Winamac’s Attinger, Wolford, Garner also advance
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester junior Braddock Behling was struggling to get off his back in the 150-pound final of the Rochester boys wrestling regional at the RHS gym Saturday.
Penn’s Ryan Hall had him in a cradle.
Despite the predicament, Behling was thinking positive thoughts.
“He hit a cradle, and I was nervous, but I knew he wasn’t going to pin me because I don’t get pinned,” Behling said.
Behling would eventually get off his back, surrendering only a four-point near-fall, and he came back to beat Hall 8-7 with a third-period takedown to join teammates Layne Horn (132) and Brant Beck (157) as regional champions.
Like Horn and Beck, Behling is a junior, but unlike Horn and Beck, he is new to high school wrestling. His father is a former wrestling coach.
“It feels great,” Behling said. “I’ve been dreaming about this since I was like 5 years old watching my dad coach. Just surreal being here and actually winning.”
Horn, Behling and Beck will join teammates Wyatt Davis (175), Derek Wortley (190) and Declan Gard (HWT) at the semistate at East Chicago Central at 10 a.m. Eastern this Saturday.
The top four in each weight class advanced to semistate. Davis and Gard both finished second while Wortley was third.
Horn, ranked No. 4 according to IndianaMat.com, improved to 42-0 on the season. Behling improved to 26-4. Beck, ranked No. 2, improved to 41-0.
Horn and Beck’s wins were less dramatic than Behling’s. Horn spent only 76 seconds on the mat to record falls in his first two matches before controlling rival Ryann Schmidtendorff of Penn 8-0 in the final.
“He was very dominant today,” Rochester coach Tristan Wilson said of Horn. “He looked very good in all of his matches including the finals. … He really shined. He just wanted it more.”
Beck turned South Bend Adams’ Dalton Swiscz on his back for a fall in 1:23 in the ticket round before winning by technical fall over Penn’s Aiden Whitten in the semifinals and South Bend Riley’s Trayvon Fleming in the final.
Beck finished third at state at 165 last year and started at that weight this year. He decided to drop down to 157 for the Rochester John McKee Memorial Invitational Dec. 21.
“I feel much better,” Beck said. “I feel more confident in myself and in my wrestling. … Just pushing myself very hard in the practice room and doing the right things.”
Davis, ranked No. 10, won by fall in 1:00 over South Bend Adams’ Ohana Chalulu and then beat Mishawaka’s Kadyn O’Neal by a technical fall in the semifinals before losing to third-ranked Vinny Freeman of Penn by technical fall in the final. Freeman is the son of Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman and also a Division I wrestling prospect.
“Freeman’s very good,” Wilson said. “That first exchange I feel like was a decision maker of the match. To stop some of that, Wyatt has to win the ties. He has to win the hand fight. He has to get to setups that he likes. He has to get to underhooks and hold position and try to be offensive from it. He doesn’t match up well against (Freeman) is what I would say. He wrestles more of an open space. He likes motion, in-out, in-out, low, low and go crazy and attack. So I just think it was a bad matchup with styles.”
Gard, ranked No. 12, defeated wrestlers from South Bend Adams and South Bend Riley by first-period fall to reach the final before losing to rival Kameron Kauffman of Warsaw 4-1 in the final. Kauffman, ranked seventh, broke a 1-1 tie with a takedown with three seconds left for the win.
Gard and Kauffman have wrestled three times this season with Kauffman holding a 2-1 advantage. Gard defeated Kauffman by fall at the Plymouth sectional final.
“He wrestled well all day, including the finals,” Wilson said. “The issue was more mindset. He was worried about what Kauffman was good in and not what he’s good in. Some positions that he’s in, he needs to attack, but he’s worried because Kauffman is worried in this, that or the other. We were just a little too worried about him and not so worried about us and our offense. But besides that, he wrestled a better match. He was winning more positions. It just didn’t work out.”
