LINDEN, Ind. – For the wrestlers of the Wabash River Conference participating at the Logansport and North Montgomery Regionals, it was, to quote Yogi Berra, a case of “déjà vu all over again”.
Just as it had been at the sectional level the previous week, the two regionals saw several local wrestlers do well in the morning round and struggle later in the day.
At Logansport, Attica and Seeger both had five wrestlers participating.
Attica saw all five of their wrestlers advance to the semi-state by winning their opening matches.
Junior Arizmendi (106), Logan McClimans (126), Bo Rice (152), Ray Townsend (182) and Braeden Haddock (285) all won for the Ramblers to insure at least a fourth-place finish and a trip to the East Chicago Semi-State.
Townsend and Haddock would advance further to take home second and third places, respectively, in their weight classes.
Attica noted that this was the first time in school history where all their regional qualifiers also qualified for semi-state.
Seeger had two of their wrestlers win their opening round to advance with Kayden Stonebraker (106) taking third place and Trae Lanham (195) finishing fourth.
As teams, Attica finished seventh with 53 points and Seeger finished 11th with 14.
At the North Montgomery, Fountain Central sent five wrestlers with one advancing to the New Castle Semi-State in Waylon Frazee (132) taking a third place in his weight class to give the Mustangs a 12th-place finish with 11 points.
Parke Heritage sent one wrestlers and South Vermillion sent five, but neither school had anyone win the first round – the requirement for advancing.
Wildcat head coach Ron Stateler commented that his team finishes with a 14-12 regular season record and that “I was very impressed with the growth that these young wrestlers accomplished this season. Our future as a team looks very bright for us.”
North Vermillion had the best finish of the four WRC schools in the sectional as they took 10th as a team in a meet that saw four large schools (Carmel, Zionsville, Hamilton SE and Fishers) finish on top.
Moving on to the semi-state for the Falcons were Aden Rangel (120) with a fourth-place finish and Aidan Hinchee (220) who took second in his weight class.
Robby Davis, the head coach of the Falcons, said the team as a whole wrestled well with the tenth place finish the best placement in years.
“We are continuing to grow together as a team and a program,” he said. “We are taking the right steps forward.”