tech falled though,” Beck said. “State’s what matters.”
Beck’s route to the final included second-period falls over Munster’s Kaleb Moore and Harrison (West Lafayette)’s Carter Heriges and a 14-5 major decision over Hobart’s pesky and ninth-ranked Hayden Mancilla.
Beck will take on Garrett senior Jackson Endsley in the first round at state.
As for Gard, he advanced to state for the second time in as many years. Placed in a quarter-bracket that also included Crown Point’s Tony Brooks, he faced Brooks in the ticket round in what was both an exhausting challenge of stamina and a strategic battle between the bulkier Gard and the lighter-on-his-feet Brooks.
Leading 1-0 after two periods, Brooks got an escape before Gard appeared to cover Brooks near the out-of-bounds line. The main official first ruled no takedown. Rochester assistant coach Brady Beck asked – diplomatically, as coaches are advised prior to the tournament not to get angry with officials in the moment – the main official to confer with the outside official. After the officials talked for about 20 to 30 seconds, the main official changed his mind and put three fingers in the air.
Takedown, and a 4-1 Gard lead.
Brooks got an escape. He charged again at Gard but missed, and Gard got another takedown. He was ahead 7-2.
Brooks got an escape, a stalling penalty point and another penalty point at the buzzer, but Gard held on to win 7-5.
“A little,” Gard said when asked if he had been overlooked or disrespected prior to the semistate. “I saw on Hoosier Mat – shout out to Hoosier Mat, I guess – they said that Brooks was going to beat me and Brooks was going to be in the finals with (Lowell’s Kameron) Hazelett throughout the rest of the state tournament. And it put a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. It kind of irritated me a little that they were just counting me out.”
Gard, who started his day with a fall in 4:37 over Andrean freshman Deshawn Jackson, then faced New Prairie senior James Hartleroad in the semifinals. Hartleroad, a massive heavyweight who relies on a suffocating style, rolled to a tech fall (19-4) win in 5:07.
Gard then bounced back to win the third-place match by fall in 2:09 over Michigan City’s Lucas Nelson.
Gard drew Warren Central’s Jacari Markey for his Friday match at state. That match will be a rematch of last year’s state quarterfinal match in which Gard won 3-2 on an ultimate tiebreaker. Gard went on to finish fourth last year while Markey finished sixth. This year, IndianaMat has Markey ranked eighth and Gard ranked 14th.
Holloway needed only 32 seconds to pin McCutcheon’s Bricen Kirk-Banks before losing by fall in 28 seconds to Lowell’s Noel Verduzco in the ticket round. Verduzco is ranked No. 1.
“He’s that good,” Wilson said of Verduzco. “We’ve been game planning. We had a game plan, and then Verduzco said no.”
Shotts got a late escape to edge Chesterton’s Patrick Mochen 13-12 in the first round, but his season ended with a 13-3 loss to Rensselaer’s Carter Ogborn in the ticket round. Ogborn avenged a loss to Shotts dating back to the season-opening dual in November.
When Shotts lowered his head and took a shot, Ogborn on multiple occasions moved to his side and then covered Shotts for takedowns.
“That’s some of Kale’s inexperience in some of his wrestling,” Wilson said. “He didn’t wrestle last year for some reasons, and his freshman year, he didn’t have a stellar year. He’s still raw. So it takes a little bit of time to understand, Alright, this guy has not shot the entire match. He’s scored only on my shots. I probably shouldn’t hit that same shot, but he didn’t make that correction. Good for Ogborn. He really had a good game plan going into it, and then he wrestled well. I don't think anything less of Kale. I just think Kale needs a lot more mat time.”
The day started for Rochester with Horn losing to Lake Central’s 13th-ranked Cruz Orueta by fall in 3:17. Orueta led 9-1 at the time of the fall.
Wortley, a sophomore participating in his second straight semistate, lost by fall in 2:51 to Merrillville’s Bryce Montgomery.
