After winning its third regional title in four years, the Triad wrestling team hopes the best is yet to come.
The Knights had 192 points in last Saturday's Class 2A Centralia Regional, while second-place Cahokia had 182.5. Triad won six weight classes and qualified eight wrestlers for the Mount Zion Sectional, slated for Friday and Saturday.
"The sectional is kind of an individual thing, but we'd like to get four to six guys to the state tournament," Triad coach Russ Witzig said. "In the team sectional (Feb. 21 at Springfield) we'll wrestle Chatham Glenwood, and our goal is to get back to the dual state tournament."
Triad placed fourth at state three years ago and reached the elite eight in 2010. Last year, the Knights lost to Cahokia in the regional, but this time around, the Knights got first-place finishes from Cole Wysocki (106 pounds), Lucas Zook (126), Kyle Graumenz (138), Jake Tindle (170), Ben Throm (182) and Dan Calvin (285). Other sectional qualifiers were Chris Kenney (third at 152) and Adam McElligot (third at 220).
Tindle, ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 2A, improved to 41-0 by pinning both of his regional opponents.
"The ranking is pretty cool, but in the postseason, anything can happen," Tindle said. "I believe I'm No. 1 in the state, and I'd like to prove it.
"It may put a little more pressure on me, but it works both ways. Some people may get a little more fired up when they wrestle me, but it scares off other people."
Tindle was 44-8 as a junior, placing fourth at state. But he feels he has become a better all-around wrestler this season.
"I've worked on a great diet this year, and I have tons of energy," Tindle said. "My conditioning is better, and I've worked a lot on my takedowns. I've gotten faster and more solid in every area.
"My goal is to win a state championship, but I'm also trying to be a leader."
Graumenz is 31-2 at 138 pounds and won by pin in all three of his regional matches. He missed about 10 matches due to rib and back injuries.
"The rib just popped out of place, but that was something that just happened at practice one day," Graumenz said. "I had a disc slide out in my lower back, but I had hurt it before and it just came back. I've wrestled a lot of times when I was less than 100 percent, but I had to help the team out."
As a sophomore in 2010, Graumenz finished second at state at 119, but didn't place as a freshman or junior.
"This year I'm ranked a little low (ninth), but that's fine," Graumenz said. "I feel like I can get top two if I don't hurt myself again."
Kenney (29-7) lost 2-1 in the semifinals but came back to win his next two matches to take third place. Two of his losses came on injury defaults at the Granite City Holiday Tournament.
"I'm happy with the way I've wrestled, but I wish I could have gotten more matches in," Kenney said. "I hurt my hamstring at Granite, and it was kind of a fluke accident. It took a couple weeks to recover from that, but now I'm 100 percent.
"My cardio is a lot better than last year, and I'm wrestling well on my feet. My goal is to place at state."
Wysocki, a freshman, improved to 40-2 with a 4-1 decision over Dameon Adams of Cahokia. Zook (32-11) won 1-0 in the finals over SirRomeo Howard of East St. Louis.
Throm (14-3) defeated Waterloo's Pat Beiber 14-3 in the title match at 182, while Calvin (33-12) pinned Waterloo's Dennis Wilson to win the heavyweight championship.
Kenney and Graumenz were among five Triad wrestlers to earn first team honors at the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Duals, where the host Knights earned their fifth consecutive MVC title on Jan. 27.
"It was real nice because a couple teams thought they were going to be close to us, but we showed that we're still the top dogs in the MVC," Kenney said. "We're a young team, so I think we will be for the next couple years."
"Winning all five matches, it was a fun day," Graumenz added. "It proves to the other teams that we're still pretty good."
The MVC meet gave Triad a much-needed confidence boost.
"We had gone through a couple rough weeks and lost a couple matches we probably shouldn't have lost," Witzig said. "We finished 14-11 in duals, but a lot of times we had guys out for whatever reason, and we were forfeiting two to four weight classes. All things considered, winning 14 matches was a pretty good year because we had to bump a lot of guys around."
