Lowell senior Colton Cummings hates jumping.
“I’m a wrestler — I chose this sport so I don’t have to jump,” he said with a laugh. “But that was all we did in therapy: jump on boxes.”
Cummings has spent the last six months rehabbing a torn ACL in his left knee, which he sustained at a Memorial Day wrestling tournament in Virginia Beach, Va.
He wrestled for just the second meet this season in Saturday’s Lake County Tournament at Hanover Central.
Cummings was the runner-up at the Mishawaka Al Smith Invitational last week, but finished first Saturday by going 4-0 at 126 pounds.
After a lengthy rehab, Cummings was just thrilled to be back on the mat.
“I heard it was an ACL injury and thought, ‘Oh no,'” Cummings said. “I thought everything was going to end.”
Cummings said he’s still working his way back into the form that produced state titles the last two seasons, but he noticed the progress at Hanover Central.
“We saw some things that we didn’t see at the Al Smith,” Lowell coach Bobby Howard said of Cummings. “He was getting back to how he wrestles, at a high pace and very offensive.”
Lowell had two other county champions: senior Max Steward at 195 and freshman Shawn Hollis at 106. That helped the Devils finish first with a team score of 247, ahead of Hobart’s 204 and Lake Central’s 190.5.
Howard spoke highly of his two champions as well as sophomore Andres Moreno, who finished runner-up to Wheeler junior Jose Diaz at 113.
“We got the match we wanted,” Howard said of the Diaz’s win in the final. “Now we can get back to work because we’re going to be seeing that same match in a couple of weeks.”
Hobart’s second-place finish came without top-ranked senior Brendan Black. He was held out of the 138-pound bracket after suffering a hamstring injury last week, but is expected to be ready for the postseason.
The Brickies had a pair of county champions in senior Angelo Guarnero at 160 and junior Tylor Triana at 120. Triana had a tough 2-0 win in the finals over Hanover Central junior Alex Bautista.
“It’s always good to prove a point that I could win these types of matches against really good opponents,” Triana said.
Triana remains motivated by the disappointing end to his sophomore season. After finishing fifth in the state at 106 as a freshman, he did not qualify for last year’s state meet.
“My mental game wasn’t all there last year, and that’s what I’ve been working on a lot,” he said. “But I can always improve. I’ve had two losses, but they were good losses and I learned from each of them.”
Dave Melton is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.