Wortley was leading South Bend St. Joe’s Brody Uelk 14-7 in the third period before finishing him off with a pin in 4:46 in his ticket match. He then lost by technical fall to Penn’s Alessio Retzloff in the semifinals before coming from behind to outlast Winamac’s Tearson Wolford 15-11 in the final. Wolford had beaten Wortley in the final of the Plymouth sectional a week earlier.
Wortley said he had been working all week for a potential rematch with Wolford.
“It’s a great feeling,” Wortley said of making semistate. “I worked hard for it. I didn’t think I’d be here at the start of the season, but being a freshman, it feels pretty good.”
Mason Hisey was the lone Rochester wrestler not to advance. He lost by technical fall to Mishawaka’s 12th-ranked Trey Dunning in his ticket match at 215.
“All of the guys this week have had their best practices,” Wilson said. “We’ve been working really good stuff, and it’s really showing on all of their matches.”
Winamac
Talen Garner, Austin Attinger and Tearson Wolford were the three Winamac wrestlers to advance.
Garner was second at 215, Attinger was fourth at 175, and Wolford was fourth at 190.
Garner, the sectional champion, clinched his semistate spot with a 21-second fall over South Bend St. Joe’s Kaleel Murphy. He added another fall over Mishawaka’s Trey Dunning in 5:54 in the semifinals before losing by fall to Penn’s Malachi Evans in 2:43 in the final.
Attinger, who had to forfeit his sectional final match against Davis due to injury a week earlier, returned to the mat and clinched his semistate spot with a fall over South Bend Riley’s Adin Norton in his ticket match.
He then lost by injury forfeit to Freeman in the semifinals and by fall in 1:57 to Mishawaka’s Kadyn O’Neal in the third-place match.
“It was a little worrying,” Attinger said when asked if he worried he would be physically able to wrestle. “I have a crack in my growth plate, so it’s an everyday, day-by-day basis of whether I’m going to or not. … It’s a little nuisance when I put down on it, especially when someone’s sitting there wrenching on it. Or today, I took an elbow to the ankle, and that really hurt.”
Attinger has gone from 113 as a freshman to 132 as a sophomore to 150 as a junior to 175 this year.
“I think now I’m more offensive,” Attinger said. “I used to be a very defensive wrestler and wait for them to come to me. Now this year, I have the most takedowns. I’m active. I’m doing new moves. I think I’m doing better. I just don’t have the strength to compete.”
Attinger’s practice partner is Wolford, who won by fall in 1:46 over Mishawaka’s Mason Henrich in the ticket round, but he lost to South Bend Riley’s Edwin Garcia 10-3 in the semifinals and then to Wortley in the third-place match.
Those Winamac wrestlers having their seasons end included freshman Franklin Crawford (106), freshman Cameron Hilton (120), junior Rian Shell (138) and sophomore Asher Jones (144).
Crawford was repeatedly turned to his back and lost by a 17-0 technical fall in 1:58 to South Bend Riley freshman Vince McCoy. Hilton lost by fall in 1:47 to South Bend Riley’s Roman Marquez. Shell could not mount any offense against Mishawaka Marian’s Preston Manzuk and lost a 13-0 major decision.
Jones’ loss might have been the most shocking. He earned an escape, a takedown and a near-fall in short order in the second period of his match against Penn’s Jacob Pennington and was ahead 15-8 in the third period before Pennington got a fall at the 4:51 mark.
Caston
All three Caston wrestlers at the regional were pinned.
Braxton Enyart (113) gave up three takedowns in the first period to South Bend Riley’s Josh Raabe before losing by fall in 1:14.
Jack Brumett (120), who advanced to the regional as an alternate in place of Warsaw’s Ilyjah Martinez, lost by fall in 1:25 to Mishawaka’s Chance Smith.
Ashton Bowyer (138) was trailing Penn’s Hudson Odle in the second period when Odle earned a fall in 3:37.
Culver
The Cavaliers’ season ended when all three participants lost in the first round.
