CP sends 5, HC 3 to state finals
By Mark Smith msmith@post-trib.com February 15, 2012 10:06AM
Crown Point's Jason Tsirtsis defeated Hanover Central's Charlie Mavros 21-6 during the wrestling regionals on Saturday, February 4, 2012. | Mark Smith~Sun-Times Media
MERRILLVILLE
Wrestling Semistate
2-11-12 at Merrillville
(Top 4 to State Finals) Qualifiers to IHSAA Individual State Finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Friday, 6 pm.
Championship Round
106 — Stevan Micic (HANOVER CENTRAL) pinned Zach Davis (Penn) 1:35.
113 — Jarred Brooks (Warsaw) pinned Adam Brodie (MERRILLVILLE), 3:49.
120 — Kyle Ayersman (Lake Central) 6-0 over Aaron Ayala (Hobart)
126 — Paul Petrov (HANOVER CENTRAL) 8-4 over Adam Garcia (MERRILLVILLE), 8-4.
132 — Tommy Forte (Mishawaka) dec. Anthony McHugh (Culver Academies), 11-6.
138 — Alex Griffin (McCutcheon) 12-0 maj dec. Ben Varner (Penn),
145 — Jason Tsirtsis (CROWN POINT) pinned Charlie Mavros (LOWELL), 0:39.
152 — Adrian Brown (Lafayette Jeff) dec. Danny Ginter (Penn), 8-6.
160 — Bobby Steveson (MERRILLVILE) 8-4 over Scotty Sopko (Hobart)
170 — Darryl Peppers (MERRILLVILLE) 11-5 over Dalton Christensen (Logansport)
182 — Tanner Lynde (Delphi) 16-4 maj dec. Christian Winkle (Twin Lakes)
195 — Kourtney Berry (MERRILLVILLE) pinned Jacob Ricks (Benton Central), 1:06.
220 — Joe Gallegos (Clay) 3-1 (OT) over Tyler Kral (CROWN POINT)
HEAVYWEIGHT — Abraham Hall (Bremen) dec. Dimetri Kaplanis (Wawasee), 4-2 in 2OT.
3rd PLACE
106 — Mike Garza (MERRILLVILLE) 5-2 over Kayla Miracle (Culver Academy)
113 — Darden Schurg (CROWN POINT) pinned Sheldon Corcoran (Logansport) :30.
120 — Blake Denton (Twin Lakes) dec. Jacob Davis (Penn) 7-3.
126 — Julian Torres (Portage) dec. Trevor Burlison (CROWN POINT) 3-1.
132 — Chase Osborn (Penn) dec. Chris Johnson (Clay) 11-6.
138 — Mitch Hartman (Clay) pinned Joe Kelly (Chesterton) 1:50.
145 — Zach Thorn (Portage) dec. Alex Katsafaros (Chesterton) 4-2.
152 — Kenny Hughes (LOWELL) dec. Chris Katsafaros (Chesterton) 6-4.
160 — Graham Redweik (Caston) 6-3 over Damien Gomez (Noll).
170 — Ethan Dale (McCutcheon) dec. Dwight Hunter (Clay) 11-5.
182 — Matt Hurford (Culver) injury default over Dominic Fimbianti (Munster).
220 — Gelen Robinson (Lake Central) pinned Michael Nickson (MERRILLVILLE) 3-1 in OT.
Hwt — Marcus Dozier (Riley) pinned Blake Ford (McCutcheon) :33.
Article Extras
MERRILLVILLE — OK, I know how stupid this sounds. But being undefeated helps you win.
No kidding.
I think there’s a reason that undefeated wrestlers tend to win semsitate championships. When the 10-hour marathon nears the end and you are wrestling for the fourth time in the day, you either have to be vastly better than everyone else or your confidence must be fueled by that zero at the end of your record.
In nine of the 14 weight classes at Saturday’s Merrillville Semistate, the champion was undefeated for the entire season. At the semistate level, it’s unlikely that one wrestler is vastly superior to all others. But if you think (and have statistical reason to believe) you cannot lose, maybe you have an edge. Success breeds success.
Crown Point’s Jason Tsirtsis (38-0) may indeed be vastly better than everyone else. We’ll find out next weekend at the 2012 state finals which start Friday night at 6 p.m. in Indianapolis.
Last Saturday, Tsirtsis scored three quick pins (after accepting a first round forfeit), including a 39-second victory over Hanover Central Charlie Mavros (35-3), whose only three losses are to Tsirtsis. The usually calm Tsirtsis seemed a little more excited about the final pin against his biggest Lake County rival.
“That one felt good because I know I caught him off guard,” he said. “I didn’t even plan on doing that. It just happened. Other than that, I’ll just stay calm. I want to pin everyone. But I wasn’t specifically trying to pin him. You have to take the opening.”
Does Tsirtsis, a three-time state champion, think his strength builds because he hasn’t lost in 3 1/2 years?
“Confidence is a lot in this sport,” Tsirtsis, who tries to become the eight four-time state champ in state history this weekend. “Not losing can give you a lot of confidence. But I think it’s the guy who comes in here mentally prepared. Trevor Burlison (CP’s 126-pounder) came in here today. He didn’t have the best record but he had worked very hard to prepare. Sometimes losses don’t kill your confidence but winning obviously helps.”
