By E. Shawn Aylsworth
Managing Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – Four days after conquering then-No. 1 Mishawaka at the Bellmont Super Duals, new No. 1 Perry Meridian had the same thing happen on its own mat Jan. 9. Fourth-ranked Indianapolis Cathedral won eight of 14 weight classes, including three upsets of ranked Falcon opponents, to come out on top of a highly entertaining dual meet, 28-24.
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Although many in the large crowd were in a state of shock during and after the festivities – Cathedral had lost 47-10 to Mishawaka back on Dec. 8, whereas Perry Meridian just beat the Cavemen 30-24 – Perry Meridian coach Jim Tonte was not one of them.
“I’m one of the 20 guys on the (coaches’ state) poll, and I had Mater Dei ranked one, Mishawaka ranked two, Cathedral ranked three, and us ranked fourth – and that was after Saturday,†said Tonte, whose team last lost a regular-season match in 2004 at the North Montgomery Invitational – about 100 matches ago.
“I knew what Cathedral’s team was capable of doing. They’re a great program. They’re well-coached, very disciplined.â€
On this night, the Fighting Irish were highly focused, too. Especially late in matches, something that became evident in the meet’s second match at 135 pounds.
After third-ranked Brian Vest of Perry Meridian defeated Dominic Corsaro 7-0 in the opener at 130, the first of four showdowns between ranked wrestlers took place when Cathedral’s No. 6 Calvin Sullivan faced off with No. 5 Jacob Tassef.
Tassef scored a takedown just 12 seconds into the match and, after each wrestler garnered an escape, Tassef entered the third period up 3-1. But the gap narrowed to 3-2 upon Sullivan’s escape with 56 seconds to go, and the Irish contingent went nuts when Sullivan landed a takedown at 0:33 before holding on for the 4-3 upset victory.
“I think that kinda set the tone for the whole day,†said Cathedral coach Sean McGinley. “We knew they were gonna be very strong in conditioning, and it was gonna be tough for us to win in the last, closing seconds.
“Pulling that win out just kinda lifted everybody’s heart that we could win in the last seconds, and we ended up winning a lot of close matches in the last period.â€
No doubt about that one. On three occasions, Cathedral rallied to victory after trailing late in the second period. But more on that later.
The Irish pulled way from the 3-3 tie after two matches to go up 10-3 with expected victories at 140 and 145.
No. 4 Tony McGinley got a first-period takedown in his 140-pound joust with No. 11 John Leonard and, after the first of several injury timeouts throughout the night that had Falcons fans foaming at the mouth, nearly got a pin at the second-period buzzer before holding on for an easy 7-3 win.
No. 9 Gavin McGinley then nearly duplicated the late-match pin effort midway through his 145 match against Blake Wood. G-Mac moved out from a 2-1 lead after one with a second-period escape and takedown before getting Wood on his back 40 seconds into the final period. That was crucial as the two near-fall points gave McGinley the Larger a major decision at 9-1 and Cathedral a 10-3 team lead.
“The difference in today’s dual meet was the things that they did, you could tell they were coached,†Tonte said. “They got the majors when they needed the majors, they didn’t give up majors when they didn’t have to, and those are things that kids that are coachable do.
“And they proved that they were a very coachable team. I was very impressed.
Ironically, Perry Meridian just missed a chance to pick up its own major at 152 after Chris Stepp’s 12-5 win over Tom Stipp. Stepp jumped out to a 6-0 lead midway through the second period and, after a game of let up/takedown, had built the advantage to 12-4.
But Stipp wrangled an escape with 1:12 remaining and was able to run out the clock to save a team point, making it 10-6 Cathedral.
The lead would jump to 22-6 when the Irish captured the next four matches, including a huge upset at 215.
No. 17 Connor Hofmeister got the four score going with an easy 10-4 win over Corey Hudgins at 160, making it 13-6. That preceded Cathedral’s second comeback victory, David Page’s controversial 9-5 defeat of Mike Hughey at 171.
Again, Perry went up 2-0 with an early takedown, this one just 19 seconds in. But Page escaped, then scored a reversal himself just eight seconds into the second period to go up 3-2. Hughey responded with a reversal before Page’s injury timeout at 0:08 set up what appeared to a phantom flop at the buzzer.
With Hughey in control and both wrestlers headed out of bounds in front of Cathedral’s bench, the buzzer sounded. Hughey seemed to simply release his hold, but Page landed with such a thud that perhaps the officials felt they couldn’t not award a penalty point, tying the match at 4-4.
Page let Hughey up for an escape to start the third, but he got back that point and more with 30 seconds remaining with a takedown and three-point near fall. How a virtually motionless Hughey managed to not allow himself to surrender the pin alludes to the aforementioned conditioning, but regardless the Irish had themselves a rousing 9-5 decision and a 16-6 lead.
The controversy continued in the next match at 189, where three of the four points scored in regulation came on penalties. Following a scoreless first period, Perry Meridian’s Nick Barnes took a 2-0 lead after two when Cathedral’s Spencer Poling was penalized for a full-nelson and locking his hands.
