The Columbus East wrestlers celebrate with the trophy after winning the Class 3A state duals Saturday at Franklin.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
FRANKLIN — Trailing Roncalli 31-28 in the penultimate match in Saturday’s IHSWCA Class 3A state duals, Columbus East was 15 seconds away from losing a decision that would put it down by six points going into the final match and not in position to win on a tiebreaker.
But in those final 15 seconds, Olympians’ senior 195-pounder Jaden Durnil came up with a takedown and two back points to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 victory and tie the match at 31. Junior Tommy Morrill then pounded out an 8-1 decision to give East a 34-31 win and it’s first state duals championship.
“Jaden and Tommy, to end the dual with those two guys, they’re gamers,” East coach Chris Cooper said. “So it really doesn’t matter if their back is against the wall. I’m always confident they will find a way to grind it out. Looking at the last several matches, we were pretty evenly matched with Roncalli, so we knew it was going to be a grind in every single one, and nothing better than to have to of your best wrestlers to finish a dual.”
If the 15th-ranked Durnil would have lost his match against ninth-ranked Sam Peeples, the Olympians would have trailed by six points, and even if Morrill would have pinned his the Royals’ Justin Lewis, Roncalli would have won the title on the second criteria (most pins).
That made Durnil’s bout a must-win.
“Coach Cooper walked up to me before the match and was telling me that I am the man,” Durnil said. “He’s been telling me that for a little while now, so I had to out there and get a ‘W’ for the team. You just have to dig deep, and I knew what I had to do for the team. I just knew I had to do something to get the win for the guys. My heart was racing whenever I finally reversed him and got him on his back. I just knew I had to hold him there, and we’d catch the ‘W.’
“That was huge,” Morrill added. “When he got those points in the last period, I was like, ‘Yes.’ That’s what we needed. He did it, and I was feeling super confident in myself to go out there and win.”
The seventh-ranked Morrill did exactly that. Following a scoreless first period, he led 4-1 after two periods and closed out the 8-1 decision.
“Coop set up this spreadsheet for us where, ‘This is how many points everyone needs to get, and if they do that, then we’re going to end up with a final score of such and such,’” Morrill said. “Then I realized some of the people weren’t getting the points they needed to, so I was like, ‘This is really going to come down to me.’ I had to work hard that last match to finish it off for the team.”
Morrill’s match was bookended at the beginning by a surprise pin from junior Patrick McMahon at 285. McMahon learned Saturday morning he would be called on to fill in for eighth-ranked senior Ashton Hartwell, who was sick.
“It’s definitely important to get stuff kicked off in the right manner,” McMahon said. “But they all worked hard for it. Every single one of them just about killed themselves for it.”
“What a tremendous win to start the dual with Patrick getting that pin,” Cooper added. “It just kind of set everything off.”
Roncalli came back with a pin at 106, but then East’s eighth-ranked 113-pounder Liam Krueger came through with a pin for a 12-6 lead.
“It was huge,” Krueger said. “Coach told me I needed to go out and get a pin, and everybody did their role. So we went out and did what we were told to do, and we won at the end of the day.”
Noah Lykins scored a 15-0 tech fall at 120, and Bo Wagner scored a 5-4 decision at 126 to give the Olympians a 20-6 advantage. But then the Royals collected three consecutive pins and a major decision to take a 28-20 lead with five matches remaining.
East’s second-ranked Kade Law stopped the bleeding with a 25-11 major decision at 160, missing a tech fall by one point. Jordan Sutton earned a 13-4 major decision at 171 to tie the match at 28 .
Roncalli then earned a decision at 182, setting up the dramatic finish with the final two matches.
“It’s amazing, exhilarating, it’s everything,” Krueger said. “I’m super happy. We were seeded second at this tournament, and I was not happy with that. Our team wasn’t, and we went out to prove that we were No. 1.”
Besides Hartwell, the Olympians were without 145-pounder Kenton Wilson, who also was sick.
“We faced a ton of adversity this week, and the guys grinded through it and found a way to put their best effort today,” Cooper said.
East advanced to the final with a 45-28 quarterfinal win against Terre Haute South and a 48-19 semifinal victory against East Central.
Morrill, McMahon, Krueger, Lykins, Jordan Sutton (160) and Law (170) earned pins against Terre Haute South. Tristan Statler (182), Durnil and Reece Fisher (138) won major decisions.
Against East Central, Krueger, Lykins, Wagner, Eli Pollitt (152), and Sutton (170) all won by pin. Law (160) won a major decision, and Durnil, Morrill, McMahon, Fisher and Statler earned decisions.
“It’s tough to describe,” Cooper said. “I’m so proud of these guys. I told them there’s been a large group of Columbus East wrestlers that has worked hard to build this program to where it’s at today. This today is testament to years of work. It didn’t start today. It’s been building over a long period of time, and these guys all day long absolutely battled, grinded for every single point. We won big match after big match after big match. I’m just super proud of them.”
