Quiroz wrestles way to regional championship and Gibbons, Strickland, Anderson, Mahaffey and Mochen join him in qualifying for East Chicago semi-state

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton wrestling supporters can save themselves some stress by looking at more than the score during matches. It pays to take note of the time as well.
The high school’s wrestlers have come to believe that if it’s late in a match or it’s a match late in a tournament, then it’s Trojan Time. And the more times they achieve victories at those stages, the easier it becomes to believe there is such a thing as Trojan Time.
Nobody showed that better at Saturday’s Crown Point regional than the best wrestler on the team, junior Max Quiroz.
Staging an impressive comeback in the third period of a semifinal match that he won in overtime, Quiroz added regional champion to a list of accomplishments this season that already included DAC champ and sectional champ. Crown Point won half the 14 weight divisions and won the regional championship.
Quiroz (41-2) is undefeated at 126 pounds since dropping down a division after finishing third at the Al Smith Invitational at Mishawaka. Both his losses this season came to Crown Point’s Gavin Lewis at 132 pounds.
Quiroz trailed Lowell’s Noel Verduzco by six points Saturday in the third period and won the match, 13-10, in Sudden Victory time with a quick takedown.
“I was down 9-3 in the third period and had to make a big comeback,” Quiroz said.
Worried? Not this confident wrestler who blends the stamina of a distance runner with the quickness of a sprinter and forever keeps his matches moving at high speed.
After edging Verduzco in the semi, Quiroz quickly took control of Crown Point’s Colin Strayer and defeated him, 7-0.
“I’m very confident in my pace and I just know I can break guys,” Quiroz said while still catching his breath after a post-match sprint. “I’ll outlast guys. It’s what I do.”
Chesterton wrestling coach Andrew Trevino and his assistants place a premium on building stamina.
“We train to wrestle for six minutes,” Trevino said. “It’s what we do.”
In the most recent Indianamat.com rankings, released Jan. 30, Verduzco was ranked No. 1 in the state at 126, but since that ranking was published, he lost a one-point decision to Strayer at the Crown Point sectional and then in overtime to Quiroz at the regional since those rankings. The division is wide open with no clearcut No. 1.
Quiroz said first-year assistant coach Anthony Hawkins has played a big role in driving him to make his senior season his most successful. Quiroz added that his brother holds him accountable in many ways, including making sure he does extra sprints three days a week after practice.
“As well as drilling in the room,” Quiroz said. “Coach Hawk’s been a big part of it. He makes us go hard. There’s no stopping, no quitting.”
Quiroz was Chesterton’s lone regional champion, but five other Trojans will join him at this coming Saturday’s East Chicago semi-state tournament.
Finishing one spot higher than he did at the LaPorte sectional, 215-pounder Keegan Gibbons was a surprise runner-up at the regional, losing the final to Ceasar Salas of Crown Point, the top-ranked wrestler in the state, by technical fall, 17-2 in 1:34.
To get that far, Gibbons had to avenge a loss to Michigan City’s Dezmon Howard (27-3) in the semifinal. Howard won a Jan. 7 match vs. Gibbons, 4-0, in a dual meet at Michigan City. Gibbons needed more than the full six minutes to win the rematch, getting an early takedown in Sudden Victory time to win, 7-4.
Gibbons (30-14) also defeated a quality opponent in the quarterfinal round, South Newton’s David Whiting (24-4), winning an 11-7 decision against him.
Chesterton’s other runner-up finish was less of a surprise. Just as was the case at the LaPorte sectional, Strickland’s only loss was in the final to New Prairie sophomore Matthew Staples, a defending state champion who has not lost a high school match.
Strickland (31-9), a DAC champion, scored a technical fall, 17-2, in 4:55 over Boone Grove’s Logan Garza (16-8) in the first round, then pinned Crown Point’s Ben Clark (19-11) in 3:12 in the semifinal round.
The Trojans went 3-0 in third-place matches a week after going 5-0 in them in the sectional, giving additional credibility to the concept of Trojan Time.
Sectional champions Caden Mahaffey, Patrick Mochen and Lucas Anderson all won their third-place matches at the regional.
Mahaffey dominated Lowell’s Logan Schwarzkopf, 15-0, in 3:42 to take third place at 150 pounds.
Strickland kicks off a strong three-division stretch in Chesterton’s lineup with fellow seniors Patrick Mochen at 175 and Lucas Anderson at 190 following him.
Mochen (28-11), a runner-up at the DAC meet, qualified for the second semi-state of his career. He pinned Lowell’s Tymothy James in 2:43 for third place.
Lucas Anderson and Valparaiso’s Benjamin Fedorchak had their second tight match of the season. Fedorchak won the first, 6-5, in a DAC Championship semifinal. Anderson got him back in Crown Point, defeating the DAC champion, 5-3. Fedorchak (22-7) brought Anderson down at the end of the match but the ref ruled that he did not have sufficient control of his opponent to count it as a takedown when time expired.
All six Trojans share an immediate goal at East Chicago and if they meet that, they will set new ones. The first goal entails winning their first two matches because that’s the only way to qualify for the state meet. None of the six have wrestled at state yet.