MOORESVILLE
Center Grove’s wrestlers came pretty close to ending a 26-year regional title drought on Saturday afternoon.
While they couldn’t quite get to that summit — Brownsburg won its sixth straight team crown — but the Trojans were second, only 8.5 points behind, and they tied the Bulldogs by sending nine wrestlers to this weekend’s Jasper Semistate.
Center Grove and third-place Avon also tied Brownsburg with three regional champions apiece. Winning individual titles for the Trojans were freshmen Charlie LaRocca (106 pounds) and Reese Courtney (113) and undefeated 182-pound junior Drake Buchanan.
Franklin and Whiteland had one champion each, with unbeaten senior Tyler Fuqua winning for the Grizzly Cubs at 170 and Jakarrey Oliver emerging at 220 for the Warriors.
“The whole regional has tough teams, and being able to come out and get nine guys to semistate is always good,” Center Grove coach Maurice Swain said. “We’re in one of the toughest regionals in the state with teams like Brownsburg, Avon, Franklin and of course us.”
As good as second place was for the Trojans, it could have easily been first place had two controversial decisions in the finals not gone against them.
At 145 lbs., Avon’s No. 1-ranked Jaden Reynolds secured a takedown with five seconds left to break a tie and beat No. 3 Hayden Watson, 6-4.
Swain argued with the referee that there was no takedown, but after a brief consultation with the other official, the call stood.
In the next match, Riley Rust dropped a 4-3 decision to Avon’s Tyler Conley, in a match where Conley could have been called for stalling but was not.
“The referee decided the match and that’s not how the sport should be,” Swain said. “It would be nice to get those matches back, and hopefully we’ll get them back next week.”
There was no debate in the championship matches that Center Grove won.
LaRocca took the lead early on a takedown against Avon freshman Luke Rioux, and except for a second period reversal, won 11-7.
“I just had to do my job and go out and win,” LaRocca said. “I didn’t really feel out of control, I just had stay calm, breathe and get ready for the third period.”
Courtney surrendered a takedown early and fell behind 2-0, but scored 12 straight points to score a major decision over Cascade sophomore Logan Bickel.
Like LaRocca, Courtney remained calm in getting the first of potentially four regional titles.
“Last week, Charlie went down early and came back to win the match, so I was thinking that if he could do it, so can I,” Courtney said. “I know I can (wrestle) better.”
Fuqua and Buchanan made the paths to their respective championships look easy, as both grapplers secured two pins apiece. Fuqua also earned a tech fall in a 15-0 opening-round win and Buchanan won a major decision in the championship against the Grizzly Cubs’ Jalen Ward, 21-11.
The final win for Johnson County was also a rivalry that turned a bit heated in the end when Oliver took a 3-2 ultimate tie-breaker win from Franklin’s Nolan Skaggs that might have left some hard feelings.
“The match was pretty good,” Oliver said. “(Skaggs) stalls and expects to get points from me, but you have to keep pushing the pace.”
Center Grove advanced nine wrestlers in all to semistate, with the five finalists to be joined by Hyatt Yeager (120 pounds), Michael Tharpe (126), Bryce Crump (195) and Owen Green (285). Seven are moving on for Franklin, with Caleb Wyss (120), Jake Bechert (126), Harris Eason (195) and Jacob Johnson (285) advancing along with Fuqua, Ward and Skaggs. Whiteland’s Joey Buttler (113) and Vincent Tinoco (170) will make the trip to Jasper with Oliver.
Indian Creek will also send a pair of wrestlers to the semistate — Jackson Heaston was the 106-pound champion at Bloomington South, and teammate Jackson Neibert advanced at 138.
At the Southport Regional, Roncalli’s Bryce Lowery won the 126-pound crown to advance to the New Castle Semistate. Joining Lowery for the Royals will be Braden Getz (106), Kody Glithero (138), Zach Wilson (145), Andrew Stuck (152), Luke Hansen (160), Sam Peeples (182) and Justin Lewis (220).
