They began Saturday with four and they finished with two.

Chris Katsafaros and Ryley Harlow placed fourth at Saturday's Merrillville Semistate, advancing to the state finals Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

"Getting (to the semifinals) was pretty good," Trojans coach Chris Joll said. "We will look at our draws and hopefully head to Indy with a plan that can get us a couple of medals."

Katsafaros (39-3) came into the day with one loss this season, an overtime defeat to Mishawaka's Tristan Macri at the Al Smith Classic. After a pair of first-period pins, Macri made it two, sidetracking Katsafaros with an 8-4 decision in the semifinals.

"(Macri) never, ever stopped moving," Joll said. "We could've been a little more aggressive. Part of it is Chris wants to take the guy down, pin people and get it over with. We had some things taken away from us."

Katsafaros then lost 7-3 in the 145 third-place bout to Lowell's Mitch Roadruck in a rematch of the Crown Point Regional final, which Katsafaros won by pin.

"It's a shame to lose a match when you're being the aggressor," Joll said. "I didn't do enough to adjust for the match and it cost him."

Harlow (36-10) moved into the 285 semifinals with a pair of falls before dropping a 5-1 decision to South Bend Clay's Shakir Carr.

"(Carr) pinned him in about 12 seconds in (the Tom Cameron tournament), but the coaches worked up a plan that worked pretty darn good," Joll said. "Ryley weighs like 240 and (Carr)'s like 270. That's like a '52 wrestling an '82. Ryley moved very well on his feet. He wrestled six minutes and (Carr) wrestled about 35 seconds. It seems like the smaller guy never gets (the stalling point). It would have been nice to get a win but we couldn't have asked for a lot more."

Hanover Central's Josh Bartoszek pinned Harlow at 2:02 for third place in a rematch of the Crown Point Regional final that Bartoszek won 3-2.

"Ryley tried to open it up," Joll said. "It would have been nice to have had him for four years. I think he would have been a lot of fun to watch."

Trojans Matt Estill (120) and Jack Davison (138) both bowed out in the first round.

"They both wrestled guys who had just dominated them before," Joll said.

Estill fell 12-3 to Merrillville's Adam Garcia.

"I've been saying it the whole tournament series. Coach (Brian) Swallow has done a great job with Matt," Joll said. "Matt's gotten so much better the last month than he was the first two months. Next year, he shouldn't be satisfied with just getting here. He's turned into a little man. He's not just a freshman. He's done that by working hard and setting goals. He takes to coaching very, very well. There was a point in the match where he was getting beaten up physically and he just smiled like, 'Come on, how about a little more?'"

Davison dropped an 8-2 decision to Mishawaka's Grant Marstoff.

"Jack was just in over his head with a guy who took him down and kept after him," Joll said. "He wound up (third), so he lost to a pretty good guy."

Chesterton finished 16th as a team with 22 points. Merrillville took the title with 115 points. Penn was second at 98.

1. Merrillville 115, 2. Penn 98, 3. Crown Point 89.5, 4. Mishawaka 79.5, 5. Lowell 65, 6. Portage 54, 7. (tie) Hanover Central, Lake Central 46, 9. South Bend Clay 44, 10. Harrison (West Lafayette) 33, 11. South Bend Adams 32, 12. Culver Academy 20, 13. Twin Lakes 28, 14. Culver Community 24.5, 15. Benton Central 23, 16. Chesterton 22, 17. Highland 20, 18. Kankakee Valley, 19. (tie) West Lafayette, Warsaw 18, 21. South Bend St. Joseph 17, 22. (tie) Bishop Noll, Delphi, Hobart 16, 25. (tie) LaPorte, Valparaiso 15, 27. New Prairie 12, 28. Plymouth 11, 29. Morton 8, 30. South Bend Riley 7, 31. Pioneer 6, 32. McCutcheon 4.

106 -- Jake Sinkovitz (Mish) tech. fall Drew Hildebrandt (Pe) 4:36. 113 -- Stevan Micic (HC) tech. fall Zachary Davis (Pe) 4:24. 120 -- Drew Hughes (Lo) p. Luis Munoz (War) 5:00. 126 -- Blake Denton (TL) d. Josh Fuqua (CP) 2-1. 132 -- Trevor Burlison (CP) d. Mitch Hartman (SBC) 8-6. 138 -- Tommy Forte (Mish) d. Anthony McHugh (CMA) 3-2. 145 -- Tristan Macri (Mish) d. Joe Mammolenti (Pe) 7-6. 152 -- Dusty Schurg (CP) d. Samuel Ferdig (SBA) 2-1. 160 -- Mark Maldonado (Hi) d. Damian Gomez (BN) 3-1. 170 -- Bobby Steveson (Mer) d. Scottie Sopko (Hob) 9-4. 220 -- Gelen Robinson (LC) p. Seth Meyer (Har) 0:47. 285 -- Shawn Streck (Mer) p. Shakir Carr (SBC) 5:07.

106 -- Michael Garza (Mer) tech. fall Cody Allmon (Ply) 3:47. 113 -- Gaige Torres (Po) d. Branden Truver (LC) 15-4. 120 -- Adam Garcia (Mer) d. Matt Lechowicz (LC) 4-2 (OT). 126 -- Dylan Logsdon (Po) d. Max Buckley (V) 5-0. 132 -- Grant Martsoff (Mishawaka) d. Jake Covaciu (Mer) 3-2. 138 -- Isaac Renatas (Mer) d. Alex Reinhart (Pe) 10-2. 145 -- Mitch Roadruck (Lo) d. Chris Katsafaros (Ches) 7-2. 152 -- Trevor Manspeaker (Pe) d. Danny Roach (Po) 5-3. 160 -- Kenny Hughes (Lo) d. Matt Hollins (Mer) 5-0. 170 -- Mike Eldridge (LP) p. Jade Doty (WL) 2:31. 182 -- Exvonte Jones (Po) d. Matt Langbehn (CP) 5-2. 195 -- Ryan Patterson (Lo) d. Jaylin Allen (SBC) 3-1. 220 -- Kobe Woods (Pe) d. Matt Berdine (KV) 2-1. 285 -- Josh Bartoszek (HC) p. Ryley Harlow (Ches) 2:02.

145 -- Macri (Mish) d. Katsafaros (Ches) 8-4. 285 -- Carr (SBC) d. Harlow (Ches) 5-1.

145 -- Katsafaros (Ches) p. Willie Armstrong (Merr) 1:09. 285 -- Harlow (Ches) p. Drew Dodson (Ply).

120 -- Adam Garcia (Mer) d. Matt Estill (Ches) 12-3. 132 -- Marstoff (Mish) d. Jack Davison (Ches) 8-2. 145 -- Katsafaros (Ches) p. David Zajac (CMA) 0:43. 285 -- Harlow (Ches) p. Gerald Valenzuela (Hob) 5:40.

Posted 2/11/2013