PENDLETON — The Mt. Vernon Marauders won’t be sneaking up on anybody anymore.
Now, they are a known commodity. Now, people know who they are.
That’s just the way they like it.
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“It’s so crazy to see how far we’ve come and our team is so good,” Mt. Vernon senior Chase Wilkerson said. “I love being a part of it. Everywhere we go, we make a presence. That’s awesome.”
It’s been a record-setting year already for Mt. Vernon, and they added to their program’s accomplishments in Saturday’s Pendleton Heights wrestling regional with a second-place finish to Cathedral.
Mt. Vernon had two regional champions and advanced eight wrestlers to the New Castle semistate, set for this Saturday morning.
There won’t be any more anonymity, if there ever was any. Not with that big of a group entering the gym, ready to compete for a shot at state.
“It just makes it more fun, more like a brotherhood,” junior Chris Wilkerson said. “We all feel like family. Last year, we had the same kids. They just got that much better. Now, everyone knows who we are. It feels good to walk through the door, everyone look at you and know who you are.”
Chris and Chase Wilkerson were the two regional champions for the Marauders, with Chase topping Pendleton Heights’ Jared Brown with a 3-2 decision at 126 pounds and Chris earning his second straight 1-0 win against Cathedral’s Andrew Wilson at 138.
“It’s awesome. It’s my first one,” Chase Wilkerson said. “It’s good to do it senior year, finally get one. I’m pretty happy about that, for sure.”
After winning last week’s sectional championship at Arsenal Tech against Wilson, Chris Wilkerson had an idea of what to expect coming into the finals Saturday. It helped that he’d been to this stage before, too, having lost in the regional final a year ago.
He was determined to not let that happen again.
“I knew that he was going to come in pretty aggressive,” he said. “I was going to try to weather it. I was trying to score, and I was only able to get that one point. But that one point won it for me, so I’m pretty happy about that.”
Two other Marauders wrestled in the regional finals and earned runner-up finishes. Max Hayes fell in the 152-pound championship match and PJ Sterrett dropped a 10-5 decision in the 182-pound final.
Sterrett needed a last-second comeback to even reach the final round, down several points in the waning seconds of his semifinal match.
A quick takedown and near fall in the final 24 seconds propelled Sterrett to the finals, where he fought hard but couldn’t quite get past Elwood’s Jalen Morgan.
“He wrestles really smooth and easy. He doesn’t seem to get rattled,” Mt. Vernon coach Chad Masters said of Sterrett. “In that match he knew that we’d given up the takedown, but he knew he could come back. He just always believes that he can come back.”
That attitude, that mindset, is what Masters hopes the other Marauders pick up on. Sterrett has had a strong year, eclipsing 100 career wins, and was a sectional champion last week.
When he fell behind again in the finals, Sterrett didn’t give up. He believed in himself, but his comeback attempt ran out of time.
“He got to the finals, and the score kind of got away from him. I said, ‘Hey, PJ,’ and he’s shaking his head yes,” Masters said. “He just thinks that he’s gonna come back. If we could get everybody to have that mentality, that’s what it takes. That’s what it takes to beat a Cathedral.”
Masters, who was voted the Regional Coach of the Year after his team’s impressive performance, said he was really proud of his team and how well they wrestled.
He was hopeful they could get a few more through to semistate, but he knew it wouldn’t be easy. Not with a team like Cathedral in the field.
Watching the two Wilkerson brothers bring home individual championships was a proud moment, too.
“They’re two of the hardest-working kids I’ve ever seen. Two of the nicest,” Masters said. “They work hard in school, their GPAs are incredible. They just deserve it. They are kids that absolutely deserve it. I just could not be prouder.”
Finishing in third place for Mt. Vernon were Andrew Johnson, Carson Johnson and Drake Kendrex. Aidan Alford picked up a fourth-place finish, rounding out the eight Marauders who will wrestle at New Castle.
The team had big goals prior to the postseason, and getting at least a half-dozen to state was one of them.
They are in position to do just that. They’ve made some noise in the sectional and regional rounds, setting school records in both. Now, they want to take it all the way to state.
“I think with how we’ve been doing, I think we can get six to state,” Chase Wilkerson said. “I don’t think it should be a problem. It’ll be tough, but there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”