Jump to content
  • Y2CJ41
    Y2CJ41

    #WrestlingWednesday: Cathedral ascends to the top once again

    By JEREMY HINES
    thehines7@gmail.com

    It was the moment Cathedral’s Jordan Slivka had dreamed about his whole life. He was about to wrestle under the lights at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse with a weight-class and the team state championship on the line.

    “Earlier in the day I had told my coaches that I knew it was going to come down to me,” Slivka said. “I just had that feeling. That’s not a dig on my teammates, but I just knew it was going to come down to me. That’s what I wanted. If there was anyone in the state that I would want in that position, I’d choose me.”

    Slivka battled for six minutes with Yorktown’s undefeated senior Christian Hunt. In the end, Slivka emerged victorious in the narrowest of margins - a 1-0 victory. That win gave Slivka his first state title and also clinched the championship for Cathedral.

    The Irish outscored the field with a total of 108 points. Brownsburg finished with 100.5 followed by Columbus East with 98.5.

    “We knew the score and we knew Brownsburg had two big guns left,” Cathedral coach Sean McGinley said. “Slivka told me not to worry about it, he was going to take care of it. He said he’s going to get it done. He’s one of the most mentally tough kids I know, and at the end he pulled it out.”

    The Irish sent 10 wrestlers to the state meet. On Friday night, seven of those 10 won their match to guarantee a top eight finish.

    “I said at the beginning that our goal was to win a state championship,” McGinley said. “The only way we were going to win was by committee. We did. We brought 10 to the finals and then had a great Friday night. We had seven place winners. We battled and we won the close ones. We pulled a lot out in the last seconds and ended up on top.”

    In the tournament Cathedral won seven matches by two points or less.

    Perhaps the most pivotal match of the tournament came at 138 pounds when Cathedral’s Zach Melloh took on Brownsburg’s Blake Mulkey.

    The match went to the ultimate tie breaker, after a controversial stalling call on Mulkey. Melloh eventually won the match 3-2.

    “That was two teams going at it right there,” McGinley said. “The thing about Zach Melloh, he’s always going to give us six minutes no matter what. He pushes the pace. Sometimes you are going to get a call, and sometimes you don’t. We got the call in this one and took advantage of it and scored when we needed to.”

    Cathedral had four wrestlers reach the final. Alex Mosconi (132 pounds), Mellow (138) and Elliott Rodgers (152) all earned runner-up finishes. Slivka was the Irish’s lone champ.

    Cathedral also got a third-place finish out of 106-pounder Logan Bailey and a fourth by Lukasz Walendzak (120). Jacob Obst (285) finished seventh. Caleb Oliver (113), Andrew Wilson (126) and Anthony Mosconi (160) lost in their respective Friday night matches.

    “All year we knew we had a group of kids that are really tough to beat,” McGinley said. “We knew we would have our hands full in the finals. The guys we were taking on were all very quality guys and great wrestlers. We were able to pull one out, but for us, it was all about committee. Everyone scored points for us when we needed them.”

    Another key to Cathedral’s success, according to Slivka, was the team’s swagger.

    “My motto is ‘Learn to love it’,” Slivka said. “You have to have fun in this sport or you’ll start to hate it. That was really the main key. We went out there and had fun all day. We were confident and we had swagger. I’m not sure coach cared for it too much, but it kept us relaxed and ready to get the job done.”

    The title was Cathedral’s second in wrestling. The Irish also won the team title in 2014. Next season seven of the 10 state qualifiers will return. Only Melloh, Anthony Mosconi and Obst are seniors.

    Edited by Y2CJ41

    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments

    My son was lucky (or unlucky) enough to wrestle Jordan Friday night at State in 2016.  I thought he had a really good shot at beating Jordan and I was right.  He may be the only wrestler to outscore Jordan two takedowns to none in a high school match and still lose.  I knew then Jordan was a special wrestler and he proved it to the rest of the State of Indiana this year.  One surreal moment I had last weekend was watching him congratulate a wrestler from another school who had just won his Saturday morning match, all the while Jordan was on deck for his match against Kasper McCintosh! 

    My son Baxter wants a rematch Jordan!  But from the Jordan from Friday night in 2016; NOT the Jordan from last Friday.  You truly climbed to the top of a very steep mountain this year and I look forward to watching you next year!

     

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    42 minutes ago, backtothemat said:

    My son was lucky (or unlucky) enough to wrestle Jordan Friday night at State in 2016.  I thought he had a really good shot at beating Jordan and I was right.  He may be the only wrestler to outscore Jordan two takedowns to none in a high school match and still lose.  I knew then Jordan was a special wrestler and he proved it to the rest of the State of Indiana this year.  One surreal moment I had last weekend was watching him congratulate a wrestler from another school who had just won his Saturday morning match, all the while Jordan was on deck for his match against Kasper McCintosh! 

    My son Baxter wants a rematch Jordan!  But from the Jordan from Friday night in 2016; NOT the Jordan from last Friday.  You truly climbed to the top of a very steep mountain this year and I look forward to watching you next year!

     

    Thank you for  those kind words about Jordan.  I remember that match quite well and I know how bad your son felt.  Jordan felt bad as well, remembering how this coach got all over him about the loss.  That really shook up Jordan.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Jordan has Baxter’s phone number.  He probably has most of these wrestlers phone numbers.  Jordan loves all his wrestling  brothers.  He is truly having fun.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.