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By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com It’s hard to miss Donnie Crider at a wrestling event. At 6-foot-7 and often wearing an orange T-shirt between bouts, the Harrison High School (West Lafayette) senior stands out from his opponents. But Crider is not just tall, he’s good enough that he went a combined 106-10 in his sophomore and junior seasons, qualifying for the IHSAA State Finals in 2016 and placing sixth in 2016 at 220 pounds. Crider, who weighed in at 238 at the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association State Duals in Fort Wayne where Harrison placed 10th, is enjoying a strong final prep go-round as a heavyweight. While Crider is upbeat and bringing a smile to his teammates’ faces off the mat, he’s all business inside the circle. “He’s aggressive and not afraid to get out there and be physical and take his shot,” says Harrison head coach Johnny Henry. “He sticks to his game plan.” More of a unorthodox kind of counter wrestler early in his high school career, Crider has simplified his attack to his best couple moves on top and on bottom. “He doesn’t try to go into funky scrambles,” says Henry, a former Benton Central High School and University of Indianapolis wrestler who took over leadership of the program this season after four years as a Raiders assistant. “We’re not trying to do 20 moves out there. He’s just matured.” Crider has heard the talk about his style. “Freshman and sophomore year, they thought I was funky because I used to roll around all the time,” says Crider. “Now, I’m more skilled. “(Scrambling is) not really effective when you hit semistate,” says Crider. “They’ll catch you. I’d rather pin them fast if I can.” The past two summers, Crider has gained experience while competing in the Disney Duals — earning Gold and Silver All-American accolades. During the high school campaign, Crider has really emphasized using his speed and finishing what he’s started. “I’m faster than most of the heavyweights that are out there,” says Crider. “I try to do my moves all the way through instead of stopping midway. I just keep driving.” To give Crider different looks, a number of different coaches and wrestlers grapple with him in practice. While he’s trying to hone his set-ups and his shots and trying to get up from the referee’s position, Donnie is working against a lot lot of muscle and different body types. He regularly mixes it up with Harrison assistants Andy Cline, Kevin Elliott and Dustin Kult as well as bigger wrestlers like juniors Willy Alvarez and William Kern and sophomores Cade Borders, Seth Chrisman and Will Crider (his little brother). Donnie comes from a large family. At 25, Jordan is the oldest. At 5, Clinton is the youngest. Besides Donnie and Harrison 220-pounder Will, there’s also Brian Jr., Justin and Megan. Father Brian is 6-3 and mother Michelle 6-foot, so Donnie gets his height honestly. Donnie also knows that an opponent can use it against him since he can be a large target for those seeking double-let takedowns and such. Each day in practice, he works on getting low — something he also knows from being a defensive lineman on the football field. “I make sure that when I’m in my stance I’m at their chin with my forehead,” says Crider. “I make sure I’m lower than them.” Donnie looks to study business and likely wrestle in college after highs school. How high he goes as a Harrison Raider will play out in the coming weeks. Harrison competes in the Sectional in Jan. 27, regional Feb. 3, semistate Feb.10 and State Finals Feb. 16-17. View full article

Come see the best of Indy's P/Ps battle tonight in the Cathedral gym. A huge number of former CYO champions will be battling it out in this North vs. South Catholic battle. J/V starts at 6p. Varsity starts ~6:45p. CYO students have free entry. Pizza in the cafeteria after the dual. Go Irish!

I wanted to shout out and thank Martin for showing me that in addition to being a great wrestler he is a great young man. After Al Smith day 1 one of my wrestlers left his phone down by the scales on the ground. Martin found it and brought to me to return to my wrestler. As coaches we warn our kids about leaving valuable things unattended at a wrestling meet but if we had more people like this young man we wouldn’t have to worry. Secondly congrats on an Al Smith title really enjoyed watching you in the finals and I am definitely a fan of yours both on and off the mat!

Nick Lee into the finals with a fall over top seed Josh Alber of UNI. You may recall Alber beat Chad Red at Cliff Keen. With Cortez bowing out of the scuffle, Lee's redshirt is looking mighty pink. We may see two of Indiana's all time best step into their starting line-ups in the near future, as Tsirtsis has been excellent back at 149 and is likely the better option for ASU than Maruca. Oh, and Zack Davis has been strong in this tourney, too. Looking for a high placement.

Yes. It is how most of the folks on Gridiron Digest refer to the Catholic/Jesuit schools. Easier abbreviation.

He lost to Koors in final OT. Koors was able to ride him out.

I don't know, I guess Union City is in it. Must have some good team to be one of the better conferences in the state.

Pride and Prejudice !!!!

What does P/P stand for? You have used it a few times. Private/Parochial?

Video of Nick Lee's finals match

You finally said something of print worthy news. Congrats now #TeamGarcia feel free to banish this guy to the POM #TheCounty #PainTrain

I agree, this Fabio guy is doing great things !!!!!!

