INDIANAPOLIS — For the third time this season, a match between the state’s top two 160-pound wrestlers went down to the wire.
This time, it was for the state championship Saturday night under the spotlight at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Unfortunately for Columbus East’s Kade Law, the match ended the same as the first two, with a narrow defeat.
Top-ranked J Conway of Floyd Central registered a takedown in sudden victory overtime to pull out a 4-2 win against the second-ranked Law.
“I felt like I wrestled a good match,” Law said. “Just things didn’t fall my way at the end.”
After a scoreless first period, Law picked up a stalling point and another on an escape, and Conway got one stalling point in the second period, leaving Law with a 2-1 lead going to the third. Conway earned an escape in the third to send the match to overtime.
“I think I had a pretty good game plan,” Law said. “The match wasn’t as active as I would have liked it to be underneath the lights, but I fell short. There’s nothing else to it.”
Law finished 41-3, with all three losses coming to Conway, who finished 37-0. Conway won in overtime in the Hoosier Hills Conference final and by a 3-2 decision in last week’s Evansville Semistate final.
“He knows me. I know him… He’s one of my practice partners,” Conway said.
Law needed overtime to pull out a 2-1 decision against fourth-ranked Landon Boe of Avon in the semifinals. Earlier in the day, Law won a 3-1 decision against 10th-ranked Logan Farnell of Maconaquah in the quarterfinals.
“I felt like I wrestled good and did what I had to do to get the job done and get to the finals,” Law said.
“Kade put together a fantastic tournament,” East coach Chris Cooper added. “He wrestled great all day. He put the nerves aside. I’m sure Kade is a little disappointed. He was here to win. He just got beat by a high level wrestler.”
Law was making his third state appearance. He finished third at 160 last season before moving up a spot this year.
“I think anybody, if they can’t get first, if they get second, they get to wrestle underneath the lights,” Law said. “There’s nothing else quite like it.”
Meanwhile, the final day of East senior Ashton Hartwell’s high school career didn’t go quite as he had hoped. The seventh-ranked Hartwell won his first round match 3-0 on Friday, but dropped all three of his matches on Saturday to finish eighth at 285 pounds.
Hartwell lost a 7-3 decision to 10th-ranked and eventual state champion Marshall Fishback of Rochester in the quarterfinals. Hartwell then was pinned in the third period by 13th-ranked Brayden Jellison of Elkhart in the consolation round and was pinned in the second period by second-ranked Hunter Whitenack of New Prairie in the seventh-place match.
“I wrestled hard,” Hartwell said. “It just didn’t go the way I wanted to.”
Hartwell is weighing options as to whether to wrestle or play football at the collegiate level. He was happy to end his wrestling career in the state finals.
“I thought it was awesome,” Hartwell said. “All my hard work paid off. I’m in a place right here on the podium. It’s been my goal since I’ve been in middle school to make it here, and I was really happy to wrap it up here.”
Two other Olympians who qualified for state — senior Noah Lykins at 120 and junior Tommy Morrill at 220 — lost one-point decisions in Friday’s opening round.
