INDIANAPOLIS
In time, the blood at the top of Grant Goforth’s nose began to run over the sides and onto his face.
Having won his first-round match at the state wrestling finals minutes earlier Friday night, the Indian Creek senior was too exhausted to notice.
“It feels good. I just want to win. I was taking shots and finishing, just like we practice,” said Goforth, who downed Dan Wickersham of Northridge, 7-2, at 195 pounds. “You just wrestle your match. You can’t change for anybody.”
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Goforth remains in contention for a state championship, as do Whiteland’s Ryan Hammond and the Center Grove duo of Gleason Mappes and Shane Stits. All four return this morning to Bankers Life Fieldhouse for quarterfinals scheduled to start at 9:30.
His perfect record smudged at last week’s semistate, Mappes took the mat Friday with more motivation than usual. The senior scored a 6-0 decision over Hunter Reed of Columbia City to advance out of the first round of the state finals in the 160-pound division.
“There were some questionable calls both ways (at semistate). It’s frustrating, but no matter what the outcome would’ve ended up being, I learned never to leave it in the hands of a referee,” Mappes said. “You’ve got to leave it without question.
“No matter what was going to happen, it didn’t change my goal. I want to be a state champion, and I got the job done here tonight.”
Meanwhile, Stits added another day to his impressive postseason, winning by fall over New Haven’s Jaxson Savieo.
“I guess the key to the season is just working as hard as you can in the first period to wear them out. Look for the points that you can get,” Stits said. “It hasn’t really hit me yet, but I’m excited about (advancing), though. It feels good.”
Hammond rallied from a 3-1 deficit against New Palestine’s Landan Burton to score an 8-6 victory at 220 pounds. Hammond is now a spotless 40-0 on the season.
His teammate, 285-pounder Garrett Curtis, lost a 3-2 decision against Lawrence North senior Tyler Majors. Curtis, a senior, finishes with 38-7 mark.
Franklin’s lone state finalist, freshman Tyler Fuqua, lost his match at 120 pounds to Jimtown junior Hunter Walls. Fuqua, who mostly competed against older wrestlers all season, finished the season with a 36-7 record.
“I’ve wrestled in big tournaments all my life, so this was just another tournament for me,” Fuqua said. “It doesn’t really matter if (opponent) is older than me. I just need to get better, plain and simple.
“I wrestled tough and worked hard all season. The payoff didn’t really come, but I’ll just try to get better for next season. I have to get stronger and better on my feet.”
The evening’s first match involving a county wrestler was Center Grove junior Alex Petro losing to Andres Moreno of Lowell, 5-1, at 113 pounds. Competition was stopped three times in the first round alone because of Moreno nosebleeds.
“We got a really good look at a single-leg midway through the first period and just rushed it a little bit, and I thought that was a big deal in the match,” Trojans coach Cale Hoover said. “I thought Alex wrestled a very solid match in the first period, and for the most part in the second period.
“He’s had a nice season, but we’re looking for him to take the next step. He’s been down here twice. With a little more maturity and another offseason of hard work he can really take the next step.”
Roncalli moved all four of its finals qualifiers into today’s quarterfinals: sophomores Brayden Lowery (113) and Alec Viduya (126), junior Elijah Mahan (170) and senior Sam Hansen (195). Hansen will meet Goforth in the quarterfinal round.
