Wawasee wrestling celebrated its 25th sectional championship Saturday after winning the Plymouth Wrestling Sectional. Photo courtesy Steve Perek

Bust out the angel food cake, Mrs. Merchant, Wawasee is holding the trophy again!

Keeping with championship tradition, Cheryl Merchant brought the celebratory angel food cake for the boys as Wawasee won the sectional team championship Saturday at the Plymouth Wrestling Sectional. The parade to the title, which Wawasee won overwhelmingly with 258 points, yielded five event class champions, nine in the finals and 11 advancing to the regional round. The title itself is the 25th in the illustrious history of the program, which is the most sectional team titles in Wawasee athletics history, distancing from the 23 the gymnastics program has in its column.

Wawasee moves its attention now to the regional round, which will have the 11 Warriors heading to Penn next Saturday for the regional. Same requirements as the sectional round, top four advance to the East Chicago Semi-state in two weeks.

Here’s a breakdown of the championship matches involving Wawasee.

106 – Kaleb Salazar vs. Bryce McNees, Warsaw

In a rematch of the Northern Lakes Conference championship matchup, it was a lot of the same story as what unfolded in Goshen. Salazar got a couple quick takedowns and didn’t allow any offense from McNees in a 6-0 shutout. Salazar won his third straight sectional title and did so by needing just one win to get to the final, a quick pin in the semis.

113 – Cam Senter vs. Cole Meiser, Culver Academy

After rolling to an NLC title in his last cart of action, Senter looked just as strong, if not better, at the sectional. Against longtime wrestling buddy Meiser, Senter looked like he had his pal pretty figured out in quickly building up a lead and not letting go. Rather than rolling around to get a pin, Senter went the tech fall route and ended the championship match up 15-0 in a resounding victory. Senter allowed just two points in his three sectional matches.

126 – Colten Sutton vs. Coen Kraemer, Plymouth

After two sound pins to make the final, Sutton found himself all he could handle in his first championship match as a Warrior. After generating an 8-3 lead into the second period, Kraemer scored a reversal to end the second and another to start the third to trail by just one, 8-7. Kraemer chose to cut Sutton with 33 seconds remaining to make the score 12-11 Wawasee, and a stalling call on Kraemer in the waning seconds gave Sutton enough reason to just ride out to his first tournament title of any kind.

138 – Logan Stuckman vs. Seth Wright, Plymouth

It was as sharp as Stuckman has looked in a marquee matchup this season, handling Wright throughout the championship matchup. Stuckman ran a pair of takedowns before Wright could react, cutting and dropping his Plymouth adversary without much trouble. Stuckman finished the deal at 3:28 to claim the posterboard and the blue ribbon, his third sectional championship. Stuckman needed just a pin of LaVille in the semis to make the final round.

145 – Ethan Rodriguez vs. Wesley Smith, Plymouth

A tall task for Rodriguez in his quest for a second sectional title. Facing the highly-ranked Smith in the final, the Plymouth showed why he is highly regarded by holding Rodriguez to just an escape in six minutes of clinical wrestling. In the 5-1 win, Smith capitalized on some early offense and kept Rodriguez from gaining any top momentum en route to the blue ribbon. To get to the final Rodriguez had to win three matches, and did so by scoring three pins in 4:24 combined time.

152 – Hunter Miller vs. Justin Brown, LaVille

Another 1v2 chalk match had the top-seeded Miller take on Brown in the final, and the chalk dust continued to fall as Miller had absolutely no problem putting Brown away. In his 19-4 tech fall, Miller didn’t allow a takedown to Brown and ran his offense without interruption throughout, getting the closing takedown to capture his second sectional title. Miller nearly teched Warsaw’s Danny Moon in the semis and scored a fall in his opening match in another showcase set of results.

170 – Gavin Malone vs. Elijah Cox, Triton

In what became the most shocking result of the finals, Cox rallied big time and stunned Malone with a third period pin to claim the blue ribbon. Malone held a 13-7 lead on Cox and had him nearly pinned twice, and looked every bit prepared to finish out the final minute-plus of the third to take it home. Cox had other ideas, however, scoring a takedown, then another, and the second one caught Malone flat, to which Cox squeezed to get the upset. Malone only had to wrestle for 1:21 to get to the final, getting a pin over LaVille in the semis.

182 – Cam Zimmerman vs. Jaxson Walters, Warsaw

It was shaping up to be a Zimmy Special, the other guy gets some early momentum, Zimmy gets out of danger, reverses into control, pulls off an exciting pin. Same deal was unfolding in the 82 final, where Walters ran some early game and got the advantage early, with Zimmy having to work out of Walters’ control. But instead of a miraculous rally, Walters didn’t let Zimmerman get any fluid momentum, closing the deal at 9-5 for the class title. Zimmerman had scored two pins to reach the final, including a second period slap against the top seed, Jon Ziola of LaVille, in the semis.

195 – Donnie Blair vs. Paul DeWitt, LaVille

It became the feel good story to unfold in the Wawasee camp as Blair rode the momentum of a huge upset in the semis to meet DeWitt in the championship. That story nearly became a mini series for Blair, who was tied 2-2 with DeWitt late in the third period, but couldn’t get a good grip on DeWitt as the two just tangoed for about 5:45 of the match. DeWitt, to the chagrin of Blair and the Warriors, took a shot with about 10 seconds left and hit it, getting the two and riding out the final seconds to get the 95 title. Though dejected, Blair banked a massive upset in the semis after scoring a 7-4 decision over top seed Bazle Owens of Tippecanoe Valley, which sent quite a buzz through the Plymouth gym.

Taking a look at the five other classes for Wawasee, the Warriors send two of the five on to the regional by making the top four.

Titus Taylor took third at 132, rallying from a loss in the semis to beat Chris Firebaugh of Plymouth in the third-place match. Taylor was 3-1 on the day to make his first regional tournament.

Luke Stuckman also earned a spot in his first regional tournament with a fourth place at 120, losing in the semis but winning the getback match to land in the 3-4 contest, where he lost to Joe Lybarger of Tippy to conclude a 2-2 day.

Carson Nine and Derek Morrison both lost their first matches of the day and followed the same path to 2-2 afternoons and fifth-place spots. Nine beat Triton’s Kendrick Jones to win his 160 final bout and Morrison also beat a Triton competitor, Alex Brown, to finish fifth at 220. Both are alternates for the regional if the need arises.

At 285, Eleazar Vazquez won his first match via pin over LaVille’s Alex McFadden, but ran into eventual class champ Alex Popi of Plymouth in the semis and suffered his first of three losses to close in sixth place, ending his season and Wawasee career.

At Plymouth Wrestling Sectional:

106