Staff Reports
JASPER — Sam Morrill will make a return trip to state, Kade Law will be back after a year absence and Liam Krueger will make his first venture to the Wrestling State Finals.
The three Columbus East wrestlers punched their tickets to state with top-four finishes in Saturday’s Jasper Semistate. Morrill, a senior, won the 170-pound weight class; while Law, a junior, placed third at 160; and Krueger, a sophomore, took fourth at 106.
Morrill (35-1), ranked No. 6 at 170, recorded first-period pins in each of his first two matches to secure his spot at state. He then scored a 12-4 major decision against No. 11 Codie Khawaja of Floyd Central in the semifinals and an 11-4 decision against No. 5 John Purdy of Castle in the final.
Law (33-3), ranked No. 4 at 160, began his day with a technical fall in the first round before posting a 5-1 decision against No. 17 Nick Cicciarelli of Brownsburg in the ticket round. Law then fell to No. 2 Brody Baumann of Evansville Mater Dei 11-3, but bounced back with a 7-0 shutout of Floyd Central’s Bray Emerine in the third-place match.
Krueger (25-8), ranked No. 9 at 103, also opened with a first-round tech fall. He then edged No. 6 Charlie LaRocca of Center Grove 3-2 in the ticket round before dropping 4-1 decisions to No. 13 Blake Zirklebach of North Posey and No. 19 Donnie Feeler of Crawford County in the semifinals and third-place match.
“It’s such a tough tournament down here,” East coach Chris Cooper said. “When you look at the landscape of Indiana wrestling and where the top teams are, this area is so tough. We could have wrestled better, but we didn’t wrestle bad. We won a lot of close matches. Three state qualifiers is fantastic, and Sam coming out as the champ in a very tough weight class is fantastic.”
Meanwhile, it was a heartbreaking day for five Olympians whose seasons came to an end with “ticket round” losses, falling one win short of qualifying for state. Noah Lykins, ranked No. 8 at 113, fell to No. 20 Joey Buttler of Whiteland 7-4 in the ticket round. Ashton Hartwell, ranked No. 10 at 285, was pinned by No. 3 and eventual semistate champion Leighton Jones of Brownsburg in the ticket round.
East’s Reece Fisher (132), Tony Ruiz-Tapia (138) and Tommy Morrill (220) also fell to ranked opponents in the ticket round.
Nate Anderson (120), Bo Wagner (126), Eli Pollitt (145), Tyler Williams (152), Jaden Durnil (182) and Josh Schrader (195) all lost in the first round. Williams, ranked No. 12 at 152, was battling an ankle injury he sustained in last week’s Jeffersonville Regional.
Columbus North’s Jason Shuey (120) and Hector De Dios (160) fell in the first round. Jennings County’s Joey Moran (138) and Gavin Bateman (152) and Brown County’s Lane Mullins (285) also lost in the first round.
The state tournament will begin with first-round action on Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Weight classes 106 through 145 will be from 11 a.m. until about 12:30 p.m., and weight classes 152 through 285 will be from 7 p.m. until about 8:30 p.m.
Quarterfinals begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and will be immediately followed by semifinals. Third-, fifth- and seventh place matches are at 5 p.m. Saturday, followed by championship matches at 7:30 p.m.
The state finals brackets will be revealed beginning at 4 p.m. today on ihsaatv.org
