Promising wrestler Aubree Peters very well might have joined five teammates competing in Saturday’s Plymouth regional if not for a knee injury

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Five of the eight girls who wrestled last Friday at the Hobart sectional qualified for this Saturday’s Plymouth regional, and if not for an injury, the number likely would have been six.
Chesterton junior Aubree Peters, a second-year wrestler with a high ceiling, took a sore knee into the sectional for her 105-pound matches. She injured the knee during her third match in a way that made the pain “really, really bad,” but kept wrestling anyway.
After advancing out of the first round on a forfeit, Peters scored a pin in 1:25 vs. Wheeler’s Natalie Lovingood. Peters then lost to eventual sectional runner-up Alexis Rodriguez of Hobart.
Peters still was in position to land one of the four regional berths with one more win. She took an early lead vs. Kankakee Valley’s Scarlet Skowronski, who took a 13-15 record into the sectional, compared to Peters’ 17-11 mark. Then Peters hurt her knee, took an injury timeout, limped off the mat, and was examined by the on-site athletic trainer.
“It was a stinging pain on the side of my knee,” Peters said. “The trainer said I should forfeit but that it was my choice. I chose to keep wrestling.”
Peters was not the same for the rest of the day. She returned to the match, was pounding the mat with pain after being taken down and was pinned 2:33 into the match.
That ended Peters’ chances of advancing to the regional.
She advanced to the fifth-sixth match and again was faced with a decision. Both wrestlers’ seasons would end regardless of the outcome.
“For my last match I had a choice to either medically forfeit it or still wrestle,” Peters said. “I chose to still wrestle but in the middle of the match I had to medically forfeit because the pain on the side of my knee was really, really bad.”
She showed a lot of talent all season and plenty of grit on the day it ended.
Alice Scharp said that Peters, “definitely” would have advanced to the regional if she had been healthy.
“I think her knee was really the main thing that was blocking her because she wasn’t able to wrestle her best, and a lot of her positions she would usually win in, she wasn’t able to wrestle through just because of her knee,” Scharp said.
The top four wrestlers at the regional in each of the 14 weight classes advance to the state meet. There is a third-place match but no wrestle-backs at the regional. Only the wrestlers who win their first two matches advance.
The Plymouth first-round matches for the five Chesterton wrestlers:
115: MJ Scharp (26-6) vs. Isabella Aponte (3-5), Rensselaer Central. Likely second-round opponent: Madilyn Skinner (22-6), Central Noble.
125: Ally Williams (18-7) vs. Karibella Rodriguez (25-10). Likely second-round opponent: Maya Hammond (36-2), Garrett.
135: Kileigh Flynn (10-9) vs. Naima Ghaffar (33-0), NorthWood. The winner faces one of two wrestlers who have 23-11 records.
140: Alice Scharp (17-2) vs. Eliana Antunez (16-9). The winner faces either Jaelynn Arce (26-10), Merrillville, or Madelyn Winter (10-3), Penn.
145: Arti Haney (23-8) vs. Miah Lichtenbarger (12-5). Likely second-round opponent: Charisma Lawrence (30-1), Merrillville.