Cohen Markley, the Hoosier North champion at 120, lost by fall in 46 seconds to Penn’s Aidan Diaz.
Kyler Weiger lost by fall in 1:23 in his ticket match at 138 to Mishawaka’s Will Mason.
Theron Carrington (165) was involved in a grueling match with South Bend Washington’s Jaylen Johnson, which featured multiple blood timeouts. He trailed at one point 11-3 in the second period and cut the deficit to 12-11 before an escape and a near-fall from Johnson closed out a 16-11 win.
The two combatants hugged in the center of the mat just after the match ended. The crowd gave them an ovation. Carrington is hearing impaired. His mother serves as a sign language interpreter, running around the circumference of the mat to stay within the line of sight of her son while relaying coach Mike Buschman’s instructions.
Rochester scored 114.5 points and finished third among the 18 schools that qualified at least one wrestler for the regional. Rochester finished ahead of Warsaw and Winamac after finishing behind both schools at the sectional. Meanwhile, Winamac was eighth with 34 points. Caston and Culver did not score.
Penn won with 221 points, and Mishawaka was second with 161. Penn has won five straight regionals and 14 regionals in the last 15 years.
ROCHESTER BOYS WRESTLING REGIONAL: Penn 221, Mishawaka 161, ROCHESTER 114.5, South Bend Riley 82, Warsaw 69, Plymouth 60.5, Bremen 39, WINAMAC 34, Mishawaka Marian 31, Triton 11, South Bend Washington 6, CASTON 0, CULVER 0, Culver Academy 0, LaVille 0, North Judson 0, South Bend Adams 0, South Bend St. Joe 0
ROCHESTER RESULTS
132 – Layne Horn – champion, 150 – Braddock Behling – champion, 157 – Brant Beck – champion, 175 – Wyatt Davis – second, 190 – Derek Wortley – third, 215 – Mason Hisey – DNP, HWT – Declan Gard – second
WINAMAC RESULTS
106 – Franklin Crawford – DNP, 120 – Cameron Hilton – DNP, 138 – Rian Shell – DNP, 144 – Asher Jones – DNP, 175 – Austin Attinger – fourth, 190 – Tearson Wolford – fourth, 215 – Talen Garner – second
CASTON RESULTS
113 – Braxton Enyart – DNP, 120 – Jack Brumett – DNP, 138 – Ashton Bowyer – DNP
CULVER RESULTS
120 – Cohen Markley – DNP, 138 – Kyler Weiger – DNP, 165 – Theron Carrington – DNP
ROCHESTER REGIONAL INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONS
106 – Nicholas Freeze (Mishawaka), 113 – Brody Blevins (Mishawaka), 120 – Chance Smith (Mishawaka), 126 – Angelo Vargo (Penn), 132 – Layne Horn (Rochester), 138 – Christopher Firebaugh (Plymouth), 144 – Braxton White (Plymouth), 150 – Braddock Behling (Rochester), 157 – Brant Beck (Rochester), 165 – Leonardo Santiago (Penn), 175 – Vinny Freeman (Penn), 190 – Alessio Retzloff (Penn), 215 – Malachi Evans (Penn), HWT – Kameron Kauffman (Warsaw)
ROCHESTER FIRST-ROUND SEMISTATE MATCHES
132 – Layne Horn vs. Josue Ahmad (Highland)
150 – Braddock Behling vs. Derek Bobb (Munster)
157 – Brant Beck vs. Dominic Rivera (Hobart)
175 – Wyatt Davis vs. Tramel Quadhamer (Harrison (West Lafayette))
190 – Derek Wortley vs. Devin Kendrex (New Prairie)
HWT – Declan Gard vs. Josh Mayo (River Forest)
WINAMAC FIRST-ROUND SEMISTATE MATCHES
175 – Austin Attinger vs. Carter Ogborn (Rensselaer)
190 – Tearson Wolford vs. Caesar Salas (Crown Point)
215 – Talen Garner vs. Aidan Abad (Lowell)
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