The Bellmont Braves entered the day favorites to reach the 2A Team State final and face a rematch with the Delta Eagles Saturday at Jay County. Two satisfying wins for the Braves put them in a position to win another title, but Delta avenged their loss from earlier in the year and ultimately celebrated their very first IHSWCA Team State title.
The Braves took advantage of their first-round bye and did some scouting of their opening opponent, watching Heritage Hills defeat Maconaquah 45-24.
Bellmont welcomed Gavin Davis back into the lineup and his abilities were quickly remembered in a 28-second pin of Carter Payne to tie the score at 6-6.
Xavior Palacios scored a key decision victory and Bellmont won three of the next four bouts, with Heritage Hills winning at 190 with returning state qualifier Jett Goldsberry.
The Braves then got falls from Ben Mills and Ethan Curtis at the two lightest weights, points that were crucial when the Patriots won the next three weights to cut the score to 32-28.
Chandler Thomas became the hero with a 31-second fall at 138 to seal victory for the Braves. Sam Wolpert’s victory in the final bout made the team score 41-28.
SEMIFINALS
Keeping the memory of a humiliating loss to Western the year before in the same gym on the forefront of their minds, the Braves smashed the Panthers thanks to a perfect line-up switch from the Bellmont coaching staff.
Utilizing Davis and the Braves’ seniors, Bellmont sacrificed Landon Rich at 157 to defending semi-state champion Mitchell Betz, pushing the next five Braves up a weight to hammer Western.
That’s exactly what they did.
Gavin Davis was on the mat for just 16 seconds before tying the score at 6-6 and Duke Myers did the same at 175, needing just 28 ticks off the clock to stick Brody Burns.
The key to the shift, however, came with Xavior Palacios and Cole Mendez and neither disappointed, scoring bonus points to boot and building a 22-6 lead.
Knowing that Grady Baker had already defeated Western’s heavyweight, there was little doubt as to what senior Keagan Martin would do to Garrett Heady. Martin got the fall in the first period and Bellmont was in control.
A fall by Ben Mills and a close decision by Ethan Curtis allowed the Braves to go for the jugular, forfeiting against the tough Tanner Tishner to give Henry Faurote a chance to win the dual meet at 126.
The freshman found six points for the Braves in the third period and the rest was gravy. Keven Loshe fought off his back and preserved a major decision against another Western hammer in Tye Linser, then the Braves smashed the will of their opponents with falls in the final three bouts to win 61-15.
The emphatic victory was exactly what coach Myers needed to rile up his troops ahead of the brawl with Delta.
CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
The Braves were dealt an early blow to their title hopes when they had to report first for the opening bout. That meant sending out Gavin Davis, bumped up to 165, and risking Delta’s response with their own shift.
That’s exactly what happened and the Eagles landed a bitter blow to the Braves’ chances of a title with a 5-2 win by Kaeb Stebbins at 175 against Duke Myers. In the dual meet earlier in the year, the Eagles chose to bump Stebbins away from Myers and went on to the lose the match.
Myers was unable to finish several shots late in the match, but many in the Bellmont camp will have faith that the result will be quite different in four weeks at regional.
What should have been the regular match at 175 happened instead at 190 and returning state medalist Braxton Russell won 5-1 against Xavior Palacios, scoring, in essence, a win for the Braves with just a decision loss.
Bellmont bounced back with Cole Mendez pinning Delta’s regular 215 in the third period, giving the Braves a 12-6 lead and they extended that with a major decision by Keagan Martin at heavyweight.
The Eagles, however, had one more shift in them than the Braves did and it paid off in the end.
Coach Cody LeCount took #1 Jensen Boyd and shifted him up to 113, inserting Brayden Saleem into the lineup and scoring a crucial 8-4 victory at 106. This changed the momentum of the match in the Eagles’ favor.
The Eagles trotted out six consecutive state-ranked wrestlers and picked up bonus points in five of them, with Will Franze only losing 5-0 to Kaid Jackson at 126. This run of seven combined wins a row ended with the Braves forfeiting 144 with the state title already clinched, choosing instead to send Sam Wolpert and Blake Luginbill up against lesser foes to score falls and cut the final scoreline down to 39-28.
At the end of the dual, only three bouts from the original dual were replicated and the Eagles had won nine matches to Bellmont’s five.
The two will battle for another important title in February when they face each other again for an IHSAA Regional title. The Delta program has not won a regional since 1996, while the Braves have won 19 during that drought.