Columbus East’s Tyler Lake, left, wrestles Columbus North’s Koleton Sinnock, right, in the 175-pound weight class at Columbus North, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023.
Paige Grider | For The Republic
Columbus East was ranked No. 9 in Class 3A in last week’s IndianaMat.com rankings, and the Olympians knew they were a better team than that ranking suggested.
So the Olympians went out last week and beat two teams ranked ahead of them in 3A, upset 4A No. 10 Carmel and came within a point of 4A No. 4 Perry Meridian. That catapulted East into the top spot in 3A and a No. 9 overall ranking for all classes when the new list came out earlier this week.
Wednesday night, the Olympians took the mat for the first time as a top-ranked team this season and posted a 50-16 win at Columbus North.
“We told the kids last week that we weren’t getting the respect in the state that maybe we deserved, and we had four ranked teams last week, and we kind of challenged them to go out and earn some respect,” East coach Chris Cooper said. “I feel like maybe we got all the respect at once. It’s nice to be ranked No. 1. We know, and the kids know that rankings don’t ultimately matter, but it is very nice to be recognized.”
The Olympians got off to a fast start against the Bull Dogs, jumping out to a 33-3 lead halfway through the 14 matches. Tyler Lake got things started for East with a first-period pin at 175 pounds.
“I just knew I had to set the tone and be a dog,” Lake said. “I just knew we had to get six (points) from my match, and I just went out there and did my job.”
“Tyler Lake, that’s a fantastic place to start,” Cooper added. “When I look at his career from real little to coming up through our program to where he is now is exactly what we want our wrestlers to be. He’s done everything the right way for years and years, and it’s nice for him as a senior against Columbus North to come out and get a huge win to start things off.”
Colin McMahon followed with a pin at 190, and James Moss scored a decision at 220 to give the Olympians a quick 15-0 lead. The Bull Dogs got on the board with a decision by Alex Lozano at 285, but East picked up forfeit wins at 106 and 113 and a pin in 37 seconds by Talon Jessup, who bumped up from 106 to 120, to make it 33-3.
“I just wanted to show domination and earn that respect, put that respect on our name,” Jessup said. “We’re No. 1 for a reason. We have to show people who we are. We have a young team, and we’re out here to surprise people, out here to dominate. We have a lot of little things to work on back in the lab.”
North’s strength is in the lower-to-middle weight classes, and the Bull Dogs came up with three consecutive decisions from Jason Shuey at 126, Cohen Long at 132 and Justice Thornton at 138 to cut the lead to 33-12. But East’s Caleb Cooper scored a pin at 144, and Nate Anderson earned a 16-0 tech fall against Josiah Green at 150.
“Nate and (Green) wrestled this summer, and it was a 5-4 match, and it just shows the amount of work and time that Nate has put in to push that to a 16-0 match,” Chris Cooper said. “So again, another senior, just a great leader on the team doing a great job.”
The Bull Dogs got an 8-0 major decision from Asher Ratliff at 157. The Olympians closed the match with a pin from Clayton Miller at 165.
“Asher wrestled hard,” North coach Matt Joyce said. “Justice wrestled a pretty good match.”
In addition to having to forfeit the 106- and 113-pound classes, the Bull Dogs had to bump up a couple of wrestlers to higher weight classes because of a couple others being unavailable.
“We have kids out in our upper weights,” Joyce said. “Jose has been back for a couple days. We have a lot of kids out, but that doesn’t really matter. The score is the score.”
Both teams return to action on Saturday. The Bull Dogs will compete in the Henry Wilk Classic at Penn, while East will host its invitational.
“I think we’re finally getting the respect we earned,” Lake said. “We work hard every week, and it’s finally starting to show.”
