Columbus North junior Justice Thornton is The Republic Wrestler of the Year. He is pictured at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Monday, March. 5, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
At 5-foot-4 and weighing in the 130s, Justice Thornton doesn’t have the prototypical size of a football or basketball player.
At wrestling, however, he has the size to excel.
“When you wrestle taller guys, they have longer legs, and I take advantage of them having longer legs,” Thornton said. “It’s easier to get underneath their arms.”
The Columbus North junior has put together three big seasons so far, the latest of which culminated in a seventh-place finish at 138 pounds in the Wrestling State Finals. He is this year’s The Republic Wrestler of the Year.
“It’s the best I’ve done since I’ve been in high school,” Thornton said. “It was probably my best season. I worked hard and did what I had to do and gave it my all.”
Thornton came within an eyelash of at least a top-four finish at state. He was leading his quarterfinal match 1-0 before Jay County’s Tony Wood scored a takedown in the closing seconds. Thornton nearly came back with a reversal, but time ran out.
“I was right there,” Thornton said. “I had it, and all of a sudden, I just lost it.”
After dropping a consolation round match, Thornton bounced back to win his seventh-place match.
“I was happy about it,” Thornton said. “After you lose once, you can’t just break. You have to go out there and just keep giving it your all.”
Thornton started wrestling when he was 4 years old. He won a freestyle state championship the second time he went to state as a youth wrestler.
Although he lives in Greensburg, Thornton started wrestling with the North youth program when he was in elementary school, then started attending school in Columbus as a freshman when he enrolled at North and had the best freshman record in school history.
Last year, Thornton was a state qualifier at 132 pounds. He moved up to 138 this year and went 36-4, winning sectional and regional titles and finishing second in the semistate.
“I was wanting to gain a little bit of weight and get a little bit stronger, and that’s what I did,” Thornton said. “I’ll lift here and there, but I don’t lift super heavily. I try to go up steadily.”
“He’s consistently had very good years, and this is just kind of another step in the direction that he wants to go as a wrestler,” North coach Matt Joyce added. “Each year, he’s been in the top 20 of our all-time season records. He’s just consistently been a top performer for us and could at the end of it be one of the best to leave Columbus North.”
Thornton credits his M.O. of doing more practices and less tournaments in the offseason.
“In the offseason, I say that’s what you have to do to get better just because you’re not training to beat a certain person; you’re training to beat everybody,” Thornton said. “In the offseason, I just keep training to get better. If you want to go to state, that’s what you have to do.”
“He’s a consistent worker,” Joyce added. “He comes in and consistently goes above and beyond. He does extra work and goes to extra camps and clinics, but at the same time, he comes in here and does all of our offseason wrestling. Anytime you put in that consistent level of work, you’re going to make big jumps, and he’s continued to do that every year.”
Thornton is hoping to wrestle in college. He plans to go to compete in the Fargo Nationals this summer and the Super 32 championships in October with an eye on getting better for his senior season.
“All along, his goal has been to win a state title,” Joyce said. “The work he’s done so far and the work that he plans to do in the offseason I think are going to set him up to meet those goals.”
The Republic 2023-24 All-Area Wrestling team:
Justice Thornton, Columbus North: The junior won sectional and regional titles, finished second in the semistate and seventh at state at 138 pounds.
Asher Ratliff, Columbus North: The sophomore won sectional, regional and semistate titles and finished eighth at state at 157 pounds.
Cohen Long, Columbus North: The freshman finished second in the sectional, won the regional and was a semistate quaterfinalist at 132 pounds.
Keller DeSpain, Columbus North: The senior won the sectional, finished second in the regional and was a semistate qualifier at 175 pounds.
Jason Shuey, Columbus North: The senior was ranked in the state at 126 pounds for part of the season before an injury sidelined him from the sectional.
Talon Jessup, Columbus East: The sophomore won sectional and regional titles and finished second in the semistate and seventh at state at 106 pounds.
Caleb Cooper, Columbus East: The sophomore won sectional and regional titles and was a semistate quarterfinalist at 144 pounds.
Tyler Lake, Columbus East: The senior finished second in the sectional, won the regional and was a semistate quarterfinalist at 175 pounds.
Colin McMahon, Columbus East: The freshman won the sectional, finished third in the regional and was a semistate quarterfinalist at 190 pounds.
Gage Rutan, Columbus East: The junior finished second in the sectional and regional and was a semistate quarterfinalist at 126 pounds.
Nate Anderson, Columbus East: The senior won sectional and regional titles and was a semistate qualifier at 150 pounds.
Lane Kirchner, Jennings County: The junior finished second in the sectional and regional and was a semistate quarterfinalist at 138 pounds.
Honorable mention
Brown County: Jackson Reed. Columbus East: Lincoln Cooper, Caleb Kirkpatrick, Clayton Miller, Ethan Poling. Columbus North: Josiah Green, Alex Lozano, Jose Ramirez, Nolan Riley, Evan Saevre, Luke Spurgeon. Jennings County: Kamron Carney, Xavior Gindhart, Chris Hernandez, Sam Hernandez, Luke Kirchner.
