Nothing in baseball can match an ace pitcher, not even the weight of history.
He threw a punch at the sky, when the buzzer finally sounded. Then he shouted. Then he leaped – no, bounded was more like it – into the arms of one his coaches, Paul Gunsett.
Bobby Keuneke of Bellmont didn’t pin a single opponent at the semistate wrestling tournament Saturday at the Coliseum. But he sure nailed the celebration to the mat.
He was the happiest guy in the room after outlasting Brock Bevans of Yorktown 4-3 in the 120-pound final, because, after four years, he finally got to see what the top step of the podium felt like.
“It’s his first tournament win ever in high school,” said his coach, Brent Faurote. “He’s been on our varsity for three years, he was a state qualifier last year, but he has never won a sectional, conference, regional or anything. So this is kind of special for him.”
Keuneke (34-7) beat two four-loss wrestlers, a two-loss wrestler (Erique Early of Snider) and finally got the best of Bevans (41-3) to win the title, after losing to him in overtime the last two weeks. And he did it by taking something that hadn’t worked before and making it work this time around.
“I tried to hit a switch the last two weeks and it just never worked,” said Keuneke of the third-period reversal that won him the match. “So I tried to throw him off a little bit (by doing) the opposite of what I did before and finally got him.”
And finally winning one?
“It was a relief,” he said.
Keuneke’s win highlighted a big day for Bellmont, which crowned four champions. Brooks Faurote went to 43-1 by beating Phil Gerber of Bluffton 7-1 in the 145-pound final; Brad Busse pinned Corey Crabtree of Muncie South in 5:02 to win the 182-pound class; and Ben Baker handed Bo Butler of Kokomo his first loss of the season with a 6-0 win in the 195-pound final.
Butler failed to do what Seth Biberstine of Southern Wells pulled off with style. Biberstine (45-0) blew through the 220-pound class, pinning three opponents in a total of 2 minutes, 5 seconds, then winning by default in the final after blasting Chase Spears of Elkhart Memorial to the mat 49 seconds in. Spears was unable to continue.
“I was on a mission today, I guess,” Biberstine said.
Among other local winners were Hayden Lee of Garrett, who improved to 73-3 in his high school career by rolling through the 106-pound class; Todd Batt of South Adams (44-2), who pinned Evan Loe of Peru in 2:16 in the 132 final; and Anthony Linnear of North Side, who beat Garrett Weber of Leo 10-6 in the 160 final.
Weber was one of four Lions to qualify for next week’s state tournament. Snider qualified three: Early, Jared Wilson (132) and James Starks (170).
Among notables who failed to qualify were Riley Lefever of Carroll, who came in 38-2 at 160 but lost 3-1 in the second round to Jesse Goodnight of Kokomo; and North Side’s T’Quan Walker, who came in 29-1 at 285 but was pinned in the second round by Brandon Daniels of Goshen.
