New Palestine High School

Senior Elijah Alonso won the Hoosier Heritage Conference championship at 150 pounds, helping lead the Dragons wrestling team to a second-place finish in the conference meet Saturday at Pendleton Heights. Delta won the conference title with 207.5 points. The Dragons tallied 191, while Greenfield-Central was third with 189. Pendleton Heights (154), Mt. Vernon (145), New Castle (110), Shelbyville (104) and Yorktown (101) took the remaining positions. Alonso was one of four Dragons in the finals. Jaedyn Jeffries (157), Colin Whetsel (190) and Shaun Glass (215) all finished second. Thirteen of the Dragons' 14 wrestlers placed in the top six. Alonso pinned Pendleton Heights' Gavin Yarger in 3:17 in his first match, then beat Greenfield-Central's Kannon Zuber 8-4 in the semifinal and beat Shelbyville's Brady Bryant 8-1 in the title match. Jeffries pinned Delta's Drayton Swanson in 4:58 and beat Shelbyville's Julian Eads 9-0 to get to the final, where he dropped a 14-9 decision to Mt. Vernon's Brooks McKeeman. Whetsel pinned Shelbyville's Brayden Schultz in 2:33 and Pendleton Heights' Chris Crank in 3:13 to get to the title match, where he lost a 12-4 decision to G-C's Clay Guenin. Glass pinned Shelbyville's Luke Dwyer in 27 seconds and decisioned G-C's Tristen Lanum 7-1 to get to the title match, where he dropped a 5-3 decision to Mt. Vernon's Devin Kendrex. Gunner Butt finished third at 126, going 3-1 on the day and posting two falls and a 15-0 tech fall over PH's Max Bowers in his final match. At 138, Peyton Hornsby also placed third, falling by a 4-3 decision in the semifinal before winning a major decision in the wrestlebacks and beating PH's Jaylen Covington 5-3 in overtime in the third-place match. Bryce Doss also finished third at 144. After losing by fall in the semifinal, he won by fall in the wrestlebacks and then defeated Delta's Kolten Rhonemus 3-1 in the third-place match. At 285, William Glesing became the fourth Dragon to finish third. He posted two falls, including a 3:28 pin of Yorktown's Kaleb Ellis in his final match. Placing fourth were Blake Doss (106), Gabe Flick (165) and Isaiah Jones (175). Wes Harbert was fifth at 120. Landon Stranger finished sixth at 113. The Dragons are back in action Thursday against Greenwood.