Rochester holds off N. Miami, wins McKee Invite
- Val T.
- 2 hours ago
- 8 min read
T. Horn, L. Horn, Beck, Shotts win individual titles
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Rochester boys wrestling team poses with the trophy after winning the Rochester John McKee Memorial Invitational Saturday. Rochester scored 258 points. Runner-up North Miami had 247.5.
The Rochester boys wrestling team held off North Miami at the Rochester John McKee Memorial Invitational at the RHS gym Saturday.
Will there be a rematch at Team State Duals?
Rochester won their annual home tournament with 258 points. North Miami was second with 247.5.
Among other area teams in the 17-team tournament, Culver was 11th with 54 points, and Caston was 13th with 32.5.
Rochester’s individual champions included Tanner Horn (113), Layne Horn (132), Brant Beck (165) and Kale Shotts (175). Three other wrestlers – Braxton Hester (106), Mason Hisey (215) and Declan Gard (HWT) – made it to the finals and lost.
North Miami also had four individual champions in Braylon McIntire (120), Rex Moore (126), Jordan Simon (190) and Hartley Hoover (215), but they only had two second-place finishers.
Both teams had three third-place finishers.
Rochester coach Tristan Wilson challenged his wrestlers to get bonus points, especially in the place rounds.
“Team-wise we weren’t up that much,” Wilson said. “I called them all in, and we had a big talk as a team. ‘Hey, we need to go out here and score bonus points – not just win but score bonus points.’ And every single wrestler that wrestled for a medal beside first and second all won and won with bonus points. Grant Holloway wrestled the Bremen kid (Colin Moats) and won 6-2 and was really frustrated after the match. He wrestled that same kid for third and fourth and tech falled him. That’s for the team. That’s a really big deal to all of us. We have kids that are willing to wrestle for the team, to get tired for the team and to put themselves in the best positions to win for the team.”
Tanner Horn and Layne Horn are brothers but seemingly have different styles. Tanner Horn is more slippery and hard for opponents to square up. Layne Horn, ranked No. 4 in the state according to IndianaMat.com, comes at opponents with an offensive onslaught from the top position.
Tanner went 3-0 with a fall and two decisions on the day. That included a win over the previously undefeated Hunter Duncan of North Miami in the semifinals and a 5-1 win over Concord’s Anakin Borkholder in the final.
He said that Saturday was his best day ever in wrestling.
“I’m more of a defensive wrestler,” Tanner said. “I’ve been trying to work on my offense though and getting to be more of an offensive wrestler. … This is definitely a good feeling. I felt really successful. … I have really high goals, and I really just want to complete them: Make it to state and be that state qualifier. Place top two at the semistate and be just all those guys that they talk about.”
Meanwhile, Layne Horn’s day included three falls and a technical fall. He finished his day with a fall in 1:19 over Bremen’s Raylon Moats in the final.
Beck’s day included two first-period falls and a 19-4 technical fall in the final over Wabash sophomore Adrian
Haughn. Beck is ranked No. 2 and Haughn is No. 17. Beck also beat Haughn at the Three Rivers Conference Super Duals at Maconaquah Dec. 6, and another potential meeting could occur at the TRC tournament at Maconaquah Jan. 24.
Shotts won his first three matches by technical fall but gave up the first takedown to Culver’s Theron Carrington when Carrington somehow defended Shotts after Shotts lifted him off the ground.
The match was tied 6-6 in the third period before Shotts got a takedown and then pinned Carrington’s shoulders to the mat with a headlock with 14 seconds left. The loss was Carrington’s first of the season. Shotts said he wrestled in some Greco-Roman tournaments this summer, and he worked on that move a lot.
“He was super strong, probably the strongest kid I’ve ever wrestled,” Shotts said of Carrington. “And he’s just got that mentality. He’s good. It’s a mindset.”
Shotts, a junior, was a regional qualifier in 2024 but chose not to wrestle last year. He said he has learned to love it again.
