What to watch at the Bloomington North wrestling sectional

The road to Evansville, yes, Evansville begins Saturday for the state's wrestlers with sectionals kicking off.

The state finals have been moved to the Ford Center due to the upcoming NBA All-Star Game, and that will be familiar territory with qualifiers from the Bloomington North Sectional and South Regional heading to the Evansville Semistate.

Here's a quick look at what to know heading into the North sectional:

Tickets, times and tickets

Participating teams are Bloomington North, South, Edgewood, Owen Valley, Bedford North Lawrence, Brown County, Northview, Sullivan, Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South and West Vigo. Indian Creek and Paoli were moved out and BNL and BC moved in.

Wrestlers who finish in the top four punch their tickets to the Bloomington South Regional next Saturday, with fifth place finishers alternates. Terre Haute South is the defending champ.

Action starts at 9 a.m. with the finals expected to begin around 2 p.m.

Tickets are $7 and available only online at https://public.eventlink.com/tickets?t=66110. Live coverage is available at trackwrestling.com.

Three defending champs back

It was a senior-dominated event last year so just three sectional champs return in Bloomington South's Wyatt Cooksey (132), Terre Haute South's Kasey Stewart (138) and Evan Roudebush (152).

Only Roudebush (30-2) is a top seed going in, owning the top spot at 165.

Cooksey (27-6) and Stewart (20-11) are 2-3 seeds in a deep bracket at 144, which is led by Owen Valley's Branson Weaver (32-0), the area's only undefeated wrestler. Edgewood's Joel Silvernail (12-6) is the fourth seed.

Area top seeds include South's Jaxsen Jean (24-7) at 106; Owen Valley's Eli Collier (25-8) at 113; Edgewood's John Orman (21-5) at 120; Edgewood's Michael's Neidigh (24-4) at 150 and North's Cael Hickok (17-3) at 157.

More: Here's why Edgewood wrestling's Michael Neidigh is a tough out at 150 pounds

South freshman Amrin Pratt (16-12) is seeded second at 132 while BNL's Wyatt Philpott (19-9) at 113, Jorj Filler (26-5) at 126 and Junior Arellano (14-2) at 285 are also No. 2 seeds. In all 22 Bloomington area wrestlers are seeded in the top four. There are none at 190.

State ranked wrestlers

This sectional will have a healthy collection of 10 top-20 wrestlers as ranked by indianamat.com.

The bracket at 144 has some depth with Weaver ranked eighth and Cooksey 13th to lead the pack with Stewart. So does 165, with Roudebush and THS's Coy Bender (27-4) who has lost twice to Roudebush this season), ranked third and 12th, followed by WIC runner-up Jordan Krause of West Vigo (31-8) and Ethan Stancombe of BNL (25-6), the Hoosier Hills Conference runner-up by a mere 7-6 decision.

Edgewood's Orman is ranked 13th at 120; at 132, top seed Josiah Dedeaux of THS (26-2) is 15th; at 175, top seed Cooper McCoy of THS (27-3) is seventh and No. 2 seed James Hastings of THN (29-4) is 20th; at 190 Collin Casad of THS (30-1) is ranked 12th and the top seed and 285 top seed Sean Murphy (27-2) of THS is ranked 14th.

More: Here's why Edgewood wrestling's Michael Neidigh is a tough out at 150 pounds

BLOOMINGTON NORTH SECTIONAL TOP SEEDS AND LOCAL COMPETITORS

106: 1. Jaxsen Jean, BSouth 24-7; 2. Cain Godsey, THN 29-3; 3. Keegan Sparacino, THS 18-13; 4. Austin Boltinghouse, OV 21-11. (Kyle Burton, BN 1-12; Katelyn Holmes, Edg 2-9; BNL, fft).

