12-02-2025
East Central, South Dearborn and Lawrenceburg send 16 wrestlers to IHSAA semi-state round
The Indiana High School Athletic Association boys wrestling season is in its penultimate postseason round with semi-states on Saturday, Feb. 15.
In the previous rounds, wrestlers from East Central, Lawrenceburg and South Dearborn battled at the Richmond regional to qualify. In total, 16 wrestlers from the three schools qualified, including 10 from regional champion East Central.
Semi-state qualifiers from the Richmond region will wrestle at 9 a.m. Feb. 15 at New Castle Fieldhouse. The top four wrestlers in each class advance to the state tournament on Feb. 21 and 22 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The East Central Trojans dominated the Richmond regional tournament, scoring 145 points as a team to clear runner-up Milan by 34.5 points.
East Central had wrestlers in 12 classes at regionals and 10 finished in the top four to advance. Nyden Euson at 150 pounds, Jaxsin Prater at 165 pounds and Brody Wingate at 175 pounds finished as regional champs. Tyler Stenger at 144 pounds was a regional runner-up, falling in a 13-5 decision to South Dearborn's Landon Walton in the finals.
Brogan Rullman, Isaac Hengehold, Brendin Kolter and Matthew Mittermeier qualified after finishing in third place while Cameron Kissel and Jaxon Fliehman placed fourth and moved on.
East Central also qualified 10 wrestlers to the semi-state round last season with none advancing to the state finals.
In the 144-pound regional, South Dearborn senior Landon Walton ran though the bracket with a 10-4 win in the opener and pinfall in the semifinal to set up a finals meeting with East Central's Tyler Stenger.
In the finals, Stenger was down 3-0 before getting a reversal and a two-point near fall to take a 4-3 lead in the second period. In the second, Walton retook a 6-4 lead into the third period on a takedown. Stenger escaped to begin the final period to make the match 6-5, but Walton secured the regional and a 13-5 win with a takedown and a four-point near fall.
With six wrestlers competing in the regional, all but one qualified for the semi-state with Walton being a champ. Cain Hopkins and Jayden Coy placed third at 113 and 120 pounds while 126-pounder Liam Hubbartt and 150-pounder Zander Schaefer placed fourth overall.
The performances scored South Dearborn 60.5 points to finish in seventh overall at Richmond.
Walton and Hubbartt were semi-state qualifiers last season, but neither advanced past the first round.
The final of the 16 local qualifiers came from Lawrenceburg in the 285-pound division. Heavyweight Seth Graham secured his spot in the semi-state after a 23-10 major decision in the quarterfinals against Northeastern's Matthew Henderson.
Graham was pinned in the semifinals and third-place match to finish in fourth with the next round qualification. Lawrenceburg's other two representatives fell in the first round.
Congratulations to Seth Graham! Seth finished 4th to advance to the IHSAA Wrestling Semi-State. Go Tigers!
— LHSTigersAthletics (@LburgTigers) February 9, 2025
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: East Central, South Dearborn, Lawrenceburg wrestlers reach semi-state
