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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports wrestling

Two wrestlers take first place at Michigan State Open

Four IU wrestlers made their way to their respective finals Saturday at the Michigan State Open, where two Hoosiers took first place.

The two champions were junior Taylor Walsh at 157 pounds and senior heavyweight Adam Chalfant.

“Adam wrestled great,” IU Coach Duane Goldman said. “He had a really tough weight class. He beat a highly ranked All-American (Jeremy Johnson, Ohio) and then beat the No. 6-ranked guy in the country out of Michigan State (Mike McClure, MSU) in the finals. He just had a really solid tournament and wrestled well.”

For No. 9 ranked Chalfant, it was his season debut.

He did not waste any time making an impact, defeating two top 10 ranked wrestlers on his road to the heavyweight title.

Walsh, who is also ranked ninth in the nation for his weight class, kept his momentum going after earning Big Ten Wrestler of the Week this past week for his first place finish at the Clarion Open.

“Taylor has had a couple of real successful seasons, but he has taken it up a notch,” Goldman said. “I mean he has been showing the signs of being where he needs to be to get on the stand and make a run for a high finish at the end of the day.”

Walsh is now 10-0 on the season with eight pins. His 29 career pins leave him two away from making his way into IU’s top 10 list.

“It was good to see he didn’t have a let down from last week,” Goldman said. “He continued to roll and get after it.”

Senior Ryan LeBlanc (165 pounds) and junior Luke Sheridan (184 pounds) also reached the finals but ended the day with second-place finishes.

Leblanc was defeated by Ohio State freshman Bo Jordan in the finals to go 4-1 during the tournament.

“Ryan in particular had a real solid performance,” Goldman said. “He showed a workmanship-like approach. The guy he met in the finals is an excellent wrestler, and he just kind of got caught there, but he had an outstanding performance going up to it.”

Sheridan had a tougher journey to the finals with several tight matches, including a 3-1 overtime victory against Michigan State junior John Rizqallah in the semi-finals before a loss to No. 8-ranked sophomore Ken Courts from Ohio State.

“Luke had some really tight matches that he had to pull out,” Goldman said. “Those are the kind of matches that really make a difference down the line through the season.”

Junior Joe Duca was a tournament-time decision (ankle), but the staff decided not to rush him, so Duca did not wrestle.

Duca has missed both tournaments to start the season but will be fine, Goldman said.
There has been competition for the 149-pound spot for IU, but sophomore Eric Roach may have all but sealed the spot for himself with a 6-1 performance during the tournament.

“Eric has pretty much established himself as the guy there,” Goldman said. “He started off a little slow during the day, but then he had a couple of big matches toward the tail end of the tournament that really seemed to get him on the right track.”

In the freshman/sophomore division of the tournament, freshmen Chris Caton and Kyle Springer both competed at 133 pounds.

Springer was the runner-up, losing to freshman Jordan Northrup of Northern Illinois in the finals. Northrup also defeated Caton earlier in the tournament.

“Both those guys were at the same weight competing for that 133 spot,” Goldman said. “Chris only lost one match and Kyle only lost one match. Kyle’s was in the finals to Northrup and actually it was a real close match.

“He lost on a really kind of controversial call. Both of them not being able to compete last week did a real nice job and showed that whoever we decide to put out there should be able to give a real strong performance.”

The Hoosiers will move on from this tournament and have their first dual meets of the season next Sunday for the home opener at University Gym.

Sunday will be a tri-meet with IU going against Duke and Cleveland State.

Follow reporter Brody Miller on Twitter @BrodyMillerIDS.

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