Lawrence North Wrestlers Aim for Team State Finals

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Slick roads and frigid weather put several team wrestling regionals on ice last week, but the unexpected delay did little to extinguish Lawrence North’s postseason ambition.

After winning its first sectional title in six years a little more than week ago at Lawrence Central, the Wildcats enter tonight’s Zionsville team regional determined to cross off yet another state tournament goal.

“We want to go to the team state and compete for a title,” LN wrestling coach Jared Williams remarked. “But we still have two more dual meets to win before we get there.”

Tonight, Lawrence North’s first hurdle will be Southmont in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Noblesville and 15^th-ranked Hamilton Southeastern will compete in the other semifinal match. The winners will lock up shortly after the semifinals for an opportunity to advance to the team state finals at Center Grove High School on Feb. 26.

Prior to the postseason, Lawrence North captured the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference championship with a strong team effort and finished the regular season 14-4 in dual meets.

At sectional, the Wildcats overwhelmed the field with their depth. The program advanced 12 of 14 wrestlers into this past weekend’s individual regional at Pendleton Heights.

Freshman Nathan Boston (103), senior Matt Rattay (140) and senior Jeremy Haskett (189) each captured weight class titles at sectional and regional. The Wildcats had eight wrestlers qualify for the individual semistate tournament at New Castle this Saturday.

As a team, the Wildcats compiled 236 team points at Lawrence Central with four runner-up and third place finishers to knock off defending sectional champion Cathedral.

The last time Lawrence North advanced to team regional as a sectional champion occurred in 2005 when the Wildcats won their second consecutive team state championship. In 2008, Lawrence North competed at team regional as a sectional runner-up in the old team state format.

“Coming into the year, we knew we were going to have a really good team. We have a lot of seniors, and we have a team that is going to compete in every weight class,” Haskett said. “Every tournament and dual meet we’ve wrestled in this year has been practice for this.”

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Hamilton Southeastern finished the regular season with a 16-2 dual meet record. Individually, the Royals have eight semistate qualifiers. Sophomores John Tatom (135) and Mitch Snyder (112) both won regional titles this past weekend at North Montgomery.

Noblesville will have five wrestlers at the individual semistate, including regional champion Wayne Specht (145).

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OTHER LOCAL TEAM REGIONAL MATCHUPS

Martinsville Regional (Monday, Feb. 7, 6 p.m. ET)

-          Two ranked teams will go head-to-head in the regional semifinals tonight. Second-ranked Perry Meridian opens the night against 19^th-ranked Bloomington South. Franklin faces Avon in the other semifinal.

Shelbyville Regional (Wednesday, Feb. 9, 6 p.m. ET)

-          Sixth-ranked Roncalli will face East Central in the semifinals at Shelbyville. The other semifinal involves Columbus East and New Castle.