Pioneer finishes 9th at Twin Lakes sectional, but Guffey, Sterrett, Baker advance to regional

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Wrestling

The Pioneer wrestling team scored 72.5 points to finish ninth out of nine teams at the Twin Lakes sectional Saturday.

Rensselaer won the title with 247.5 points, 70.5 more than runner-up West Central.

Pioneer had three wrestlers advance to the Logansport regional by finishing in the top four in their weight class. They included Eli Guffey, who was third at 144; Brandon Sterrett, who was fourth at 150; and Colton Baker, who was fourth at 215.

Guffey started with a fall in 3:07 over Tri-County’s Joshua Delgado before losing by fall in 2:22 to West Central’s Ezra Rodriguez. In the wrestlebacks, he won a 4-0 decision over Benton Central’s Kaleb Wallace, pinned Logansport’s Diego Torres in 4:21 in his ticket match and then pinned Twin Lakes’ Colton Robertson in 59 seconds in the third-place match.

Sterrett, who was the No. 2 seed and received a bye, pinned Frontier’s Sam McFadden in 1:36 before losing by fall to Logansport’s Issiah Guajardo in 4:58 in the semifinals. He then earned his regional ticket with a fall in 2:08 over Twin Lakes' Jesse Ward before dropping an 8-4 decision to Benton Central’s Caleb Kewlewski in the third-place match.

Baker lost his first match to Logansport’s Oniel Reyes 13-2 but fought his way back through the wrestlebacks. He pinned West Central’s Chloe Auxier in 1:29 and North White’s Noah Mossholder in 27 seconds before losing by fall in 4:05 to Rensselaer’s Brock Robinson in the third-place match.

Twin Lakes wrestling sectional results Saturday: Rensselaer 247.5, West Central 177, Logansport 163, Benton Central 159.5, North White 129, Tri-County 106.5, Twin Lakes 93.5, Frontier 76, Pioneer 72.5

Pioneer results

106 – forfeit, 113 – forfeit, 120 – forfeit, 126 – Cole Franklin – DNP, 132 – Kevin Gluth – sixth, 138 – Hunter Stover – DNP, 144 – Eli Guffey – third, 150 – Brandon Sterrett – fourth, 157 – Eli Nicoll – fifth, 165 – Noah Van Meter – fifth, 175 – Tyler Zellers – DNP, 190 – Tyler Schnurpel – sixth, 215 – Colton Baker – fourth, HWT – Hunter Lesher – DNP

Twin Lakes sectional individual champions

106 – Kolby Robinson (Rensselaer), 113 – Beck Doughty (Rensselaer), 120 – Nathan Peter (West Central), 126 – Liam Siburcrist (North White), 132 – Hayden Fritz (West Central), 138 – Drake Fritz (West Central), 144 – Avery Stanley (Rensselaer), 150 – Isaiah Guajardo (Logansport), 157 – Larz Hughes (Rensselaer), 165 – Eli Quasebarth (North White), 175 – Griffin Prickel (Frontier), 190 – Zach Gilger (West Central), 215 – Oniel Reyes (Logansport), HWT – Jackson Bunch (Benton Central)

Pioneer regional ticket matches

144 – Eli Guffey vs. Nolan Richards (Harrison (West Lafayette))

150 – Brandon Sterrett vs. Boden Rice (Attica)

215 – Colton Baker vs. Cole Chicoine (McCutcheon)