It will be a big next 10 days for the Columbus East and Columbus North wrestlers.
The Bull Dogs host their invitational on Saturday, and the Olympians host their invite Dec. 18. Sandwiched in the middle of those two will be the teams’ annual dual meet scheduled for Wednesday at North.
But before the aforementioned meets for East, the Olympians have a pair of other big competitions this week. Ninth-ranked East will visit No. 12 Franklin for a dual match tonight, then will compete in the Perry Meridian Invitational on Saturday.
“We’re definitely excited about it,” East coach Chris Cooper said. “Last week, it was nice to get some matches under our belt, but I think these teams are definitely much tougher, so we’ll get to see kind of where we stand as a team.”
East was scheduled to host Franklin in a dual match last December, but that was canceled because of COVID. The Olympians also were a favorite to win the IHSWCA Class 3A state duals at Franklin in January, but were unable to travel because Johnson County was at the “Red” level on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, and at the time, BCSC schools weren’t allowed to compete against schools from red counties.
“We’re looking forward to wrestling them,” Cooper said. “Because of COVID last year, we didn’t get the opportunity, and then we weren’t able to compete in the 3A state duals that they competed in. We’re real excited to compete against them and see where we stand because that’s going to be one of our opponents potentially at state duals.”
On Saturday, the Olympians will wrestle No. 7 Perry Meridian, No. 8 Carmel, No. 13 Warren Central, Oldham County (ranked No. 10 in Kentucky) and Greenfield-Central in the Perry Meridian invite.
“That meet is loaded,” Cooper said.
Meanwhile, North will host Brown County, Bloomington North, Carmel JV, Whiteland and Western Boone in Saturday’s North Invitational, which will begin at 9 a.m.
The Bull Dogs beat Bloomington North at Saturday’s Bloomington South Invitational.
“I think overall, we have a good mix of teams coming in with Carmel and Whiteland, and Western Boone has a pretty good lineup,” North coach Matt Joyce said. “They have some kids that have been wrestling for awhile. Then, that rematch with Bloomington North is always interesting to see how teams adjust. But I think we have the potential for a really good day on Saturday.”
Columbus North is off to a 3-4 start. The Bull Dogs went 1-1 at the Jeffersonville Turkey Tussle and 2-3 at the Bloomington South invite.
“We wrestled Corydon really tough and Jeffersonville really tough,” Joyce said. “We had a couple tough matches at Jeffersonville that could have really turned the dual, but overall, I think our kids are really wrestling well.”
North’s top wrestler so far this season has been freshman Justice Thornton, who is ranked fifth in the Evansville Semistate at 132 pounds. Thornton beat Center Grove’s Michael Tharpe who is ranked No. 9 in the state at 126, Saturday at Bloomington South. Sophomore Jason Shuey is a returning semistate qualifier.
East has six state-ranked wrestlers, led by senior Kade Law, who is No. 2 at 160. Law finished third at state last season at 160.
Also for the Olympians, senior Ashton Hartwell is ranked No. 7 at 285, and juniors Liam Krueger and Tommy Morrill are No. 10 at 113 and 220, respectively. Senior Jaden Durnil is No. 14 at 182, and senior Noah Lykins is No. 16 at 120.
The Bull Dogs hope to be as competitive as possible in Wednesday’s dual match with East.
“That’s always the goal — to score as many points as we can on any team we wrestle, and East is no different,” Joyce said. “We expect our kids to wrestle to win every match.”
North will compete against some teams from East Central Indiana in the Dec. 18 Jay County Invitational. The Olympians are the lone ranked team entered in its own invitational that day, but they could see tests from teams like Terre Haute South, which also will be at the 3A state duals, as well as Monrovia and Edgewood.
“We really haven’t thought that far ahead,” Cooper said. “We’re trying not to look past this meet here (tonight at Franklin) and just kind of focus on that one.”
