Winamac’s Garner takes 4th at 215, makes state
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester juniors Layne Horn and Brant Beck and senior Wyatt Davis will make return trips to the IHSAA boys wrestling state finals, and junior Declan Gard will make his first state appearance after their performances at the East Chicago Central semistate Saturday.
In addition, Winamac’s Talen Garner advanced to state after finishing fourth at 215 pounds.
Horn won the 132-pound title and improved to 46-0 on the season while reaching state for the third straight year. He is one of 11 wrestlers who will enter the state finals undefeated.
Beck suffered his first loss to New Prairie’s Matthew Staples in the 157-pound final but finished second and made state for the third straight year.
Davis finished third at 175 pounds, bouncing back from a loss by decision to New Prairie’s Hayden Whitenack in the semifinals with a fall over Hammond Central’s Elijah Carter in the third-place match. He is going to state for the first time since 2022, when he qualified at 113 pounds.
Gard took third at heavyweight, bouncing back from a loss to Lowell freshman Kameron Hazelett in the semifinals to beat Hobart’s Luke Juris in overtime in the third-place match. Gard, who lost in the semistate ticket round at 175 pounds in 2024, is going to state for the first time after jumping three weight classes.
Junior Braddock Behling (150) and freshman Derek Wortley (190) were eliminated. Behling pinned Munster’s Derek Bobb in 3:46 in his first match but lost 4-2 to Crown Point’s Teigan Newell in the ticket round.
Wortley lost to New Prairie’s Devin Kendrex by fall in 1:18 in the first round.
Garner yielded the first takedown in both his first and second-around matches but came back to win both by fall. First, Garner beat Lowell’s Aidan Abad by fall in 1:33 after falling behind 3-0. Then he did the same to Benton Central senior Max Pearson in the ticket round.
Garner then lost by fall in 31 seconds to Crown Point’s Austin Reading in the semifinals and to Penn’s Malachi Evans by technical fall (19-4) in 2:13 in the third-place match.
Winamac’s other two semistate combatants lost in the first round: Austin Attinger (175) lost by fall in 3:46 to Rensselaer’s Carter Ogborn, and Tearson Wolford (190) lost by technical fall (17-2) in 2:32 to Crown Point freshman Ceasar Salas.
Junior Eli Guffey, Pioneer’s lone semistate qualifier, lost by fall in 2:29 to Crown Point’s Griffin Van Tichelt in the first round.
Rochester scored 77 points and finished seventh out of 56 teams who had at least wrestler at the semistate. Winamac tied for 18th with 12 points. Crown Point won with 252 points.
The top four in each weight class advanced to the IHSAA state finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Wrestling at state starts at 3 p.m. Friday. Those wrestlers who win Friday return for three more matches on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. Those wrestlers who lose Friday are eliminated.
Horn pinned Highland’s Josue Ahmad in 22 seconds in the first round and then controlled LaPorte’s Porter Ivankovig 10-0 in the ticket round to clinch his state spot. He then won by fall in 1:12 over Merrillville’s Warren Brown in the semifinals.
In the final, Horn defeated Crown Point’s L.T. Hawkins 3-0, avenging a loss from the 2024 semistate semifinals at 126 pounds.
Beck began his semistate with a fall in 3:01 over Hobart’s Dominic Rivera. He then took down Lowell’s Tymothy James before pinning him in 2:30 to ensure his state spot. He then outlasted Crown Point’s Van Tichelt 5-4 in a grueling semifinals before suffering a 9-4 loss to New Prairie’s undefeated Staples.
Davis dispatched of Harrison (West Lafayette)’s Tramel Quadhamer by fall in 31 seconds in the first round before eliminating Lake Central’s Emilio Tirado 10-8 in a nailbiting ticket match. Tirado was a state qualifier at 165 last year, though this marks the second straight year he lost to a Rochester wrestler at semistate. He lost to Beck by technical fall in last year’s semifinals.
Gard swarmed River Forest’s Josh Mayo and earned a fall in 1:01 in the first round. He then beat McCutcheon’s Alex Luna, the Logansport regional champion, 4-0 in the ticket round. The turning point might have been late in the second period when Gard covered Luna for a takedown. Gard then rode Luna from the top position for the entire third period.
State finals draw
Horn, ranked No. 4 per IndianaMat.com, drew Madison-Grant’s No. 16 Tripp Haisley.
Beck, ranked second, will square off with No. 8 Deacon Dressler of Gibson Southern.
Davis, ranked 10th, will get No. 6 Coy Bender of Terre Haute South.
Gard, ranked 12th, got matched up with No. 15 Keenan Mowery-Shields of South Putnam. Gard defeated Mowery-Shields 4-1 in sudden victory overtime in the championship match of the Mooresville Classic in December.
Garner drew Northridge’s Nolan Henke in the first round. Henke is 38-0 and ranked No. 3.
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