PERU — The Kokomo Wildkats’ bus will need just a little bit more gas than usual next weekend to haul its cargo up to Fort Wayne for Saturday’s individual wrestling semistate at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

Why more gas? A record payload, that’s why.

Kokomo qualified nine wrestlers to the semistate round Saturday with a superb performance at the Peru regional, and scored five individual champs in the process.

Last season, the Kats advanced five wrestlers total, and they qualified just three each of the two years prior to that. Since Howard County squads were shifted from the Merrillville Semsistate to the Fort Wayne Semistate in 2003, Kokomo’s best-ever effort had been a haul of seven semistate qualifiers in 2006.

“Anytime you get nine guys in the semistate, that’s a real good day,” Kokomo coach Ryan Wells said. “I’m real proud of these guys. We got seven guys in the finals — half the guys on our team are in the finals at regionals, that’s awesome.”

Andrew Ledford (42-7) was the first to fly the Kokomo flag atop the podium. The 113-pound junior fought back to score a 12-6 victory over Maconaquah’s Chase Wilson in the championship match.

“He got put on his back there in the first period, got down 4-0. He kept his composure and got his points back and then some. We talk about that all the time: ‘Just keep your composure. You can get your points back if you pace it.’ And that’s what he did.”

Wildkat senior Jesse Goodnight scored the Kats’ next championship. Goodnight (47-2) pinned all three of his opponents en route to the title, finishing with a victory over Maconaquah’s Brian Dick. Next, Kat sophomore Keair Ross (38-9) beat Western’s Logan Shepherd 7-4 for the 170 title.

Kokomo 195-pound senior Bo Butler had to go to overtime to protect his unbeaten record, but secured his 49th win of the season with a 3-1 victory over Northfield’s Joseph Ross when he pounced on an off-balance Ross in the bonus session. Finally, Cameron Colby (45-0) finished Kokomo’s run of titles with a first-period pin of Manchester’s Aaron Snep in the 220-pound title match. He too pinned all three of his opponents.

“It’s always a big deal to win a regional, just to set you up a little bit better for next week,” Wells said. Regional champs face fourth-place finishers in the opening round of semistate action. All wrestlers must win their first two matches at the semistate to qualify for state.

“The guy that Jesse wrestled only had two losses on the year,” Wells said. He also noted strong opponents for Butler and Colby. Butler’s had just one loss entering the title match, and Colby’s had two. “For [Goodnight and Colby] to get pins against quality kids like that is great for them, it’s great for their confidence.”

Kokomo also got second-place finishes from 138-pounder Chad Gaddis and 182-pounder Fletcher Miller, a third-place finish from 132-pounder Tony Benedict, and a fourth-place finish from 106-pounder A.J. Nelson. Kokomo advanced nine of the 11 wrestlers it had entered in the regional.

Western will take five up to Fort Wayne, highlighted by 182-pound champ Jake Wiechmann (28-3). He avenged two earlier losses to Kokomo’s Miller and pinned his Wildkat rival in the third period of their championship match.

Also advancing for Western were second-place finishers Caleb Maddox (106 pounds), Corey Hinkle (152) and Logan Shepherd (170), and third-place finisher Dustin Hinkle (138).

“Our kids did pretty good,” Western coach Chad Shepherd said. “We had seven underclassmen up here. To get five guys out, a senior [Wiechmann] and four underclassmen, that’s a pretty good day.”

Talking two hours after the 106-pound championship, that first title matchup between Maddox and North Miami’s Alan Mock was still fresh in the Western skipper’s mind. Mock won 7-5 in overtime.

“I thought that 106-pound match was the best match of the day,” he said. “That was just awesome. Those two kids wrestled their tails off. Caleb Maddox has come so far. We came up short, but it was a great match.”

Peru advanced four to the semistate and each Bengal Tiger won his final match of the day. Peru sophomore Kegan Kern (38-4) scored a third-period pin to win the 120-pound title, and classmate Evan Loe (38-4) scored a 6-3 decision over Eastern’s Zach Alexander for the 132-pound crown.

Also for the Bengal Tigers, sophomore Connor Quin (113 pounds) and junior Kaleb Hammersley (152) won third-place matches. Of the four Bengals to qualify for Fort Wayne, Quin is the only one without semistate experience.

“That’ll help them go up there to wrestle versus go up there to look around,” Peru coach Andy Hobbs said of the semistate experience of Hammersley, Loe and Kern. “They’re all salty experience-wise. Any time you win a championship, that puts you in a good bracket usually.”

Maconaquah saw four wrestlers qualify for the semistate. Wilson (113), Dick (160) and Jimmy Ulerick (heavyweight) each finished second, and Isaac Greeson (120) took third. Ulerick lost the title match to Huntington North’s Andrew Mason for the second straight week. Both matches went to overtime and are Ulerick’s only losses on the season.

“I thought Isaac Greeson at 120 did an outstanding job,” Mac coach Bob Freije said. “He had two big upsets — beat the guy from Eastern [Tyler Smith], lost to him earlier in the year; lost to [Oak Hill’s Cody] Staggs early in the year, got pinned, and then pinned Staggs second period [in the regional] so he did a really great job.”

Taylor advanced three of the four wrestlers it took to the regional, including Preston Hendrickson, who was an alternate at 170 pounds following a fifth-place finish at the sectional. He fared better on Saturday, taking fourth. Also for Taylor, Logan Sarber (145) finished fourth, and freshman Parker VanMeter finished third.

“I was pumped. I can’t complain at all,” Taylor coach Derrick Robinson said of Taylor’s effort.

“Our goal the whole week was just first round. It didn’t matter what happened afterwards. It kind of showed because we had two fourths and a third, we only won one match afterward. But we were just focused on winning the first match [which ensures passage to the semistate]. That’s what [Saturday] was all about, winning our first match and the rest of the day see what happens. We’ve got two sophomores and a freshman going. We’ve got quite a few years left in all of them. It’s going to help the future teams out.”

Eastern and Northwestern each will have one wrestler entered at Fort Wayne. Alexander carries the Eastern banner after taking second at 132 pounds, and Luke Akers represents Northwestern following a fourth-place finish at 152.