LOGANSPORT — Logansport’s wrestling team was foiled again by Kokomo.

The Wildkats, who edged out the Berries to win the North Central Conference title, did the same in Wednesday night in the team regional final, handing them a 40-28 defeat at the Berry Bowl.

With the win the Kats move on to the team state finals on Feb. 25, the weekend following the individual state finals. This is the last year the IHSAA is holding a team tournament.

Earlier in the night Logan recorded a thrilling 38-31 win over Harrison in a semifinal that went down to the final match.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Logan coach Frank Patacsil said. “We were all fired up for Kokomo. They have a good team. There were a couple matches that we thought could go our way and didn’t, and that’s just the name of the game. We thought we competed well, but not enough to make it to the state tournament this year.”

Logan took a 22-18 lead against Kokomo when Dalton Christensen pinned Keair Ross in just 1:02 a matchup of 170-pound sectional champions.

But the Berries probably needed a bigger lead than four points by that time, as earlier on they had a couple close decisions go the Wildkats’ way. Then they had to face the Wildkats’ murderer’s row of Fletcher Miller (182), Bo Butler (195) and Cameron Colby (220), who have just one loss on the season combined, with Butler and Colby being undefeated.

Miller won by fall and Colby won by stalling fall, but Logan’s Jacob Baber gave Butler a run for his money in their match. Baber recorded a near-fall against Butler early and had a 5-2 lead after one period. But Butler, a big ball of muscle, was able to get a reversal and pin in the second.

“We thought Jake could go out there and compete with him, because he’s got a lot of good tools in his bag,” Patacsil said. “He tossed him to his back but couldn’t secure the pin. He just did a good job. We thought he could have made a little bit different decision, hung on a little too long and allowed that kid to put him on his back. We thought just give him the two points, take it into the third period and see what happens.”

Colby’s win secured the regional title for the Kats.

“We needed a lot of things to go right, but we didn’t have enough. But we’re happy with how the guys competed,” Patacsil said. “Our kids wrestled well. I’m just proud of them because we haven’t competed at the level we’ve had these last couple weekends all year. They’re putting it together. Yes we lost, but I thought there was a lot of good things come out of [Wednesday]. I’m hoping some of the kids that are wrestling this weekend realize, hey, we’re just as good as any of these other kids and the confidence level puts them in position that they win some matches this weekend.”

For the Berries against Kokomo, Daniel Dominguez (120 pounds) won by a 7-5 decision, Frank Martinez (132) won a 10-5 decision, Cody Clark (145) won by a 20-7 major decision, Chris Espinoza (152) won by pin in :31, Christensen won by pin and Ross Deitrich (285) won by pin in the first period.

Logan’s semifinal match against Harrison went down to the final match. The Berries held a 32-31 lead when Deitrich was locked into a good match with Luis Pena. Deitrich took an 11-8 lead early in the third period when he recorded a takedown and pin with 1:23 left in the match to give the Berries the seven-point win.

“It was an exciting match,” Patacsil said. “It was good for our team to win because Harrison won a tough sectional. We’re happy with that win, but it would have been nice to beat Kokomo and go to the state.”

Another highlight of that match was Logan’s Sheldon Corcoran (113) outlasting Gilbert Best 10-8 in overtime. He won on a thrilling takedown 43 seconds into the overtime session.

Also, Espinoza nearly got caught by Dulus Owen early but later on was able to record a pin in the second period.

Also for the Berries, Dominguez won a 12-6 decision, Ryan Schrock (126) won a 10-6 decision, Martinez won by an 18-1 tech fall, Christensen won by pin in 1:26 and Baber won by pin in 1:32 to set up Deitrich’s heroics.