Columbus East’s Tommy Morrill, in orange, wrestles Evansville Memorial’s Kelton Farmer during the 220-pound semifinals of the Evansville Semistate wrestling tournament Saturday at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind., Saturday afternoon, Feb. 12, 2022.
Grace Pritchett | For The Republic
EVANSVILLE — One state finals veteran and three newcomers from Columbus East punched their tickets to next weekend’s state tournament.
Senior Kade Law will make his third state finals appearance after finishing second at 160 pounds. The No. 2-ranked Law needed an escape in the final 30 seconds of his quarterfinal, or “ticket round” match to pull out a 6-5 win against No. 12 Jeb Pretchel of Jasper.
Law won an 11-7 decision against No. 9 Chris Newman of Mt. Vernon in the semifinals, then fell to top-ranked J Conway of Floyd Central 3-2 in the final in a rematch of an overtime decision won by Conway in the Hoosier Hills Conference final.
“It was about the same type of match as that one,” East coach Chris Cooper. “We just can’t figure out how to get our offense going against him.”
Junior Tommy Morrill, ranked No. 5, finished second at 220. He won his first-round match by pin and his ticket-round match 4-2 against No. 25 Nolan Skaggs of Franklin. Morrill then beat No. 7 Kelton Farmer of Evansville Memorial 2-0 before falling to No. 2 Nathan Critchfield of Evansville Mater Dei 3-0 in the final.
Noah Lykins (120) and Ashton Hartwell (285) each finished third for the Olympians. The seventh-ranked Lykins won by major decision in the first round and scored a 5-2 decision against No. 8 Seth Syra of Avon in the ticket round. Lykins then lost to No. 2 Lane Gilbert of Sullivan 5-3 in overtime before bouncing back with a first-period pin of Cascade’s Dominic McFeely in the third-place match.
The seventh-ranked Hartwell scored back-to-back first-period pins to secure his ticket to state. He then dropped a 10-1 major decision to top-ranked Leighton Jones of Brownsburg before beating No. 8 Nate Johnson of Center Grove 6-1 in the third-place match.
“Anytime you win more than you lose at the semistate, that’s a good day,” Cooper said. “Getting four guys through was great. Winning those third- and fourth-place matches helped us so we don’t have to face another semistate champion in the first round at state.”
Four other Olympians lost in the ticket round, including junior Liam Krueger (113), a state qualifier last season, who was decisioned by Center Grove’s Eddie Goss 1-0. Reece Fisher (138), Tristan Statler (170) and Jaden Durnil (182) also lost in the ticket round.
“Some of them are just tough draws,” Cooper said. “Jaden Durnil won his regional and drew the No. 1 kid in the state in the ticket round. Jaden battled with him, but just came up short.”
East’s Bo Wagner (126), Nate Anderson (132), Kenton Wilson (145), Eli Pollitt (152) and Josh Schrader (195) lost in the opening round.
The Olympians scored 74.5 points to finish third as a team behind Brownsburg (195.5), Mater Dei (136) and Center Grove (120)
“This tournament is brutal,” Cooper said. “It’s incredibly tough. Of the top eight teams in the state, six of them are down here. All of the guys we lost to but one ended up making it to state. It’s just a matter of real tough competition down there.”
Columbus North 13th-ranked freshman Justice Thornton (126) also lost a heartbreaker in the ticket round, a 1-0 decision to No. 8 Braden Haines of Brownsburg. The Bull Dogs’ Liam Curfman (106), Liam Phillips (152), Keller DeSpain (170) and Jared Slocum II (182) fell in the first round.
Jennings County’s Lane Kirchner (120), Teagan Trotter (170), Gage Gasper (220) and Peyton Hayden (285) all lost in the opening round.
The first round of the state tournament is Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Quarterfinals and semifinals are Saturday morning, with third-, fifth- and seventh-place matches starting at 5 p.m. and championship matches beginning at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
