Top-Ranked Perry Meridian Advances to Wrestling Team State Finals

Click to view image

The field has been set for the 17^th Annual IHSAA Team Wrestling State Finals. Scheduled to take place at Center Grove High School on Saturday, Feb. 25, the final IHSAA-sanctioned team wrestling state finals includes several familiar names. Among them are defending state champion Perry Meridian.

On Wednesday night, the top-ranked Falcons faced little adversity, defeating both unranked Danville and No. 9 Franklin Community 68-3 and 37-12, respectively, at the Martinsville Regional.

Perry Meridian collected its 15^th regional title with their victory against Franklin Community in the championship round and will seek the program’s second state crown with a potential back-to-back performance at the end of the month at Center Grove.

The Falcons will face No. 15 Warren Central in the quarterfinals at state with the winner to compete against the victor between No. 14 Bellmont and No. 3 Evansville Mater Dei.

Warren Central won the Connersville Regional with ease, defeating New Castle 75-6 and Jennings County 33-25 in the championship.

The Warriors last won a team state title in 1980 under the old tournament format, which will be reinstalled in 2012-13 (based on individual scoring).

Fourth-ranked Cathedral, which has never claimed a team state championship, will open the state finals against No. 8 Penn in the quarterfinals.

Cathedral edged No. 11 Hamilton Southeastern 29-22 in the Zionsville Regional championship to punch its ticket to team state.

If the Irish prevail against Penn, they will face the winner between unranked Kokomo and No. 2 Crown Point in the team state semifinals.

Crown Point last won the team state finals in 2009.

Evansville Mater Dei is second on the all-time team state championship list with 12 titles to the program’s credit. Bloomington South is first with 24 overall.

Mater Dei’s most recent championship reign occurred from 2005-07 with back-to-back titles. The team’s previous dominance ran from 1994-2003 as the school netted nine consecutive state crowns, including the first separate team state tournament title in 1995-96.

Since the introduction of a separate team and individual state tournament, two programs have won two or more consecutive team state titles. In the old format, seven schools collected multiple team titles in succession dating back to 1933.

Team Rankings

(by IndianaMat.com)

1. Perry Meridian
2. Crown Point
3. Evansville Mater Dei
4. Cathedral
5. Merillville
6. Roncalli
7. Elkhart Memorial
8. Penn
9. Franklin Community
10. Evansville Reitz
11. Hamilton Southeastern
12. Bloomington South
13. Center Grove
14. Bellmont
15. Warren Central
16. Greenfield Central
17. Portage
18. South Bend Clay
19. Mishawaka
20. New Palestine

Regional Results

1.    Portage
Match 1: Merrillville 46, Portage 20.
Match 2: Crown Point 47, Lake Central 21.
Championship: Crown Point 36, Merrillville 20.

2.    Jimtown
Match 1: Penn 39, Elkhart Memorial 28.
Match 2: East Noble 58, Culver Academies 17.
Championship: Penn 38, East Noble 30.

3.    Adams Central
Match 1: Fort Wayne Snider 38, Carroll (Fort Wayne) 25.
Match 2: Bellmont 34, Yorktown 31.
Championship: Bellmont 34, Fort Wayne Snider 27.

4.    Logansport
Match 1: Kokomo 49, Huntington North 21.
Match 2: Logansport 38, Harrison (West Lafayette) 31.
Championship: Kokomo 40, Logansport 28.

5.    Zionsville
Match 1: Indianapolis Cathedral 61, Noblesville 6.
Match 2: Hamilton Southeastern 52, Southmont 12.
Championship: Indianapolis Cathedral 29, Hamilton Southeastern 22.

6.    Martinsville
Match 1: Perry Meridian 68, Danville 3.
Match 2: Franklin Community 31, Bloomington South 25.
Championship: Perry Meridian 37, Franklin Community 12.

7.    Connersville
Match 1: Jennings County 50, Connersville 19.
Match 2: Warren Central 75, New Castle 6.
Championship: Warren Central 33, Jennings County 25.

8.    Southridge
Match 1: Heritage Hills 33, Jasper 32.
Match 2: Evansville Mater Dei 67, Jeffersonville 9.
Championship: Evansville Mater Dei 63, Heritage Hills 6.

Team State Finals

Site: Center Grove High School, 2717 S. Morgantown Road, Greenwood.
Date: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012.
Time: Quarterfinals begin at 10 am ET with semifinal round and championship round to follow.
Admission: $8.
Advancement: This is a single elimination tournament in which the winning team shall advance to the next round.

Quarterfinals
Match 1: Indianapolis Cathedral vs. Penn.
Match 2: Kokomo vs. Crown Point.
Match 3: Perry Meridian vs. Warren Central.
Match 4: Bellmont vs. Evansville Mater Dei.

Semifinals
Match 5: Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2.
Match 6: Winner of Match 3 vs. Winner of Match 4.

Championship
Match 7: Winner of Match 5 vs. Winner of Match 6.