WRESTLING: 10 locals score titles, 27 advance from Peru Regional
Feb. 6—Western and Maconaquah each scored three champions and each saw seven wrestlers advance Saturday from the Peru Wrestling Regional.
Tanner Tishner, Tye Linser and Mitchell Betz each won his weight class for Western. Wyatt Price, Logan Farnell and Austin Ringeisen won titles for Maconaquah. Also, Kokomo's Jalen May and Jaquan East, Peru's Cooper Baldwin and Eastern's Tyler Wright each stood atop the podium.
Rochester ran away with the team title, scoring a dominant 176.5 points to win the team race. Western was second with 117, just one point ahead of Maconaquah at 116. Kokomo was fourth with 79 points and Peru rounded out the top five with 63.
The top four wrestlers per weight advanced from the regional to next Saturday's Fort Wayne Semistate at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. In total, 27 KT-area wrestlers booked passage to the semistate.
Western's Tishner (26-1) won the 120-pound title with pins in the opening two rounds, then a convincing 10-1 victory over Rochester's Ethan Holloway in the final. Linser (31-4) won all three of his matches by pin to win the 132-pound title. He flattened Madison-Grant's Nathan Knopp in the final, avenging a loss to Knopp in the semifinals of last week's Oak Hill Sectional. Betz (33-1) also scored pins in all three rounds of competition at 152, including a last-minute pin of Rochester's Greyson Gard in the final.
Also for the Panthers, Robert Dinn (28-4) was second at 138, Deaglan Pleak (26-6) was third at 160, M.J. Norman (23-8) was third at 195, and Benton Kanable (28-5) was fourth at 106.
Maconaquah's Price (37-4) won a 4-3 decision over North Miami's Hartley Hoover in the 145-pound final to take the top spot on the medal stand. Logan Farnell (41-1) won the 160-pound title, avenging his only loss of the season when he beat Rochester's Brant Beck 6-5 in the final. Beck had edged Logan Farnell a week earlier in the Mac Sectional final. Austin Ringeisen (39-2) scored a pin and a tech fall to reach the 182-pound final, where he pinned Rochester's Gavin McKee.
The Braves also advanced Alex Ousley (27-8), who was second at 126, Ethan Farnell (25-6), who was second at 170, Brayden Raber (34-7), who was third at 113, and Camron Montgomery (22-10), who was fourth at 285.
Kokomo's May (39-0) picked up his 100th win Saturday as he mowed down the competition at 113. He won his opening two matches by pin before scoring a 12-0 major decision over North Miami's Braylon McIntire in the final. East (38-1) beat Ethan Farnell 8-3 in the final at 170 to take the top spot.
Chad Washburn (44-3) was second at 195 for Kokomo, Kyan Gamble (27-8) was third at 145, and Gabe Newland (33-12) was fourth at 132.
Cooper Baldwin (33-3) scored an 11-6 decision over Western's Robert Dinn in the 138-pound final to represent Peru atop the podium. Also for the Bengals, Trevi Hillman-Conley (37-2) was second at 285, Brayden Gibson (21-12) was fourth at 120, Glen Baldwin (21-15) was fourth at 126, and Keyton Ousley (25-9) was fourth at 220.
Wright (35-2) won the 285-pound title in dramatic fashion for Eastern. He pinned Peru's Hillman-Conley with just 8 seconds left in the final.
Jensen Burrous (28-8) will represent Cass in the semistate after taking third at 138. And Jansen Slate (28-10) will represent Northwestern after taking fourth at 145.
