There were no secrets to be revealed Saturday when Chesterton junior Diego Lemley reached the championship match against Crown Point junior Oszkar Kasch.
“We’ve wrestled together since we were little,” Lemley said. “He’s a tough kid. He wrestles through a lot of positions. It wasn’t so much about wrestling to his ability, it was about running my offense and having him react to me.”
That strategy worked for Lemley in the 160-pound final of Saturday’s Duneland Athletic Conference Meet at Chesterton.
Lemley (16-1), ranked sixth in the state at 160, held on for a 7-6 decision over the fourth-ranked Kasch.
“It’s good to know that my tactics worked,” Lemley said. “I had more opportunities. I saw a lot of positions where I should’ve scored. But it’s good to wrestle tough guys like that and still see some stuff you can work on.”
Lemley was one of four conference champions for Chesterton, along with junior Lucas Davison (30-0) at 182, senior Andrew Davison (30-0) at 195, and sophomore Eli Pokorney (28-2) at 220. That helped the Trojans finish second in the team standings with 214.5 points.
Behind seven individual champions, Portage took the team title with 248 points. A few of those victories required late rallies, a welcome sign for a team with aspirations of winning state.
“That’s part of becoming a champion — finding a way to win,” Portage coach Leroy Vega said. “Whether you’re down by one or two or five, you can’t ever stop wrestling.”
Sophomore Brock Peele was one of those wrestlers at 113. Tied at 7-7 late in the third period, he thought he had a match-winning takedown in the final seconds. The points were overturned on appeal, but he won the match with another takedown in the first overtime period.
“I thought I had it,” Peele said of the overturned takedown. “But it happens. Vega always talks about it. If you think you were cheated out of points or if you get behind in a match, you have to come back. Portage guys always find a way.”
Portage senior Miguel Prado scored four points in the final 30 seconds of his title match at 132 to earn a 6-5 decision over eighth-ranked Jack Tolin of Chesterton.
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“I was just trying to stay calm and keep my composure,” Prado said.
A quick reversal and two back points put Prado ahead as time expired, although he was one of the last people to figure it out.
“I still thought I’d lost,” he said. “I didn’t know what the score was.”
Portage’s five other conference champions were freshman Ty Haskins at 106, junior Colin Poynter at 120, junior Kris Rumph at 138, junior Kasper McIntosh at 145 and senior Ismael Cornejo at 170.
Dave Melton is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.