Boys wrestling 2025-26 season preview: Public’s first look at Trojans tonight at maroon vs. gold wrestle-offs

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The Chesterton boys wrestling lineup will begin to come into focus based on the results of today’s maroon vs. gold wrestle-offs, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the main gym.
“I’m excited,” fifth-year Chesterton wrestling coach Andrew Trevino said. “I think we have some promise. A lot of guys have some talent. We’ll work on their mental side of it, along with what we’ve been doing all summer with our technique and our system of wrestling. We’re doing well.”
For the second year in a row, Trevino doesn’t have a wrestler on the roster who has competed at state. He does have five wrestlers who have made it as far as semi-state during their careers: senior Lucas Anderson and junior Max Quiroz qualified for the semi-state round twice, seniors Patrick Mochen (2024) and Greyson Strickland and sophomore Emeric Ritter once.
“Out of a group of those five and maybe one or two more, shooting high, I’d like to see five make it to state,” Trevino said. “They’ve put in the time and are working hard, so time will tell, but they’re going to have to get after it.”
Making it to state requires landing one of the four spots at sectionals to advance, then doing the same at regionals and again at semi-state. The second round of the semi-state tournament is called the “ticket round” because wrestlers who win there earn a ticket to the state tournament in Indianapolis.
Quiroz came the closest to punching his ticket last season, only to get pinned Merrillville’s Matthew Maldonado 50 seconds into overtime of the 126-pound match, and appears to have the best shot of anyone on the team to make it to Indy.
Wrestling at 120 pounds as a freshman, Quiroz made it to semi-state but lost in the first round.
“He's always in the room, one of the guys working the hardest, running the hardest,” Trevino said. “He’s doing everything we ask. In the offseason, he wrestled the most. He gets 100 matches, probably in the offseason. He just never stops wrestling. He does everything we want out of somebody, so that's the type of kid we're looking for, someone who’s going to put that extra time in.”
Wrestling at 120 pounds as a freshman, Quiroz made it to semi-state but lost in the first round.
Both Anderson trips to semi-state ended in the ticket round with him on the wrong end of technical fall, which means the match was stopped when his opponent built a 15-point lead, thus earning five points for his school. Pins and forfeits are worth six points, a major decision (a win by anywhere from 8 to 14 points) worth four, a decision three.
Anderson brings exceptional strength onto the mat for a wrestler of his weight, and there is no reason to believe he would not maintain a strength advantage even if he moved up a weight class to 190, where his opponents would not be as quick and in many cases as technically sound as those at 175.
So, it will be interesting to see where Anderson ends up this season, his final one for a shot at a trip to state. Mochen likely will wrestle at whichever weight Anderson does not.
Regardless of the weight, Trevino would like to see Anderson improve his “lungs,” and by that, the coach explained, he doesn’t necessarily mean conditioning.
Anderson loses infrequently, but when he does, Trevino said sometimes it’s because “he
thought he had to do more, no, just do what you do. Have fun with it. Don't put the stress on it. Sometimes people put that stress on themselves, and they get themselves tired. You can't wrestle tight all the time.”
To combat that, Trevino said, wrestlers must “be loose and conserve energy where you can. If you're constantly in a squeeze and constantly fight or flight, you’re not conserving energy.”
As with most who make it as far as the semi-state round, Anderson started wrestling at a young age. But there are exceptions, wrestlers so committed and talented that they can pick up the sport as a freshman in high school and get up to speed. Strickland is one of those wrestlers. Making up for lost time, Strickland has been a fixture in the wrestling room year-round.
Competition in the room was stiff at his weight last season, so Strickland was in and out of the lineup at 165, based on his wrestle-off results. When he lost a close match for the spot in the postseason lineup, he jumped all the way up to 190 pounds and won a wrestle-off there and made it to semi-state. He should have no trouble keeping the 165 spot this season.
Trevino also is bullish on seniors Caden Mahaffey (150) and sectional champion Keegan Gibbons (215).
“Mahaffey’s wrestled more this offseason than he ever had in the past,” Trevino said. “I don't think he liked the way the season ended last year. He had a little taste of victory, and he wants more. So he's been doing some offseason wrestling, and he was here all summer, working hard.”
Football injuries ended the wrestling careers of heavyweights Tyler Nevious and Kenny Calloway, so Connor Olson, who wrestled at much lower weights most of his career, could fill the void at the highest weight class.
“Connor could really mess up some bigger guys, because he's got the weight now to push it, and he knows how to wrestle, a little guy wrestling big guys,” Trevino said. “He’s been a long-time, year-round wrestler for many years.”
Those looking to join Ritter and Quiroz at lighter weights include juniors Gavin Ciszewski and Matthew Pennington and sophomore Emmet Burkus. Lucas Johnson returns after wrestling varsity at 138 last season. The 144 division will be an interesting one to watch with freshman Tyler Santiago and senior Joey DeMeo both having a shot to spend the majority of the time there.
Tonight’s wrestle-offs, open to the public, will offer hints as to what sort of a season it could be for the Trojans.