Warsaw sophomore Kyle Hatch controls his opponent Saturday at the Merrillville Semistate. Hatch earned his second straight trip to the State Finals with a third-place finish (Photos provided by Scott Gareiss)

MERRILLVILLE –  Kyle Hatch has a goal to wrestle in the State Finals during all four years of his high school career.

The Warsaw sophomore standout is halfway to that objective.

Hatch earned his second trip to the State Finals on Saturday with a third-place performance at the Merrillville Semistate. He will compete for the second straight year at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis come Friday in the first round of the State Finals.

Hatch headlined a group of 10 area wrestlers who competed at Merrillville Saturday. His third-place performance at 120 was the best of the outstanding group and the lone win to punch a ticket to State. The top four finishers in each weight class Saturday move on to State.

Hatch won his first two matches on Saturday to guarantee himself no worse than a fourth-place finish and earn his State Finals berth. He defeated Lowell sophomore Zach Galvan by fall in 1:36 and then topped Portage sophomore Miguel Prado 8-4.

Kyle Hatch continued his outstanding season Saturday for the Tigers.

Hatch, who placed fourth at Merrillville a year ago at 106, then lost a 13-1 major decision to Griffith sophomore Jeremiah Reitz.  Reitz beat Hatch at the semi state a year ago by a technical fall and then went on to win a state championship at 106. Hatch finished his day at semi state impressively by fall over Mishawaka junior Ryan Hardesty in 4:41 to take third place.

Reitz lost a 6-4 decision to Hobart sophomore Brendan Black in the title match at 120 Saturday. Reitz is now 33-4 this season.

“Qualifying for State was one of the goals and Kyle did that,” said Warsaw coach Justin Smith in a phone interview late Saturday night. “He placed one spot better than last year and we will take that.

“He definitely was on top of his game in the first two rounds and wrestled two good matches.  The semifinal round match was tough. He struggled to get his offense going. But he bounced back very well in his final match. We wanted him to move on after the loss to Reitz and he did that.”

The Warsaw wrestling contingent, which included the trio of Hatch, senior Rory Nolin and junior Andrew Brock along with their coaches, spent the night Saturday in Merrillville due to the blizzard-like conditions back home.

Hatch, who placed eighth at State a year ago, is now 42-2 on the season.

“I think that I wrestled really well in the first two rounds; however I got into a bit of trouble with the Portage wrestler,” said Hatch via email late Saturday night.  “He won his first match with three cradles, so I knew if he had a chance to run a cradle, he would and he did.  I am just glad I was able to fight it off and reverse him.”

“It means a lot to qualify for State again. One of my goals is to wrestle in the State Finals every year.”

“I don’t feel like I wrestled my best against Reitz so in my third place match I wanted to make sure I wrestled a technically sound match.  I knew coming out of semi state in third place would be better than a fourth place.”