“I really just hated it my freshman year,” Shotts said. “And I started off the season (last year), and I just hated it, so I just needed a break. This year, I wrestled in the offseason. I wrestled freestyle, and I started loving it again. I just regained my passion. … I went to a bunch of camps.”
Gard, ranked No. 4, pinned his first two opponents in the first period but lost a 10-4 decision to Elkhart’s Kyle Sommer in the final. After a scoreless first period, Gard got an escape to start the second period. He shot towards Sommer’s leg to try and increase his lead, but Sommer defended it and got a takedown.
Gard got a reversal to make it 3-3 after the second period, but Sommer was in the driver’s seat. He got an escape to start the third period and then a takedown to go up 7-3. Gard escaped and tried another shot, but Sommer defended that and got another takedown to close it out.
“I don’t think the Elkhart kid did much in the match except just kind of wait around,” Wilson said. “When Declan shot in on the leg and the kid scooted over, I’m not sure if that was a
takedown, but then they wrestled through it, and then they said alright, it was a takedown, and they gave him the reversal right after while he still had the leg. And then after that, you’re just playing catch-up against a kid that’s not going to do much and didn’t really do much. It’s hard to break that barrier against a big, strong kid like that. Hats off to him – great wrestling, good defense. That’s not what I’m saying, but when you’re trying to chase someone down like that, it’s pretty hard to do.”
Hester, a freshman, got two falls before losing by technical fall 20-3 to Clinton Prairie’s Parker Boyles in the final.
Hisey handed Concord’s Elias Santiago just his second loss in 15 bouts when he beat him 16-6 in the quarters. His other two wins came by fall. But his championship quest ended with a loss by fall in 50 seconds to North Miami’s sixth-ranked Hartley Hoover in the final.
In addition to Holloway, Jackson Robbins (120) and Derek Wortley (190) also took third.
Robbins, ranked No. 23, lost to No. 8 Braylon McIntire of North Miami 11-6 in the semifinals but bounced back to pin Culver Academy’s Grey Linvill and Elkhart’s Landon Norman to take third.
Wortley lost to West Noble’s Brogan Parks 15-5 in the semifinals but came back to pin Cowan’s Jack Johnson and then beat Bremen’s Derek Miller 11-2 in the third-place match.
Caston
Caston forfeited six weight classes. Their two placers included Ashton Bowyer, who was fifth at 138, and Kane Finke, who was seventh at 165.
Bowyer went 3-2 on the day, finishing with a tech fall of Bremen’s Miles Greene in the fifth-place match.
Finke went 3-2 with two pins. He held off West Noble’s Bradley Lecount in the seventh place match, building a 15-1 lead before hanging on to win 16-9.
Culver
Kale Buschman went into the tournament seeded No. 1 at 144 and finished second after losing by fall in 5:11 to Concord’s Brycen Brosamer. Brosamer was winning 11-1 at the time of the fall. Buschman pinned West Noble’s Ian Zayaga and Eastern (Greentown)’s Noah Zook to get to the final.
The loss was Buschman’s first of the season in 17 matches.
Carrington, a regional qualifier last year, won three matches by fall before his loss to Shotts.
Xander Samuelson (120) and Izaya Vela (HWT) were the other Culver placers, finishing eighth.
Behling remains out
Rochester senior Braddock Behling remains out with an unspecified injury. He is the reigning regional champion at 150.
“We’re still working through it,” Wilson said. “We thought he was a lot healthier than what he was. He woke up today not feeling great, so there’s no point in risking it right now.”
150 was the only weight class that Rochester forfeited Saturday.
Rochester receives invitation to Team State Duals
Rochester was one of five schools that received an invitation to the Class 1A Team State Duals Sunday. Given their No. 2 ranking in Class 1A, per IndianaMat, this was widely expected.
Franklin Community High School will host the tournament Jan. 10.
North Miami, ranked No. 3, is the defending state champion. Rochester won it two years ago. Southmont is currently ranked No. 1.
