Wrestlebacks for Indiana !!!

Indiana's Coaching Association  is battling the IHSAA to gain wrestlebacks in our State Tournament. Please check out www.ihswca.com and read what the coaches are up against. Please jump into this fight and help the kids in Indiana get a fair shake

Jim Wadkins, Wrestling Coach

Sectional title No. 32 comes easily for Mater Dei

Mater Dei's defense of its seven straight state wrestling titles wasted no time kicking into high gear Saturday at the Central Sectional.

The top-ranked Wildcats wrestled to their seeds with 13 champions and one runnerup to run off and hide.

Final team scores were Mater Dei 304.5, North 144.5, Reitz 140.5, Central 118 and Bosse 4.

"We looked pretty fresh and the wrestlers took care of business," said Mater Dei coach Mike Goebel. "Obviously, it was a pretty strong showing."

Of Mater Dei's 29 total matches, only one was a loss. One was a decision, one a major decision and the rest were technical falls or pins.

"I don't know that we've ever done that," said Goebel, after Mater Dei extended its state record of sectional titles to 32. "It was one of our better performances, ever."

The only breakthrough was at 103 pounds, where North senior Aaron Claybrooks edged Wildcats sophomore Brian Bittner, 3-2. Claybrooks was the No. 1 seed, Bittner was No. 2.

But every other Mater Dei wrestler was a top seed and won. The champions, in order, include junior Craig Macke, freshman Matt Coughlin, junior Aaron Scott, junior Craig Weinzapfel, junior Dustin Nosko, senior Matt Conkling, sophomore Blake Maurer, senior Logan Riggs, junior Sam Wildeman, junior Dustin Beal, senior Scott Lewis, senior Bobby Schmitt and junior Thomas Unfried.

New Castle extends mat streak to 27
By John Hodge
Sports Editor

MIDDLETOWN - No one went home empty-handed from the Shenandoah wrestling sectional on Saturday. Each of the four competing schools left with something to show for its efforts.
New Castle won its state-record 27th mat sectional in a row and had eight individual champions.
Shenandoah had four weight-class champs and advanced a total of nine to next Saturday's Pendleton regional.
Cambridge City Lincoln saw a school record set as 152-pound Jacob Teuschler won his 108th career match.
Blue River Valley stayed alive in the state tournament as Andy Ahlersmeyer advanced to regional with a runner-up finish. Ahlersmeyer lost to Teuschler in the 152-pound final.

Teuschler, who was Lincoln's only TEC mat champion a week earlier, hiked his season record to 39-1. He defeated New Castle's Chris Owens in the first round and then beat Ahlersmeyer with a 15-0 technical fall.
Teuschler passed the previous record of 107 victories held by Tim LaMay.

"I just tried to keep moving, and stayed with all the things that have been working for me all year long," Teuschler said. "I'd like to thank my assistant coach Jerry Ingalls, my head coach Scott Widner and my parents for all their encouragement. It's been a great season."

Cambridge City had one other sectional champion, Randy Gibson in the 103-pound. Three other Eagles - Travis Amyx, Shane Couch and Daniel Moss - advanced as runners-up.

"Randy Gibson wrestled an excellent match," Lincoln Coach Scott Widner said. "New Castle has a good wrestler (Jeremy Allison) at that position. Randy was able to turn him and ended up getting a pin out of it. Jacob Teuschler looked sloppy his first match but came back and looked real crisp in the final."

Shenandoah's most dramatic victory came from 145-pound Justin Kokena. He came from behind to defeat New Castle's Johnny Hughes on a 13-7 decision. Hughes made two takedowns in the third period. Kokena escaped from both and then executed a takedown of his own.

"He (Hughes) got me down in the first period," Kokena said. "I was able to get him over on his back. I thought I had a pin, but the ref didn't give it to me. So I decided to work real hard to get ahead of him. He beat me a lot last year."

Also for Shenandoah, Matt Chapman was the 125-pound champion. Chris Fellers took the 135-pound ribbon; and Ryan Zicafoose won the 189-pound honor. Raider runners-up were Marc Redick, Riley Buttry, Cody Walker, Steve Thompson and Travis West.

"We did pretty well," Shenandoah Coach Jack Lewis said. "We've never had more than four sectional champions, even under Coach Cronk. We pushed all our kids to make sure they wrestled hard for six minutes. The biggest was Kokena's championship. That was huge for him as a sophomore."

For New Castle, Keith Garrard bounced back strong from his first defeat of the season, to Anderson's Nick Skinner in the North Central Conference tournament. Garrard won the 160-pound sectional championship with a 52-second pin over Shenandoah's Thompson.

"I felt pretty good," Garrard said. "I don't know what the regional pairings are, but I'll meet Skinner at some point. Today I just used the arm-bar, one of my favorite moves."

The Trojans' Jason Sayre, wrestling for the first time after returning from academic ineligibility, won the 112-pound championship. Dustin Carter had New Castle's biggest comeback effort in winning the 171-pound title. Carter trailed Shenandoah's West 4-0 in the second period. He came back to take a 12-5 lead and then got a fall in the third period.

"He kind of surprised me at first," Carter said of West. "I came back and give it all I had. My headlock has been working for me really well this year."

New Castle's other champions were Matt Jaggers at 119, Mick Jaggers at 130, Terrell Coatie at 140, Chad Ayinde at 215 and Paul Grider at heavyweight.

Trojan runners-up, in addition to Hughes, were Jeremy Allison, Daniel Sutton, Cory Garrard, and Jared Wiser.
"Overall we came through it in a pretty good position, New Castle Coach Rex Peckinpaugh said. "We had some guys that were a little flat and others wrestled really well. I was very pleased with Jason Sayre coming back."
New Castle will be in the team regional Wednesday night at the Fieldhouse. The individual regional is Saturday at Pendleton.

