INDIANAPOLIS — It was a bad news-good news type of day for Mt. Vernon at Saturday’s Arsenal Technical Wrestling Sectional.
The ‘bad’ news was Mt. Vernon’s individual placings didn’t go as well as it would have liked.
The ‘good’ news is, thanks to tying a school-record for regional qualifiers, another chance awaits.
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Mt. Vernon finished third in the 10-team event and got 13 of its 14 wrestlers through to this Saturday’s Pendleton Heights Regional.
A year ago at Tech, the Marauders set the mark with 13 qualifiers.
“We didn’t wrestle real well in the placement rounds,” Mt. Vernon coach Chad Masters said. “We’re still happy getting 13 out. We had some tough matches and we knew it would be hard.
“Overall, I’m happy any time you have 13 kids going to the regional and a school record. If you’re setting school records, I’m happy, but I wish we would have had a couple more there in the finals.”
Chris Wilkerson, ranked No. 6 in the state in his weight class, was the team’s lone champion. He won the 145-class with a 3-1 victory in the final over Cathedral’s Garrett Stewart.
Four other Marauders reached the final, but all lost in the championship round.
Eight other wrestlers vied for third-place finishes in the consolation round, but only one of seven succeeded. The seven fourth-place finishers will have the unenviable task of taking on sectional champions at Pendleton Heights.
Wilkerson became a sectional champion for a second straight year. He won the 138-class last year.
In the title match, he trailed 1-0 heading into the third period. He scored an escape to start the period, then sealed the deal with a takedown with 34 seconds remaining.
“I thought I performed really well,” Wilkerson said of his day. “It was a good weekend and a nice way to get my foot in the door to open up for the state series. I’m excited for what regional has in store.
“I felt like he was getting tired,” the champion added on his title bout. “I started muscling him down with a front headlock. I felt it was opening up and my moves were starting to work and I hit it and got two (points) real quick.”
Max Hayes (160), Avery Hanson (182), Parker Smitley (220) and Riley Anderson (285) all made the championship round, but were defeated. Hayes lost to last year’s state champion at 152, Cathedral’s Elliott Rodgers.
Bryce Morgan (138) was the only Marauder to win a third-place match. He won by fall over Brebeuf’s Ethan Etzler.
Zach Haughton (132), who was wrestling for the injured Carson Johnson, lost a heart-breaker in the consolation round. He was defeated 3-1 by Chatard’s Eli Bustamante, who broke the 1-1 tie with a takedown just before the regulation whistle.
Others advancing to the regional with fourth-place finishes were, Caelan Alford (106), Kellen Kerr (113), Andrew Johnson (126), Aidan Alford (152), Parker Bishop (170) and Charlie Moore (195).
“We had a couple of those last year,” Masters said, looking ahead to the regional and his fourth-place finishers going up against the Pendleton Heights champions. “We know we can win those. Andrew Johnson was a freshman and a fourth-seed coming out and he won (at 113). He beat the sectional champ, so we know it can be done.”
Cathedral won the team title with 305 points. Mt. Vernon just missed out on a runner-up finish. North Central was second with 207. The Marauders scored 206.
