The Indian River wrestling team’s season ended following the 2007 Delaware State Tournament held at Sussex Central High School on Feb 23-24.
Coastal Point • SUBMITTED:
Perry Townsend’s state championship appearance in the 215-pound weight class marked the third straight year Indian River has sent one of their own to fight for crown.
Indian River took eight wrestlers and had three of them place in the top five.
Perry Townsend (215 pounds) was the Indians’ lone championship contender and, as the No. 1 seed, he showed why he deserved a chance to wrestle for the crown.
He breezed through his first three opponents, as he has done all season long in tournament matches. But, unfortunately for Townsend, his championship hopes were dashed by Milford sophomore Chris Drummond (33-6) in a 12-10 decision during the championship round.
Townsend had amassed a 28-5 regular-season record with his lone dual-match loss coming to two-time state champion Vinnie Ranauto (33-4). And much of what had made him so successful during the season seemed to be his undoing, according to both Milford head coach Don Parsley and Indian River head coach Jeff Windish.
“Parsley did a good job of preparing Drummond for his match against Perry,” Windish said. “Perry controlled the early part of the match but he gave up a few moves.”
Townsend’s patented move — the lateral drop — had earned him a second-period pin, over Concord’s Brian McGovern (29-3), as it had in many other times this season. And since Milford only had three wrestlers make states, Parsley had plenty of time to scout Townsend during the tournament to develop a strategy to beat him.
“I thought Chris did a really nice job against Townsend,” Parsley said. “He’d knocked off the two guys that had beaten him earlier in the season, earlier in the tournament, which left only Townsend,” he added, referring to St. Mark’s Jamie Otlowski and Sussex Tech’s Jamar Beckett. “He didn’t wrestle Townsend all season, but I thought we’d scouted him pretty well.”
“Townsend’s a risk-taker, and he doesn’t mind exposing himself to create opportunities. … He likes using a lateral drop and, usually, he’ll end up on top. And what I wanted Chris to do was to be ready to counter him,” he continued.
And it was at that crucial moment that Drummond was able to turn the tide. He scored takedowns twice, and then a takedown and a near-fall at the edge of the mat with about 30 seconds remaining.
“Perry’s worked hard all season long and to come up short by two points is a little disheartening,” Windish admitted. “They wrestled a good match. … I thought Parsley did a good job of preparing Drummond. Perry controlled the match in the early part but gave up a few moves and by that time it was a little too late to comeback,” he continued.
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Out of eight state qualifiers, Mike Magaha, right, was one of three wrestlers to place in the 2007 state wrestling tournament at Sussex Central High School on Feb. 23-24.
“I guess I picked a bad match to wrestle badly,” Townsend admitted.
“He won and I lost,” he added. “But I can’t really complain. I won all my dual matches except for one, and I helped our team make the dual-meet tournament again. And, individually, I got second. It could’ve been worse.”
Townsend finished fourth in last year’s 189-pound bracket.
Mike Magaha finished third in an ultra-competitive 119-pound bracket. Sussex Central’s Connor McDonald won his third straight state title in that bracket with a 23-11 major decision over Caesar Rodney’s Luis Burgos.
Magaha wrestled Burgos tough in the semi-finals but lost an 11-7 decision.
“Mikey had a legitimate chance to win that match if there were 30 more seconds on the clock,” Windish said of Magaha’s chances of wrestling for the state title.
McDonald and Burgos are set to graduate this spring, leaving Magaha as the highest-ranking returning wrestler in his respective weight class.
Last year, Magaha competed at 103 pounds, and it’s possible that he may move up to higher weight class again next year as a senior.
“Mikey wrestled in a very tough weight class,” Windish said. “Connor, Luis and Mikey are excellent wreslters. … He’s a hard worker. I’ve seen a lot of improvement from last year and I’ve seen him build confidence throughout the year. And hopefully next year Mikey will be the front-runner,” he continued.
“Mike should be in the top somewhere,” Townsend added. “I don’t know if he’ll wrestle at 119 again but he should be really tough at 125 or 130. … He’s dedicated to the sport,” he said.
P.J. Barch placed fifth at 152 pounds and joins Magaha among Indians River’s top returning seniors next season.
Bo Wilkinson failed to place this year, despite a 2-2 state tournament record. He concluded his sophomore regular season with a 30-8 record, which is a stark improvement from last year’s 21-17 record.
Delfino Pascual lost two of three state tournament matches to conclude his sophomore season, which he finished with a 21-14 regular-season record.
The Indians’ other state qualifiers — Sean Cummings (135), Dominique Morris (160), Townsend (215) and Zach Rector (285) — will all graduate this spring. And, despite losing so many talented wrestlers, Windish is confident that his guys will continue to improve just as they have since he took over the team three years ago.
“This year we took some kids to states and it was their first time,” he said.
“Delfino is only a sophomore. He’s improved leaps and bounds from last year and that’s what you get when you go to these things — you get more experience. That’s experience that we can build on.”
“We’ve made the state dual meet tournament three times now and every year we’ve improved a little bit. … And next year we’ll set the bar as high if not higher,” he added.
Indian River lost consecutive state dual-meet tournament matches to Hodgson starting in 2004-05 season, 48-18 and 44-17, respectively. And though they lost again this year to their Southern Conference rival — Smyrna — they did show improvement in a 36-24 loss.