Last weekend was a big one for Columbus North Youth Wrestling.
The club took three wrestlers to the Middle School State Tournament at Center Grove, and one, Asher Ratliff, came away with a sixth-place finish. The same weekend, the club hosted 470 kids from four states in the Diesel City Tournament at North High School, and North Youth Wrestling won the team title in the girls division.
“It was a good weekend,” North Wrestling Club youth director Justin Ratliff said.
Asher Ratliff, Justin’s son, competed at 95 pounds at middle school state.
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“It’s a tough tournament with a lot of older kids, a lot of kids in general,” Asher Ratliff said. “My goal was to place, and I got it done.”
Since Asher Ratliff is a sixth-grader, and only seventh- and eighth-graders compete in regular middle school tournaments, he did not have a middle school season. Instead, he traveled to tournaments, finishing second in his division in November in Campbellsville, Kentucky, and going 5-0 in the Dixie Nationals in December in Atlanta.
Ratliff was competing against seventh- and eighth-graders at the Middle School State Tournament.
“That’s big, especially for a sixth-grader,” said North High School coach Matt Joyce, who took the wrestlers to Center Grove. “That’s one of the toughest tournaments in Indiana, especially in folkstyle, because it’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders and him being at the bottom of that grade-wise. He showed a lot of maturity, and he showed that he’s a really smart wrestler. He made a lot of adjustments throughout the day and really wrestled to his ability, which was fun to see.”
Eighth-grader Brysen Hutt went 2-2 at 102 pounds. Eighth-grader Jason Shuey went 1-2 at 117.
“Jason wrestled some really tough kids and wrestled really well,” Joyce said. “The same way with Brysen. He wrestled some tough kids. Those two guys are both going to be some contributors in here (at North). They’re both smaller guys, smaller weights. They’re both really tough wrestlers, and they’re both going to be really fun to coach over the next four years.”
While Joyce was coaching those wrestlers, Justin Ratliff was running the Diesel City Tournament. On the boys side, Joseph Cloud won the 14-and-under 80-pound division, and Lucas Racanelli won the 12U 115-pound division.
For the girls, Gloria Cloud won the 10U 53-pound division, Ruby Medley took the 8U 56-pound class and Kyria Rodriguez captured the 12U 130-pound division.
“It was just a matter of each one of them putting their heart out there on the mat and doing what we taught them,” said Dustin Cloud, who works with the girls wrestlers. “Each and every single one of them did very well.”
This was the third year for the Diesel City Tournament, but the first to have a girls division.
“It was really exciting,” Justin Ratliff said. “We’ve been wanting to promote women’s wrestling. It’s really growing and catching a lot of traction, so we wanted to support that movement. Having those three girls step up and win their weight classes was huge.”
