Fourth Time The Charm: After 3 ticket round losses, East’s Lykins happy to reach state finals

For three years, Noah Lykins advanced to the semistate quarterfinals, one win away from advancing to the Wrestling State Finals, but in each of those first three years, he came up a little short in those “ticket round” matches.

Saturday in Evansville, the Columbus East senior wasn’t about to let it happen again. The seventh-ranked Lykins followed a win by major decision in the first round with a 5-2 win against No. 8 Seth Syra of Avon in the ticket round, earning his first trip to state.

“It was an awesome feeling,” Lykins said. “I’ve wanted to make it to state for the past three years, and finally doing it makes all the hard work pay off. It was just amazing to be able to punch my ticket to state.”

Lykins went on to finish third in the semistate at 120 pounds after falling in overtime in the semifinals and bouncing back with a win in the third-place match.

Olympians coach Chris Cooper noticed a different level of focus in Lykins prior to Saturday’s semistate.

“I think the maturity of him being a senior probably played a huge role into that,” Cooper said. “He anticipated going to state last year, and it didn’t work out. He just had a little bit of extra focus there that maybe wasn’t there and the past years.”

Lykins credited the culture of the East program with allowing him to become a state-caliber wrestler.

“I think that without the coaches and my teammates, I wouldn’t be near where I’m at right now,” Lykins said. “Because of them, I’m able to put hard work in and have good practices and get 1 percent better every day.”

Lykins is one of four Olympians to qualify for the state tournament, joining fellow seniors Kade Law (160) and Ashton Hartwell (285) and junior Tommy Morrill (220). The first round is Friday, and the quarterfinals, semifinals, consolation matches and finals are on Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Like Law, who plans to wrestle at Purdue, Lykins is headed to West Lafayette. But Lykins has been accepted into Purdue’s robotics program and does not plan to continue wrestling beyond this weekend.

“Their program, I don’t know if I’d be able to wrestle as much as I’d like to,” Lykins said. “But if they give me and offer, then I’d consider it.”

For now, the focus for Lykins (36-3) is squarely on Friday’s first-round matchup with 19th-ranked Neal Mosier of Delta (36-3).

“I’m pretty confident in my Friday match,” Lykins said. “I know I’m going to be nervous, so I’m just expecting that and being prepared for being nervous because it’s my first time. But the draw that I got, I feel really good. So I’m getting prepared.”

The 120-pound bracket appears to be wide open, thanks to the elimination of top-ranked Logan Miller of Brownsburg at the Evansville Semistate. Second-ranked Lane Gilbert of Sullivan beat Lykins in overtime in the semistate semifinals.

Gilbert, third-ranked Kyrel Leavell of Warren Central and fourth-ranked Isaac Ruble of Bellmont all are on the opposite side of the bracket. But Lykins could face a quarterfinal bout against sixth-ranked Toby Billerman of Perry Meridian, who pinned Lykins earlier this season.

“The No. 1 kid in the state got beat down (at Evansville), so it just shows anybody can be beat,” Cooper said. “Maybe the kid that’s the second favorite from Bellmont, Noah beat at (Mishawaka’s Al Smith Invitational). The kid from Sullivan who won semistate, we went into overtime with. Those three guys are probably the favorites. Toby Billerman from Perry Meridian, who is in our quarter-bracket, beat Noah earlier this year in a dual, but that’s one I definitely think we can get back.”

Lykins said the overall end goal is to wrestle under the lights on Saturday night and win a ring.

“Like Noah and I talked about on Saturday, he’s good enough to win it,” Cooper said. “Somebody’s going to win it. Why not him?”