Coach piles up victories, respect
By DAN KNOTT

NEW CASTLE - His wrestlers care about him, and he cares about his wrestlers.
Those are two big reasons New Castle wrestling coach Rex Peckinpaugh is still in the coaching business after 21 years as the Trojans head coach.

And as he prepares his team to try and add to a state best 26 straight sectional titles Saturday at Shenandoah, Peckinpaugh does it as the winningest wrestling coach in state history.
Peckinpaugh won matches Nos. 515, 516, 517, 518 and 519 in winning the New Castle Invitational on Dec. 15, getting him past New Albany's Phil Thrasher's state record of 517 victories.

Breaking the record left Peckinpaugh, now with 528 victories, emotionally mixed, however.
"It means a lot because it's a record," Peckinpaugh said. "But a guy I consider a pretty fine man, Phil Thrasher, had it. I had mixed emotions. You want to win as many as you can, but I kind of hated to see him lose that record.

"I'm happy I have it, but I think it will mean more 10 to 15 years down the road than it does now. We're in the midst of a season, and one win can mean more than the other 517 now."

But for his wrestlers, who also are focused on the postseason, the record means a lot now.
"It really means something to me because I've watched high school wrestling since I was a little kid," Keith Garrard said. "I always remember him as head coach, and I've always liked him. I think it's a great accomplishment for him - and for our team, because everyone contributed."

Terrell Coatie said he was happy to be able to help his coach achieve one his goals after Peckinpaugh had helped him work toward his goals.
And that's the type of relationship Peckinpaugh seems to have with his team. Wrestling is a grueling sport, but Peckinpaugh has been in the sport long enough to understand when to really come down on kids, and he's always there to talk.
And his wrestlers appreciate it.

"He's the greatest coach," Coatie said. "He's really down to earth. He's not really too hard, but he's not too light on you either. He knows the difference between people being hurt and people being injured. You need a coach you can go talk to instead of a coach that just comes down on you all the time."
Peckinpaugh, who said he considers himself "an OK wrestling coach" has also had an influence on other coaches.

Yorktown has reached the team state finals the past two seasons, but it took coach Trent McCormick some time to get his program to that point. And while he said as a former Delta wrestler, he had more knowledge of how the Eagles built their wrestling dynasty in the 1980s, New Castle has achieved its sustained success much the same way.
After struggling against the Trojans for many years, Yorktown is now at their level, having beaten New Castle in the team semistate the past two seasons.
"In a sense, we have tried to emulate the New Castle program," McCormick said. "In my young coaching career, I learned a lot from coach Peckinpaugh and the New Castle program."

New Castle's success, Peckinpaugh said, can be attributed to a solid youth wrestling program and the help of many other people, including assistant coach Will Ragle, who he said would make a good head coach.

"I attribute our success to a lot of good people," Peckinpaugh said. "I think anyone that's successful in wrestling will tell you that as a head coach, if you had to do it all by yourself, it isn't going to get done."

How long he will continue to do his job is unknown. He said he has told people it could be 3 months or it could be 20 years. But whenever the time comes, he said he will never completely leave the sport.

"Whenever I get to the point where I don't think I'm doing right by the kids, that's one sign that I'll definitely get out," he said. "But I'll probably always be involved in wrestling in some way. I can be involved in our wrestling club or help raise money, but I'll probably always do some stuff with wrestling."
And New Castle's program will be the better for it.

Indiana High School Ranking

Rank School Poll Points Last Week's Rank
1. Evansville Mater Dei 220 1
2. Bellmont 208 2
3. Perry Meridian 199 3
4. Franklin 175 5
5. Lawrence North 167 4
6. Fort Wayne Snider 161 6
7. Warren Central 146 7
8. Valparaiso 140 11
9. Carmel 131 8
10. Bloomington South 108 10
11. Mishawaka 99 9
12. Beech Grove 92 13
13. Portage 91 12
14. Lake Central 88 15
15. Indianapolis Cathedral 81 14
16. Martinsville 58 16
17t. South Bend Clay 21 18
17t. Wawasee 21 19
19. Columbia City 18 20t
20t. Jasper 16 20t
20t. Harrison (West Lafayette) 16 --
Other teams receiving votes: Yorktown, NorthWood, South Bend Washington, Franklin Central, New Castle, Roncalli, Elkhart Memorial, Jimtown.

Evansville Central Sectional Results

Evansville Central Sectional Results

1st Place Mater Dei
2nd Place Evansville North
3rd Place Evansville Reitz
4th Place Evansville Central
5th Place Evansville Bosse

103 Claybrooks (N) dec Bittner (MD) 3-2
112 Macke (MD) tf Gray (N) 18-3
119 Coughlin (MD) won by forfeit over Robinson (C)
125 Scott (MD) pinned Fisher (N)
130 Craig Weinzapfel (MD) pinned Voegel (R)
135 Nosko (MD) pinned Cook (R)
140 Conkling (MD) dec Chipps (R) 16-8
145 Maurer (MD) pinned Cook (R)
152 Riggs (MD) dec Blythe (R) 3-1
160 Wildeman (MD) pinned Floyd (N)
171 Beal (MD) pinned Hansen (N)
189 Lewis (MD) tf Mattingly (C) 23-8
215 Schmitt (MD) pinned Gehlhausen (C)
275 Unfried (MD) pinned Vickers (N)

Mater Dei advanced all 14 wrestlers with 13 champions, exactly as seeded.