MERRILLVILLE | Merrillville came us just short of winning its own Tom Cameron Invitational on Saturday. Instead, the Times No. 2 Pirates had to settle for second place after finishing a long day of wrestling at 4-1 in dual meets.
The Pirates conceded the title to Penn (4-1), who lost only to Chesterton 31-30 on a tie match decided by the fourth criteria. Merrillville lost to Penn 36-28 in the second round but beat Chesterton 51-12 in its final match.
“It’s one of those things where it didn‘t go our way in that match,” said Merrillville coach David Maldonado of the close loss to Penn. ‘It’s early, and we’re still trying to figure things out.”
Shawn Streck (285), Michael Garza (106), Adam Garcia (126), Jacob Covaciu (132) and Mattl Hollins (170) all were perfect on the day at 5-0.
“Once we get everybody healthy and once we get everybody at the weights they need to be, we’ll be OK,” Maldonado said.
It still ended up being a pretty good day for the Times No. 6 Chesterton, which went 3-2 on the day The Trojans won two matches on criteria that ended in ties. They beat Harrison 38-37 on total number of match points on first points scored and outlasted Penn on greater number of match wins.
That set up the deciding dual with host Merrillville in the fifth and final round. Had the Trojans won, they would’ve taken the title.
“I don’t know what to say,” Chesterton coach Chris Joll said. “We won two dual meets by criteria. We really haven’t wrestled our best yet.”
Sawyer Hallas finished 4-1 on the day at 152, while Chris Katsafaros went 5-0 with four pins at 145.
“He does what he does,” Joll said.
Jaycee Jensen finished 4-1 at 170 and sophomore Tyler Gillespie was 3-0 at 182 for the Trojans. Joll was also pleased with the effort of Luke Zelenika at 138.
K.V. went 2-3 with wins over Wawasee and Morton as Tim Schoonveld (182), Joel Bolen (195) and Matt Berdine (220) all went 5-0 on the day.
“That’s pretty good,” K.V. coach Tom Dellahan said. “I can’t complain.”
Morton (1-4) beat Wawasee 36-34 in the fifth round for its lone win in the tournament.
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