Hayter, Decker and Casillas win IESA Sectional titles

By Fred Kroner

Three Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School wrestlers earned sectional championships at their weight class on Saturday (March 4) at Jacksonville and advanced to the IESA Class 2A state wrestling tournament.

The Bulldogs champions were among the nine from Mahomet-Seymour who will represent the school at state, in the two-day meet that starts in DeKalb on Friday (March 10).

Winning their weight divisions were eighth-grader Gideon Hayter (80 pounds), eighth-grader Talon Decker (126 pounds) and seventh-grader Marco Casillas (145 pounds).

Each of the Bulldogs titlists were undefeated in three sectional matches. All three had also captured regional titles the previous week and have not lost in the postseason.

Hayter dominated his three opponents and didn’t allow a point at the sectional, winning by scores of 13-0, 12-0 and 7-0.

Decker produced pins in all three of his sectional bouts and has pinned all five of his postseason opponents thus far.

Casillas, who is undefeated for the season (37-0), registered two pins at the sectional to go with a 10-1 triumph in the finals.

One Bulldog was the sectional runner-up, eighth-grader Beau Back (119 pounds). He was 2-1 for the weekend with one pin.

In every weight class, the top four finishers moved on to the state meet.

Placing third for M-S were sixth-grader Grant Morphew (75 pounds), eighth-grader Gaba Maya (185 pounds) and seventh-grader Jayvon Tompkins. Morphew was 4-1 at the sectional with two pins, Maya was 3-1 at sectional with one pin and Tompkins was 2-1 with two pins.

Tompkins was in a pressure-packed third-place bout.

M-S trailed by 2 ½ points in the team standings entering the day’s last match. Tompkins supplied a pin in 13 seconds that enabled the Bulldogs to win the sectional team title with 186 points.

Runner-up Morton had 183 ½ points. Others in the top five of the 19-team event were Quincy (173 ½), Mattoon (!56) and Mount Zion (154).

Tompkins’ final opponent was Morton’s Andrew Abernathie, who had posted pins in three previous wins on the day.

In the postseason, Tompkins has a 4-1 record, with four pins. Three of his falls have been in fewer than 15 seconds.

Other M-S state-qualifiers, who were fourth-place finishers, were seventh-grader Niko Truax (90 pounds) and eighth-grader Liam Noonan (100 pounds). They each had 2-2 records at the sectional tournament.

The breakdown of the school’s state-qualifiers is: five eighth-graders, three seventh-graders and one sixth-grader.

In all, 21 Bulldogs competed at the sectional. They teamed up for a cumulative record of 31-25, with 15 of the wins occurring by pins. Sixteen of the Bulldogs who participated at the sectional won at least one match.

Others with victories, whose points helped the team garner the sectional crown, were Myles Hartzler (70 pounds), Noah Meints (85 pounds), Caleb Scott (95 pounds), Tate Kimball (105 pounds), Corey Bell (135 pounds), Pearce Douglas (145 pounds) and Ashton Lamb (215 pounds).

Of that group, Meints, Scott and Bell enhanced the M-S overall point total by registering one pin apiece, which supplied their school with bonus points.

The other Bulldog sectional participants were Joe Vrona (100 pounds), Garrett Waisath (112 pounds), Aidan Banister (112 pounds), Jaycee Fancher (119 pounds) and Nino Caballero (155 pounds).

Fancher, an eighth-grader, was the lone M-S girl to advance to the sectional. She ended her season with an 18-7 record and 15 pins. The majority of her matches were against boys.