By BEAU WICKER
Brandon Preston’s defense of his regional title wasn’t going as planned.
The Logansport junior was trailing Benton Central’s Alec Weise 8-0 late in the second period of their 112-pound title match and the situation was looking dire.
“I knew I was down, and I was ‘like I’m not going to lose this,’” Preston said.
Preston then recorded a reversal, got his opponent in a headlock and got a pin in a matter of mere seconds for a quick turnaround of fate to win his second-straight regional championship.
“I just kept fighting and I found an opening and got the pin,” he said. “The guy who goes harder wins it.”
“When you win matches when you don’t wrestle your best,” Logan coach Frank Patacsil said, “you’re doing the right things. So we’ll address some of those issues in practice this week, but he wrestles an entire six-minute match and sometimes things don’t go your way for awhile and it takes a little bit of time to get things going. And he was fortunate enough [Saturday] that he was able to catch that kid and get a pin.”
Preston (37-5) was one of several area wrestlers who recorded a top-four finish at Saturday’s Logansport Regional to advance to next week’s Merrillville Semistate.
Delphi 189-pounder Braden Atwood was dominant in winning his fourth straight regional title. The Purdue recruit took just over five minutes of mat time to win his three matches and improve to 41-0 on the season.
Delphi sophomore Tanner Lynde (152) won his second straight regional title and improved to 40-1.
Advancing with Preston for Logansport were sophomore Frank Martinez (135) with a third-place finish and seniors Derrick McQuiston (189) and Kegan Clark (heavyweight) with fourth-place finishes.
“Overall, I’m happy for those kids,” Patacsil said. “We thought we could get a couple more in. We lost a couple close matches the first round but sometimes that’s the way it goes. We’re gonna get back at it Monday and get these guys coached up and ready to go next week.”
Pioneer advanced four wrestlers, three of whom finished runner-up. A defending regional champion, junior Owen Dorris (37-7), was defeated by Lafayette Jeff’s Adrian Brown by fall in 4:31 in their 140-pound title match. Sophomore Justin Johnson (36-6) was defeated by Jeff’s Taylor Draper by a 14-9 decision in their 119-pound title match. Junior Nathan Nethercutt (30-6) was defeated by 36-0 Ryne Bell of South Newton by a 10-1 decision in their 171-pound title match. Also advancing for Pioneer was junior Aaron Wagoner, who placed fourth at 145.
“All of them wrestled really well the first two rounds, even Wags who got beat, I thought wrestled really well,” Pioneer coach Chuck LaDow said. “Then in the finals, I don’t know. I kind of take ownership. I don’t think I had Dorris mentally ready to wrestle. I still think he can be the best wrestler. But they wrestled great to be where they are and we lived to fight another day. Next weekend we’ll see who can get out.
“Justin Johnson, I thought he wrestled great. He was one minute away from being the champ at 119. So he’s finally getting the corner turned at the right time, hopefully peaking at the right time.”
Cass senior Derrick Worden (33-4) was defeated by Harrison’s Cameron Vlahos (48-1) by fall in 2:19 in their 160-pound title match.
“Derrick did outstanding. I thought he wrestled the best he has all year,” Cass coach Nate Burrous said. “The Vlahos kid is obviously is no slouch. ... He wrestles all year around. I think he signed with Purdue along with Atwood.”
Winamac had two wrestlers advance, Quentin Chapman (140) and Zac Dix (heavyweight), with third-place finishes. Dix (33-3) was defeated by eventual champ Hector Huizar of Harrison by pin in 3:10 in their semifinal match.
“He thought he should have taken that one, and he should have,” Winamac coach Chad Compton said. “I know they’ve been working real hard about how to beat Zac, and having the Van Der Aas coaching, they know a lot about him because they’ve coached him a lot, so they knew his weaknesses. I was hoping to maybe get around some of that stuff, but [Huizar] ended up pulling a close one out, getting Zac on his back.”
Caston senior David McMenamin (145) placed third and junior Wil Holloway (130) placed fourth to advance.
“They wrestled pretty decent. They had some stiff competition in their weight classes,” Caston coach Dave Redweik said.
Also for Delphi, senior Nathan McTigue (130) advanced with a runner-up finish, losing his title match to Harrison’s Forest Son by a 5-4 decision. Senior Brandon Delaney (171) and junior Roy Anderson (215) placed third, and junior Dayton Rumell (160) placed fourth.
