NorthWood’s Cameron Jones and Triton’s Nate Riggins wrestle in the 126-pound fifth-place consolation final at the John McKee Memorial Invitational in Rochester Friday. (Photos by James Costello)

ROCHESTER — NorthWood senior Hunter Warren was feeling a little overlooked at the start of Friday’s John McKee Memorial in Rochester.

The Panthers 138-pounder was unseeded at the outset of the tournament, having wrestled just two matches this season after his team got off to a late start as a precaution against a skin infection that was making its way around the NorthWood lineup. Still, he felt he was good enough for one of the top seeds at the 16-team tournament. And after his performance Friday, the rest of the 38-pound field couldn’t help but agree.

Warren went 4-0 for the McKee Memorial title, starting his day with a convincing 8-4 defeat of top-seeded Brayden Wright of Rensselaer Central and capping off the day with a comfortable 5-2 victory over Maconaquah’s Zack Bullock in the championship round.

“We had some stuff going around the room so I wasn’t able to wrestle, and I wasn’t able to wrestle over Thanksgiving — I was with some family down in Houston,” explained Warren. “I only wrestled two matches before this tournament so I didn’t get the seed that I think I deserve, and I think I proved that. I didn’t let it bother me. I just told myself ‘You know what? The first match is a great time to go beat the number one seed’. And that’s what I did.”

Warren certainly made the most of his opportunities at the memorial invite and seemed to only get stronger as the tournament wore on despite grueling 12 rounds of wrestling against quality opponents. He was in control from the start of his championship bout with Bullock, never once trailing in the finale on center stage in the main gym at Rochester.

“I didn’t have a problem with him. I just wrestled my match,” said Warren. “I wasn’t worried. Usually I get pretty nervous about everything, but I tried to stay positive about everything, confident within my shots and just wrestled the way I wanted to wrestle. I didn’t let him determine the outcome.”

“We knew coming in that his chances were good,” said NorthWood head coach Damon Hummel. “He’s only wrestled two matches so that’s why he was not seeded. To beat the number one kid in the tournament first round, that’s big. Looking at the season, I think that was really kind of a turning point for him. It was one of those things that he needed, and it was good for him. Hunter did a fantastic job wrestling today at 138.”

NorthWood’s Jake Lone balances while Manchester’s Delton Moore looks to finish a high single leg Friday.

Another NorthWood grappler made the finals at Friday’s big tournament only to come up a little short.

Jake Lone lost a narrow, 3-0 decision to Manchester’s Delton Moore in the 170-pound final, but his runner-up finish was still a solid one for the mere sophomore. Moore scored a takedown of Lone late in the first period, then rode him through a scoreless second period. Lone started on top in the third period, and Moore’s escape midway though gave him some breathing room in a final that Lone was never really out of.

“Coach Lone, his dad, is one of our junior high wrestlers so Jake has been around wrestling for some time. Sophomore, pretty hard-nosed, good maneuverer. I think he ran into someone a little bit stronger than him today,” said Hummel. “Just three points, it’s one of those things that’s like what could you have done different, and that’s the way he’s going to look at that match. Good kid, strong kid, fights hard.”

The Panthers got another top finish from Jake Chupp at 145, as he fell via narrow 1-0 decision to top seed and eventual runner-up Gavin Banks of Plymouth, then bounced back with a 5-4 decision over Maconaquah’s Aaron McKinley in the consolation final. While Plymouth scored a dominant 227 points to beat out host Rochester’s 193 score, the Panthers wound up in eighth-place with 127 points. Not too shabby for a team that started so late.

“We wrestled well. Today I saw some lightbulbs go on,” Hummel said. “It was kind of nice seeing some of these kids realize what they can and can’t do. It was overall I think a good tournament and a good day.”

While two NorthWood wrestlers made their finals, Triton had one in the championship round in 13-pounder D’Angelo Shumpert.

Shumpert was handed a forfeit to open the day Friday, then recorded a pair of first-round pinfalls over Plymouth’s Max Howard and Rensselaer’s Charlie McCafferty before succumbing to West Noble’s Isaac Weimer via 9-1 major decision in the final. It was a disappointing note to end the day on, but at 21-2 on the season, the Trojan sophomore isn’t fretting too much.

Triton’s D’Angelo Shumpert sits up against West Noble’s Isaac Weimer in the 113-pound championship.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match coming in. I just did all I could, and I didn’t have the outcome I wanted,” said Shumpert of the final.

“I feel pretty good about myself even though I’ve lost to two people. I’m not really worrying because I know that I lost to two people that are older than me, they know more, and I put up a good fight. And the only two people I’ve lost to, one went to semi state and the other went to state, so wrestling them is only going to make me better.”

“He did a great job today. Only a sophomore. Only positive things to look forward to from now on,” said Triton coach Ron Brown of Shumpert. “I think he’s doing an excellent job this year. I love watching him wrestle. He’s an exciting wrestler, looks to score points. All kinds of good things to say about him.”

Meanwhile for Triton — which placed 10th in the team standings with a score of 93 Friday — Bo Snyder wrestled his way to a third-place finish at 170, losing a competitive 6-3 decision to eventual champion Moore in the semifinal before scoring a second-period pinfall over Calumet’s Marvin Pyle in the consols. Billy Smith placed fourth at heavyweight, and Nate Riggins wrestled his way back to fifth place with a first-period pinfall of NorthWood’s Cameron Jones.

“We talked to the kids last night that we just wanted to show up and battle, and we were going to do what we were going to do. I felt like our kids battled. I’m proud of the effort that they gave,” said Brown.

“This is a tournament that we like to come to to get a good measuring stick of where our kids are. We told them that — ‘Some of you may not have the outcomes that you want today, but we want to see what we need to work on, where our strengths are and where our weaknesses are.’”

A measuring stick was just what Tippecanoe Vally head coach Kyler Kearby was hoping the McKee Memorial would provide.

Chevy Teeter placed seventh at 160 pounds, while Vikings junior 52-pounder Jonathan Humes stacked up pretty well against the competition, finishing fourth with an even 2-2 mark in Valley’s top two finishes Friday.

Tippecanoe Valley’s Jonathan Humes controls Manchester’s Wade France in their third-place consol at 152 pounds.

“It was good to see him wrestle against some solid competition, two of the best kids he’s seen all year. It let him know where he’s at, and he needed that,” said Kearby of Humes. “For him to advance out in the state tournament the way we want him to and the way he wants to he’s going to have to start polishing some things and giving himself to beat those tough opponents.”

The Vikings placed 13th with 62 points at the tournament in a challenging day that should help prepare the team for the final stretch of the season after the holidays.

“I’d say definitely the top two kids from this meet usually go to advance out to semi state, possibly further, and normally about the top four, top six, you’re going to get pretty good caliber wrestlers. The thing about this tournament, sectional, regional is all individual-bracketed tournaments just like this so it helps the kids learn how to work through a tournament like that.,” Kearby said. “They saw some good competition, better people than some of our guys have seen so far. It tells us where we’re at and gives us a measuring stick of where we’re at and where we need to get to.”