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    Bulldog Breakdown: Brownsburg’s December Gauntlet Continues Following Walsh Ironman

    By Anna Kayser

     

    Following a weekend at one of the most difficult high school wrestling tournaments in the nation, the consensus among Brownsburg’s wrestling staff and athletes is likely what one would expect: That was one tough tournament, but the lessons taken from it and how individuals move forward will prepare them for their biggest test come February.

     

    On Saturday, the Bulldogs saw their two bookends each place at the Walsh Ironman Invitational in Ohio, representing Indiana along with Crown Point as the first teams from Indiana to compete in the gauntlet. With three losses each, 106-pound Revin Dickman (8th) and heavyweight Leighton Jones (6th) took to the podium in success stories of one weekend of incredible wrestling.

     

    “It was impressive, very humbling throughout most of the tournament,” Brownsburg head coach Darrick Snyder said. “The competition is incredible; I’ve never been in a tournament where I’ve seen so many guys knock off nationally ranked dudes and then the next round they’re getting knocked off. These dudes are big. It was incredible competition and definitely made us question some of the things we’re doing and what we need to do right. It was a fun tournament, just incredible wrestling.”

     

    Along with Dickman and Jones, wrestlers from Brownsburg to make the trip included Preston Haines (113), Jake Hockaday (120), Brady Ison (132), Parker Reynolds (138), Caden Brewer (175) and Gunner Henry (190).

     

    And when they say the tournament is tough – they mean it. Among the second-ranked team in 4A, Jones (No. 5 seed) was the lone wrestler with a single-digit seed in Ironman, with only Preston Haines (10) joining him in the top 10.

     

    “The competition is super, super tough, a bunch of ranked kids,” Dickman said. “Coming into this I was kind of nervous with how I was going to do and stuff, and I feel like I competed pretty well.”

     

    Following a technical fall and pin in his first two consolation matches after being booted from the championship bracket by No. 2 seed Ayden Smith from Notre Dame, Pa., the No. 14-seeded Dickman slotted himself into a placement with a 1-0 win over Stillwater, Okla.’s Ayden Thomas.

     

    For Dickman – and all the representatives from Brownsburg and Crown Point – competing at the Ironman was a chance to not only level up individually, but to showcase what programs from Indiana are capable of.

     

    “It just put Indiana wrestling on the map,” Dickman said. “We’re not really looked at for wrestling, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

     

    Dickman, Haines, Hockaday, Ison, Henry and Jones all won their first matches on the day, with Jones pinning his first opponent in less than one minute.

     

    For Jones, this tournament is a good measuring stick to how he is able to compete at this point in the season. Due to his football schedule and opponents not being prepared to wrestle him in the opening weeks of the season, it’s been a slow start to the 2022-23 season for Brownsburg’s heavyweight.

     

    “My goal right now is just to get more in shape. I think I had five matches and less than 20 practices [coming into this weekend], which wasn’t ideal. I just want to get in shape and get a lot better, win Brecksville, win team state and everything in between.”

     

    Jones’ largest match of the weekend – not seeding-wise, but in terms of what lies ahead for the heavyweight and Brownsburg – came for a bid to the consolation semifinals. In a battle of Indiana heavyweights, Jones defeated Crown Point’s Paul Clark by a 5-1 decision. It was his third full-length match of the tournament after winning by two sub-minute puns and a medical forfeit.

     

    “It went really well. I came in with expectations just to get better and then I ended up placing,” Jones said. “It’s obviously a pretty prestigious tournament, I came in here and wanted to place and I’m pretty happy with that, even though I took three losses.”

     

    A pair of Jones’ losses came against Richard Thomas, the No. 12 heavyweight seed from Oklahoma. After earning a 6-3 decision to bump Jones to the consolation bracket, Thomas turned Jones for a first-period fall in his final match of the tournament.

     

    So far this season, Brownsburg has run through its opponents with very few wounds suffered by some of its best wrestlers. If anything, the Ironman gave a chance for those wrestlers to measure up to some of the best in the country and learn how to get better and move forward from losses.

     

    “[A tournament like this] gives you some things to work on,” Snyder said. “We know our guys are battle tested and are going to continue to be, but we also have to make sure they don’t get down on themselves. Some of these guys are not used to going to a tournament and not placing and being done a few hours into it.”

     

    And for Jones specifically, being able to test his endurance was important as Brownsburg gets into some of its biggest competition this year.

     

    “It’ll benefit me probably for the rest of my life,” Jones said. “Most of the dual tournaments we go to, people forfeit against me which is kind of annoying. I came into this tournament with five matches, none of them going past a minute. It was definitely a difference.”

     

    Shining the spotlight on athletes this early in the season has indications for where they’ll be come February and the state series. Snyder has built Brownsburg’s schedule with that in mind – to get better, each and every day, working toward their end goals this season.

     

    This upcoming weekend, the Bulldogs travel to the Crown Point Invitational to continue a month of hard-fought wrestling and impressive competition. To round out the 2022 calendar just before New Years, another big tournament across state lines.

     

    “If you look at our next month, next week we go to Crown Point and there’s nine nationally ranked teams there, then we go to Brecksville and I think that’s got 40-some teams, multiple nationally ranked teams,” Snyder said. “We hope after that month of a gauntlet that it’s going to help us make a run during the postseason, but we’ve got a lot of guys taking a lot of losses.”

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