Robinson and Sebahar power to top 10 finish at State
Gelen Robinson (12)
February 24, 2014
Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. was packed on Feb. 22 with over 10,000 spectators who all shared one thing in common: the love of no-class, high school wrestling.
The Indians had two wrestlers representing the team down at State, 220-pound Gelen Robinson (12) and 145-pound Jacob Sebahar (12). Friday night consisted of the preliminary matches where half of the wrestlers were eliminated. Luckily, both Robinson and Sebahar were victorious in their matches. Saturday brought upon greater challenges because the wrestlers had to face tougher competition, and they also had to compete in multiple matches.
In Sebahar’s first match on Saturday morning, he faced Bailey Schober of Greenwood. About halfway through the match, blood began to rush from Sebahar’s nose and would not stop.
“I just wanted them to tape my face until [the blood] wouldn’t be able to come out anymore. I knew it was gonna [bleed] because I get nosebleeds all the time,” Sebahar said.
After stopping the match multiple times to try to terminate the bleeding, Sebahar only had thirty seconds left of blood time before the bleeding ceased.
“I was just trying to hold it in the whole time. The past few years my nose bled a lot. Then I had [my nose] fixed this summer and so it really hasn’t been that bad this year, but that match it was pretty bad,” Sebahar said.
After beating Schober and advancing to semifinals, Sebahar fell to Cody LeCount of Perry Meridian. He did not let this loss get to him, though. He still had a chance at third place in his weight class. LeCount went on to win the state title in their class.
“I knew [LeCount] was good so I didn’t really let that match bring me down. I knew I had one more match to win and it was for third place, so I just took that for motivation for [the third place match],” Sebahar said.
Sebahar faced Evan Loe of Peru in the 145-pound third place match, and defeated him in an 8-4 decision.
“My coaches told me when they were in that position what they were thinking. [They told me] ‘just know that it [was] your last match and could possibly be the last match you ever wrestle in your life, so leave it all out on the mat.’ That’s what I did,” Sebahar said.
Meanwhile, as Sebahar took care of business in his weight class, 220-pound defending State Champion Robinson began carving his path to the podium once again. After pinning his opponent in the preliminary match on Friday, Robinson faced Eliseo Guerra of Elkhart Central and ended up pinning him as well at the 1:27 mark of the first period.
Semifinals brought Robinson a little more of a challenge, however. Robinson went head-to-head with undefeated Dylan Faulkenberg of Cardinal Ritter. The match went the full three periods and Robinson advanced to the State Championship after a 17-4 decision. The 220-pound State Championship match was against an opponent Robinson had met in the same position last year and defeated in a 7-2 decision: Fletcher Miller of Kokomo. With the spotlight on the center mat, Robinson went at Miller with full force. Miller ended up getting Robinson’s knee in some tricky positions, but Robinson shook it off. After three hard-fought periods, the 9-3 decision made it final: Robinson, undefeated 52-0, had won the State title for the second year in a row.
“I’m glad that I got to carry the Lake Central Indian name all the way down here to State and be successful and come out on top two years in a row. It’s definitely gonna be hard giving up the Indian name on the wrestling mat, but I’m hoping to do some great things next year at Purdue playing football,” Robinson said.
Even after the two came out of the heat of battle, Robinson showed great respect for his opponent.
“[Miller has] definitely improved. He’s been working hard this year and I know that he has had a good season coming into the state tournament. I think that I came out on top this match, but at the same time he’s a great wrestler and I would never say anything bad about him,” Robinson said.
The crowd went wild as the referee raised Robinson’s arm in the air. Then, Robinson pointed at his friends and family who were cheering in the stands.
“[It’s] just in me to be respectful on the mat. I’m not gonna disrespect anyone and over-celebrate. I take my win gratefully and I’m glad that I have been this successful, but at the same time [the other wrestlers] worked just as hard. I know that they’ve come a long way and worked just like me, so it’s great to know that these athletes have been competing with me these past couple years,” Robinson said.
Robinson was nothing but smiles after his victory.
“It’s amazing to be a State Champion in this sport. It’s just a feeling that you can’t describe,” Robinson said.
