Lowell strong but CP moves on

• Reprints

Hanover Central's Stevan Micic controls Crown Point's Brett Ervin in the championship match at 106lbs. during the wrestling sectionals on Saturday, January 28, 2012, in Crown Point. Hanover Central's Micic won by fall. | Scott R. Brandush~Sun-Times Media

2012 CROWN POINT

Wrestling Sectional

145 pounds

1ST - Jason Tsirtsis (31-0) CROWN POINT 20-5

tech fall over Charlie Mavros (30-1) HANOVER CENTRAL

3RD - Adam Davis (29-5), North Newton injury default

over Zach Mroczkowski (7-2) LOWELL

152 pounds

1ST - Jake Fuqua (22-3) CROWN POINT 1-0

over Kenny Hughes (30-4) LOWELL

3RD - Beau Tauber (28-16) Kankakee Valley, 10-2 major decision

over Jared Cockrill (22-8), BOONE GROVE

160 pounds

1ST -. Dusty Schurg (28-3) CROWN POINT pinned

Casey Sonaty (31-3) North Newton - :55

3RD - Eliot Granados (20-20) Valpo 7-5 over

Johnny Morrison(26-17) Kankakee Valley

170 pounds

1ST: Jeremy Crocker (32-3) LOWELL 20-9 major decision

over Tyler Scott (28-8) HANOVER CENTRAL

3RD: Derrick Suttles (17-12) Valpo, 8-2 over

Alex Cooper (23-7) North. Newton

182 pounds

1ST: Morgan Kral (28-6) CROWN POINT 11-0

over Joel Bolen, Jr. 28-14, KV

3RD: Jon Wallace (29-9) Hebron, by default

over Taylor Schiedenberger (8-14) Valparaiso

195 pounds

1ST: Luke Davis (25-12) Valpo 4-2 over

Ryan Patterson (20-12), LOWELL

3. Matt Langbehn (23-5) CROWN POINT

Joe Genovese (14-20) HANOVER CENTRAL - 4:45

220 pounds

1ST: Tyler Kral (31-0) CROWN POINT 9-0

over Tyler Wright (18-13) LOWELL

3RD: Matt Berdine (35-8) KV pinned

Ian Suttles (7-18) Valpo - 1:27

285 pounds

1. Scott Pitrowski (26-2) LOWELL 3-2 OT

over Kyle Dalka (37-3) Kankakee Valley

3. Josh Swope (27-7) CROWN POINT pinned

Drew Schooler (11-15) Valpo - 4:54

Article Extras

Updated: January 31, 2012 3:58PM

CROWN POINT — Crown Point wasn’t worried about Lowell defeating them at Saturday’s Crown Point wrestling sectional and, in the end, the Bulldogs did win by a solid margin — 44 team points.

But let the record show that with six weight classes to be decided, the Devils were within 24 points and mathematically had a chance for a major upset of the state’s second-ranked team.

It wasn’t so much that Crown Point didn’t perform well in their 274.5-234.5 victory, it was that Lowell did.

The Bulldogs placed 13 boys in next Saturday’s Crown Point Regional (9 a.m.) including seven sectional champs. The CP Regional (which was the LaPorte regional last year) includes the top four finishers in each weight class from last Saturday’s CP and LaPorte Sectionals.

CP advanced in the team tournament (with Portage, Lake Central and Merrillville) to the Portage team regional which was to be held last (Wednesday) night.

“I don’t think any of us had a thought that Lowell could beat us today,” said Dusty Schurg, who won by pin in the 160-pound final match, his second sectional championship. “Not to sound cocky, but we just didn’t think they’d beat us here.”

The Bulldogs, who were 19-0 in dual meets this year, pulled away with title match wins by Jason Tsirtsis (145), Jake Fuqua (152), Dusty Schurg, and Morgan (182) and Tyler Kral (220).

Lowell won late titles with Jeremy Crocker (170) and Scott Pitrowski (heavyweight) in the championship round but they needed to virtually sweep the finals to upset Crown Point.

“Our team had big goals of beating Crown Point,” said Lowell’s Alex Mavros, after he won at 132 pounds when CP”s Cameron Halsted had to default late in their early title match.

“I don’t know if there’s chance of that now. But we came here to win. We thought we could.”

Lowell was the last team other than Crown Point to win the Crown Point wrestling sectional back in 2002.

Saturday, they won four classes, advanced 12 wrestlers and put up an impressive 234.5 team points.

Crown Point brother teams of senior Tyler (220 pounds) and freshman Morgan Kral (181), junior Dusty and freshman Darden “Dardy” Schurg, all won sectional crowns.

Let’s also let the record show that with the Krals and the Schurgs winning sectionals, it was possible for Jake (152) and Josh Fuqua (120) to each win sectional titles. Jake did win and Josh lost to undefeated Paul Petrov of Hanover Central, just 3-1.

Theoretically, it was possible for juniors Trevor (126) and Tyler Burlison (138) to also win sectional title medals. Trevor placed first and Tyler was fourth.

Lowell’s Mavros, a sophomore, and his brother Charlie, a senior, both advanced to the regional.

The oddity is that Charlie Mavros wrestles at 145 for Hanover Central.

Coach Nick Petrov explained that both schools are OK with it. It’s not a broken home, just a special situation where it was something the elder Mavros had to do.

Alex Mavros, who wrestles at 132 for Lowell, simply calls it “personal business.”

