Merrillville senior Ahzsur Ursery’s path to a Lake County title on Saturday went through an old friend.
In the championship match at 138 pounds, Ursery faced Hammond senior Isaiah Watts, a former weekly practice partner.
“He used to come over on Sundays all the times and we’d scrap around,” Ursery said. “We never thought we’d wrestle each other because we were always in different weight classes.”
The match went into overtime, with Ursery getting a takedown for a 6-4 win over Watts during Saturday’s Lake County Tournament at Hanover Central, part of a dominant day for Merrillville.
More Top Picks Best Phonics Toys For Dyslexia
Ursery said it was the first time that he and Watts wrestled in a sanctioned match.
“Every other time we wrestled, it was just for fun,” Ursery said. “We’d both go at it and have an equal number of takedowns.”
Ursery was one of seven Merrillville wrestlers to finish first as the Pirates beat runner-up Lowell 325-195.5.
At 182, Merrillville senior Tyjonn Lockett scored a 14-3 major decision over River Forest senior Bradley Groover in a match between two returning state finalists.
“I was attacking,” Lockett said. “I’ve been working on that and I’m getting better at it. I feel like our conditioning is a lot better than a lot of the other teams here.”
Brandon Streck, another Merrillville senior, won an 11-2 major decision for the title at 220 thanks to a similar advantage.
“I felt like my conditioning was better,” Streck said. “I just had to keep pushing the pace until they break.”
That superior conditioning from Streck, Lockett and the rest of the Pirates was no accident, according to Merrillville coach David Maldonado.
“You win matches by wrestling, but you lose matches because of conditioning,” Maldonado said. “It’s that way in any sport.”
Merrillville also got first-place finishes from Martin Cruz at 106, Jacob Maldonado at 132, Aaron Griggs at 152 and Joe Atria at 285.
Clark junior Daniel Mora-Diaz won in overtime for the 132-pound title, becoming the school’s first county champion in at least 20 years, according to Pioneer coaches.
When the overtime period started, Mora-Diaz was in familiar territory.
“We do drills like that in practice,” Mora-Diaz said. “We’ll wrestle a match, and then overtime starts, and you just have to go. It wasn’t new to me.”
For Griffith junior Cole Cervantes, offense was the key to his title at 145.
“At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t on my offense as much and I had to pick up,” he said. “I can’t relax. I have to get on my offense to get my points.”
The other five champions on Saturday were: Wheeler’s Jose Diaz (113) and Trey Buehler (170), Lowell’s Andres Moreno (120), Hobart’s Dante Colza (160) and Calumet’s AJ Fowler (195).
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.