On the mats: Bloomington area wrestlers getting primed for postseason
Between injuries, illness and the loss of one of its top wrestlers, junior Cam Meier, for disciplinary reasons, Bloomington South has run a big part of its roster onto the varsity mats this year.
That's no easy thing to deal with given the Panthers' usually tough schedule but the postseason is unforgiving as well, so they're ready for it.
South heads into next week's Bloomington North sectional after a win over 44-21 over Owen Valley, a trip to the Goshen Tournament in which 11 Panthers finished in the top four, a loss to Columbus East, third place in Conference Indiana and a 51-24 win over Edgewood on Thursday.
"For one, we're very, very young," South coach Mike Runyon said. "We've got six freshmen and five sophomores in the lineup. We got banged up a little bit. The good thing is, all of our young kids will get that experience at the varsity level, which you hope pays off."
Jaxson Jean, a freshman at 106, is one of the youngsters who has thrived. He's been in the lineup since Day 1 and is 23-7, taking second at Goshen and first in the CI meet.
"He's still made a few freshmen mistakes but he's getting better at that and I think we'll make a run with him," Runyon said. "I kind of expected some of it, but he's starting to do some stuff that I didn't expect him to do at this time. So yeah, I'm pretty impressed with him.
"A lot of our freshmen I'm impressed with how they're improving. I have to remind myself they're only freshmen. I hate saying that because my dad always told me, 'I don't care if you're a freshman or sophomore, if you have to compete at that level then that's what you've got to do.'"
The wins have been hard to come by at times, so Runyon is pushing and encouraging at the same time.
"You have to keep their spirits up but also tell them, that's the level we want to compete at regardless," he said. "And they've responded really well to that,"
Owen Valley, Edgewood 1-4 at WIC's
Owen Valley won its third league title in the last four years, scoring 196½ points to hold off Northview (165), North Putnam (157) and Edgewood (151½) in the 11-team field. OV had three champions but it took a complete team effort from every placer to get the Patriots over the top against the other three top contenders, with 12 wrestlers making the top six.
Titles came from Austin Boltinghouse at 106, with a pin in 5:40; Tray Reuter with a 6-2 win in the 113 final and Branson Weaver, who remains undefeated at 144 with a pin of Edgewood's Joel Silvernail in 1:29.
Edgewood's John Orman won the 120 title with a 5-2 win over OV's Eli Collier and Neidigh was the 150 champ after a pin of OV's Lucas McBee in 1:34. Taking third for OV were Isaiah White at 126, Riley Martin at 138 and Dylan Hale at 285. Quaid Hinshaw (165) and Collin Willen (175) were fourth and Noah Pendleton (132) and Jenson Ackison (157) were sixth.
"We had a good day," Edgewood coach Daniel Coyne said. "I was proud of Orman punching his ticket. I was proud of Neidigh, I was proud of Joel getting in there."
South's Evan Roudebush on a roll
South's 165 pounder, junior Evan Roudebush, took third at the Al Smith Classic, finding himself in a final four with the best wrestlers from each of the other three semistates.
Overall, he's ranked No. 1 in the Evansville Semistate and No. 3 behind Anthony Rinehart (a former Zionsville standout who was seventh at 152 last year), who transferred to powerhouse Crown Point, and Warren Central's Waylon Cressell, a transfer from South Dakota where he was state champ. Roudebush, a state qualifier last year at 138, lost to Cressell in the semis and then beat Duke Meyers of Bellmont, while Rinehart won the title.
Roudebush is ready for a reunion in the final four.
"Evan's starting to open up and hit on all cylinders," Runyon said. "His mind seems to be in the right spot.
"I think a lightbulb went off in his head (after Al Smith), 'I can do it.' And I think that really fueled him. He's a quiet leader in the room. He leads by example."
Ayrica DeHart takes 8th for Edgewood
Edgewood's Ayrica DeHart took eighth place in the 235-pound bracket at the Indiana High School Girls Wrestling state tournament at Kokomo on Jan. 12.
Like the boys meet, winning the opening round match secures a spot in the final eight and she came out with a pin in 4:24. It got tougher from there, knocked into the consolation rounds with an 8-0 loss to a foe from West Lafayette Harrison. Portia Weaver from Monrovia, who also beat her in the regional semifinals, pinned DeHart again for seventh.
"It was great seeing her go out there and win her first round match," Coyne said. "I was extremely proud of her and the confidence she had and the aggression she had.
"And (winning a medal) was big. Girls wrestling is finally about to be sanctioned (by the IHSAA) and for her to bring home a medal to this program, it showed we're producing on the girls side and I hope it will motivate some of the Edgewood ladies to come out and give it a shot. The more they see that girls are wrestling girls, the more likely they are to give it a shot."
Change in Conference Indiana
The Panthers could grab only third place at the six-team Conference Indiana meet, the last one that will be held as a series of individual brackets. Next year, it will be a series of five round-robin duals, with South playing host. Some wrestlers competed only twice in less-than-full brackets.
Details are still being worked out as far as individual all-conference honors in order to allow for flexibility in moving wrestlers around to create favorable matchups.
"I think it's a great idea," Runyon said. "It opens up for us to pick up some duals against someone we haven't wrestled before. If we're going to spend two points of our weigh-ins, I want to wrestle five times, four at a minimum."
South had 202 points to trail favored Terre Haute South (311½) and Columbus North (237). Bloomington North, missing its top wrestler in Cael Hickok, was last at 156.
South's champions were Jean (106 pounds), who won his final with a pin in 3:53; Wyatt Cooksey (144), who won 8-5 in his final and Roudebush, who won his third CI title in a row, winning the 165 title with a pin of THS's Coy Bender in 1:46.
South's other top finishers were Oliver Piwoszkin, who was second after getting pinned in the 215 final and Carson Bohall, third at 150, winning his medal with a 14-5 major. Brian Conley (126), Amrin Pratt (132), a champ at the Goshen Invite who missed the Edgewood dual but is expected back, and Gabe Olinger (138) were all fourth.
North's top finish came from Kanye Roberts-Gray, who was second at 120. Cas Crevello was third at 126, pinning Conley in 4:14; and Tre Beckum was third at 157, winning 13-9. Finishing fourth were Jeremiah Casillas at 165, Mattheus Wynalda at 190 and Chase May at 285.
Edgewood ready for sectional
The Bloomington North Sectional will take place on Jan. 27 and the new lineup includes North, South, Edgewood, OV, Bedford North Lawrence, Brown County, Northview, Sullivan, Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South and West Vigo.
The Mustangs got a good look at the competition in the past two weeks. And like South, the Edgewood lineup has often been shorthanded with illness hitting the team hard.
"We're recovering," Coyne said. "Our whole team has been sick as a dog for two weeks straight. That's why we had to cancel Martinsville. So our tanks got a lot better tonight, but we've been trying to recuperate from being sick. We had only six kids at the Mooresville Tournament. It was bad."
More: 'I can feel the whole team behind me': Jeremiah Casillas perseveres with North wrestling
Sectionals were already in their sights before the South match.
"We're just working on progressing," Coyne said. "Realistically, we're focused on sectionals. If you noticed, we weren't fired up like usual to wrestle South. You can't give up multiple forfeits and I knew we were going to because we've still have kids hurt, and expect to beat a team like South.
"And we have some young kids. My seniors won tonight but I have a lot of sophomore and juniors that have progressed massively that people haven't even recognized until this year."
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington area wrestlers fighting youth, illness this season
