Heading to state

FORT WAYNE — As the referee raised his arm, Eric Hemmelgarn showed almost no reaction.
Eight minutes of wrestling had left him exhausted.
But after shaking the hands of the Huntington North coaches, he found enough energy to leap onto assistant coach Andy Pfeifer and send both of them tumbling to the floor.
No matter how tired he was, the moment deserved celebration. He was going to state.
Hemmelgarn earned his trip to the state finals with a 2-1, overtime victory over Huntington North’s Andrew Mason in the “ticket round” of Saturday’s Snider semi-state tournament at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Hemmelgarn, emotion starting to overcome him. “I’m happy to go to state. …
“During my match I was sort of scared. I thought I was going to lose, but I asked God for help and he gave me help. Thank God.”
Three South Adams wrestlers, semi-state champion Todd Batt, runner-up Sawyer Miller and L.J. Moser, will join Hemmelgarn in Indianapolis. They will compete at the IHSAA Wrestling State Finals Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
“The guys that put together the good ticket-round matches, Miller, Moser and Batt, they wrestled under control,” said SAHS coach Eric Myers. “They did what they had to do to win and that’s what we’ve been talking about all week.”
Kyle Garringer of Jay County suffered a season-ending loss in the ticket round, while the remaining four semi-state qualifiers for the Starfires dropped out with first-round defeats.
Hemmelgarn, who is 40-5, won his opening-round match by pinning Wayne’s Stephen Reyes in 5 minutes, 32 seconds to set up his battle against Mason for a trip to the state finals.
The heavyweights wrestled to a scoreless first period before Mason, a returning state qualifier, chose the bottom position to start the second round. He got to his feet three times, but Hemmelgarn never allowed him to break away for an escape.Hemmelgarn finally snapped the scoreless tie with an escape just 15 seconds into the third period and nearly won the match in regulation. However, a stalling call with just 21 seconds left tied the score and forced overtime.
After a scoreless first minute over overtime, Hemmelgarn got an escape in the final 10 seconds of the second overtime period to take the lead again. He rode out Mason again for 30 seconds in the third overtime period to claim the victory.
“He was persistent on bottom,” said JCHS coach James Myers, who is taking an athlete to the state finals for the fifth time in the last seven years. “We talk about all year you’ve got to score there. In a heavyweight match, you know their going to be 1-0, 2-1, overtime matches, especially against the good kids.
“He knew what he wanted to do on his feet. … I thought we wrestled a good match. He did a nice job in all positions.”
Hemmelgarn went on to drop his final two matches by pins, to third-ranked Dominique Stauffer of Elkhart Central in 4:44 in the semifinals and Andrew Amos of Angola in 2:06 in the consolation match, to finish in fourth place.
Batt, who is ranked ninth in the state, wrestled his closest match in the opening round before settling in and dominating the rest of the way to win the 132-pound semi-state title.
He gave up an early takedown against Fort Wayne North Side’s Kaleb Braun and was thrown to his back twice, but managed to escape with a 9-6 victory. He was in control the rest of the way, shutting out Fremont’s Tylor Willms in the ticket round, pinning Snider’s Jared Wilson in 3:38 in the semifinals and pinning Peru’s No. 10 Evan Loe in 2:16 in the championship match.
“I think he was a little bit more focused,” said Eric Myers. “I thought he looked great in the (final three rounds).”
It was a heart-breaking end to the season for Garringer, a junior who was ranked 10th and was making his third semi-state appearance.
He cruised to a 17-4 decision over Northwood’s A.J. Carter in the first round of the 195-pound bracket to advance to the ticket round again.
Garringer and Kokomo’s Bo Butler, who entered the match undefeated, wrestled to a scoreless first period before trading quick escapes in the second and third. They went scoreless through the first minute of overtime, and then Butler came up with a quick escape in the second overtime period and was able to hold Garringer at bay in the third overtime period.
“Kyle’s been here three years now,” said James Myers. “Each year we’ve won a match. Last year (he lost in the ticket round) 3-2 to (Goshen’s Brandon) Dillenbeck, this year it’s an overtime match to Butler.
“You’re excited for (Hemmelgarn) and you’re disappointed for (Garringer).”
Butler went on to finish as the semi-state runner-up, falling to Bellmont’s  No. 5 Ben Baker in the championship match. Garringer had lost Baker in the sectional and regional championship matches at JCHS.
Like Batt, Moser and Miller were both in control throughout their ticket round matches.
Miller (106), who is ranked eighth and earned a 26-6 technical fall over Kokomo’s A.J. Nelson in the first round, led 2-1 after the opening period of his ticket round match against Concordia’s Delawerence Gayfield, got an early reversal in the second period and cruised to a 7-2 win. He went on to blank North Miami’s Alan Mock in the semifinals before falling to Allen county Athletic Conference rival No. 7 Hayden Lee of Garrett 10-4 in the championship match.
The seventh-ranked Moser (113) grabbed the lead with a takedown in the first minute of the match and never trailed. He added an escape and a takedown in the second period for a 5-0 lead and rolled to an 8-2 victory.
The junior, who pinned Carroll’s Bret Unger in the opening round, went on to lose a 3-2 overtime decision to Forrest Glogouski of Fairfield in the semifinals. He suffered a pin in 4:43 against Sam Lovejoy for Bishop Luers in the consolation match to finish in fourth place.
In other first-round matches for South Adams, Isaac Werst (170) dropped a 2-1 decision to Kody Jones of Concordia, Charlie Hirschy (138) dropped an 8-3 decision to Jake Kenny of Northridge, Jordan Landers (160) lost by pin in 3:17 to eventual champion No. 7 Jesse Goodnight of Kokomo and Shea Pyle (152) fell by pin in 4:54 to Frank Martin of Homestead.[[In-content Ad]]