The Chesterton wrestling team fought five starters short Wednesday night against Portage and dropped a 41-27 Duneland Athletic Conference decision.

“I really thought we had a chance to win, but its hard when you are missing five starters in your lineup,” Chesterton coach Chris Joll said. “The kids we had to put in there just aren’t ready, or willing, to do the work necessary to compete at that level. That’s on me and it’s something I’ll get fixed.”

Portage started the match with 12 quick points on a pair of pins at 106 and 113. Matt Estill stopped the early onslaught with a fall victory over Louis Escobedo at 120 pounds.

“That’s a great win for a freshman kid that was getting disrespected in the first period,” Joll said. “They took him down three times and let him up. All that did was give us a chance to get a takedown and then we stuck him.”

Three straight Portage wins was again stopped by a fall as Chris Katsafaros stuck Stephen Wilkins at the 4:17 mark of their match at 145. A decision win for the Indians was followed by Jaycee Jensen’s 10-5 win over Alex Guerrero at 160.

“I thought some of our guys that have worked hard in the room to get a win, did just that,” Joll said. “That’s what those guys are supposed to do and they’ve earned that success. Now the younger kids have to get in line behind them and watch how hard they work and follow them.”

The final two victories for the Trojans came at 195 as Joe Ponda stuck Devin Kludt at the 1:51 mark just before Ryley Harlow won at 285 with a fall victory against Aaron White at the 1:59 mark.

Chesterton returns to the mat next Wednesday when they travel to Crown Point. The first match of the night is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

106 -- Mykel Lundy (P) pin Josh Jensen, 2:39. 113 -- Gaige Torres (P) pin Eric Kramer, 1:15. 120 -- Matt Estill © pin Louis Escobedo, 5:15. 126 -- Dylan Logsdon (P) pin Cliff Eiring, 2:45. 132 -- Julian Torres (P) FFW. 138 -- Jason Spence (P) dec. Hunter Rucklos, 13-8. 145 -- Chris Katsafaros © pin Stephen Wilkins, 4:17. 152 -- Danny Roach (P) dec. Sawyer Hallas, 7-5. 160 -- Jaycee Jensen © dec. Alex Guerrero, 10-5. 170 -- Jacob Wright (P) dec. Tyler Gillespie, 15-3. 182 -- Exvonte Jones (P) dec. Cody Watson, 13-2. 195 -- Joe Ponda © pin Devin Kludt, 1:51. 220 -- Travis Williams (P) dec. Conner Smith, 12-6. 285 -- Tyler Harlow © pin Aaron White, 1:59.

Posted 11/20/2012