Two years ago, Sam Morrill and Jacob Shaver were undefeated junior varsity wrestlers going into the Jeffersonville JV Invitational.
The Columbus East duo, who had become step brothers when Morrill’s father Matt and Shaver’s mother Jen married on New Year’s Eve in 2015, found themselves in the same weight class for that tournament, and as luck would have it, they ended up facing each other.
Shaver won by one point. That would be Morrill’s only loss of the season. Shaver didn’t lose until the postseason.
“It was an intense match for us to watch as parents, but it was just tough for those guys because they went into it like, ‘We haven’t been beat, and somebody has to lose,’” Jen said.
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These days, both Morrill, a junior, and Shaver, a senior, are varsity wrestlers for a powerhouse Olympians program. Morrill’s brother Tommy is a freshman on the JV team.
Sam Morrill is 15-4 this season at 160 pounds going into tonight’s dual match at Columbus North. Shaver is 16-9 at 138 and 145.
“We graduated a big bulk of our team, so the next guys need to step up, and they absolutely have,” East coach Chris Cooper said. “We talk a lot in here about the guys’ names up on the wall that are gone. It’s your turn to be that guy. It’s your turn to step up and really grow into that role, and both of those guys have done that.”
Shaver, who is a year older than Sam, started wrestling in seventh grade at Central Middle School. Sam, who had wrestled one year in elementary school, picked it back up when he was a seventh-grader at Central.
“I saw Jake get back into it, and I wanted to get into it again,” Morrill said. “I was really interested after I started in middle school.”
In high school, Shaver wrestled mostly at the JV level 120 and 126 as a freshman and sophomore. He wrestled some at 160 last year, although he weighed only 145.
“It’s funny looking at him in team pictures a couple years ago compared to now,” Cooper said. “He was a little guy and really has done all the things that we’ve asked. He’s built himself into a varsity wrestler. Last year, there was an opportunity at 160. He’s wrestling 138 for us right now, so that shows he was willing to go up and get some opportunity at varsity, and Sam kind of took over that spot later in the year.”
Sam broke into the varsity lineup late last season and ended up making it to semistate. He then wrestled in 70 matches during the offseason, the most of anyone on this year’s team.
“Literally any event that we went to, he was there,” Cooper said. “He’s just grown by leaps and bounds. He’s went from just cracking the varsity lineup last year to a guy that we expect to go out and win a state medal.”
Shaver, meanwhile, is back down to his natural weight class this season.
“I feel amazing,” Shaver said. “I’ve been doing exponentially better than I did last year.”
Both wrestlers are considering wrestling in college. Shaver said Trine University has offered him a spot on the team.
“I haven’t committed yet, but it’s definitely something I’ve been thinking about,” Shaver said.
Shaver and Morrill have similar goals when it comes to this postseason.
“I want to win sectional and regional and hopefully make it to state,” Morrill said. “I want to get my name on that board over there.”
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Columbus East at Columbus North wrestling
When: 7:30 p.m. today (Club and middle school wrestling begins at 5:15 p.m., followed by junior varsity matches at 6:30 p.m.)
Where: Columbus North High School
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