Four local wrestlers claim regional titles

Center Grove and Franklin each came away from Saturday’s wrestling regional at Mooresville with a pair of individual championships.

Winning individual titles for Center Grove were sophomores Hayden Watson at 132 pounds and Drake Buchanan at 182.

Both of Franklin’s championships were won in thrilling fashion. Junior 170-pounder Jalen Ward came from behind to beat previously unbeaten Brach Carrington in the final nine seconds with a four-point move. Classmate Harris Eason prevailed in the final at 195.

All told, there were nine finalists from Johnson County schools at Mooresville and 15 local wrestlers who qualified for next week’s Evansville Semistate. That number grows to 16 if you include Indian Creek senior Owen Sego, who finished second in the 170-pound weight class at the Bloomington South Regional.

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Ward and Eason lead a seven-man Franklin contingent into the semistate, the most of any county school. The Trojans qualified a total of four wrestlers, while Greenwood and Whiteland qualified two each.

Franklin and Center Grove placed third and fourth, respectively, in the team competition.

Brownsburg, who will be sending 13 of 14 grapplers to Evansville, won with 204 points, while Avon was a very distant second with 105. The Grizzly Cubs tallied 94 points, while Center Grove had 71. Whiteland finished 10th and Greenwood was right behind in 11th place.

“Based upon where we were at when we started, I’m pretty happy with these kids,” said first-year Franklin coach Jim Tonte, who has coaches state champions at Perry Meridian and Warren Central. “I feel I went from one tough regional to another. You’re talking about some kids that didn’t even make it out last year, winning or being in the finals. That’s a huge improvement.”

Ward’s match not only was an improvement but a thriller. Down 6-5 to the 11th-ranked Carrington and having just given up an escape with 24 seconds left in the match, Ward didn’t panic and caught Carrington on a shoot, not only scoring a takedown, but a two-point near fall to score a win.

“I was trying to get a big move, but saw a double, went for it and got the takedown,” Ward said. “Really, it’s the culture of our (wrestling) room. Not giving up and a winning atmosphere.”

Tonte was impressed with Ward’s performance, though he admitted that kind of wrestling technique is not in the Franklin wrestling manual.

“We don’t teach that,” said Tonte. “That’s Jalen being Jalen, and it’s crunch time and he gutted it out. It’s hard to teach what he did, and he’s a goer.”

Advancing for the Cubs along with Ward and Eason were second-place finishers Jake Bechert at 120 and Tyler Fuqua at 160. Both juniors were ahead in their final matches, but their opponents scored late to claim titles.

Also going to Evansville for the Grizzly Cubs are senior Ethan Nash at 145, junior Noah McCann at 152 and sophomore heavyweight Jacob Johnson.

For the Trojans’ Watson and Buchanan, ranked Nos. 6 and 11 in their weight classes, the finals were less of a scramble.

Watson didn’t score until the third period but took a 3-0 win over No. 8 Tyler Conley of Avon. Watson, who placed a position better than a year ago as a freshman, said the state tournament is the goal, but he isn’t overlooking anything.

“Just going to keep it up at a hard pace and working all the time in the wrestling room and staying after doing extra stuff just to get over that hump to get to state,” said Watson. “It’s a challenge.”

Buchanan was never tested in his 12-1 major decision over Brownsburg’s Greg Glover.

“This match was really important because I want a good seed at semistate,” said Buchanan, who like teammate Watson had two pins earlier. “(Glover) is a real strong wrestler, but I was able to wrestle my match and control him.”

Center Grove coach Maurice Swain was happy for his two champions and for his other wrestlers who qualified for Evansville, sophomore Michael LaRocca at 106 and junior Riley Rust, who was second at 145.

“They have been wrestling well pretty much all season and they put it all together again for the regional. Next week, though, we’re going to have to be ready to wrestle again,” said Swain. “We’re excited.”

Greenwood qualifiers include freshman Nik Baugh at 113 and junior Anthony Walker, who was second at 152. Whiteland’s semistate wrestlers are both freshmen — Elijah Brooks, who was second to state No. 1 Logan Miller of Brownsburg at 106 pounds, and Joey Buttler at 113.