Wrestling previews: Realignment, reloading (East) and returning experience (North)

The wrestling postseason will look slightly different this season.

Brown County has been moved from the Jennings County Sectional to the Bloomington North Sectional. The Jennings Sectional, which includes Columbus East and Columbus North, has picked up Franklin, Indian Creek, Eastern (Pekin) and Salem and now will be the state’s largest sectional with 13 teams.

Meanwhile, the state finals this year will be at Evansville’s Ford Center, which also hosts the semistate that the local teams feed into, because of NBA All-Star activities taking place at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on state finals weekend.

The postseason wasn’t the only thing that was realigned in the offseason. Some of the weight classes have changed to a little lighter numbers than in recent years.

Here is a look at the four area schools heading into this season:

Columbus East

Despite losing several seniors to graduation, the Olympians keep reloading. They won Hoosier Hills Conference, sectional and regional titles last season and were the Class 3A state duals runner-up.

“I think our goal is to win again,” East coach Chris Cooper said. “We graduated a lot of guys, but the state of our program is, we put the next kids in and they take off.”

Sophomores Talon Jessup at 106 pounds and Gage Rutan at 120 lost in the “ticket round” at last year’s semistate, falling one win short of qualifying for state. Jessup will begin the season at either 106 or 113, and Rutan moves up to 126.

Sophomore Caleb Cooper and seniors Nate Anderson and Tyler Lake were semistate qualifiers. Caleb Cooper moves from 132 to 144, Anderson goes from 145 to 150 and Lake moves from 170 to 175. Sophomores Aiden Miller, who moves from 113 to 132, and Caleb Kirkpatrick, who moves from 145 to eather 152 or 138, were regional qualifiers.

Junior James Moss, who saw some varsity action last season, will start the year at 215. Junior Eric Duncan, who wrestled some at 152, is battling with freshman Clayton Miller at 165.

Looking to fill the other spots are freshmen Ethan Poling at 106 or 113, Wyatt Behnke at 120, Lincoln Cooper at 157 and Colin McMahon at 190 and sophomore Dominic Piper at 285.

“It’s one of the youngest teams we’ve ever had I think, but we’re not inexperienced,” Chris Cooper said. “These kids have been wrestling a long time. We wrestle 25 matches during the summer, so these kids have a full season of wrestling under their belt. I don’t expect them to wrestle like a young team. They’re experienced.”

Columbus North

Most of the squad returns from a team that finished as Conference Indiana and sectional runner-up and had its best dual-meet season in more than a decade.

“We’ve gotten considerably better each year, and that’s always fun for the kids to see,” North coach Matt Joyce said. “They get to see that steady progress. We’ve strengthened up the schedule.”

Columbus North’s Justice Thornton, right, wrestles Columbus East’s Caleb Cooper in the 132-pound weight class at Columbus East, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022.

The Republic file photo

Junior Justice Thornton was a state qualifier at 132 and enters the season ranked No. 8 at 138. Sophomore Asher Ratliff lost in the ticket round at 145 and will move up to 150 or 157.

Sophomore Nolan Riley at 106, senior Jason Shuey at 138, senior Josiah Green at 152, junior Evan Saevre at 170, senior Keller DeSpain at 182 and junior Jose Ramirez at 195 also were semistate qualifiers last season. Junior Bryce Hawkins at 126 and junior Jon Morales at 215 were regional qualifiers.

Junior Joseph Cloud and junior Jackson Haston also saw varsity action last season. Freshman Cohen Long could step into the lineup, likely at 132.

“We had a really good offseason,” Joyce said. “We had a lot of high numbers coming in, and we had a lot of good club stuff through the spring and went to a few competitions over the summer. It was good to see them develop over the summer and make a lot of progress.

“We have standards that we haven’t really wavered from, and we have a level of expectation for the way the kids compete and we’re getting to the point where that’s becoming part of it,” he added. “It’s a long season. A lot of things can happen, so we just want kids wrestling their best each time and take it one match at a time.”

Jennings County

The Panthers finshed third in last year’s sectional and return three regional qualifiers.

