Mike McGraw
Hoosier Authority
If the HCC
has ever had a better day in tournament wrestling, it would be hard to remember.
Four conference teams were crowned team champions during sectional action
Saturday. At least one of those, Hamilton Southeastern, can be considered a
significant upset. The league claimed two more second place finishes.
Southeastern
edged Carmel by just two points to win the title at Zionsville. The Royals
turned in an unbelievable performance in terms of depth in taking the tough
field to task. They advanced nine wrestlers to regional competition and claimed
four champions. Three other HCC teams were in that field. Westfield claimed
third while advancing seven individuals and crowning one champion. Zionsville
was fourth, again advancing seven with one champion. Fishers finished sixth,
but advanced five to regional competition.
Speaking of
depth, try this on for size. Noblesville won the team title at Hamilton Heights
while crowning only one champion. The Millers did advance 11 grapplers,
including five fourth place finishes which was the difference in the team race.
Avon took
the title at its own sectional with Brownsburg right behind. The Bulldogs
actually advanced more people to regional competition, nine to Avon’s eight.
However, Brownsburg had no individual champions while Avon took the title in
three weight classes.
Harrison was
the fourth HCC team to capture a team title. The Raiders bested McCutcheon to
claim the title. Lafayette Jeff finished fourth in the field. It took
everything Harrison had to hold off the Mavericks. They advanced ten wrestlers
and crowned four champions. McCutcheon showed great depth in advancing 13 to
the next level, but had only one individual take a crown. Lafayette Jeff advanced
nine with three taking titles.
As a whole,
the HCC advanced a whopping 88 individuals to the regional round and captured
19 individual titles. They also have the most teams of any conference in the
state remaining in the team competition.
