The Chesterton Boys Wrestling team has officially finished their 2023-24 season and one wrestler in particular took 2nd place at the state finals. CHS Senior Hayden Demarco participated at state and completed his outstanding career as a Trojan Wrestler.  

In late January, the Wrestling Team competed in the IHSAA Sectional Championship hosted by LaPorte and successfully took home the first-place title of Sectional Champions. Out of the 14 participating weight classes, 12 of them advanced to regionals. Five CHS wrestlers were individual weight-class champions and helped lead the Trojans to this victory. Freshman Max Quiroz (120), Sophomores Ayden Campbell (126) and Lucas Anderson (165), Junior Drew Shaffer (157), and Senior Demarco (132) won first place for their weight class. The Trojans made their team proud and continued their post-season at the Crown Point Regional Tournament a week later.

At Regionals, Chesterton wrestlers worked hard to take down their opponents and continued their stride through post-season matches. The Trojans placed 4th as a team and 8 individual CHS wrestlers qualified for the Semi-State tournament. Demarco earned the title of Regional Champion and now holds two IHSAA Regional Champion titles for wrestling. Quiroz, Demarco, Anderson, Connor Olson (144), Charlie (150) and Drew Shaffer, Patrick Mochen (175), and Michael Zielinski (215) all continued their post-season by moving on to the Semi-State match in East Chicago. 

At Semi-state, the Trojans took 13th place and Demarco became a third-time Semi-State Champion! In round one, Demarco won by fall over Faith Christian’s Tavien Smith. In the quarter-final, Demarco defeated his opponent, Warren Brown from Merrillville. Demarco beat Hayden Fritz from West Central in the semi-final and reigned victorious in the 1st place match against Sontonio Sessa from Crown Point. Demarco was the only CHS wrestler to advance to the state championship and he entered as the number one seed. 

At the state finals in Evansville, Demarco represented Chesterton. He worked tirelessly and made Chesterton proud. He finished in 2nd place overall as the state runner-up and Demarco is the second-best wrestler for his weight class in Indiana! Demarco finished his CHS wrestling career at the state championship and his senior season with a record of 45-1 and an overall record of 163-14. There’s no doubt that Demarco made CHS and the community incredibly proud.

This past season was the last for many senior wrestlers, and we can only wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors outside Chesterton. Zielinski cites the good times as something he will fondly remember from his four-year career.

“It was a lot of fun. Freshman year was a little rough because of Covid but other than that it’s been a lot of fun. The coaches and the people, we all just had such a great time,” said Zielinski.