Tell City 4th in wrestling sectional

NEWBURGH - A.J. Flynn, Andy Kast, Justin Kleemann and Dylan Froehlich placed second in their weight classes to lead Tell City to fourth place in the nine-team Castle wrestling sectional Saturday.

Joey Woznicki and Greg Batie, who placed third, also qualified for the regional.

The top four finishers in each weight class qualified for the regional, but Tell City had no fourth-place finishers.

The Marksmen scored 151.5 points, 12.5 behind third-place Princeton. Castle, ranked seventh in the state, won with 348 points.

"I really thought we'd get at least third," said Tell City Coach Joe Litherland. "And I thought we'd get some (individual) fourth places, but we didn't get any."

All of Tell City's runners-up fell to Castle wrestlers in the championship round.

Michael Brown beat Flynn 7-1 for the 103-pound title.

Flynn earlier won by forfeit and decisioned Jesse Waninger of Heritage Hills 8-0.

Kast pinned Michael Hayden of Wood Memorial in 3:22 and decisioned Damon McEllhiney of Princeton 12-4 before losing to Doug Welch 7-0 in the 125-pound finals.

Kleemann beat Rick Hamil-ton of Boonville 8-0 and pinned Wood Memorial's Chris Grubb.

But Andrew Pettijohn beat Kleemann 3-0 for the 152-pound title.

Froehlich, competing in the 215-pound class, was the only Marksman to score two pins on his way to the finals.

He pinned Damien Swank of Tecumseh in 1:10 and Chris Payne of Boonville in 1:55.

Clay Robison then beat Froehlich 3-0 in the finals.

Batie pinned Zach Orange of South Spencer twice in heavyweight matches. But in between he lost by pin to Chad Johnson of Boonville in 2:45.

Woznicki (130-pound class) pinned Robbie Hesson of South Spencer in 2:50 but got pinned by Jacob Wade of Gibson Southern in 0:20 in the next round.

Woznicki then pinned Trent Schum of Heritage Hills in 2:33 and beat Hesson again by technical fall in 4:25 in the consolation finals.

Matt Leistner (171) placed fifth and Neal Goffinet (112) sixth for Tell City.

The regional will also be held at Castle Saturday at 9 a.m.

With three teams ranked in the top 10 in the state (No. 1 Mater Dei, No. 7 Castle and No. 8 Reitz) and No. 17 Evansville Memorial in it, the regional "might be the strongest it's ever been," said Litherland.

Team scores: Castle 348, Gibson Southern 179, Princeton 164, Tell City 151.5, Heritage Hills 130, Boonville 128, South Spencer 114, Wood Memorial 74, Tecumseh 30.