Second Chance: East wrestlers shooting for state duals championship

The Columbus East wrestlers were primed to win a state duals championship last year, but had to pull out of the competition at Franklin.

The Olympians were ranked No. 1 in Class 3A and the favorite to bring home the title. But at that time, Johnson County was at the Red level on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, and Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. wasn’t allowing its schools to compete against teams from Red counties at that time.

Saturday, the Olympians are poised to go to Franklin and win the 3A state duals title that they were hoping to win last season.

“I think it’s really motivating,” senior Kade Law said. “I think everybody has a little bit of a chip on their shoulder that we weren’t able to go last year. We want to prove that we are the best. I think everybody’s goal is to win it, and in order to do that, we have to show up and wrestle our best and we’ll get the job done.”

East found out three days before last year’s state duals that it had to withdraw. Floyd Central replaced the Olympians and finished second behind East Central.

“It’s one of our big goals of the season,” East coach Chris Cooper said. “Not being able to go last year definitely adds to our focus this year.”

The Olympians (13-0) once again are ranked No. 1 in 3A, but are seeded second behind No. 2 Roncalli for the eight-team event, which is conducted by the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association and not the IHSAA.

“It doesn’t really matter to us what our seed is,” Cooper said. “We’re there to win it, so 1 seed to 8 seed, it’s just a matter of putting together three really good dual meets in a row.”

East, which visits 4A No. 5 Cathedral for a dual match tonight, will open Saturday’s event against seventh-seeded Terre Haute South (13-1) at 9 a.m. The Olympians and Braves met in several matches during the East Invitational on Dec. 18.

“We match up with them pretty well,” Cooper said. “But like I tell our kids, you have to prove it every single time. We’re definitely not going to look past them for sure.”

The winner and loser of the East-Terre Haute South match will meet the winner and loser between third-seeded East Central and sixth-seeded Mishawaka at around 11 a.m. The championship and other placement-round matches begin around 1 p.m.

“Dual meet format is where we really get an opportunity to shine,” Cooper said. “It’s not about winning all the matches. It’s about kids doing their jobs and not giving up bonus points and getting bonus points when we can. I think this is where we’re at our best.”

Seven Olympians are ranked in their respective weight classes. Law, who finished third at state at 160 pounds last season, is ranked No. 2 in that class. Senior Ashton Hartwell is No. 7 at 285, junior Liam Krueger is No. 8 at 113, junior Tommy Morrill is No. 9 at 220, senior Jaden Durnil is No. 13 at 182, senior Noah Lykins is No. 15 at 120 and junior Jordan Sutton is No. 18 at 170.

Cooper expects to be back at full strength on Saturday. Senior Josh Schrader, who has been out all season with an injury, will be back at 195. Durnil, who has been wrestling up a class at 195, could go back down to 182, where senior Tristan Statler has been steady all season.

“I think for certain, we’re going to utilize all our guys for there,” Cooper said.

This is the second year the IHSWCA state duals have had four divisions at four separate sites. Prior to that, there were only three divisions, and all wrestled at the Fort Wayne Coliseum.

East finished 12th in 2016-17, sixth in 2017-18, ninth in 2018-19 and eighth in 2019-20 in Class 3A, which at the time was the biggest division. Teams have the option to move up a class, but they have to declare that prior to the previous year’s IHSAA tournament.

“We definitely want to compete in that biggest division, but there’s only eight teams (in each class), and it’s really tough coming from that Evansville Semistate,” Cooper said. “They only guarantee one team from each semistate, and if we would have chosen to move up, it’s possible we could have missed the tournament all together.”