Brewer comes up short, county wrestlers struggle at regional

By CAINE GARDNER

Sports Writer

MOORESVILLE -- 13 seconds.

That is all that stood in the way of North Putnam wrestler B.J. Brewer and a slot in the IHSAA Wrestling Semi-State tournament. Injury and a grueling rematch against sectional opponent Trevor Morgan halted Brewer's charge.

It was a rough day altogether for Putnam County wrestlers, as nine of 10 qualifiers fell in the first round.

Brewer found himself competing for third place after picking up a first round victory over Merrick Heitkamp, then was defeated by eventually regional champ Briar Runyan in his second match.

In the consolation round, Brewer and Morgan went at each other like two caged animals. At one point Brewer slammed hard against the scorers table and then moments later hit the deck hard out of bounds. During the battle, Brewer suffered an injury to his chin that required the match to be stopped twice through its duration.

"It was great -- an outstanding match," North Putnam head coach Kenny Kerns said.

Outstanding would be an understatement.

Brewer held a 7-6 advantage as the clock ticked away but with 13 second left Morgan leaped into the air after which he shot Brewer and managed to reverse him to gain two points to win the match.

When asked after the match about the 'jump', Kerns thought it played no part in the contests outcome.

"No it didn't bother B.J.," he said. "He's so focused the guy could have done cartwheels and it wouldn't have bothered him."

Brewer talked after the match about his advancement in the tournament and acknowledged the injury but said it was a non-factor.

"It definitely feels good because I know how big these other schools are," Brewer said. "It's obviously a big challenge and I'm proud I could do my best.

"I thought it went well. At sectional I lost but I rebounded from that in practice. I realized that his weakness was shooting on him, so I started shooting on him and really took that to him. I was ahead but he had enough energy to pull one last trick out and I couldn't get around it," brewer commented.

North Putnam's Jim Davis and Josh Keyt both fell in the first round.

Greencastle wrestlers Brian Winslow, Jacob Wright and Kyle Buchanan all fell to their first round match-up but head coach Matt McComish was nothing but positive thing to say about his team after the match.

"I know they're disappointed and I am as well, but we have to learn from it and keep working," McComish said. "They're all coming back next year; we have everybody from our team coming back so I'm looking forward to next season.

"As a team, we came a long way and we still have a lot of things we need to improve on but looking at us from the beginning of the year until now, we've come a lot farther that I thought we would. We've done a good job," McComish said.

With the season at it ends, McComish and his GHS team moves its focus to next season. He commented on how he hopes off-season workouts for other sports and sticking to their conditioning program will benefit the team for next season.

South Putnam head coach Todd Crosby was also looking ahead to next season as his trio of Antonio Hernandez, Seth Green and Chris Hurst bowed out early of Saturday's competition. In the competition, two wrestlers fell in their first round match-ups while one failed to make weight.

Although his wrestlers came up short, Crosby was proud of them making it to regional and the effort they put forth during their matches.

"It felt good," Crosby said. "I was pretty impressed, you have a junior and a sophomore, so they should be able to get back here next year. I feel bad for Seth (Green) it was his last match. He looked pretty good; he had a No. 1 seed kid and wrestled well against him.

"I was happy also that we had a lot of guys come out to cheer them on and support them, so I'm looking forward to next year," Crosby said.

Echoing the sentiment of his colleagues, Crosby hopes to have his team hitting the mat and getting more exposure to more experienced wrestling programs.

Cloverdale wrestler Lee Secrest rounded out the Putnam County representative at regional. Secrest fell to Shelby Mappes in the first round of competition. Mappes qualified for semi-state by finishing in second place.

"This kid (Mappes) is pretty tough," CHS head coach Brian Siddons said. "It's always disappointing to lose but he stayed in there the whole match, fought off his back a few times out of tough positions.

"Hopefully we'll be here next year and have a better showing. They're going to do a lot of wrestling club stuff so they are going to have a lot of opportunities for summer wrestling. Hopefully we'll see a big improvement there," Siddons concluded.

At Mooresville

Individual results

(County wrestlers only)

First round

103 -- Raley (Indian Creek) def. Winslow (GHS)

130 -- Hernandez (weight)

135 -- Vanhorn (Franklin) def. Green (SP)

152 -- Brewer (NP) def. Heitkamp (Danville)

160 -- Mappes (Center Grove) def. Secrest (CHS)

189 -- Vires (Center Grove) def. Jacob Wright (GHS)

189 -- Waters (Greenwood) def. Davis (NP)

215 -- Mathews (Franklin) def. Buchanan (GHS)

215 -- Vandeman (Whiteland) def. Keyt

285 -- Lane (Franklin) def. Hurst (SP)

Second round

152 -- Runyan (Martinsville) def. Brewer (NP)

Consolation round

152 -- Morgan (Plainfield) def. Brewer (NP)