Perfect Angel
Griffith’s Escobedo 4-for-4 in state title matches<\/p>\n
BY MARTIN ZABELL
Times Correspondent<\/p>\n
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Sunday, February 20, 2005 12:38 AM CST<\/p>\n
INDIANAPOLIS | Fourteen individuals won state wrestling titles Saturday, but there is only one Angel Escobedo.<\/p>\n
On 13 occasions, the state champion was saluted with a 20-second ovation. When Escobedo, a senior at Griffith, won the 135-pound title, the crowd of about 10,000 at the Conseco Fieldhouse rose in unison because it had just witnessed history.<\/p>\n
Angel Escobedo became the seventh wrestler in Indiana high school history to win four consecutive state wrestling titles after beating Portage’s Mike Leucuta 18-6 in the 135-pound match.<\/p>\n
When Escobedo picked up his first-place medal several minutes later, he received yet another one-minute standing ovation. Then the public address announcer told the crowd about all of Escobedo’s accomplishments: 49-0 record this season; 223-1 career record, with an undefeated mark against Indiana wrestlers; state record for pins.<\/p>\n
The crowd was so impressed that it gave Escobedo another standing ovation.<\/p>\n
Though he became part of Indiana wrestling history, Escobedo said he is far from done.<\/p>\n
“Finally, I did it, “he exclaimed after achieving his longtime goal of winning four state titles. “After so many years, it’s finally done. But I’m not done yet. I have bigger goals.”<\/p>\n
Hobart freshman Eric Galka also won a state title Saturday, defeating previously undefeated Justin LaFlower (Indian Creek) 1-0 in the 103-pound final. Merrillville’s Wesley English won the 145-pound title by beating previously undefeated Kurt Kinser (Bloomington South) 4-0.<\/p>\n
English, a junior, said he was confident all year after finishing second at state last season. He finished the year with 41-1. His only loss was to an Illinois wrestler.<\/p>\n
“(A state title) has been my goal ever since I lost last year, “he said. “I felt no one was going to stop me this season. I knew that because I worked very hard.”<\/p>\n
Escobedo will attend Indiana University on a wrestling scholarship next year, but he intends to redshirt because “it’s a really big step from high school to college and I want to be physically and mentally prepared.”<\/p>\n
After one year of preparation, Escobedo intends to seek a U.S. Olympic crown and “multiple “NCAA titles. Given his achievements so far, you should not count him out. In fact, he already has become an inspiration for many younger wrestlers.<\/p>\n
“Angel is definitely one of my models, “said Hobart’s Galka, who, like Escobedo, won a state title as a freshman.<\/p>\n
Aaron Sessa of Lake Central (119), Andrew Howe (130) of Hanover Central and Dexter Larimore (heavyweight) of Merrillville all finished second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Perfect AngelGriffith’s Escobedo 4-for-4 in state title matches BY MARTIN ZABELLTimes Correspondent This story ran on nwitimes.com on Sunday, February 20, 2005 12:38 AM CST INDIANAPOLIS | Fourteen individuals won state wrestling titles Saturday, but there is only one Angel Escobedo. On 13 occasions, the state champion was saluted with a 20-second ovation. When Escobedo, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-8g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}