Moses Howard will enter his first regional tournament this weekend at Goshen. (Photo by Mike Deak)

It’s a simple formula and pretty easy to understand:

Win = You’re In

It’s that easy. Win the first matchup at Saturday’s Goshen Regional and the ticket will be punched to the Fort Wayne Semi-state. But as easy as it is to say, it’s not going to be that easy to do.

Brackets are out for the regional round of the IHSAA Wrestling State Tournament, and Wawasee will have eight competitors aiming to continue their season at least one more week. Six of those are looking for their first semi-state appearance: Cylus Melching (106), Garrett Tittle (113), Isaac Ruff (126), Cavan Tom (144), Moses Howard (165) and Derek Morrison (215). Add on retribution campaigns for Cameron Senter at 120 and Ethan Rodriguez at 150, and Wawasee has plenty of motivation, but has no guarantees by any measure.

Action at Goshen begins at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, with results updating live on Track Wrestling. Here’s where each of the eight Warriors are placed, and who they have to beat:

106 – Cylus Melching (13-8) vs Lakeland’s Remington Waldron (27-14)
Notes: Melching is on the upswing in his freshman season, having cracked the varsity roster full time in January and is now a win away from a semi-state berth. Melching recovered from a first-round loss to rally for third after three straight wins at Elkhart, and will face the Waldron kid who wrestled just once before reaching the final at West Noble, only to get pinned after a minute of work.

113 – Garrett Tittle (21-15) vs Central Noble’s Charlie Fleshman (36-2)
Notes: To be fair, Tittle backdoored into the regional with an 0-2 mark at the sectional, but the forfeits from the bracket worked in his favor. Tittle lost 5-2 and 9-6 in close decisions in his two matches, so it wasn’t a wash for the Wawasee sophomore who also had two forfeit advancers. Tittle draws one of the top 13s in the state in Fleshman, who looked very clinical in a tech fall and major decision championship run. An upset for Tittle would see either Grant Gill of Fairfield or Brayden Baas of Prairie Heights, those two with a combined 57 wins this season and both have a win over Tittle this season.

120 – Cameron Senter (32-5) vs Fremont’s Korbyn Haifley (27-14)
Notes: The 120 bracket has the feel of a top-heavy group, with Senter one of the headliners. His matchup with Haifley should provide some rigidity from the Fremont freshman, but Senter has all the tools in his bag to get back to his third semi-state in as many tries. Senter had two tech falls before losing to Cole Carper of Jimtown in the final seconds of the championship match at Elkhart. A semi-finals matchup against Lakeland’s Qwenell Gabriel, who has 38 wins this season, is a real possibility with a Carper rematch totally in the cards.

126 – Isaac Ruff (18-19) vs Angola’s Kameron Straw (33-5)
Notes: Ruff’s freshman roller coaster ride continued last weekend, losing by pin, winning by pin and losing by decision in his three matches. It’s been that kind of season for Ruff, who has had some great moments mixed in with some rookie bumps. He’ll need another banner moment if he wants to make the semi-state, drawing West Noble Sectional 126 champion, Kameron Straw, who was solid in his championship march including a back-and-forth decision to beat East Noble’s Dane Pippenger, one of the top 26’s in the area.

144 – Cavan Tom (29-7) vs East Noble’s Conner Tarr (10-10)
Notes: These two did not face off against each other at the dual meet in early January. Tom was physically out that evening and Tarr was wrestling in the JV matches, which he lost to Kingston Sanchez in a major decision. Tom comes in with a lot of momentum, grinding and grappling his way to his first sectional championship after a very disappointing finish at the NLC the week prior. Tom has won 10 matches since January began, matching the total Tarr has won all season. There is a reasonable path for Tom to make the finals, where he could rematch with Prairie Heights’ Brody Hagewood, who is a state finalist and rolled through everyone at West Noble.

150 – Ethan Rodriguez (32-5) vs Fremont’s Dominic Crain (31-9)
Notes: It feels like this should be a run through for Rodriguez, but after the past two weekends, nothing is guaranteed. In each of the past two tournaments, Rodriguez has fallen to Concord’s Drew Trigg in the championship round, and while Trigg is on the bottom half of the draw, Rodriguez can’t take Crain lightly anticipating a rematch. The lone Wawasee senior to advance from the sectional is trying to get back to the semi-state for the second straight season, but Crain comes into the regional having scored 38 mat points in his last two matches and had a pin to open his tournament. Dallas Davidson of Angola likely awaits in the semis, which Rodriguez pinned in the December Duals, and even a fourth matchup with Trigg isn’t guaranteed as the bottom half of the bracket is loaded with Jordan Klumpp of Prairie Heights and Matthew Senn of Fairfield are matched up opposite Trigg and Blayne Koch of DeKalb.

165 – Moses Howard (18-11) vs East Noble’s Rylee Biddle (32-5)
Notes: Howard, another of the bright, young freshmen core for the Warriors, may have drawn the toughest assignment in the 165-pound bracket. Biddle was expected by many, if not everyone outside of the West Noble camp, to blow through the 65 bracket in Ligonier. But Biddle was left stunned and dejected after losing to West Noble’s Teegan Clouse in the championship match in the final second of a first period pin, and will be on a mission. Biddle was ranked third in the Fort Wayne Semi-state and Howard better be on notice. To Howard’s credit, after an overwhelming loss to eventual champion Chance McCollough in the semis, Howard returned to win his next two matches to go 3-1 in his first sectional.

215 – Derek Morrison (30-4) vs East Noble’s Tayden Getts (3-1)
Notes: Morrison comes into the regional round where most expected after placing second to undefeated Travis Henke of Northridge. The two headline quite a list of combatants for the 215 regional lineup, where Morrison opens against a Getts kid who just started his season last weekend at the sectional. Getts came back to finish third after losing in the first round, while Morrison won his first two matches before the Henke loss, the semi-finals a tough 4-1 decision over NorthWood’s Brady King. Morrison would likely meet DeKalb’s Brady Long in the semis, who slipped past West Noble’s Jonathan Chambers to win the sectional, Chambers drawing King this weekend. Chambers and Morrison had quite a battle, won by Morrison, at the West Noble Invite.