Columbus East’s Patrick McMahon wrestles Cathedral’s Hosia Smith in the 285-pound match at Columbus East, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023.
Paige Grider | For The Republic
The way the draw turned out Wednesday night, Cathedral began its wrestling match with Columbus East with some of its top wrestlers.
As a result, the seventh-ranked Irish won the first seven matches in taking a 32-0 lead. The No. 18 Olympians came back with wins in five of the last seven matches to make the final score a more respectable 40-19.
“You can’t control where they start, and it’s always tough when you start where all their hammers are at the beginning,” East coach Chris Cooper said. “But I thought our guys competed well for the most part. They’re ranked 7, and they’re probably a top-five team. Tonight for us was to get a good, hard dual meet before team state this weekend.”
Three Olympians posted wins over ranked wrestlers. No. 4 Tommy Morrill posted a 3-1 overtime decision against No. 5 Jackson Weingart at 220, Patrick McMahon upset No. 3 Hosia Smith in a 6-3 decision at 285 and Talon Jessup earned a 9-3 decision against No. 20 John Bissmeyer at 106.
“Patrick has had close matches with that kid before,” Cooper said. “He should be ranked next week.”
East’s first win came at 195, where Jackson Fox was leading Oscar Kirch 5-1 early in the third period when Kirch had to injury default. The Olympians closed the match with a 12-3 major decision at 126 from Liam Krueger, who is ranked No. 10 at 120, against Owen Reyes.
Next up for East are the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association Class 3A duals Saturday at Franklin. The fourth-seeded Olympians, who are the defending champions, open against No. 5 seed Floyd Central at 9 a.m. The winner will meet No. 1-seed Roncalli or No. 8-seed Terre Haute South in the semifinals.
“I really think Terre Haute is going to win close,” Cooper said. “Their coach is my buddy, but I really want Roncalli to win because we match up a little better with them. But we can’t control that end of it. We just wrestle who’s out there. But I like our chances. It won’t be easy. It wasn’t easy last year, but this team has a lot of fight, so I really think we can put together game plans and win the whole thing.”
No. 2-seed Mishawaka is the favorite to come out of the other side of the bracket.
“I don’t worry about seeds too much, but I like the way the bracket has played out for us, the side we’re on,” Cooper said. “Getting our guys to buy into the things that we do, saving team points and getting bonus points, our guys do a real good job of that. We have another two days of preparation for that, and we’ll be ready to go.”
