Trojans power through sectional; Wildcats runners-up
AURORA – East Central (253 points) captured another IHSAA wrestling sectional title Saturday at South Dearborn while the Franklin County Wildcats (207) battled to second place. The Trojans pushed five champions on to the Richmond Regional with FC, third-place Milan (180) and Connersville sending two each. Lawrenceburg, Greensburg and Union County had the other individual champs.
Remaining unbeaten through the first postseason weekend were Milan’s 106-pound freshman Matthew Baylor (41-0) and LHS’ Colton Roth at heavyweight (17-0).
EC’s top guys were Blake Wolf at 126, Dylan Lengerich at 145, Grayson Hylton at 152, Brayden Huber at 170 and Brendin Kolter at 182.
Representing FC atop the podium were Cole Freese at 113 and Colin Troyer one class up at 120. Levi DeGroat (220)
and Orlan Foster (195) were Connersville’s toughest, while Milan’s Indians saw Kaleb Wilburn (138) join
Baylor in the winner’s circle. Greensburg’s Preston Merritt was the best at 132 and Jordan Takara of UC ran through the 160 bracket.
Overall, EC got 11 wrestlers to the regional – top four in each weight class advanced – as FC totaled 10,
Milan 9, 4th -place Rushville 7, CHS 5, 6th -place UC 5, LHS 3, 9th -place Greensburg 3, SD 2 and last-place
Batesville 1.
Freese (35-3) had a bye and forfeit to the semifinals, then pinned Rushville’s Blake Hunt and earned a
10-1 major decision over EC’s Tyler Stenger in the final. Troyer (35-1) likewise moved into the semis with
no early foes, then won by fall over Connersville’s Aiden Maze and took less time to pin Milan’s Lucas
Richards in the championship bout. UC’s Landon Myers was 3 rd at 120.
Merritt (30-4) pinned CHS’ Gavin Lemen, then won by decision over UC’s Carson Whitley (7-1) and
edged EC’s Nyden Euson in the final match. Tuff Tackett of Rushville won by injury default over Whitley
in the second period of the 3 rd -place bout.
Takara (36-4) made quick work of LHS’ Trey Campbell in the quarterfinals, then majored Cameron Gilb of
Milan in the semis (13-5) and took down FC’s Hayden Newell early in the second period to claim the
title. Rushville’s Matthew Komlanc won a 3-1 decision over Gilb for third place.
FC had two more grapplers join Newell in the runner-up position. Lendon Sizemore pinned Kyle Mellon
of SD in the 220 division before duplicating a late pin over EC’s Brady Jones – similar match at the
conference meet – and falling to DeGroat in the second period. Breck Bohman at 170 pinned UC’s Matt
Wooley and earned a 13-5 major over LHS’ Drake Rorabacher. He was pinned late in the second period
by Huber. Rushville’s Sam Pavey was 4 th at 170.
Jesus “Chewy” Aquino-Morales took 2 nd at 126 as EC’s Blake Wolf pinned him in the finals. Chewy earlier
pinned Landin Shepherd of Greensburg, who ended up third when he pinned 4 th -place Kian Nash of
Rushville. In the heavyweight final, Batesville’s Max Amberger fought Roth to the end before losing by a
2-0 count; the 31-6 Amberger earlier pinned Parker Moles of UC and Gotts.
FC’s Nathan Noble was 3 rd at 195, narrowly losing to Milan’s Carson Betz but flourishing in the
consolation bracket. He pinned Rushville’s Kaleb Amos, won 3-0 over Greensburg’s Will Cunningham,
finally avenging his earlier loss by pinning Betz. Wildcat senior Clayton Bolser also took bronze in the 285
class. The big man was pinned by Rushville’s Trey Newman but pinned Milan’s Kyle Gotts and EC’s Matt
Mittermeier.
At 106, Zakk Reed of Rushville earned a pin over Greensburg’s Tristan Smith to decide third and fourth placement. UC’s Evan Wolf placed 3 rd at 145, pinning Rushville’s Denver Campbell, losing 7-0 to LHS’ Brayden Tudor, then majoring FC’s Dakota Schwab and Landon Walton of SD. Trevor Bruns of FC placed 4 th in the 138 bracket, falling twice to EC’s Tyson Miller but also getting wins over LHS’ Ben Heath and Rushville’s Pacey Dye. Teammate Cody Bolser was also 4 th at 152, falling to SD’s Nick Wismann before defeating LHS’ Braxton York and Batesville’s Hudson Kohlman. Also taking 4th was FC’s Phoenix Simons at 182; Simons pinned Rushville’s Elijah Biggs, was pinned by Milan’s Mason Green, then pinned LHS’ Patrick Nanz before losing by fall to Biggs in the rematch.
The Tiernan Center in Rishmond is host to regional action this Saturday. The other feeder sectional is Shenandoah. Wrestlers must
win at least one match to advance to semistate.
