Max Quiroz, Luke Johnson, Caden Mahaffey, Patrick Mochen and Lucas Anderson win sectional championships, team finishes second, and 10 wrestlers advance to regional

TOM KEEGAN
Onwardtrojans.com

The senior-heavy Chesterton boys wrestling team closed the sectional meet at LaPorte on fire and qualified 11 wrestlers for this coming regional meet at Crown Point.
Chesterton finished second to New Prairie and went 5-1 in championship matches and 5-0 in third-place matches, which means none of the 11 Trojans must face a sectional champion in the first round.
Chesterton also qualified 11 wrestlers for regionals a year ago, but only three, compared to five this season, went as sectional champs.
The 2026 five sectional champions: junior Max Quiroz (126 pounds), seniors Luke Johnson (138), Caden Mahaffey (150), Patrick Mochen (175) and Lucas Anderson (190).
Runner-up: Senior Greyson Strickland (165).
Third-place finishers: sophomores Emmet Burkus (120) and Emeric Ritter (132), freshman Tyler Santiago (144), seniors Keegan Gibbons (215) and Connor Olson (285).
The LaPorte and Crown Point sectionals feed the Crown Point regional, where the top four finishers in each weight division will advance to the semi-state round.
Beyond the pride factor in winning a sectional championship, it ensures not having to face a sectional champ in the first two rounds at the regional.
Eleven wrestlers from the host school won titles at the Crown Point sectional, Lowell had two champions and Hanover Central one.
Chesterton’s lone loss in a championship match came at 165 pounds, where DAC champion Greyson Strickland lost to New Prairie’s Matthew Staples, a reigning state champion who is undefeated as a high school wrestler.
The significance of the five Trojans winning third-place matches is that they don’t have to face a Crown Point sectional champion in the first round.
Chesterton’s five sectional champs wrestle fourth-place finishers from the Crown Point sectional in the first round of the regional.
Chesterton going 10-1 in the final round of matches is a testament to the team’s depth and conditioning.
“I’d say overall we’re probably a better-conditioned team than most,” said Mochen, who had quick pins in his two matches.“The coaches tell us we have to trust that when a third period comes around you’re going to be better off than the other guy.”
A look at the path the five sectional champs took to land on the top step of the podium:
Quiroz (38-2): Ranked fourth in the state at 126 by Indianamat.com, the junior added a third sectional title to his growing list of accomplishments. He advanced to the second round on a bye, pinned LaPorte’s Gavin Drzewiecki in the semi-final in 3:09 and pinned Valparaiso’s Sam Platipodis in the final in 39 seconds.
Johnson (32-10): A fourth-place finisher at sectionals as a sophomore, Johnson didn’t make it to the regional as a sophomore. His postseason ended with a loss to Valpo’s Cameron Cruz. This time, the two wrestlers met in the championship match and Johnson pinned him in 1:45, continuing his strong senior season.
“Lukey had a gameplan and he came in hungry,” Trevino said. “We beat him, but we want to be consistent. Sometimes big matches can get to Lukey a little bit. He stayed calm, cool and collected and did his job.”
Mahaffey (29-10): He had to overcome a tough field to win his first sectional after finishing as runner-up in his junior season.
He pinned Michigan City’s Gerardo Patino in 1:59 in the first round. From there, he had to defeat a pair of wrestlers who had beaten him the last time they had met. Mahaffey was up to the task.
Mahaffey split a pair of matches with LaPorte’s Justin Dieken at the DAC meet. Mahaffey defeated him in a quarterfinal match by technical fall, 15-0, then was pinned by Dieken in 1:26 in the third-place match that day. This time, Mahaffey pinned Dieken in 1:59 to advance to a title match vs. New Prairie’s Preston Hammond (29-4), who had pinned him at the New Prairie Duals on Dec. 27. Mahaffey got him back, pinning the state’s 27th-ranked 150-pound wrestler in 1:38.
Mochen (26-10): A fourth-place sectional finisher as a sophomore, Mochen didn’t make the postseason roster last season. He made sure to set himself up for a better regional seed than he had two years ago by winning the championship.
He advanced with a bye in the first round, needed just 1:14 to pin Wyatt Selby of Knox in the semifinal and took care of New Prairie’s Ethan Mechling 10 seconds quicker in the title match.
The move from 190 to 175 has brought out the beast in the season.
“It suits me better than 190,” Mochen said.
Lucas Anderson (27-7): In order to win his second sectional championship and first since his sophomore season, Anderson was going to have to defeat the state’s 15th-ranked 190-pound wrestler who had recently defeated him.
He did, pinning Valparaiso’s Ben Fedorchak with six seconds left in the match. Anderson took an early lead and Fedorchak came back to tie him with a takedown with about 50 seconds left in the third period, at which point Fedorchak had a decision to make: gamble that he could keep him down for the remainder of the match and deny Anderson an escape point and settle it in sudden victory time or cut him loose, thus falling behind by a point, and give himself almost a full minute to get another takedown for the win. He decided to cut Anderson loose. When Fedorchak went for a shot late in the period, Anderson cut it off, threw him to his back and pinned him with six seconds left on the clock.
The win avenged Anderson’s 6-5 loss to Fedorchak at the DAC meet.
“That was big,” Trevino said.
The wrestlers were back in the room working out Monday.
“We’re going to hit it pretty hard early in the week and then taper back the time and the intensity a little later in the week,” Trevino said.
The final team point totals at the LaPorte sectional: 1. New Prairie 268.5, 2. Chesterton 227.5, 3. Valparaiso 189.5, 4. LaPorte 157.5, 5. Michigan City 138.5, 6. Knox 134, 7. Glenn 60.