Center Grove’s Nate Johnson jumps into the arms of the coaching staff after winning the 285-pound state championship on Saturday.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
EVANSVILLE
Where better than the Pocket City to pocket three state championships?
A trio of Center Grove seniors experienced the warmth of a spotlight final at the Ford Center on Saturday night, which resulted in seniors Charlie LaRocca, Wyatt Krejsa and Nate Johnson bringing home first-place medals.
LaRocca won at 120 pounds, Krejsa at 150 and Johnson at 285.
Runners-up a season ago in the final team standings, coach Maurice Swain’s team finished with 121.5 points to place second behind Brownsburg (124.5). Defending champion Crown Point was a close third with 121.
LaRocca, a two-time champion after winning the 113-pound class as a junior, mirrored in a way his performance of a year ago, when he began peaking about two-thirds through the regular season.
On Saturday, he battled Evansville Mater Dei’s Ty Henderson (and a partisan Evansville crowd) to prevail, 3-2.
“It’s just the way coach Swain structures his program,” LaRocca said. “They have a system that really works for us. Obviously, we have great tournaments ever since they started that system.
“I had a rough go at it at the beginning of the year. I was taking some losses I shouldn’t have taken. Some guys I shouldn’t be losing to. It’s just trusting the process. Trusting my coaches. Trusting my conditioning, and finding that confidence again. That’s what they preach. We just have a phenomenal room. That’s why we peak.”
Entering the championship matches, Crown Point held a slim 115-to-114.5 advantage over Brownsburg, with Center Grove lurking with 107.5 points.
Krejsa, a state runner-up as a junior at 145, trailed Hunter May of Floyd Central 5-2 early in the second period in Saturday’s title match, but responded with a 13-6 win slowed by five stoppages for May’s nosebleeds.
“I just know that if I keep doing what I’m supposed to — I work insanely hard — that my pace won’t slow down, and I’m going to push him, and I know he’ll break,” said the Purdue-bound Krejsa after capping a 40-2 season. “He didn’t quite break, but I got what I needed out of it.”
In the last match of the night, Trojan senior Nate Johnson pinned Cathedral senior Hosia Smith at 1:47 of the first period.
Not quite the elusive team title the Trojans were seeking, but still an impressive conclusion to yet another standout season.
“Everything is unpredictable at the state tournament, so we just kind of told our guys that you have to go out and just wrestle every match like it’s just a normal match,” Swain said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re at in the bracket. It doesn’t matter who you’re wrestling.
“We don’t train to peak early in the year, or at the holiday tournaments or anything like that. Our goal is to be at our best come February, and that’s what we’re trying to do. I think we did that in a lot of weight classes.”
Senior 144-pounder Reese Courtney advanced to the semifinals but lost to New Haven junior Easton Doster, 3-1. He produced a third-place effort by winning over Owen Valley’s Branson Weaver, 4-2.
LaRocca got his day going with a 9-1 quarterfinal win over Jett McGuire of Greenfield-Central, then edged Crown Point’s Gavin Jendreas in the semis, 3-2. Krejsa pinned Munster’s Christopher Bohn and moved into the 150-pound title match with a tech fall against Kaptur Kowaczyk of Crown Point.
Johnson made his way into the 285-pound championship match by getting past second-ranked Brady Beck of Rochester and then scoring a convincing 9-0 semifinal victory against Plymouth’s Anthony Popi.
Four Center Grove wrestlers were eliminated in the morning quarterfinals.
Junior Eddie Goss dropped a 6-2 decision to Chesterton’s Hayden DeMarco at 132 pounds, then rebounded by scoring a 6-1 triumph over Keith Parker of Ben Davis to move into the fifth-place match, where he won against Sontonio Sessa of Crown Point, 5-1.
Junior Silas Stits fell short against Anthony Cashman of Warren Central in a 157 quarterfinal, 6-3. Stits’ day — and season — concluded with a 10-1 victory over Columbus North soph Asher Ratliff in the night’s seventh-place match.
Senior Noah Clouser lost 2-1 to Chase Leech of Garrett in the morning at 175, finishing with a fifth-place medal after defeating Penn’s Zymarion Hollyfield 12-4 and Lawrence North’s Michael White 3-1.
Senior 190-pounder Kaden McConnell lost to Noah Weaver of Rossville, 6-1, in the quarterfinals. He followed by defeating Kenneth Bisping of Lowell and New Palestine’s Colin Whetsel to secure a fifth-place medal of his own.
Also picking up a state championship was Roncalli sophomore 106-pounder Peyton Schoettle, defeating Lake Central senior Mason Jones, 3-2. Two other Royals picked up seventh-place medals — Blake Getz at 113 and Braden Getz at 150.