But Poling managed an escape with 1:13 left in the third and, ironically, scored his own penalty point when Barnes was tagged for stalling with 25 seconds left. That sent it into overtime, and Cathedral won it 4-2 when Poling successfully shot a takedown 13 seconds in.
“We’ll got pins coming up at 215 and heavyweight.†That was the talk along press row from some of the Perry volunteers manning the table.
Ahhhh, no.
Cathedral’s Jake Buchanan seized on the momentum of the looming upset by immediately throwing Perry Meridian’s 12th-ranked Chris Schaefer on his back. After Schafer escaped 29 seconds in, Buchanan threw another five-pointer to go up 10-3 after one. Schafer then used a reversal and a five-pointer of his own to draw within 10-9 in the second.
But Buchanan scored a huge reversal just 10 seconds prior to the third period, and his four-pointer just into the third made it 16-9. He rode out the period for a wild 16-12 victory, signaling that St. Patrick’s Day was coming a couple months early in 2008.
“That’s just a huge match – that’s one of those matches you’re gonna remember the rest of your life,†coach McGinley said. “He was a big underdog, went out, threw the guy on his back.
“I thought we were about ready to catch the storm, and we fought off our back. The next thing we know we threw him back on his back, and we fought off a hard win.â€
At 22-6, a sense of normalcy returned to the Perry Meridian gymnasium when heavyweight Chico Adams pinned Brannon Dennin at 1:41. And the Falcons got within 22-15 when 103-pound Michael Clem captured a stall-laden overtime victory against Blake Roytek.
Once again, Cathedral got off to a fast start with a five-pointer in the first period from Roytek. But following an escape by Clem, the second period featured a pair of injury timeouts for the Irish. Amazingly, Clem was able to climb all the way back to tie it at 5-all when Roytek was penalized one point for stalling, then another point for stalling, then two points for stalling right before the buzzer.
Fresh with new life after the give of inactivity, Clem’s extra-session takedown won it at 7-5.
The hope of a full-blown Falcon resurrection was short-lived, however, as Clem’s comeback merely delayed the inevitable.
At 112, No. 3 Brandon Wright of Cathedral got a takedown 45 seconds in before Jimmy Schoettle scored an escape. But Wright quickly got his second-ranked foe on his back, and three near-fall points later it was 7-1 heading to the second period. From the up position, Wright again got Schoettle on his back, and this time there was no escape as the shocking pin came at 2:49.
Game, set, match. Or, as the Perry press row folks put it, “So much for being No. 1.â€
“It was definitely surprising,†coach McGinley said of the fall. “Schoettle’s a class act and an outstanding wrestler and deserves the ranking.
“We just really wrestled well and were able to capitalize on a couple mistakes he made, and fortunately we were able to get a pin.â€
Perry won the last two matches – 119-pound No. 5 Jacob Tonte with a fall over No. 10 Johnny Grey at 4:23, Chris Goodwin with a 6-5 decision over Nick Hupp at 125 – but all the air had seeped out of gym. Except on the Cathedral side – those folks were going delirious.
“We’ve ran the gauntlet here in the last four or five days – Bellmont, Mishawaka, Penn, and Cathedral, obviously,†said coach Tonte. “For some reason, I thought our kids wrestled scared, and you’d think after beating Mishawaka that wouldn’t be the case.
“This is a tough loss – you get ranked No. 1 on the day you get beat. So that was disappointing. But it was an awesome night for wrestling.â€
Amen to that.
The individual results (the match started at 130 pounds):
103 – Michael Clem (PM) dec. Blake Roytek (Cath), 7-5 (OT)
112 – #3 Brandon Wright (Cath) pin #2 Jimmy Schoettle (PM), 2:49
119 – #5 Jacob Tonte (PM) pin #10 Johnny Grey (Cath), 4:23
125 – Chris Goodwin (PM) dec. Nick Hupp (Cath), 6-5
130 – #3 Brian Vest (PM) dec. Dominic Corsaro (Cath), 7-0
135 – #6 Calvin Sullivan (Cath) dec. #5 Jacob Tasseff (PM), 4-3
140 – #4 Tony McGinley (Cath) dec. #11 John Leonard (PM), 7-3
145 – #9 Gavin McGinley (Cath) dec. Blake Wood (PM), 9-1
152 – #13 Chris Stepp (PM) dec. Tom Stipp (Cath), 12-5
160 – #17 Connor Hofmeister (Cath) dec. Corey Hudgins (PM), 10-4
171 – David Page (Cath) dec. Mike Hughey (PM), 9-5
189 – Spencer Poling (Cath) dec. Nick Barnes (PM), 4-2 (OT)
215 – Jake Buchanan (Cath) dec. #12 Chris Schaefer (PM), 16-12
Hwt – #1 Chico Adams (PM) pin Brandon Dennin (Cath), 1:41
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