Junior Lane Kirchner is a two-time semistate qualifier and lost in the ticket round at 132 last season. He likely will begin this year at 138.

Senior Chris Hernandez at 160 and junior Xavior Gindhart at 220 were regional qualifiers. Hernandez is moving up to 175, and Gindhart will be at 215.

Senior RJ Barberis has been a regional qualifier in previous years and will start the season at 150. He will be joined in the lineup by freshman Khycen Sutton at 113, freshman Luke Kirchner at 20, sophomore Collin Massey at 126, junior Mason Sorenson at 144, senior Aiden Kirchner at 157, junior Nick Cortes at 165, sophomore Sam Hernandez at 190 and senior Kamron Carney at 285.

The 106-pound representative is up in the air.

“We’ve got a good mix of older and younger wrestlers on this year’s team,” Jennings coach Jeff Morrison said.

Brown County

The Eagles have a new coach in Andy Reed, a fromer Brown County wrestler who has been the middle school coach and club coach the past few years.

After having only seven wrestlers last season, the Eagles have 16 this year.

“We’ve grown,” Reed said. “I don’t know what happened, but I have a lot more guys interested. The returners from last year brought a lot of new kids in and got them into talked into coming back and being a team. I was quite impressed.”

Reed’s son, sophomore Jackson Reed, was a semistate qualifier at 195. He was the only Eagle to make it out of the sectional.

Brown County won’t have a 106-pounder, but should be able to fill the other 13 weight classes. Junior River Ford, who was a manager last season, will be at 113. Freshmen Levi Purlee at 120 and Xavier Himebaugh at 126 step into the lineup, along with sophomore Riley Myers at 132 and freshman Liam Del Bianco or sophomore Emma Rogers at 138.

Senior Charlie Webb, will be at 144, with depth coming from freshman Robert Webb and senior Wahken Zollner. Senior Clay Austin, who is wrestling for the first time since his freshman year, will be at 150.

Sophomore Dagan Clarke takes over at 157, with freshman Thomas Lambert at 165, senior Aaron Woodrum at 175, junior Liam Cassiday at 190 and Jackson Reed at 215. Freshman Ben Wienar will be at 285, with depth from freshman Awstin Long.

“I feel like I have seven that should at least be able to get out of sectional just because of the experience they have,” Andy Reed said.

The 2023-24 wrestling schedules for Columbus East and Columbus North:

Columbus East

Nov. 30 at Seymour, 6:30 p.m.

Dec. 2 at Jeffersonville Duals, 8:30 a.m.

Dec. 7 at Franklin, 6:30 p.m.

Dec. 9 at Perry Meridian Falcon Duals, 9 a.m.

Dec. 13 at Columbus North, 7 p.m.

Dec. 16 in East 8-way, 9 a.m.

Dec. 29 at Mishawaka Al Smith Tournament, 10 a.m.

Dec. 30 at Mishawaka Al Smith Tournament, 9 a.m.

Jan. 3 at Cathedral, 6:30 p.m.

Jan. 6 in IWCA State Duals at Franklin, 9 a.m.

Jan. 11 vs. Bloomington South, 6:30 p.m.

Jan. 13 in HHC at Seymour, 9 a.m.

Jan. 19 vs. Brownsburg, 6:30 p.m.

Columbus North

Nov. 29 vs. Decatur Central, 7 p.m.

Dec. 2 at Bloomington South Duals, 9 a.m.

Dec. 9 in Columbus North Duals, 9 a.m.

Dec. 13 vs. Columbus East, 7 p.m.

Dec. 16 at Penn Henry Wilk Classic, 9 a.m.

Dec. 19 at Perry Meridian, 7 p.m.

Dec. 22 in ECIC Tournament at Jay County, 6 p.m.

Dec. 29 at Woodford County (Ky.) Duals, 6 p.m.

Dec. 30 at Woodford County (Ky.) Duals, 9 a.m.

Jan. 4 vs. Seymour, 7 p.m.

Jan. 9 at Jennings County, 6 p.m.

Jan. 13 in Conference Indiana at Southport, 9 a.m.

Jan. 16 at Salem, 7 p.m.