Winning all the time worked for Hanover Central undefeated duo of 106-pounder Stevan Micic and 120-pound senior Paul Petrov (43-0). Micic (43-0), a sophomore, won four in a row (one tech fall and three pins) to continue his charge to become Hanover’s first state champ since Andrew Howe won his third consecutive crown in 2007.
“I don’t want to sound cocky,” said Micic, who said he clearly thought he’d win the semistate crown. “You’ve just got to go out there and get your job done. The faster it is I guess the easier it is.
“I”ve put in a lot of time and I think I’ve worked to get to this level. I just try to increase my level every match. (The finals) was my goal since the beginning of the year. Since I won nationals (in cadet wrestling) over the summer it gave me a lot of confidence and I thought I could do this.”
If Micic wins the state title, he’d do it minutes before Hanover teammate Petrov expects to get a chance. Petrov won two tech falls and a pin fall before topping Merrillville’s DAC champ Adam Garcia (42-3) in the 120-pound final match.
It was tough match, possibly because Petrov had never wrestled Garcia before.
“I know he beat (CP’s Josh) Fuqua (31-6) three tines in a row, and I beat Fuqua three times in a row so I knew he’d be tough. But other than that, there’s not a lot to compare us by.
“I scored on him early and rode it out the last two periods. That isn’t how I wanted the second or third period to go but I got tired and he came at me. His coach (Dave) Maldonado is a great coach and he trains the Merrillville wrestler really awesdome. Garcia’s no slouch. I knew I have four matches today. It’s a long tournament. He knew he had to be on me the whole match and he wore me out. I’m tired.”
Crown Point had 13 semistate qualifiers but just five moved on to the state finals. But Hanover Central, which had only four semistate participants, advanced three to next weekend’s finals including the two champs.
“That’s sweet,” said Petrov, whose father Nick is the head coach. “Most kids at our school look at the basketball teams and the other sports. They don’t pay a whole lot of attention to wrestling.
“But we’ve been performing since before my dad starting coaching, The first time we had a state qualifier in maybe 10 years was Eric Howe (Andrew’s brother and a HC assistant coach), probably 2003. But since then we’ve had a state (finals) qualifier every year. We really represent our school.”
CP coach Scott Vlink admitted his side had hoped for better than five state qualifiers and one champion. Top-ranked Tyler Kral (37-2) lost the 220-pound final match in overtime against South Bend Clay star Joe Gallegos (42-2) after Kral had turned back rival and third-ranked Gelon Robinson (44-4) of Lake Central 1-0.
“It’s a little bittersweet,” he said. “That’s how this game works. If you lose the last one you’re unhappy. We’ve just got to go back to work and get ready to go down there (to Indianapolis) and get as many on the podium as we can.
“We’ve got some disappointed kids on the bus right now but we’ve got to get them past that and get on the bus down to Conseco Fieldhouse, or whatever they call that place now, and start all over again.
“Matt Langbehn getting to the finals (3rd place at 195) is a positive. A big positive. Trevor Burlison (4th at 126) is positive. But sometimes us coaches let the losses overwhelm the wins. It wasn’t for lack of effort, that’s for sure.”
The irony of the day was that the fourth meeting of DAC rivals Kral and Robinson (Tyler leads 3-1) at 220 didn’t decide the semistate title.
“We knew the Clay kid was good. But Tyler did get up for the Robinson match and he wrestled a great match. A very strategic match. Didn’t wrestle badly in the finals. That other kid (Gallegos) is just good.
“Can’t be upset with five kids in the finals. We have to keep that in perspective.”
SEMISTATE NOTES: Lowell’s Kenny Hughes, a highly regarded prospect since grade school, reached the state finals for the first time with a pin of Merrillville’s Zack Sandefur (34-11) in the quarterfinals.
Hughes lost to eventual champ Adrian Brown (48-1) of Lafayette Jefferson, but he topped Chesterton’s Chris Katsafaros (32-6) for third place.
“It was very mportant to win the last match,” Hughes said after it was all over, “because that gives you a much better spot (a third place finisher cant face an undefeated semistate champ in Friday’s first round) at the finals.
“I’m the only one (left from) Lowell but I know some of these guys will come down and watch me. I was realy surprised that Jeremy Crocker lost (in the 170-pound quarterfinals). I really was. I watched it and it does affect you, but you just cant let it bother you.”
Crown Point coach Scott Vlink was again impressed with Jason Tsirtsis’ domination of his matches.
“If he is not the greatest wrestler ever to come out of this state, I’d like to know who is,” said Vlink last Saturday. “I am a humongous Andrew Howe (Hanover’s three time state champ and Olympic hopeful) fan but if you just knew how much time Jason spends studying this sport and getting better.
“I know it’s an argument and a debate. I didn’t see his brother (four-time state champ Alex Tsirtsis of Griffith) but I find it hard to believe he was better than Jason is.
“That’s just how much I think of this guy and the way he goes about his business. If he isn’t the best wrester to ever come out of this state, I’ll eat your hat.”
Merrillville had six state qualifiers including three champions in Bobby Steveson (160), Darryl Peppers (170) and Kourtney Berry (195).
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