By Stu Swartz
It was a Saturday of should haves and could haves for Goshen High School’s wrestling Redskins.
Goshen came within a whisker of winning its first Northern Lakes Conference tournament championship in 11 years.
Instead, Elkhart Memorial captured its ninth consecutive title by nipping the Redskins 219-216 at the NorthWood “Panther Pit” in Nappanee.
Northridge finished third with 142 points, followed by Plymouth 131, Warsaw 129, Wawasee 122, Concord 118 and NorthWood 73.
Goshen’s effort was highlighted by individual championships from Austin Maynard at 112 pounds, Francisco Garcia at 160 and Brandon Daniels at 215.
Steven Ross of Concord won at 119 pounds, Nestor Ruizvelasco of Concord at 130, Bobby Marcucilli of Wawasee at 135 and Joey Melendez of Wawasee at 171,
The Redskins had five runnersup with four of those losing one-point championship decisions, two in overtime.
GHS coach Jim Pickard said, “It’s disappointing to come so close and lose. We won 21 dual meets this season, but I still feel like we haven’t won anything in terms of championships.
“To me, we wrestled very flat in this tournament. We lost some close matches and didn’t get some points in areas we should have. We have some injuries, but so does everyone else.
“All three of our champions wrestled well and it was nice to have eight guys in finals.”
Goshen gets one last chance at a championship next Saturday with the sectional tournament at Memorial. The individual regional is Feb. 6 at Goshen.
The sectional figures to be strong with Jimtown, Elkhart Central and Fairfield all having quality wrestlers to blend in with those from Goshen, Northridge, Concord, Memorial and NorthWood.
Bryce Hershberger of NorthWood was third and Anthony Datena of Concord fourth at 103 pounds; Devin Puckett of Northridge second and Dalton Campbell of Concord third at 112; Gary Houser of Northridge second at 119; Fulvio DeSantiago of Concord second, Zack Worcel of Goshen third and Zach Rhymer of NorthWood fourth at 125.
Chase Anglemyer of NorthWood was third and Jake Kenny of Northridge fourth at 130; Travis Pickard of Goshen fourth at 135; Ryan Ntende of Goshen second and Raul Rodriguez of Wawasee fourth at 140; Andrew Stegelmann of Goshen third and Eric Miller of Northridge fourth at 145.
Troy Pickard of Goshen was second and Chris Hogendobler of Concord third at 152; Mack White of Northridge second at 160; J.B. Singer of Goshen second and Jason Miller of Northridge third at 171; Brandon Dillenbeck of Goshen second at 189; Jake Jones of Wawasee third and Rollie White of Northridge fourth at 215; Jacob Clark of Goshen second and Matt Maher of Northridge third at 285.
Goshen’s Maynard won by major decision, 21-8, at 112 in his finale with the Raiders’ Puckett.
Garcia won by default at 160 over Northridge’s White who left the mat with an elbow injury.
Daniels was a 5-0 winner in the 215 title contest over Shane Hendrickson of Memorial.
