Max quiroz, runner-up at regional, one of six chesterton wrestlers advancing to semi-state

Tom Keegan
onwardtrojans.com

The path to the state wrestling tournament requires that everyone who didn’t win a regional championship must either defeat a regional champion or someone who did that earlier in the first round to make it to Indianapolis.
The top four regional finishers in each weight class advance to the semi-state round, where a No. 4 placer at a regional must face a regional champion from outside his region to advance to the second round, more commonly known as the ticket round. Nos. 2 and 3 placers are matched against each other in the first round, then face the winner of a 1-4 match.
In short, there is no escaping a regional champion in one of the first two rounds at semi-state unless you are a regional champion yourself. Chesterton did not have any regional champions, so if someone qualifies for state, he very likely will have to knock off a regional champ to do it.
Six wrestlers qualified out of the Crown Point regional Saturday for this coming Saturday’s semi-state competition at East Chicago Central.
Max Quiroz, wrestling at 126 pounds, was the only one who had the distinction of making it to the Crown Point regional under the spotlight, which is reserved for championship matches.
The state’s No. 1 wrestler in that weight division, Crown Point’s Gavin Jendreas, was waiting for him.
In his first two matches of the day, Jendreas did what he does to most of his opponents, running up enough points (15 or more) to win by technical fall in the first period.
Quiroz made him work a lot harder and longer before Jendreas won by tech fall, 18-3, with 25 seconds left in the final period.
“I tried my best to keep it close with him, but not the outcome I would have liked,” Quiroz said. “I would have liked to get a takedown on him. I stayed in good position. I was in the match the whole time. I didn’t get turned or anything. It was a tough opponent. I put a lot of effort into that match and tried to keep it close.”
Quiroz wrestles at a fast pace and wins many of his matches by tech fall, so lasting this long on the mat with a wrestler as skilled and advanced as Jendreas can only benefit him.
Quiroz also had a long match with Jendreas on Dec. 11, losing a tech fall 19-3 in 5:12 in a DAC dual at Crown Point.
Quiroz’s pace tends to lead to high-scoring matches.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a defensive wrestler at all,” he said.
In his first match Saturday at Crown Point, Quiroz pinned Illiana Christian’s David Antunez in 2:20 and pinned Hanover Central’s Evan Cryderman in 3:25 the semifinal to earn his time under the spotlight.
The good news for Quiroz is that he won’t have to defeat Jendreas to qualify for state. If he faces him at semi-state, it will be in the title match because athletes from the same regional are on opposite sides of the bracket. If Quiroz is in the title match, that means he already would have punched his ticket to state, since what is required is to win two matches.
“There are some places I need to get better,” Quiroz said. “I need to take better shots. I need to move some guys because there are for sure going to be some tough opponents at semi-state, none as good as this guy though. He’s probably the best in the state.”
Trevino said that not many hang as long with Jendreas as Quiroz did.
“We wanted to go six minutes with him,” Trevino said. “We were looking to get to our shot. We changed levels a lot. We were able to stop a few of his shots, which is good, which means if we can stop one, we can stop more. That’s the top-tier kid. That’s who we’re trying to get to. We’ve got some growth going on. We’re learning to fine-tune what we do and how to get to it.”
Quiroz will have five teammates competing with him at East Chicago Central, trying to punch their own tickets to state.
Lucas Anderson (175 pounds) and Emeric Ritter (120) placed third at Crown Point. Andrew (165) and Charlie Shaffer (157) and Greyson Strickland (190) placed fourth.
Chesterton finished fifth with 60 points among 17 schools with wrestlers at the regional. Crown Point was first (231.5 points), followed by New Prairie (152) Lowell (143.5) and Hanover Central (93.5). Valparaiso placed sixth with 36.5 points.