IHSAA wrestling: South's Roudebush leads Bloomington area trio out of Evansville semistate
With just a few seconds of wrestling left at the end of the day, Evan Roudebush was finally off-kilter.
The Bloomington South junior was laser-focused at Saturday's Evansville Semistate wrestling meet and he's been like that since last year's tourney when his season came to a premature end with a second loss.
Roudebush had made state as a freshman and then not going as a sophomore, it was a hard lesson to learn and a mistake he wouldn't allow to happen again. He not only took care of business in the first two rounds, he finished the job in the next two with a 7-6 win over Brownsburg's Jesse Derringer that ended oddly to win the 165-pound title.
"(Last year) left a bad taste in his mouth," South coach Mike Runyon said. "He's been training hard over the summer and in the room to have the opportunity again."
Roudebush led 7-5 when Derringer tried to dive over in the final 30 seconds. Roudebush grabbed his legs and lifted and in the aftermath, Derringer landed flat on his back. The referee ruled an illegal slam and awarded Derringer a point with eight seconds left.
"It was kind of a freak accident," Runyon said. "But he remained composed and he got the job done."
Roudebush was happy with his moment of redemption, but not satisfied.
"He never changes his expression," Runyon said. "That's the way he is. He's pretty humble. He didn't understand the slam call, but he was probably as happy as you'll ever see Evan.
"He knows his work isn't done yet."
The area will send two others on to state as well.
Bloomington North's Cael Hickok (25-5) made some history at 157, finishing fourth as the first Cougar to reach the state finals since Hunter Dalton in 2016. And at 144, Branson Weaver (40-1) is the first Owen Valley wrestler to make state in back-to-back years since Carl Bowling in 2006-7 after he took third.
Roudebush rolls to semistate individual title
The Panther was all over his first two opponents with a pin in 39 seconds of Columbus East's Miller Clayton and another of 1:28 over Evansville North's Matthew Pegram to secure his spot at state.
He didn't spend much time with No. 8 Oliver Hallett of Indian Creek, either, finishing him off in just one minute flat.
"He's been going out and going after guys," Runyon said. "He's not done. He's on a mission this year. He has his mind set on one thing."
The final was a different story, requiring six minutes of work. The 16th-ranked Derringer (27-9), senior and a regional qualifier only last year, was a handful. He pounded Terre Haute South's Coy Bender with a 16-1 tech fall in the semis.
Roudebush had two takedowns in the first period for a 4-1 lead and it was 4-2 going to the third. Roudebush started down and got a reversal. But Derringer escaped and took Roudebush down with 30 seconds left to set up the ending.
"He's a good wrestler. a good leg rider, kind of funky, unorthodox," Runyon said. "But Evan had that mindset, what he was going to do. He imposed his will. I thought he wrestled really well."
North's Cael Hickok breaks through
Hickok had no problems with his opener, recording a pin in just 45 seconds of North Posey's Cody Fitts, then put away Indian Creek's 20th-ranked Elijah Guyer with a 6-1 decision to keep his season alive for another week.
"Big moment for the program for North," Cougar coach Roy Bruce said. "Big moment in my life, too. It's my first time taking a kid to state. I've been coaching wrestling on and off since 2006, 12 of those years as a head coach. So, pretty cool.
In the semifinals, Center Grove's No. 6 Silas Stits used a quick flurry in the first period to score six points and go on to a 9-3 win. Then he was up against Brownsburg's seventh-ranked Mason Day (27-5), who knocked out Edgewood's Cash Turner in the second round last year at 145.
Hickok lost 6-1 but held his own again against two highly ranked foes.
"He's so calm," Bruce said. "That's why he'll do well with his military career. He didn't look upset or worried.
"Guyer is an athletic kid who won middle school state last year. He was loose and ready to go as a 15-year-old freshman, and Cael went out there and dominated the match. Compare that to last year, when he was on edge and didn't know exactly what to do."
Owen Valley's Branson Weaver bounces back
Weaver started off with a pin in 1:36 of Columbus North's Josiah Green and then worked past Alexander Mercer of Evansville Harrison, 9-5. Weaver jumped up 5-0 after the first period and took a 6-2 lead into the third.
The semifinals is where Weaver suffered his first loss of the season, with Brownsburg's second-ranked Parker Reynolds (28-6) tossing a shutout, 6-0, and stunting Waever's ability to counterattack. Reynolds led 2-0 after one period and got a takedown and two-point near fall to build the lead.
Weaver shook that off and went right at Gabe Rose of Switzerland County (24-7), taking an 8-2 lead into the third and polishing off a 9-4 win for third, one spot better than last year.
"Super proud of Branson," OV coach Steven Spicer said. "He's had a great year. He knew that third- fourth match was big time and his mindset was to get back after it.
"He's wrestling great. He had a little hiccup with the Brownsburg kid, but other than that it was a great day."
One, or two, and done
Owen Valley's Eli Collier (32-9), Edgewood's John Orman (27-7) and South's Wyatt Cooksey (32-9) each won their openers before being ousted by state-ranked opponents.
It was deja vu for Orman at 120. After getting a 4-3 win over Berke Eisenhower of Heritage Hills, getting a takedown with three seconds left in the second to tie it and then an escape early in the fourth to win it, it set up a rematch with Center Grove's Charlie LaRocca, the 113 champ in 2023.
Last year in the second round, LaRocca pinned Orman in 2:52. This time the Trojan, ranked fifth, did it again in 3:19.
At 113, Collier opened by pinning Carson Collier of Charlestown in 3:47, but Evansville Mater Dei's eighth-ranked Caleb Schaefer, son of the head coach, was too tough, stopping Collier, 9-3.
And at 144, Cooksey got a pin against Franklin's Owen Trimpe in 3:36, but No. 1 Reese Courtney of Center Grove was waiting and he beat Cooksey in a 10-2 major.
Elsewhere, South 106 freshman Jaxsen Jean (29-9) was pinned in 1:37; 132 freshman Amrin Pratt was pinned in 37 seconds and 175 junior Tristian Hicks was handed a 17-2 tech fall by undefeated Boonville freshman Sam Howard.
"Tristian's got another shot and Amrin and Jaxsen have three more and Wyatt's got two more," Runyon said. "So hopefully, they can put some things together there."
Edgewood's Michael Neidigh (29-6) suffered a 16-1 tech fall at 150. At 132, North freshman Trae Hopkins went down 12-3 to Cohen Long of Columbus North and at 165, Cougar senior Jeremiah Casillas (24-11) lost 6-2 to Hallett. BNL's Ethan Stancombe (30-10) lost 5-0 to Franklin's Cory Fuller.
"Jeremiah's great kid and he felt like there was a lot of pressure on him," Bruce said. "But we relieved it Thursday night and he wrestled a heck of a match.
"Trae was dominated by the Cohen kid early in the year and he closed the gap and competed well. He's disappointed but the sky's the limit with Trae."
Scoring issues
One of the stranger situations happened at 285 where Owen Valley's Dylan Hale (33-9) appeared to be winning his opener by five over Jefferonsville's Ben Land with 36 seconds left. As it turned out, there was some confusion with the scoring in the third.
According to Spicer, Hale should have been down just 11-10. Instead, the score was reset at 11-8 and Land proceeded to score five more points to secure the 16-8 win.
Brownsburg won the team title with 207 points to top Center Grove (194½). South was 12th with 30 and Owen Valley 15th with 17 and North 19th with 10. Complete results can be found at trackwrestling.com.
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington area trio makes it out of Evansville wrestling semistate
