Wrestling: Crown Point earns fourth state finals trip
By Michael Osipoff 648-3137 or mosipoff@post-trib.com February 1, 2012 11:12PM
Crown Point's Jason Tsirtsis celebrates his first round pin of Merrillville's Zac Sandufer during the team regional finals at Portage High School Wednesday evening. | Jeffrey D. Nicholls~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 3, 2012 11:43AM
PORTAGE — The Crown Point wrestling team seized this season’s decisive meeting with rival Merrillville.
The Bulldogs defeated the Pirates 36-20 in Wednesday night’s championship match of the Portage Regional, securing their fourth straight trip to the state meet. Crown Point will face the Logansport Regional winner in the quarterfinals on Feb. 25 at Center Grove High School.
The Bulldogs, who beat Lake Central 47-21 in the semifinals earlier on Wednesday, had beaten the Pirates 38-12 in a dual match on Jan. 4, before Merrillville, which beat Portage 46-20 in its semifinal match, topped Crown Point to win the Duneland Conference meet on Jan. 14.
“Big win,” Crown Point coach Scott Vlink said. “It feels pretty good.”
With three-time state champion Jason Tsirtsis bumping up from 145 pounds to 152, Trevor Blue was inserted into the Crown Point lineup at 145, and pinned Matt Hollins in 1:14. Tsirtsis proceeded to pin Zach Sandefur in 56 seconds, giving the Bulldogs a 20-3 lead.
“Trevor’s a really good wrestler; he’s just behind two really good wrestlers,” Vlink said. “We just wanted to put our best people in the lineup, and obviously that was a good matchup for us. ... The pin was icing on the cake.”
At 182, Crown Point freshman Morgan Kral beat Eric DeLuna 11-5, rallying from a 5-1 second-period deficit and avenging a 7-6 loss in the final of the DAC meet, to open a 27-5 lead for the Bulldogs.
“He came back,” Vlink said. “You have to fight through the pain and the adversity — we tell them that all the time. He came through.”
Once-beaten Pirates freshman Bobby Steveson — his only loss has come to Tsirtsis in the teams’ regular-season dual match — downed Jake Fuqua 9-3 at 160, before Crown Point’s Dusty Schurg notched an 11-1 major decision against Darryl Peppers at 170.
Unbeaten Pirates senior 195-pounder Kourtney Berry pinned Matt Langbehn in 1:00, making the score 27-11.
At 220, Crown Point’s Tyler Kral edged Michael Nickson 2-1 on a stalling point with 5.6 seconds left in overtime. And heavyweight Josh Swope clinched the victory for the Bulldogs with a 5-0 decision against Trevon Williams, with the team score 33-11.
“Our kids wrestled well; we showed up to wrestle,” Merrillville coach David Maldonado said. “We lost a match we probably shouldn’t have lost at 182, and we could have won at 138. Overall, we were right in there with most of the matches. We just got behind with a couple of key matches early.”
With the championship match beginning at 126 pounds, Trevor Burlison sent Crown Point to a strong start with a 17-1 technical fall against Mike Martin.
Merrillville’s Al Padilla topped Cameron Halsted 6-1 at 132, before Tyler Burlison posted a 5-3 win against Willie Armstrong for the Bulldogs at 138.
To conclude the match, Merrillville’s Michael Garza defeated backup Riley Akers 10-3 at 106 pounds, once-beaten Crown Point freshman Darden Schurg defeated Adam Brodie 9-3 at 113, and Merrillville’s Adam Garcia pinned backup Jon Ellison in 2:57 at 120.
In the marquee match of the semifinals, between two of the state’s best at 220 pounds, Lake Central sophomore Gelen Robinson handed Crown Point senior Tyler Kral his first loss of the season, 10-4. Kral had defeated Robinson in both the teams’ dual match and in the final of the DAC meet, both 3-1.
“He made some technical errors against Robinson,” Vlink said. “We can fix them.”
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