Whitko Inv. #3 Cressell over #2 Graber 5-4

Just wanted to say congratulations to the Indiana wrestlers that placed at the Defiance tri-state border war tournament. There were 41 teams and many state ranked wrestlers out of Ohio and Michigan. Indiana represented well with only 6 teams entered we came away with three champs and 2 runner ups along with several other placers. I got to give an extra shout out to Eastside's 170 Laik Minnick for winning it and remaining undefeated at 24-0. Also Eastside's Seth Burns for finishing 4th and Chase Leeper for getting 6th. champs 106 Harrison Hadley of lepel 160 Hunter Reed of Columbia City (2x champ) 170 Laik Minnick of Eastside runner-up 106 Jett Boots of Angola 113 Ryan Sheets of Columbis Ciry 4th 138 Seth Burns of Eastside 6th 126 Parker Michael of Angola HWT Chase Leeper of Eastside 8th 145 Jayce Meyers of Angola 160 John Lanam of Angola

I did some digging and found that there were 39 ranked Ohio wrestlers in this tournament. I could not check in Michigan (wasn't going to pay to look at rankings), but I could see that Mendon had 4 returning state qualifiers on there team with a returning champ. Niles also had a couple returning state guys with a returning runner-up. I am sure there were many other state ranked guys from Michigan as well but I could not check. Hunter Reed was the lone ranked Indiana guy. Laik Minnick beat 13th ranked Austin Hinzman and 10th ranked Keegan Vanmeter, both of Ohio on his way to a championship. Hunter Reed won beating out 4 ranked Ohio kids who were ranked 5th, 8th and 2 13th in different divisions. This tourney keeps getting better, but I would like to see a few more Indiana teams in the mix.

I have nothing to retract. I meant what I said sober or blacked out. If you rest starters and it costs you a W, it should have a negative consequence. Pretty simple really. Frankly, I don’t give 2 sheets about rankings. I don’t even know if they are for an individual tourney team or dual meet team. Since I think I might be the only Cathedral supporter on this site, I figured the masses could use a little philosophy since most of the Avon/B.B. world have been feeling pretty invincible lately. Glad I could get some of your dander up. I’m positive Coach Snyder and the Bulldogs could care less what I think anyway.

I’d recommend some Thermaflu or DayQuil throw in some Chicken Noodle Soup if your vomiting on #TheCountyFlu, might consider some of that new stuff Gatorade is making, what is it called #hateraid to get back your fluids you lost from #TheCountyFlu its going around bad these days around here. Hope you get well soon .

So in your drunk and bored rant you’re saying it’s a bad thing for a coach to hold on kids that are sick and place back ups? #1 or not, a wrestlers health is more important then winning a tourney or being ranked #1. Kudos to Snyder and his crew. They say drunk thoughts speak the sober mind.

Fair enough. But, how boring would this site be if we all just got on here and had to listen to “The County” vomit on us all their accolades, feeder programs, etc. Somebody’s got to keep those boys in check. And if the #1 team in the state losing isn’t newsworthy on this site, I don’t know what is. Likewise, if Chesterton or Columbus East (who both are wrestling splendidly) knock of Cathedral at #2 at the Al Smith this afternoon, there will be plenty of chatter. But, mainly, I was a little drunk and bored.

Very manly to hide behind screen names! IT WILL BE SETTLED IN THE COMING WEEKS!

He's a die-hard Cathedral fan that feels slighted by his defending IHSAA state champ Irish not having a Number 1 next to their name in the duals rankings. Even though it's clear to all that they could be the best duals team, he sadly has taken it on himself to disparage Team State and diminish Brownsburg on multiple threads in hopes of convincing us. Having no connection to any of the top few teams, I personally think Cathedral is a juggernaut this year, but I definitely wish IWG would just let their performances do the talking.

leads me to wonder...wth are you trying to say WG? lineups are lineups, everyone deals, and everyone chooses what they're all in for. I find no fault here.

We did not purposely keep anyone out of Mooresville. It’s an awesome tournament. I wish all my starters could have wrestled this year and last year, but we have been banged up and sick. I wouldn’t enter our varsity in a great tournament like Mooresville and then send half of them. We have had 1 starter out all year as he got hurt in football. Another starter is 1-0 and we hope to get back soon. We had every intention of wrestling Mills and Walton Day 2, but they both got sick night of Day one. Lee, Krietzer, and Mulkey are sick. Peterson and Campbell banged up. We got a few back today and more tomorrow and hopefully even more next week. Yes, they would have all wrestled if it was Team State or Sectional time. However, we are not intentionally sitting them at Mooresville. Trust me that they, my coaching staff, and I are very frustrated. I wish we were 100% healthy, but I’ve never had that miracle in my coaching career. Congrats to Yorktown on their well deserved win. They have some studs and it was fun watching them do their thing. Snyder

So what you’re telling me, is that Brownsburg cares more about winning team state than Mooresville?? I’m not buying this narrative.

And I don’t want that