TIPP CITY — It was business as usual at the Division II Tippecanoe sectional wrestling tournament on Saturday as defending 11-time state champion Graham was once again untouchable.

The Falcons brought in 13 wrestlers and advanced 12 of them to next weekend’s districts at Marion Harding, easily winning another team title in the process.

And Kenton Ridge was once again runner-up, advancing nine wrestlers to districts.

However, the news may be that the gap between the two teams has shrunk considerably. Graham had 279 points, while the Cougars finished with 163. In 2011, Graham had 357 to KR’s 149.

First-year Kenton Ridge head coach Cameron Doggett, himself a former Graham state champion, was happy with his team’s effort.

“We’ve got a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and getting them to wrestle the way I want them to, aggressively and never giving up, is a process,” said Doggett. “The mind-set has to be more focused, and they are doing a good job of getting there.

“This year has been a learning and building process for me and the team,” added Doggett. “I’m happy with the progress we’ve made.”

Meanwhile, Graham had seven champions: Seniors Ryan Taylor (120), Blake Kastl (145), Isaac Jordan (160) and Huston Evans (182), junior Bo Jordan (152), sophomore Micah Jordan (126) and freshman Eli Stickley (106).

“We got 12 of our 13 guys to districts, so you have to be happy about that,” said veteran coach Jeff Jordan. “We had some good today, and some not so good.

“Our goal was to get as many champions as we could because you really want to be set up well in the draw for a district like next week’s at Marion (when a sectional champion wrestles a fourth-place finisher from another sectional in the first round).

“I told my guys it was very important to win in the final round today,” he continued. “We got seven champions, which is what I thought we’d get. But we had two more I was hoping to get and didn’t.”

Jordan was hoping those would come from runners-up Eli Seipel (113), Nathan Henkle (132) or Darin Bovey (285), who all lost close final matches of the day — 8-2, 4-3 and 7-4, respectively.

The Falcons’ other two qualifiers were third-placers Chase Crabtree (138) and Lane Thomas (170).

Kenton Ridge ended up with just two champions: Senior Bobby Mounts (170) and freshman Tyler Sowards (138). However, it managed three runners-up — Preston Bowshier (126), Cody Ryan (145) and Colin Day (195), and three third-placers — Tyler Armstrong (106), Brandon Townsend (113) and Elijah Cochran (120). Teammate Seth Cochran (132), Elijah’s brother, was fourth.

After finishing with just two wrestlers last season, Northwestern was sixth, led by junior champion Sam Oakes (220) and runners-up Brandon Rogers (182) and Devin Rogers (106). Fourth-placers Eric Philpot (120) and Zach Weekly (170) were the Warriors’ other district qualifiers.

“Considering where we’ve come from, I’m very happy,” said Northwestern first-year coach Harry Husted. “What bodes well for our future is we placed 10 of our 12 kids we brought in the top six.”

None of them are seniors.

Urbana ended up advancing three to districts, led by senior champion Sam Harris (195). Also advancing were runner-up Donnie Scott (170) and third-placer Ben Cash (285).

“We got out who we expected to get out,” said said Ryan Pine, whose Hillclimbers were eighth of 10 teams. “We’d have liked to get more, but that’s how things go.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0364.