Columbus North’s Asher Ratliff, in blue and white, wrestles Indian Creek’s Elijah Guyer for the 157-pound title during the IHSAA wrestling sectional at Jennings County High School in North Vernon, Ind., Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. Ratliff defeated Guyer for the title.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
The night before Saturday’s Evansville Semistate, Asher Ratliff had a dream that he won the 157-pound title.
The Columbus North sophomore then went out and made that dream a reality. He won his weight class to advance to his first Wrestling State Finals.
Ratliff had been picked to finish third by Dustin Bentz, who ranks the Evansville Semistate wrestlers.
“I had a dream the night before,” Ratliff said. “I dreamed that I won semistate, and then I told Dustin Bentz. He’s a friend of ours, a friend of my dad’s that does rankings. Right whenever I won semistate, I told him he should have predicted me to win. I called him, and he was like, ‘That’s awesome, buddy. I’m proud of you.’”
Ratliff became the second Bull Dog to qualify for state this year. About a half-hour earlier, junior Justice Thornton finished runner-up at 138 pounds.
Columbus North’s Justice Thornton wins the 138-pound weight class during the IHSAA wrestling sectional at Jennings County High School in North Vernon, Ind., Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Thornton will be making his second trip to state. He finished fourth at semistate last year after having to withdraw from the third-place match after being injured and taken to the hospital after his semifinal.
“Last year, I got choked out,” Thornton said. “This year, I was able to finish the semistate, and now, it’s onto state.”
Competing at the state level will be nothing new to Ratliff and Thornton. They’ve been the stars of the Columbus North Youth Wrestling program, which was started by Ratliff’s father Justin Ratliff and former North coach Justin Cooper, since they were in elementary school, competing in state and national tournaments.
“I think it’s huge,” Asher Ratliff said. “Working on the same moves, we like to try to connect our youth program with our high school program. We’re going to work on the same things in here, but perfect it. Then also with the youth program, my dad tried to get us in tournaments like team state and get into a big environment like that so when your in a big thing like semistate or state, you’re ready for that environment, and it’s not going to get to you.”
“We try to be a consistent top-to-bottom program from the time these guys are little, all the way up to when they’re in high school,” North coach Matt Joyce added. “We’re making sure that they’re learning the things at the youth level that they’re going to need later on.”
Joyce, who is in his sixth year coaching the Bull Dogs, has seen the program grow.
“We’ve made consistent upward strides every year, and this is another step in that,” Joyce said. “There for awhile, we were just getting a couple through to semistate, and now, we’re taking nine or 10 to semistate the last couple of years and getting a kid or two to state. It really shows me the commitment of our kids and the parents and our assistant coaches who have put in the work for these guys to be able to wrestle at their best.”
This year’s state finals will be held at the Ford Center in Evansville. It normally is at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, but that venue is hosting the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday and various activities in and around there on Saturday.
“I love those big environments, the crowd getting loud and everything brings more energy to me and fuels my wrestling and gets me going,” Ratliff said. “And this year, it’s at Ford Center, and we were just there, so being familiar with that environment helps a lot.”
The 152-through-285-pound weight classes will begin at 2 p.m. CST/3 p.m. EST Friday at Evansville’s Ford Center. The 106-through-144-pound classes will start at 5:30 p.m. CST/6:30 p.m. EST Friday.
Quarterfinals begin at 9 a.m. CST/10 a.m. EST Saturday and will be followed by semifinals. Third-, fifth- and seventh-place matches will start at 4:30 p.m. CST/5:30 p.m. EST Saturday, and championship matches begin at 7:30 p.m. CST/8:30 p.m. EST Saturday.
The ninth-ranked Ratliff (39-2) will face 19th-ranked Javon Frost (33-3) of Delphi in Friday’s first round. The winner will meet eighth-ranked Gavin Davis (28-1) of Bellmont or 12th-ranked Aidan Kincaide (35-5) of Noblesville in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
“I’ll take it like every match and wrestle the same as I have been,” Ratliff said. “Coach Joyce and I were talking at semistate that we’ve been on an upward trajectory all year. So I just continue growing in my wrestling, and I feel like I’m in a good spot right now. This is a good time to be wrestling at your best, so I’m going to try to keep what I have going.”
The 13th-ranked Thornton (34-2) will face fifth-ranked Wesley Smith (46-2) of Plymouth in the first round. The winner will meet fourth-ranked Tony Wood (44-0) of Jay County or Blake Jones (29-7) of Lawrence North in the quarterfinals.
“I’m excited about my draw,” Thornton said. “It’s going to be a good match. Being there and being in that environment is great.”
Friday’s winners are guaranteed three matches on Saturday and top-eight finishes, which puts them on the medals stand.
“I like their paths,” Joyce said. “They both have really good paths to medals. We’re going to take it one point at a time, one match at a time, but I have full faith that they’re going to go out and they’re going to wrestle their hardest, and when those two wrestle their hardest, they’re really tough to beat.”
