State strong

When Drake Meska first stepped on a wrestling mat, he did so partly because he had yet to find his niche in athletics.
He discovered his calling that day.
On the heels of a semi-state championship Saturday, the Jay County High School senior will head to Indianapolis Friday to try to become just the 11th state medalist in school history. The tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse begins Friday at 6 p.m., and continues Saturday at 9:30 a.m.
“If we’re where we should be, I think we can be in the semis against Montgomery from Terre Haute South, who doesn’t have a loss yet,” said JCHS coach James Myers. “In the finals, there’s a likelihood we would see little Tsirtsis, Jason, who’s already a two-time state champion.
“When I saw the draw Sunday afternoon, I was excited. I told Drake, ‘We got what we needed.’ We’ve got Tsirtsis on the opposite side … That really does give us a good chance to get to the finals.”
South Adams will take a pair of wrestlers — senior T. J. Burnfield and junior Todd Batt — to the state finals as well. Both finished fourth at the Woodlan semi-state.
Each wrestler will compete in one match Friday evening — there are 16 competitors in each weight class — with winners guaranteed a state medal and advance to Saturday’s battle for the state title.
Meska’s journey to the state finals began when he decided to try wrestling as a sixth grader at West Jay Middle School.
“Really the only reason I started wrestling is because I really wasn’t that great at any other sport,” said Meska at practice Wednesday. “I hadn’t tried it before. It was just something new that I’d never done.”
His brother, Skyler Finnerty — the 2009 JCHS graduate was a three-time regional qualifier — then an eighth grader, had picked up the sport and Meska followed along with him.
“Since he just kept doing it, I just kept doing it,” Meska said. “It’s just one of those things. I didn’t really start even getting very good until almost freshman year.”
Meska, who is ranked seventh in the state at 140 pounds, hopes to put his ability on display at the state finals, where he will open against No. 15 Jake Lannert of Evansville Mater Dei. Lannert wrestled a 119 pounds last year, when, like Meska, his season ended at the semi-state tournament.
The winner of that match will advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals to take on either Keegan Pyke (44-3) of Tri-Central or Charlie Mavros (35-8) of Lowell.
Potential semifinal opponents include No. 2 Phelan Montgomery (38-0) of Terre Haute South and No. 4 Bradley Wartman (42-2) from Lake Central.
And although every wrestler in the other half of the bracket is ranked in the top 20 in the state, Tsirtsis is the favorite to make another state title match. The junior Crown Point is 38-0 and seeking his third state championship.
“We’re not going to look by Lannert,” said Myers. “He’s a kid from (No. 3) Mater Dei. He’s going to be tough. They wrestle a great schedule, and his eight losses can be deceiving. I know he’s got four to (No. 3 Blake) Rueger from Evansville Reitz.”
Because of their fourth-place finishes at the semi-state, No. 12 Batt and No. 18 Burnfield face brutal opening-round match-ups.
Batt (41-3) will open his state finals trip at 125 pounds against Columbus East’s ninth-ranked Baron Rieker (43-6). And if he comes up with a victory he would likely take on Roncalli’s No. 2 Josh Kieffer (41-4), who is a three-time state medalist.
The path in the 145-pound bracket is even more difficult for Burnfield (21-4). His first match comes against defending state champion and top-ranked Eric Roach (38-) of Crown Point.
Meska is in an impressive position for a wrestler who had not gotten past the sectional round of the tournament until his junior season.
He wrestled at 103 pounds for most of his freshman season, but bumped up to 112 for the tournament when then-junior Casey Kenney cut to 103. Kenney went on to finish as the state runner-up.
After an injury limited him to just seven matches as a sophomore, Meska broke through with a runner-up sectional finish last season and went all the way to the ticket round at semi-state before ending his year with a 14-2 loss to Homestead’s Tucker Smith. This season he was the sectional champion and regional runner-up before turning in his most impressive performance last weekend.
Meska got a takedown with just 11 seconds left against Woodlan’s Cody Zink to eke out a 5-4 win in the ticket round and then rolled to the semi-state title.
“The big thing was confidence,” said Myers of the semi-state semifinal and championship matches. “I saw it in his face. You could see there was no pressure there. He just went out and wrestled 12 quality minutes. There wasn’t a bad thing I could really say about his performance.”
The victories came by scores of 7-0 against Bellmont’s No. 9 Brooks Faurote in the semifinals and 9-6 versus Yorktown’s No. 18 Cole Van Horn in the championship.
Meska had held on for a 4-2 win over Faurote in the sectional championship and lost to Van Horn in the regional finale. The difference at the semi-state was that the JCHS senior was the aggressor, and he plans to continue that pattern at the state finals.
“This week is really my just my last chance. There’s not going to be any wrestling timid,” said Meska, adding that the wins over Faurote and Van Horn were huge confidence builders. “I know now that when I’m on the offense there’s not a whole lot of people that can stop me.
“I’m just really excited. I can’t wait for it to get there.”
Despite missing almost his entire sophomore season, Meska is slated to finish fourth in Jay County history in career victories.
He could bring home the Patriots’ third state medal in the last four years, following Kenney’s second-place finish in 2008 and fourth-place effort in ’09. Prior to Kenney, the last state medalist was James Brewster in 1999.
Myers said he’s hoping to see Meska close his career with a flourish, although he’s not looking forward to seeing it end.
“He’s a fun kid,” said Myers. “We have a good time up here in the room. This week’s practice and last week’s practice have been fun. …
“I wish I could coach him for another four years … because you just need kids like that in your program.”[[In-content Ad]]