Peru wrestling beats Rochester on tiebreaker

Zebras get 6 falls in conference, sectional preview

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The people who attended the wrestling dual between Peru and Rochester Tuesday did not want to leave as soon as it ended.

It wasn’t because there were many memorable moments they wanted to relive, though perhaps there were a few.

It was because they had no idea who won.

After coaches consulted with the official who worked the dual and the scorebook, Peru coach Andy Hobbs started clapping his hands and walked back to his bench, and Rochester coach Clint Gard walked away less enthused.

There was no announcement over the public address microphone, so spectators had to use the coaches’ body language as their guide.

Peru had been awarded a bonus point to break a tie based on the most-first-points-scored criteria and a 40-39 win.

Peru scored first in eight matches while the Zebras had scored first in six. This is 10th on the list of criteria that the National Federation of State High School Associations uses to break ties in dual meets.

Ethan Holloway (113), Colin Weiand (152), Noah Swango (160), Kaleb Shaffer (182), Brady Beck (220) and Marshall Fishback (HWT) won by fall for RHS. Alex Deming (170) won by decision.

Peru also had six falls and a decision. Since neither team had a forfeit, a technical fall, a major decision, a decision or any sportsmanship violations, it came down to most-first-points-scored.

Rochester should have competed harder in some of the matches they lost, according to coach Clint Gard.

“I don’t feel like our kids fought very hard in some matches,” Gard said. “We’re kinda laying on our belly and hoping things will happen for us. It just doesn’t work that way. You have to continue to make stuff happen.”

RHS trailed 27-6 at one point but won four straight matches from 152 to 182 and eventually tied the match 27-27.

The most pleasant surprise during that run might have been Weiand, whose win was needed with semistate qualifier Wade Shafer out due to contact tracing.

“I was very happy with the way he wrestled,” Gard said. “That was big for a freshman to step in for Wade and be able to get a fall for us and obviously keep us in the dual.”

Deming and Shaffer flip-flopped weight classes – Deming typically wrestles at 182 and Shaffer at 170 – because Gard thought that would lead to favorable matchups.

Deming trailed 1-0 after two periods but received two penalty points and a takedown and eventually won 4-1.

Shaffer turned his opponent at the 2:59 mark for a fall.

Eli Swango lost by fall to Levi Strong at 195, but Beck used a hammer lock to turn his opponent, and Fishback needed only 2:18 to win his match.

But Peru’s Jalen May won by fall in 17 seconds at 106 in the day’s final match to tie the match at 39. Thus began the look at tiebreaker criteria.

Peru was the first Three Rivers Conference opponent to beat the Zebras. RHS already owns dual meet wins over Manchester, Wabash, Northfield, North Miami and Whitko, and they finished ahead of Tippecanoe Valley at the Rochester John McKee Memorial Invitational on Dec. 19.

So Peru might be the RHS’ biggest obstacle to a TRC title when the conference meet is held at Maconaquah on Jan. 23.

“Peru’s a stalling team,” Gard said. “They’re not very offensive. They just want to put you in positions where you get frustrated, and then you make a mistake, and we fall into that instead of staying the course. We just don’t teach wrestling that way. They’ve got to do what’s best for their team. We’ll keep plugging away, and now we’ve got something to look forward to for conference, and I’m excited about that. It’s good.”

RESULTS: PERU 40, ROCHESTER 39

(match started at 113)

106 – Jalen May (PERU) def. Tyler Wolfe (RHS), fall, 0:17

113 – Ethan Holloway (RHS) def. Conner Shaffer (PERU), fall, 3:07

120 – Cole Sailors (PERU) def. Joey Spencer (RHS), fall, 1:16

126 – Cooper Baldwin (PERU) def. Aaron Swango (RHS), 6-3

132 – Cameron Baber (PERU) def. Mitchell Shafer (RHS), fall, 4:39

138 – Alex Legg (PERU) def. Nathaniel Beck (RHS), fall, 2:52

145 – Kayden Gee (PERU) def. Greyson Gard (RHS), fall, 3:19

152 – Colin Weiand (RHS) def. Kadyn Lancaster (PERU), fall, 3:13

160 – Noah Swango (RHS) def. Arthur Dominique (PERU), fall, 3:06

170 – Alex Deming (RHS) def. Chase Seifert (PERU), 4-1