SEASON PREVIEW: Seeking a trendy sport? Try wrestling

Andy Amey, The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
·4 min read

Dec. 3—Among all the high school sports programs in the Wabash Valley, perhaps the one that's growing and progressing the most is wrestling.

Veteran coaches Ron Stateler and Roy Monroe consistently turn out competitive teams at South Vermillion and Sullivan — Lane Gilbert of the Golden Arrows is already a two-time state finalist, finishing third a year ago at 120 pounds — while the Vigo County schools and Northview play king of the hill for local supremacy.

The sons of coaches who helped West Vigo to the top of that hill not that long ago have graduated, and Terre Haute South (coached by former West Vigo state champion Gabe Cook) took the Vikings' place. The fastest climber right now is probably Terre Haute North (coached by former Northview wrestler Beau Pingleton), while Northview is at the local pinnacle in a different area.

Yes, so far this article has been about boys wrestling, which is apparently a distinction that will soon have to be made. There have been girls wrestling in the past for Valley teams — Amy Borgnini at North and Rachel Monroe at Sullivan being early pioneers (and, in Monroe's case, also the mother of a current star) — but this year more than two dozen girls are on various teams.

Northview leads the way with 13 female competitors and for hosting a tournament last month that at the time was the biggest girls wrestling tournament the state had ever had (potentially surpassed the following week by New Palestine). An argument could be made that West Vigo's Torie Buchanan is the GOAT, having won three girls state titles without ever losing to another girl from Indiana.

So if wrestling is becoming the next big thing, Valley schools are ready. Here are outlooks for Northview and Vigo County.

—Northview — Coach Tony Sanabria's Knights return three regional qualifiers from a year ago in junior Seth Cowden and senior twins Logan and Landin Moore. Sanabria is hopeful that all three climb even higher on the postseason ladder this winter, and Joey Whitesell and Ike Torbert were also regulars a year ago. Two more seniors in the mix are Zach Ferris and Wyatt Lalen.

The Knights have 13 girls, almost a complete lineup, and have already competed in the two big tournaments, finishing in the top four both times.

Mercedes Tellechea is ranked first in the state at 170, fellow sophomore Varzidy Batchelor is ranked second at 195. junior Daelynn Torbert is ranked 10th at 138 and senior newcomer Morgan Hughes has already won the New Palestine Tournament at 182.

—Terre Haute North — Coach Beau Pingleton's Patriots are coming off a 15-7 season and have 20 wrestlers back from that team. So far this season, North is 4-2.

Sammy Saunders and Hayden Tipton were semistate qualifiers a year ago and senior Nicolas Sconce has won two Conference Indiana championships; Saunders was also a conference champion a year ago. So far this season Saunders is ranked 11th in his weight class and Sconce 18th in his.

North has a total of 40 wrestlers, including six girls. Celia Zingara won the 145-pound class at the Northview Invitational.

—Terre Haute South — The Braves are 6-0 after winning at Owen Valley earlier this week, and will compete in the 3A state duals on Jan. 8 as a result of their postseason success a year ago.

Nate Lommock is a three-time semistate qualifier, Harrison May a two-time semistate qualifier and Christian Verst, expected back from an injury later this month or in early January, has also qualified for the semistate twice. Luke May, freshman Coy Bender, Walker Forsythe and Alex Rose started their seasons 5-0, as did Lommock and Harrison May.

The Braves also have six female wrestlers, with Paisley Sanquenetti ranked fifth at 132 and Kaylee Miles ranked seventh at 138.

—West Vigo — Ironically, the Vikings have just one female wrestler this season, and Buchanan is also the only returning semistate qualifier from the boys team. She's hoping to reach the boys state finals this year and, of course, defending her championships during the girls tournament.

Longtime assistant coach Brian Otte has replaced Scott Rohrbach as West Vigo's head coach, and has other returnees in senior Brock Higgins, junior Preston Montgomery and sophomores Jordan Krause, Ryan Morris and Coby Orton.