After Columbus East and Columbus North had their separate dual matches scheduled for Thursday fall by the wayside, Olympians coach Chris Cooper called Bull Dogs coach Matt Joyce to see if they wanted to move up their crosstown dual to Thursday night.
North was willing to oblige, so the teams held a joint senior night at East. Then, the 20th-ranked Olympians went out and posted a 67-9 victory over the Bull Dogs.
“I called coach Joyce about 2:30 (p.m. Wednesday),” Cooper said. “I just called him to see if he was open to the idea. We’re finding ways to get matches in for these kids. We knew this was an important dual for them to get in, so we took advantage.”
East’s two varsity seniors were glad to get the meet under their belt in the event the season were to get suspended because of COVID-19.
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“It was a little bit different,” said Sam Morrill, who is ranked No. 2 in the state at 170 pounds. “We really didn’t get the news of our dual happening until last night, but we’re always ready for matches like that. I think it’s better to get it out of the way incase of anything happening.”
Tyler Williams, who like Morrill, won by technical fall, would have liked to have been able to wrestle in front of a larger crowd. Only parents were permitted to attend.
“It just stunk that there were no fans,” Williams said. “I thought we wrestled very well. We can maybe touch up a few things, but it was good.”
The Olympians took control early, jumping out to a 29-0 lead after five bouts. Starting at 182, Josh Schrader pinned Keegan Hill in 1 minute, 35 seconds, and Tommy Morrill won by forfeit at 220. Ashton Hartwell, ranked No. 13 at 285, pinned Cody Thurnall in 2:50, Liam Krueger pinned Eddy Lin in 1:30 at 106 and Noah Lykine earned a technical fall against Brysen Hutt at 113.
“I credit that (fast start) to our upper weights,” Cooper said. “Josh Schrader and Ashton Hartwell, what we were looking for was getting them to their leg attacks, and that kind of set the tone for everyone else.”
North got on the board when Jason Shuey pinned Nate Anderson in 27 seconds in a battle of freshmen at 120.
“Shuey has had some tough kids already this year,” North coach Matt Joyce said. “He’s a good wrestler. I wasn’t too surprised by his win at 120. He’s a solid wrestler, and he’ll be one to watch in the future.”
East’s Bo Wagner pinned Jerry Newland in 5:10 at 126. The Bull Dogs then picked up their second and final win when James Thompson scored a 7-0 decision against Reece Fisher at 132 to cut the lead to 35-9.
The Olympians then won the final six bouts. Tony Ruiz-Tapia pinned Liam Milne at 1:24 at 138 and Eli Pollitt pinned Liam Phillips in 3:05 at 152. Williams then earned a tech fall against Jadein Richards at 152.
“I’ve definitely had a lot of improvement since last year,” Williams said. “I feel great about my wrestling and our team right now.”
Kade Law, ranked No. 12 at 160 scored a tech fall against Hector De Dios. Sam Morrill earned a tech fall against Bryce Abner at 170 and Jaden Durnil closed with a tech fall against Ryan Staley at 182.
“I thought we wrestled really well at almost every weight tonight,” Morrill said. “There were a lot more bright spots than dark spots. It’s exciting. I’m just hoping that we have a full season and that we can wrestle our best for as long as we can.”
Cooper was pleased with his team’s performance.
“We talked about just our presence on the mat and the way we carry ourselves,” Cooper said. “Even though we’ve had some success over the years, it’s been with different kids. We still have quite a few kids that are new to our lineup and new to varsity, so we kind of challenged the guys to pick up where the kids before them left off, and I thought they did a really nice job of that of just owning the moment and really wrestling well.”
East originally was scheduled to host Franklin on Thursday, but Johnson County is at a red level on the state’s COVID dashboard, and Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. policy currently bars its teams from competing against schools whose counties are in red. North was to host Madison, but the Cubs have wrestlers in quarantine.
The Bull Dogs and Olympians were to face each other coming up on Wednesday before the match was moved up.
“Since we both had duals that were canceled today, we thought it would better (to face each other) than the chance of not happening it all,” Joyce said. “With the state of things at other schools, we thought we would go ahead and move it up.”
