Columbus East’s Reece Fisher, rear, and Columbus North’s Evan Saevre wrestle in the 138-pound semifinals during the IHSAA Wrestling Sectional held at Jennings County Jan. 29, 2022.
Greg Jones | For The Republic
Columbus East, Columbus North and Jennings County won’t be taking their entire teams to Saturday’s Jeffersonville Regional, but it may seem that way.
The three teams will be sending a busload of wrestlers to regional after their multitude of top-four finishes in the Jennings County Sectional. The seventh-ranked Olympians, with 11 champions and two runners-up, will send 13 to regional, while the Bull Dogs will send 10 and the Panthers seven.
East racked up 323 points to secure its seventh consecutive sectional team title. North finished second with 201.5, and Jennings was third with 168.
“The kids did a great job day,” said East assistant coach Ty Olds, who was filling in for head coach Chris Cooper. “Every one of the kids, we gave them a job to do, and their job. That’s what we practice all week for. Getting ready for next week is the main thing now.”
Two Olympian seniors captured their fourth sectional titles in their four years. Noah Lykins won the 120-pound class on Saturday, and Kade Law took the 160-pound division.
“It’s exciting,” Law said. “It was a goal of mine, same with regional next week. I’ve won three regional titles and am ready to win four. I felt good, and I’m excited for the state series.”
Liam Krueger was East’s first champion at 113. The Olympians won the nine heaviest weight classes with Reece Fisher (138), Kenton Wilson (145), Eli Pollitt (152), Law (160), Tristan Statler (170), Jaden Durnil (182), Josh Schrader (195), Tommy Morrill (220) and Ashton Hartwell (285).
“I think that it’s awesome that we were able to take home 11 champs,” Lykins said. “There was some good competition.”
East’s Bo Wagner (126) and Nate Anderson (132) finished second.
“I feel like we’re wrestling really good,” Law said. “I think everybody really showed up, especially Josh. Josh had a short season, but he showed himself today.”
Meanwhile, North claimed its best sectional finish since 2012. The Bull Dogs had a pair of champions with Liam Curfman taking the title at 106 and Justice Thornton scoring a 13-2 decision against Wagner in the 126-pound final.
Liam Phillips, who dropped a 12-1 major decision to Pollitt in the 152-pound final, and Jared Slocum II, who fell to Durnil 10-0 in the final at 182, finished second for the Bull Dogs. Keller DeSpain (170) and Alexander Lozano (220) each finished third, and Bryce Hawkins (113), Jason Shuey (132), Josiah Green (145), Bryce Abner (195) all placed fourth.
“We’ve come a long way,” North coach Matt Joyce said. “Across the board, kids wrestled to their potential. We still have some things we have to improve on, but we’re marking another goal off of our list in being top-three here.”
Jennings didn’t have any champions, but had three runners-up in Teagan Trotter (170), Gage Gasper (220) and Peyton Hayden (285). Lane Kirchner (120) finished third, and Evan Sochacki (138), Bryce Barnes (152) and Colton Ross (182) all took fourth.
“I think we held our own and kind of finished where our places had us going,” Jennings coach Jeff Morrison said. “I just was hoping we’d maybe get a couple more in the finals, but overall, we did OK.”
Brown County finished ninth as a team with 30.5 points and advanced a pair of wrestlers to regional. Chris Luckey (152) placed third, and Brandon Phelps (160) took fourth.
