All-RTC4 boys wrestling: Horn, Beck are Co-Wrestlers of the Year

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

RTC4 Co-Wrestler of the Year RTC4 Co-Boys Wrestler of the Year Brant Beck Layne Horn

For the third straight year, we are having two Rochester wrestlers share our RTC4 Wrestler of the Year Award.

And for the second straight year, one of those wrestlers is Brant Beck. Last year, he shared the award with his older brother Brady.

This time, he is sharing it with fellow junior Layne Horn.

Brant Beck and Horn have essentially dominated together growing up through elementary and middle school. They have been every bit as good as hoped, even if their styles are somewhat different.

They both won their 100th career matches on the same night in a dual against Warsaw Dec. 18, and they both finished seventh at state this year. Horn did not lose his first match of the season until the state quarterfinals at 132 pounds while Beck did not lose until the semistate final at 157 pounds.

Special mention goes to their teammate Declan Gard, who placed higher on the state podium than both Beck and Horn.

Beck, Horn and Gard figure prominently on our All-RTC4 boys wrestling team. This was a huge transition year at Rochester with Tristan Wilson taking over for Clint Gard. Numbers were down at Rochester, but star power remained high.

We place extra emphasis on Saturday tournaments as well as conference and postseason action. Often, wrestlers will float from weight class to weight class during dual meets for competition’s sake, but we care more about how they do in their optimal weight class at the end of the season.

We thank area coaches for helping us out with results and for sharing their thoughts and insights with us after tournaments.

Having said that, this list is ours and ours alone, and we take full responsibility for it.

First team

Thad Shambaugh Braddock Behling Wyatt Davis

106 – Franklin Crawford (Winamac) – Crawford won 30 matches and was a regional qualifier. Winamac had the best lineup of little guys in the area by far.
113 – Braxton Enyart (Caston) – By a narrow margin, Enyart is our pick at 113. Winamac’s Aiyden Broeker pinned Enyart at conference, but Enyart pinned Broeker at the Plymouth sectional. Plus, Enyart advanced to regional, and Broeker did not. Enyart finished with 19 wins and Broeker 18. Do we have a rivalry moving forward?
120 – Cameron Hilton (Winamac) – Hilton was third at the Hoosier North and second at the Plymouth sectional. He’s another talented freshman who finished with 23 wins. Close call over Coehn Markley, Jack Brumett and Kodiak Hillen.
126 – Chase Fincher (Tippecanoe Valley) – Fincher won 16 matches and placed fourth at the Indiana Northern State Conference tournament.
132 – Layne Horn (Rochester) – Horn went 48-2 and finished seventh at state. He remains ruthless from the top position, and he is just about impossible to score against. He has made it to state all three years in high school, and he has lost just six matches over that time.
138 – Thad Shambaugh (Tippecanoe Valley) – The toughest weight class in the area might have been 138, but we will give the nod to Shambaugh over Ashton Bowyer. We think Shambaugh had the tougher slate of opponents over the course of the season, and he won 27 matches.
144 – Asher Jones (Winamac) – Jones was a conference champion and finished second at the Plymouth sectional before his season ended at the Rochester regional. Just a sophomore, he finished with an impressive 35-9 record.
150 – Braddock Behling (Rochester) – Behling is one of the craziest wrestling stories we have heard in that this sport rewards those who do hundreds and hundreds of reps, and Behling took years off from the sport, enrolled at Rochester and won sectional and regional titles. He is not remotely a fluke either. He went 27-5 and will likely be aiming for state next year.
157 – Brant Beck (Rochester) – It should not be a surprise that Beck made this list, but it is a surprise that he made the list at 157 as a junior after wrestling at 160 as a freshman and 165 as a sophomore. Beck’s style is relentless, and he knocks his opponents off-balance before they have a chance to react.
165 – Theron Carrington (Culver) – Carrington was a fan favorite wherever he wrestled, a mix of muscle and heart. He won 34 matches and was a regional qualifier, and he will certainly be a favorite to advance to semistate, if not further, next year as a senior.
175 – Wyatt Davis (Rochester) – Davis grew physically as a wrestler and grew stronger mentally as well, and his win over Lake Central’s Emilio Tirado in his semistate ticket match completed his journey to state full circle after making it at 113 as a freshman.
190 – Tearson Wolford (Winamac) – Wolford, a sophomore, essentially tore through the conference and sectional tournaments before finishing fourth at the Rochester regional. He pinned Derek Wortley at sectional before losing by a decision to Wortley at the regional. Wolford gets our vote because of a stronger body of work.
215 – Talen Garner (Winamac) – Garner was so strong that he won the Hoosier North as an undersized heavyweight before moving back down to 215 and winning sectional and taking second at regional at 215. Then came two dramatic pins at the East Chicago semistate to qualify for state. Garner never thought he was out of a match, and his mat presence was a big reason why he made it to state.
HWT – Declan Gard (Rochester) – Gard has gone from 145 to 175 to heavyweight in three years and from not making regional to making semistate to finishing fourth at state in three years. His body and wrestling knowledge converged this year, and his pin of Warsaw’s Kameron Kauffman at the Plymouth sectional final was the best match we saw this year.

Declan Gard Talen Garner Tearson Wolford