Schnurpel, Smith advance as Pioneer takes 13th
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Winamac wrestling team advanced five wrestlers to semistate and finished fifth with out of 21 teams with 60 points at the Logansport regional Saturday.
Meanwhile, Pioneer scored 21 points and finished in 13th place. Peyton Schnurpel, who was third at 170, and Logan Smith, who was fourth at 182, advanced as individuals to semistate.
Rensselaer won the regional with 129 points, snapping Harrison (West Lafayette)’s streak of nine consecutive titles. The Raiders were second with 122 points.
Winamac
Winamac had no individual champions.
Phillip Crippin (152) and Caleb Good (170), both of whom won individual sectional titles at Twin Lakes one week earlier, advanced to semistate by finishing second in their respective weight classes. Freshman Austin Attinger was third at 113. Shaun Pratt (120) and Dakota Smith (195) both finished fourth.
Crippin lost to Harrison (West Lafayette)’s Tristen Hood by fall in 5:16 in the regional final. Crippin had advanced to the final with a 7-2 decision over Faith Christian’s Joe Ewing and a fall in 4:40 over Rensselaer’s Diego Hernandez-Reyes.
This was Crippin’s third career appearance in a regional and will be his first at a semistate.
Good pinned Delphi’s Baily Rucker in 5:32 in his ticket match and then beat Schnurpel 9-1 in the semifinals before losing to Harrison’s Ethan Popp 12-1 in the final.
This is Good’s first career semistate berth. He lost in the regional ticket round at 145 in 2020 and at 152 in 2021.
Attinger drew senior Eden Yang of Faith Christian and pinned him in 3:10 to clinch his semistate berth. He then lost by fall to North Newton’s Mikkel Cunningham in 3:53 in the semifinals before beating Lafayette Central Catholic’s Alex Thomas 7-0 in the third-place match.
Attinger could potentially face LaPorte’s Ashton Jackson, last year’s 106-pound state champ, in the semistate ticket round.
Pratt, a senior, pinned McCutcheon’s Drew Stall in 3:41 in his ticket match. He then lost to North White’s Liam Siburcrist 13-2 and North Newton’s Aidan Barron 8-7 to take fourth.
Pratt advanced to his second semistate. He also was third at 120 at the 2020 regional. Pratt will face fifth-ranked Hayden DeMarco of Chesterton in his first-round semistate match.
Dakota Smith, a senior, was making his third regional appearance and earned his first semistate berth when he pinned Harrison’s Brayden Conklin with 22 seconds left in the third period. He then lost by fall in 49 seconds to undefeated Connor Barket of West Lafayette in the semifinals before dropping a 6-2 decision to North White’s Selvin Portillo in the third-place match.
Winamac wrestlers who had their seasons end in the ticket round included Willis Dennis (126), who lost by fall to Attica’s Logan McClimans; Tyler Tankersley (145), who lost a 9-2 decision to Lafayette Central Catholic’s Andrew Kline; Brendan Day (160), who lost by fall in 3:17 to West Lafayette’s Valin Hedden; and Tyler Perry (182), who lost by fall in 2:50 to Delphi’s Kooper Kinsler.
“We wrestled well out of the gate and were ready to go,” Winamac coach Kullen Day said in an email to RTC. “I was impressed with the boys’ ability to handle some strange situations this week. Every wrestler came out aggressive and wrestled their best matches of the year. Some of the matches didn’t go our way. I am looking forward to taking this group to East Chicago, one of the toughest semistates in the state. I am so proud of this group of young men.”
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Winamac’s only regional wrestling title. Their fifth-place finish this year marked their best team performance in a regional in at least a decade.
Pioneer
Schnurpel earned his semistate spot when he pinned Faith Christian senior Sam Robinson in 1:15 in the ticket round. He then lost to Winamac’s Good in the semifinals before recovering to pin Rensselaer’s Andrew Ball in 38 seconds in his third-place match.
Smith came into the day with an undefeated record and maintained that mark when he pinned Carroll (Flora)’s Reed Humphreys in 1:51 in his ticket match. He then suffered his first loss to Harrison’s Josh McKelvin 6-4 in the semifinals and lost 5-4 to Attica’s Ray Townsend in the third-place match.
Schnurpel and Smith both earned their first career semistate berths. Both made the 2021 regional but were unable to compete due to a coronavirus-related quarantine.
Smith also made the 2020 regional but was unable to compete at the regional.
Smith will face second-ranked Orlando Cruz from Crown Point in his first-round match at semistate. Cruz was fifth at last year’s state finals at 160.
Meanwhile, sophomore Brandon Sterrett (132) lost in his ticket match to Harrison freshman Tiernen Tuttle by fall in 3:44.
East Chicago Central will host the semistate at 10 a.m. Eastern Saturday. Tickets are $10 for the final round only or $12 for an all-tournament ticket.
Logansport regional results: Rensselaer 129, Harrison (West Lafayette) 122, North Newton 73, West Lafayette 65, Winamac 60, McCutcheon 55.5, Lafayette Central Catholic 42, North White 42, West Central 40, Attica 36, Benton Central 26, Lafayette Jeff 23, Pioneer 21, Delphi 20, Frontier 16, Faith Christian 13, Carroll (Flora) 6, Logansport 0, Seeger 0, South Newton 0, Tri-County 0
Logansport regional individual champions
106 – Aiden Dallinger (McCutcheon), 113 – Mikkel Cunningham (North Newton), 120 – Caleb Oliver (Rensselaer), 126 – Drake Fritz (West Central), 132 – Mason Stanley (Rensselaer), 138 – Lakin Webb (Rensselaer), 145 – Andrew Kline (Lafayette Central Catholic), 152 – Tristen Hood (Harrison (West Lafayette)), 160 – Carlos Perez-Xochipa (Harrison (West Lafayette)), 170 – Ethan Popp (Harrison (West Lafayette)), 182 – Kooper Kinsler (Delphi), 195 – Connor Barket (West Lafayette), 220 – Jordan Cree (Rensselaer), HWT – Luke Amman (West Lafayette)
Winamac individual results
113 – Austin Attinger – third, 120 – Shaun Pratt – fourth, 126 – Willis Dennis – DNP, 145 – Tyler Tankersley – DNP, 152 – Phillip Crippin – second, 160 – Brendan Day – DNP, 170 – Caleb Good – second, 182 – Tyler Perry – DNP, 195 – Dakota Smith – fourth
Pioneer individual results
132 – Brandon Sterrett – DNP, 170 – Peyton Schnurpel – third, 182 – Logan Smith – fourth
Winamac semistate qualifiers and first-round semistate matches
113 – Austin Attinger vs. Matthew Maldonado (Merrillville)
120 – Shaun Pratt vs. Hayden DeMarco (Chesterton)
152 – Phillip Crippin vs. Noah Salary (LaPorte)
170 – Caleb Good vs. Jaxson Cooper Walters (Warsaw)
195 – Dakota Smith vs. Justin Sawyer (Hobart)
Pioneer semistate qualifiers and first-round semistate matches
170 – Peyton Schnurpel vs. Cameron Zimmerman (Wawasee)
182 – Logan Smith vs. Orlando Cruz (Crown Point)
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