Davis’ career ends with loss
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
INDIANAPOLIS — Friday was a day of junior achievement for the Rochester boys wrestling team at the IHSAA state finals.
That's because the three juniors who made it this far all won their first-round matches to advance to the quarterfinals beginning at 9 a.m. today.
Layne Horn improved to 47-0 at 132 pounds with a fall in 1:46 over Madison-Grant Tripp Haisley.
Brant Beck improved to 45-1 with an 8-5 win over Gibson Southern's Deacon Dressler at 157.
And Declan Gard overcame South Putnam’s Keenan Mowery-Shields 7-2, scoring all seven of his points in the second period, to advance at heavyweight.
Horn, Beck and Gard will each wrestle three more times today. All three will finish on the podium in their respective weight classes.
Meanwhile, Wyatt Davis’ return to the state finals for the first time in three years ended with a 4-0 loss to Terre Haute South's Coy Bender.
Davis finishes his senior season 34-6.
Rochester is in 12th place with 11 points heading into Day 2. Brownsburg leads with 47.5 points.
Layne Horn
Haisley defended Horn’s first attempt at a cradle and then got ambitious as he reached for Horn's leg.
Horn countered with a takedown.
“I knew we would get the first takedown,” Rochester coach Tristan Wilson said. “As soon as he shot in, Layne went to a three-quarter nelson. And once he got his three points, then he was on top.”
Horn went for a wing. Haisley defended by turning his head. At that point, Horn locked in on a cradle. There was no way out.
“Usually that's his go-to is the wing-and-a-half,” Wilson explained. “But if you take that away, he always goes to the near-side cradle. The kid moved in a way that was very effective for us. And then once he had that locked, I knew he was not going to let that go no matter what.”
Horn will take on Center Grove’s Eddie Goss in the quarterfinals.
Brant Beck
Dressler defended Beck’s attempt at a single-leg takedown by squirming out of bounds, and the first period ended in a scoreless tie.
But Beck got an escape and then a takedown to go up 4-0 after attacking Dressler’s ankle.
But Dressler, a sophomore, got his own escape and takedown on a scramble near the edge of the mat. The match was tied 4-4 with 1:31 left.
The wrestlers went out of bounds.
Before the restart in the center of the mat, Dressler chose neutral, handing Beck a point while betting that he could get another takedown and win the match.
His bet did not pay off.
“Just go back to my offense, get to my stuff and get a takedown,” Beck thought in the moment.
Beck attacked Dressler's legs again and got a takedown to go up 8-4. Dressler escaped, but Beck fended off any further attempts at offense from Dressler.
“He’s a Greco(-Roman) and freestyle guy, so he's not afraid to go into those funky positions and try and catch me on my back and stuff,” Beck said. “So I just had to be cautious when I was wrestling, which doesn't sound good nor is it good wrestling cautious. But sometimes you have to.”
Wilson praised Dressler for his unique style and background in wrestling, but he said Beck took advantage of his opportunities.
“He’s really good in certain positions, but being out here and this is his first time at the tournament, he made the mistake of letting Brant in so many times. If you keep letting Brant in, he's going to finish eventually. And he finished twice.”
Beck’s next opponent is Warren Central’s Christian Arberry, the New Castle semistate champion from last weekend.
Declan Gard
Gard needed overtime to beat Mowery-Shields at a holiday tournament in Mooresville, but this match was not as close.
After a scoreless first period in which each wrestler tried to snap the other's neck, Gard started the second period in the down position.
After 25 seconds, he squirted loose for an escape.
Then came a bundle move that Gard said he rarely has used in a match but that he used during some matches last summer.
He had continued to practice it, waiting for the right spot to use it. This was the time.
“So he shot in, I got into a front head(lock), and I just ankle-picked the near side,” Gard said. “I’ve worked on that all year just because I knew it would be really helpful in these kinds of matches.”
Wilson said the ankle-pick move is an example of Gard's versatility and wrestling knowledge. Gard was wrestling at 145 just two years ago.
“That's his number one re-attack from a front head,” Wilson said. “So they take a head shot. He has their head and their arm. And as they're trying to build their base back up, he goes to that near-side ankle, and there's not a lot of heavyweights that can do that.”
Mowery-Shields got an escape and immediately shot at Gard but missed, and Gard circled him for another takedown. In a matter of seconds, Gard's 1-0 lead mushroomed into a 7-1 lead.
Mowery-Shields got an escape to start the third period, but he never threatened to score again.
Gard called Mowery-Shields “ungodly strong” afterwards, but the outcome was a result of positive affirmations he kept telling himself.
“I journal every single night, and in that journal, I put, ‘I'm going to be an IHSAA state placer,’ and dreams came true,” Gard said.
Gard will face Warren Central's Jacari Markey in the quarterfinals.
Wyatt Davis
Bender had a defense-oriented approach, and in fact, the only takedown of the match came on a Bender single-leg on a counter in the first period.
Bender added an escape in the second period to complete the scoring.
“He’s very tough to score on,” Wilson said of Bender. “He keeps his head very low. He keeps his hands low. He keeps his feet kind of moving. I knew once he got that first takedown, it would be tough to get one back on him because he's just playing defense the rest of the time.”
Davis said Bender would just grip his wrist every time he made a move.
He reflected on his unique career in which he also made state at 113. That was 62 pounds and three years ago.
“I'm glad I made it back,” Davis said. “It's kind of hard to think about the fun stuff when it's disappointing. But I love the team.”
Comments