Hisey, a senior participating in the semistate for the first time, lost 11-0 to Chesterton’s Keegan Gibbons.
“How responsible he is,” Wilson said when asked what his fondest memory of coaching Hisey will be. “He’s friends with everybody on the team for the most part. He’s really good at bringing everyone back to it. He leads. He’s not a captain, but he leads just like a captain would. He says the right things. He cheers people on. He’s in people’s corners. I can’t pick one moment specifically. I really appreciate him and all of the time he spent with us.”
Winamac
Wolford was the aggressor against LaPorte’s Lucas Marshall in the first round, getting an early takedown and back points to take a 7-0 lead before ultimately sticking Marshall in 1:44.
Ranked 30th, Wolford then dispatched West Lafayette’s Martin Gazo in 1:48 in the ticket round, setting off a wild celebration from Wolford’s cheering section in the balcony.
“He’s been more patient as a wrestler,” Winamac coach Kullen Day said. “And he has what they call wrestling flow. So he’s very knowledgeable, but he’s patient in his wrestling, and it pays off long-term for him.”
This marks the second straight year that Winamac had a wrestler advance at 215. Last year, Talen Garner made state from that weight.
Wolford then lost to eventual champion Ceasar Salas of Crown Point by fall in 1:38 in the semifinals and to Munster’s Andrew Kooi by fall in 1:40 in the third-place match.
Wolford will face Princeton’s 29th-ranked Jaran Kerney in the first round at state.
Jones lost by tech fall (19-1) in 2:53 in the first round to Rensselaer’s Cayden Webb. Webb got two takedowns and a reversal and added 11 back points.
Shell’s junior season ended with a loss by fall in 1:30 to Harrison’s Justin Hettinger in the first round.
EAST CHICAGO CENTRAL BOYS WRESTLING SEMISTATE RESULTS SATURDAY (TOP 10 TEAMS): 1. Crown Point 236.5, 2. Lowell 147, 3. New Prairie 112.5, 4. Hanover Central 99, 5. ROCHESTER 94, 6. Merrillville 76, 7. Penn 64, 8. Chesterton 60.5, 9. Lafayette Jeff 41, 10. Lake Central 37… 21. WINAMAC 15
ROCHESTER INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
113 – Tanner Horn – DNP, 120 – Jackson Robbins – second, 126 – Grant Holloway – DNP, 132 – Layne Horn – champion, 165 – Brant Beck – second, 175 – Kale Shotts – DNP, 190 – Derek Wortley – DNP, 215 – Mason Hisey – DNP, HWT – Declan Gard – third
WINAMAC INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
150 – Asher Jones – DNP, 157 – Rian Shell – DNP, 215 – Tearson Wolford – fourth
EAST CHICAGO SEMISTATE INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS
106 – Vince McCoy (South Bend Riley), 113 – Sam Westfall (Crown Point), 120 – Ethan Alvarez (Merrillville), 126 – Maximus Quiroz (Chesterton), 132 – LAYNE HORN (ROCHESTER), 138 – Evan Stanley (Lowell), 144 – Aiden Fernandez (New Prairie), 150 – Clinton Shepherd (Crown Point), 157 – Jeffrey Huyvaert (New Prairie), 165 – Matthew Staples (New Prairie), 175 – Vincent Freeman (Penn), 190 – Lucas Anderson (Chesterton), 215 – Ceasar Salas (Crown Point), HWT – Kameron Hazelett (Lowell)
ROCHESTER FIRST-ROUND STATE MATCHES
120 – Jackson Robbins vs. Braylon McIntire (North Miami)
132 – Layne Horn vs. Owen Blessinger (Southridge)
165 – Brant Beck vs. Jackson Endsley (Garrett)
HWT – Declan Gard vs. Jacari Markey (Warren Central)
WINAMAC FIRST-ROUND STATE MATCHES
215 – Tearson Wolford vs. Jaran Kerney (Princeton)
