Columbus East had seven wrestlers go undefeated in Saturday’s six-team East Invitational and swept through all five matches by a combined margin of 201 points.
The eighth-ranked Olympians started the tournament with a 44-21 win against Oldham County (Kentucky), followed by a 58-13 victory against Evansville Reitz. East then beat Greenwood 62-9, Southridge 58-12 and closed the day with a 48-15 win against Lawrence North.
“Going 5-0 as a team is a solid day,” East coach Chris Cooper said. “We focused last week in practice just on a couple of positions where we really needed to improve, and it was a massive improvement today, just our single-leg finishes and just some other stuff that we really worked on in practice. Guys came out, made the adjustments and it showed.”
Nathaniel John went 5-0 at 106 pounds, as did Cayden Rooks at 126 for the Olympians. Graham Rooks (132), Dawson Combest (138), Jake Schoenegge (145), Nick South (160) and Andy Davidson (170) all finished the invitational undefeated.
Combest said Saturday was a nice bounce back for him after a tough loss last week at the Scottsburg Warrior Classic.
“Not my best, but I definitely wrestled well,” Combest said. “A lot of stuff to improve on to get ready for (Hoosier Hills) conference, Brownsburg and heading into sectional.”
East’s Jeremy Clark went 3-2 at 113, and Corban Pollitt finished 3-2 at 152.
Cooper talked with his wrestlers immediately after the trophy ceremony about finishing out the season with a sense of urgency to prepare for the postseason. The Olympians will travel to Columbus on Wednesday and the HHC on Saturday and will host top-ranked Brownsburg on Jan. 19.
“(Brownsburg) is a top-20 team in the nation,” Cooper said. “We don’t have a lot of practice time, so we have to maximize our practice time.”
