Two win semi-state titles

FORT WAYNE — Mason Winner flexed his muscles at the conclusion of his match, just like he did at sectional and regional.

Gaven Hare did a backflip when his was over.

Moments later, they embraced one another in the southeast corner of the arena.

They celebrated as champions.

Hare, a Jay County High School senior, and Winner won their respective weight classes in the IHSAA semi-state wrestling tournament Saturday at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum to earn return trips to the state finals next week.

“Going to state is a great feeling,” said Hare, a 220-pounder. “Once you do it you chase that feeling hard. You want to do it again.”

The top four in each weight class advance to the state finals, which begin with the opening round Friday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

It is the second consecutive trip to Indianapolis for both Hare and Winner, a 160-pound sophomore.

Yorktown scored 134.5 points to win its sixth consecutive semi-state team championship. Central Noble and Jimtown tied at runner-up with 70 points, and Jay County placed fourth with 50.5 points, a half point ahead of Elkhart Memorial.

South Adams, which also had two reach the state finals, scored 35 points to tie for 11th out of 47 scoring teams.

“Pretty awesome,” said Jay County coach Eric Myers, whose team had eight wrestlers compete Saturday. “The rollercoaster that is semi-state. Ups and downs, you lose kids that worked really hard for this, then you have the ups like two champions.

“They both wrestled awesome. Wrestled their hearts out today. The focus it takes to win four matches in a row at this level is incredible. Really proud of those guys. Really proud of all of our guys.”

Hare punched his return trip to the state finals by beating previously undefeated Wayne senior Dayln Hart in the quarterfinal “ticket round.” Trailing 3-0 in the second period, Hart tweaked his right thigh and had to use his full two-minute injury timeout.

He resumed the match heavily favoring his right side, then fell behind 4-0 after inadvertently poking Hare in the eye and receiving a technical violation.

As a result the Jay County senior had a slight cut on his right eyelid and complained of blurred vision. Hare later had a 5-2 lead in the third period before Hart got hurt again and had to injury default because he was out of stoppage time.

In the semifinal, Hare avenged three consecutive losses to South Adams senior Isaiah Baumgartner — he later finished fourth in qualifying for the state finals — with a 5-4 decision.

“I saw he was on the same side of my bracket today and I was praying to get him because I wanted the rematch,” Hare said. “I knew that I was good enough to get it done. I just had to wrestle him smart and hard.”

Baumgartner, who reached state a year after tearing his ACL, commended Hare on his victory.

“He had a great day,” Baumgartner said.

Hare (38-7) then went on to pin Central Noble junior Levi Leffers with two seconds remaining in the first period. After pointing to friends and family back in the southeast corner of the arena, Hare celebrated with a backflip, much to the pleasure of the few hundred remaining fans in attendance.

Winner, who was a semi-state champion and finished seventh in the state at 145 pounds as a freshman, was consistently dominant throughout all four of his matches Saturday.

The 10th-ranked Winner pinned Homestead’s Joe Parrish in 3 minutes, 29 seconds, then earned back-to-back state berths with an 11-1 major decision against Western’s Jerry Padgett in the ticket round.

He trailed 3-0 in the second period of his semifinal match against Columbia City’s Hunter Reed. Winner rallied to grind out a 5-3 decision over Reed, who was previously unbeaten and ranked sixth in the state.

Winner pinned Bishop Luers senior Chandler Woenker in the second period of the finals match for his second consecutive semi-state championship.

“This year was a lot different than last year because last year I was wrestling for myself,” Winner said. “This year I’m wrestling with a little more emotional purpose.”

His grandfather, Bill Winner, is battling Alzheimer’s Disease, and the sophomore is wrestling in honor of his role model and patriarch.

“The whole time in the back of my head I’m thinking about him,” he said.

Wyatt Miller, a South Adams senior, was the other state qualifier for the Starfires. The 106-pound senior who lost at semi-state each of the last three seasons, finally punched his ticket to state by reaching the finals Saturday in convincing fashion. He pinned his way to the championship match — all three bouts lasted a combined 5:33 — before dropping a 10-6 decision to Goshen senior Fernando Flores to finish as the runner-up.

“He’s wrestling so solid right now,” South Adams coach Jesse Gaskill said. Falling to Flores marks the first loss of the season for Miller, who had won his previous 37 matches. “Even that finals match I think there was some fatigue. Didn’t wrestle himself. You’re thankful it’s not a make or break situation right now.”

Saturday’s tournament marked the end of the wrestling career for Mitchel Frasher of Jay County and Tayler Cuellar of South Adams. Cuellar got pinned in the first period of the 285-pound ticket round by Nick Conner of Elkhart Central after defeating Snider’s William Swartz in the opener. Frasher, a 182-pounder, dropped a 5-4 decision to Prairie Heights senior Coye Blodgett in the first round.

Jordan Schricker of Jay County surrendered a takedown at the buzzer of his second-round match at 138 pounds and lost 3-1. Schricker almost had a storybook tournament, coming up one win short of the semi-state after dropping his first sectional match before bouncing back to finish third in both the sectional and regional.

“He has himself 25-17 with a chance to go to state but it just didn’t work out,” Myers said. “What an improvement that kid made.

“That goes along with the rollercoaster that is semi-state.”

The year also came to a close for Jay County’s Zakk Atkins (120), Thomas Hemmelgarn (152), Chandler Chapman (170) and George Lykins (195), who all lost in the opening round.

South Adams’ Michael Rupp dropped his first match at 113 pounds to mark an end to his sophomore season.

“Had a few guys that didn’t wrestle as well as they wanted to but the preparation they put in … I’m proud of all of them,” Myers said.