113: 1. Eli Collier, OV 25-8; 2. Wyatt Philpott, BNL 19-9; 3. Cale Thomas, THS 18-12; 4. Gavin Lemmons, THN 12-15 (William Maitha, BS 7-9; Oscar Rigdon, BN 2-16; Edgewood, fft).

120: 1. John Orman, Edg 21-5; 2. William Radar, THS 20-10; 3. Kanye Roberts-Gray, BN 15-8; 4. Tray Reuter, OV 19-7. (Nolan Langley, BS 4-9; BNL, fft).

126: 1. Nathan Bryan, THS 25-2; 2. Jorj Filler, BNL 26-5; 3. Cas Crevello, BN 16-11; 4. Brian Conley, BS 9-20. Cayleb Sides, Edg 13-11; Isaiah White, OV 12-18).

132: 1. Josiah Dedeaux, THS 26-2; 2. Amrin Pratt, BS 16-12; 3. Trae Hopkins, BN 18-10; 4. Colton Baugh, THN 16-10. (Peyton Arthur, Edg 13-13; Noah Pendleton, OV 9-11; BNL, fft).

138: 1. Noah Fields, THS 23-6; 2. Ayden Muncie, THN 24-9; 3. Preston Heiliger, Nv, 20-5; 4. Riley Martin, OV, 18-10. (Jeremy Jackson, BN 6-6; Wayne Harden, BS 5-2; Justice Shelton, Edg 0-9; BNL, fft).

144: 1. Branson Weaver, OV 32-0; 2. Wyatt Cooksey, BS 27-6; 3. Kasey Stewart ,THS 20-11; 4. Joel Silvernail, Edg 12-6. (Darren Burns, BN 12-14; BNL, fft.)

150: 1. Michael Neidigh, Edg 24-4; 2. Luke Forsythe, THS 19-7; 3. Carson Bohall, BS 19-12; 4. Lucas McBee, OV 11-4. (Miguel Tedrow, BN 14-14; BNL, fft.)

157: 1. Cael Hickok, BN 17-3; 2. Jesus Lopez, THS 23-5; 3. Cayleb Stephens, Edg 17-9; 4. Avery Muncie, THN 19-14. (Jensen Ackison, OV 16-15; Quincy Edwards, BS 7-11; BNL, fft.)

165: 1. Evan Roudebush, BS 30-2; 2. Coy Bender, THS 27-4; 3. Jordan Krause, WV 31-8; 4. Ethan Stancombe, BNL 25-6. (Jeremiah Casillas, BN 21-6; Cameron Richardson, Edg 10-15; Quaid Hinshaw, OV 25-8).

175: 1. Cooper McCloy, THS 27-3; 2. James Hastings, THN 29-4; 3. Jayden Whitesell, Nv 17-6; 4. Tristan Hicks, BS 14-16. (Tre Beckum, BN 10-9; Asher Ace, BNL 5-14; Benson Long, Edg 1-5; Collin Willen, OV 10-15).

190: 1. Collin Casad, THS 30-1; 2. Jevon Hagans, THN 24-9; 3. Jace Deakins, Nv 19-5; 4. Tate Tanksley, BNL 11-6. (Mattheus Wynalda, BN 13-13; Mason Grubb, BS 14-16; Zander Pendley, OV 9-17; Christian Fields, Edg 7-11).

215: 1. Jackson Reed, BC 13-4; 2. Devyn Orman, Nv 17-4; 3. Trenton Fender, Edg 13-10; 4. Brandon Freeman, THS 24-10. (Oliver Piwoszkin, BS 19-12; Connor Roberts, BNL 7-20; Axsel Garza, BN 2-12; OV, fft).

285: 1. Sean Murphy, THS 27-2; 2. Junior Arellano, BNL 14-2; 3. Brandon Brewer, Nv 20-5; 4. Dylan Hale, OV 29-5. (Chase May, BN 8-11; Kamin Strunk Edg 3-11; Johnathan Merriman, BS 1-21).

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: What to watch at the Bloomington North wrestling sectional