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Wrestling: Crown Point takes second consecutive Traicoff Invite
Timeout wrestling
P-T Top 5
1. Crown Point, 2. Merrillville, 3. Portage, 4. LC, 5. Lowell
Wrestler of the week
Jake Fuqua, CP — The 152-pound senior recorded a pin against Mishawaka as the Bulldogs won their second straight Traicoff title.
Updated: December 10, 2011 11:51PM
GARY — Crown Point faced a familiar foe in Mishawaka in this year’s Chris Traicoff Memorial Wrestling Invitational on Saturday at Calumet High School.
The Bulldogs downed Mishawaka 48-16 to take home the trophy for the second straight year. Last year’s win also came against Mishawaka. The Cavemen forfeited four of the final five matches of what had been a two-point match after nine weight classes.
“This is a good measuring stick to see where we’re at,” Crown Point coach Scott Vlink said. “Once you get past the first two rounds you’d better be ready to go because the last three rounds, it’s a matter of who wants it more. Guys are tired and beat up; you need to suck it up and have the will to win.”
The Bulldogs built a 12-0 lead after three matches on a 7-3 decision at 195 pounds by Matt Langbehn, a forfeit win at 220 pounds by Tyler Kral and a Josh Swope 2-1 decision at 285.
Jake Sinkovics got the Cavemen on the board with a 12-4 major decision over Brett Ervin at 106. Darden Schurg (5-0 at 113) and Josh Fuqua (6-3 at 120) had decisions to build an 18-4 Bulldogs advantage but then three straight wins by Mishawaka cut the CP lead to 18-16.
Jason Tsirtsis was then awarded a forfeit win at 145 pounds. Tsirtsis, who went 5-0 on the day, won four of his matches by forfeit. Considering the 18-16 score at the time, the decision was puzzling to Tsirtsis.
“It’s silly to forfeit to clinch a loss,” Tsirtsis said. “People come to a tournament like this to watch the dual tournament format and to forfeit four of the last five matches is frustrating. We just have to keep training and keep getting better. I’d say from 106 pounds through heavyweight, we wrestled well today.”
After the Tsirtsis forfeit win, Jake Fuqua had the only fall of the match at 152 pounds, coincidentally, at 1:52 over Kyle Jones. Dusty Schurg, Jacob Hazi and Morgan Kral were all awarded forfeit wins to round out the scoring at 48-16.
“He knows what he’s doing; he has one of the best programs in the state,” said Vlink, referring to Mishawaka coach Darrick Snyder. “I think Jason wrestled for all of 30 seconds today. It’s tough being the tallest tree in the state, possibly even the tallest tree in the nation.”
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