Bellmont senior Keagan Martin won in just about every way possible Saturday, scoring three victories in three different ways to secure his spot in the championship bout at 215 pounds at the Fort Wayne Semi-State at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
It was the third victory of the day that Martin will remember the most. To understand the significance, one would have to rewind the tape back to last season.
Martin entered this season’s tournament at the Coliseum with a nearly identical CV as last season – 40+ wins, a lone loss suffered at the Al Smith, and three straight weeks of winning titles to prepare.
The defining moment of his junior year was a 1-0 loss to Brady Beck of Rochester in last year’s semifinals. The two state medal hopefuls never found a takedown against each other and Beck was able to ride out Keagan in the second period. A quick escape by Beck led to Martin chasing the Zebra 220 around the mat for the final 90 seconds without any help from the officials with stalling.
That loss was ultimately the obstacle that kept Martin from reaching his goals last season – winning a state medal. Beck went on to have the better draw at the State Finals, winning on Friday and taking seventh place. Martin, instead, wrestled a familiar face in Devin Kendrex of Mt. Vernon, who went on to beat Beck in the bracket and take fifth place.
The man who won the title at the Coliseum last season was Julante Hinton of Northrop. There was no doubt that Martin and Hinton would clash at some point this season and when the IHSAA released the semi-state brackets, the fixture was set for the semifinals.
There was no way he was losing 1-0 again.
The script was exactly the same for Martin. A scoreless first period, followed by winning the toss and choosing bottom.
This time Keagan got his escape early and when the third period came around, so did Hinton, setting up overtime.
After nearly seven minutes battling on their feet together, Martin looked like he had been in a street fight, with three or four scratch marks from fingernails down the left side of his back that a quick bandage was just not meant to cover.
The Bellmont senior had been training for this for the past 11 months.
Martin won the toss again in the second overtime, and to the surprise of no one, both he and Hinton had no issues getting an escape in the :30 periods.
Having scored first via the coin flip, Martin had the advantage of choice in the ultimate tiebreaker and it was no contest – Keagan was out and facing the defending champ within five seconds, knocking off Hinton and setting himself up for the medal at state that he desires.
Martin reached the match with Hinton with a simple, 38-second fall over Aiden Hunt of Garrett and a 9-1 thrashing of Jaxon Copas of Central Noble in the ticket round.
Ranked third in the state behind only the two state finalists from last year, Martin will not wrestle a nemesis or rival, but instead a wrestler with eight losses on the year who did not make the Top 25 in IndianaMat’s final rankings of 2023-24.
If and when Martin takes care of business Friday, he will have earned that medal with blood and sweat and maybe even a few tears.
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