“I root for my brother,” he said. “Both teams are big rivals, but my goal is for me and my brother to go downstate. Charlie has a great chance. The only guy in his way is Jason Tsirtsis and that’s basically the only guy who can’t beat him.”

Hanover Central’s undefeated duo of freshman Stevan Micic (36-0) and senior (and coach’s son) Paul Petrov (36-0) each swept three matches to get to the regional. Petrov topped CP’s Josh Fuqua (28-4) in the title match, and Paul admits those matchups are getting closer because, even though Josh Fuqua is two years younger, he’s known Fuqua for a fairly long time.

“When we went to the national tournament in North Dakota, we hung out together,” said Petrov, who has reached the semistate undefeated twice.

“Over the summer, I saw him almost every day. He’s a friend, but when I’m on the mat, I don’t look at him as a friend of mine. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do to win.

“And he wants to beat me. He wants to dominate me.

“It’s hard for me to score on him because he knows what I’m going to try. He knows what I’m going to do. It is funny because we practice together.

“He’s upset that he lost. I wrestled him at the Carnahan (Invitational in CP). He was at 103 last year. He beat out Stevan Micic last year and beat him four times.”

Petrov, a senior who will attend prestigious Bucknell University the next four years, has only one goal, to win state. There is no second place for him.

“Sophomore year I was undefeated all the way to the state finals. Lost 6-3 in the finals. Junior year I was undefeated to the semistate and I lost in the finals 2-1 to Jared Brooks of Warsaw.

“I made it to top four at state and finished in fourth place. I lost 3-2 in the semifinals. So, I think its my turn.”

Crown Point’s undefeated wrestlers, Tyler Kral (31-0) and Jason Tsirtsis (31-0), both advanced to the regional as top seeded wrestlers in their bracket.

“It’s my third title,” said Kral. “Something to be proud of. I didn’t have chance to wrestle on the varsity my freshman year because I was behind a state qualifier and a state champion (Marcus Shrewsbury, now at Northwestern). I got a chance to win with my brother. That was awesome. We both did it together.”

Probably because they are three years apart age wise, there doesn’t seem to be much of a rivalry between Kral and his freshman brother Morgan.

“The Schurgs go back and forth a lot,” Kral said. “Who beat who. My brother and I butt heads every now and then but mostly we just try to keep each other positive, try to keep each other’s confidence up. He’s shocked me — his record (28-6). He’s at a big man’s weight. He’s done a lot better than I thought he would.”

Coach Scott Vlink was happy with everyone, including junior 189-pounder Jacob Hazi (17-11), who lost two of his first three matches but came back to win fifth place and earn some points for the team late in the day.

“He showed a lot of character to come back and win that match,” Vlink said. “All of our kids wrestled well.”

“Our focus all week was just advancing the team to the regional.”

“We didn’t mention the team regional. It was a good day and hopefully except for one shoulder (Cameron Halsted) we came out unscathed.”

Schurg said, “We were just going to let what happens happen today. We just didn’t have the slightest idea that we wouldn’t win.”

SECTIONAL NOTES: Senior Tyler Kral and junior Dustin (Dusty) Schurg winning sectional titles on the same day their younger brothers did was a family honor.

But there is a mathematical possibility that four of the Schurg brothers win sectional titles in 2013, something that would be probably be unprecedented.

The total Schurg brothers on or near the varsity at a school the size of Crown Point is an oddity that the team seems very much accustomed to, but one that outsiders find quite unusual.

“My older brother Dallas (a 2010 graduate) won, I think two sectionals,” Dusty said. “This is my second and now Darden, my younger brother has won once. Denton is a sophomore. He isn’t on the varsity yet. Darden is a freshman and Dale is in eighth grade.”

“Our family, I guess, it’s what we do. We all started when we were 4 years old. We’ve just always been training. My dad wrestled for Lew Wallace. Denton should make the varsity next year. There’s going to be four of us on the team. That’s really going to be crazy.”

“We probably have more sets of brothers than any team in the state,” said coach Scott Vlink, who said he doesn’t compare a kid to his older brother. “The Schurgs. The Fuquas. The Burlisons (Trevor at 126 and Tyler at 138) and the Krals. We don’t compare anybody to anybody, really. They ar what they are. I don’t like to make comparisons or wrestlers to teams of recent years or bygone eras.”

Jake Fuqua (22-3) topped Lowell’s Kenny Hughes (30-3) by a 10 count at 152 pounds, preventing an escape that would have tied the match in the final 30 seconds.

The win midway through the final round virtually eliminated all chance that Lowell could win as a team.

Fuqua, who was not available when CP lost the Duneland Athletic Conference championships to Merrillville on Jan. 14, has not been 100 percent healthy and is not still.

“I just didn’t feel well today,” he admitted. “Just not good. I’ve had a foot problem and I need to get that well for the state tournament series. My brother and I, we just want to go to state.”

Fuqua suggested there’s no real problem with wrestling in the individual tournament on Saturdays and the team tourney on Wednesdays.

“You just take the matches one at a time. Today was the individual sectional and Wednesday is for the team. You don’t do anything different.”

Fuqua is a 152-pounder so his practice partner is the 145-pounder. On CP that’s three-time state champion Jason Tsirtsis, who hasn’t lost a match since 2009. It would be impolite to ask Fuqua if he’s ever beaten Tsirtsis in practice.

“He’s more like a coach,” Jake explains of his much-heralded classmate. “He’s taught me a lot. He’s helped me with balance and footwork. Staying on my feet. I don’t care what happens in the (wrestling) room. They can beat the heck out of me in practice. It helps me in matches.”