Northfield, Madison-Grant, Rossville and top-ranked Southmont also got “vote-in” bids. Adams Central, Alexandria, Eastside, Milan, North Miami, Rensselaer and South Adams received automatic bids.
Wilson praises ‘further along’ Rochester girls after TRC title
The Rochester girls wrestling team won seven of the 14 weight classes and won the team title at the inaugural TRC tournament at the RHS gym Friday.
Wilson said the team recovered from a slow start.
“They wrestled OK,” Wilson said. “They are further along than what a lot of other teams are in our area right now, but I wouldn’t classify them as wrestling really well. They have a lot of positions that they need to work through. They have a lot of mental battles that they need to work through. They did a really good job of bouncing back, but in those first couple rounds, it wasn’t looking so hot at first. But they did bounce back and they wrestled well after, so that says a lot about them. They’re really gearing up for sectionals in a couple weeks, so that’s a large part of the focus.
“It was awesome to host the first TRC girls conference (tournament). It’s good to see the sport growing.”
Individual conference champions included Lilly Gerald (105), Serenity Howard (115), Kyra Doran (120), Madelyn MacLain (125), Makenna McKee (130), Elise Enyart (145) and Laine Peppler (170).
The Lady Zs will travel to Warsaw for a dual Tuesday. Their sectional is at Columbia City Jan. 2.
ROCHESTER JOHN MCKEE MEMORIAL INVITATIONAL RESULTS SATURDAY: ROCHESTER 258, North Miami 247.5, Concord 195.5, Hamilton Heights 146, Wabash 142, Bremen 121.5, Eastern (Greentown) 121, West Noble 107.5, Elkhart 83, Triton 71.5, CULVER 54, Clinton Prairie 48.5, CASTON 32.5, Cowan 27, Culver Academy 25, Northwestern 11, Manchester 5
ROCHESTER INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
106 – Braxton Hester – second, 113 – Tanner Horn – CHAMPION, 120 – Jackson Robbins – third, 126 – Grant Holloway – third, 132 – Layne Horn – CHAMPION, 138 – Ayden Smith – seventh, 144 – Caden Biernacki – DNP, 150 – forfeit, 157 – Clarence Garrett – fifth, 165 – Brant Beck – CHAMPION, 175 – Kale Shotts – CHAMPION, 190 – Derek Wortley – third, 215 – Mason Hisey – second, HWT – Declan Gard – second
CULVER INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
106 – forfeit, 113 – forfeit, 120 – Xander Samuelson – eighth, 126 – forfeit, 132 – forfeit, 138 – forfeit, 144 – Kael Buschman – second, 150 – Dillon Tanner – DNP, 157 – forfeit, 165 – forfeit, 175 – Theron Carrington – second, 190 – forfeit, 215 – forfeit, HWT – Izaya Vela – eighth
CASTON INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
106 – forfeit, 113 – forfeit, 120 – forfeit, 126 – forfeit, 132 – Jack Brumett – DNP, 138 – Ashton Bowyer – fifth, 144 – Daulton Oaf – DNP, 150 – Gabe Burkett-Rader – DNP, 157 – Cayman Brown – DNP, 165 – Kane Finke – seventh, 175 – Myles Sherrick – DNP, 190 – Carson Hamann – DNP, 215 – forfeit, HWT – forfeit
ROCHESTER JOHN MCKEE MEMORIAL INVITATIONAL INDIVIDUAL CHAMPS
106 – Parker Boyles (Clinton Prairie), 113 – Tanner Horn (Rochester), 120 – Braylon McIntire (North Miami), 126 – Rex Moore (North Miami), 132 – Layne Horn (Rochester), 138 – Gavin Christman (West Noble), 144 – Brycen Brosamer (Concord), 150 – Joe Button (West Noble), 157 – Simon Kuhn (Hamilton Heights), 165 – Brant Beck (Rochester), 175 – Kale Shotts (Rochester), 190 – Jordan Simon (North Miami), 215 – Hartley Hoover (North Miami), HWT – Kyle Sommer (Elkhart)
