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IHSAA State Championships – Team Race


H.B.

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With the postseason six days away, who are some of your favorites to win the team championship? I’ve got a few schools that could make a claim for the title with some heavy hitters.

1. Cathedral – My biggest favorite to win. They are the defending champions and probably have a lot they want to prove following their State Duals loss. I could see them put four under the lights in Seltzer, Mosconi, Rodgers, and Slivka, along with high placement from Bailey and Walendzak.

2. Evansville Mater Dei – Always expect EMD to bring the heat. They never make any tournament easy. With wrestlers like Freeman, Ross, Boarman, Egli bros, Lee, Dickens, and Parkinson, I’m sure we’ll see high performance and placement downtown.

3. Columbus East – A big threat to Cathedral’s run for dominance at Bankers Life. Cayden Rooks, Nick South, and Jacob Bolte all hold #1 rankings and the always tough Schnoegge could make a deep run and score lots of points for the Olympians.

4. Brownsburg – The returning runners-up showed that this year is far from a down one in Fort Wayne some weeks ago. I always expect quality from this team and while they may not have as many potential finalists, they could definitely bring in a high volume of players to rack up points.

5. Avon – The second best team in Hendrick’s County has a shot to be the best team in Indiana come February. The Orioles have heavy hitters in two-time champ, Asa Garcia, and nationally-ranked Carson Brewer along with Rioux, and Nathan and Tyler Conley. Stranger things have happened in Bankers Life. 

6. Perry Meridian – A team who has sat upon the pinnacle of dominance along with the likes of EMD for quite some time now. Perry Meridian has had a down year to say the least but can really come alive should they get their guys to perform in the postseason. With Cottey being a clear favorite to win 106, we could also see him joined under the lights by Aiden Warren who has been nothing short of excellent this year. A couple of close encounters with Mosconi have been his only blemishes while being the only loss on what has been an otherwise phenomenal year for Cayden Rooks. Returning state runner-up Sam Fair and placewinner Brooks Davis could make deep runs at Bankers should everyone be healthy, not to mention Gabe Smith and Austin Lane who have been wrestling great.

 

7. Roncalli – The Southside Rebellion has come alive in recent years and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the hunt for the IHSAA Championship in February. Returning state champion Alec Viduya has one loss this season, but otherwise has wrestled great. Brayden Lowery is looking to finish on top this year. His pin last week over Walendzak proved he could go with anyone, bumping up a weight class and scoring six for his team. Tyce Freije, a returning placer, can also score lots of points for this squad. Heavyweight, generally one of the more coin flip weights has John Harris who could really turn in a high performance at Bankers should he make it. Last but not least, the always creative Elijah Mahan can beat anyone and make a huge run for the 170 crown and help the Rebels to win an IHSAA championship.

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Cathedral and Columbus E would be my personal picks as front runners. Cathedral.....because of their QUALITY depth.  If they have 5-6 guys in the finals it wouldn’t be some crazy over-accomplishment.  I voice Columbus E due to them having what I personally believe to be a couple solid front runners to get it all the way done.  Strong arguments could be made for each of these teams.  Especially Avon if things go their way.  But when you look at the depth of MD, the coaching and possible State Champs of other programs mentioned......draws are going to be paramount in the team race.  Semi-final matches could literally determine the Team Champs.  

In fact.......has there ever been a Team Championship won by a program without an individual champion?  Just curious due to my relative infancy following high school wrestling.

 Now humor me if you would....and play “What Could Have Been!”  Had things went differently at barely big enough for 4 syllables Shenandoah........our just over 400 enrollment would be right in the mix.

AJ Black....Jordan Slivka......Silas Allred.  In turn, if Lohrey & Pugsley make a run towards the top of the podium, it could’ve been historic!  I voice these things because this year was the “Target year” when the team was comprised and taking shape 5 yrs ago.  Fun to think about.......but only if it’s fleeting.  Stings too much to dwell on it 😏.

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12 minutes ago, Perseverance said:

Cathedral and Columbus E would be my personal picks as front runners. Cathedral.....because of their QUALITY depth.  If they have 5-6 guys in the finals it wouldn’t be some crazy over-accomplishment.  I voice Columbus E due to them having what I personally believe to be a couple solid front runners to get it all the way done.  Strong arguments could be made for each of these teams.  Especially Avon if things go their way.  But when you look at the depth of MD, the coaching and possible State Champs of other programs mentioned......draws are going to be paramount in the team race.  Semi-final matches could literally determine the Team Champs.  

In fact.......has there ever been a Team Championship won by a program without an individual champion?  Just curious due to my relative infancy following high school wrestling.

 Now humor me if you would....and play “What Could Have Been!”  Had things went differently at barely big enough for 4 syllables Shenandoah........our just over 400 enrollment would be right in the mix.

AJ Black....Jordan Slivka......Silas Allred.  In turn, if Lohrey & Pugsley make a run towards the top of the podium, it could’ve been historic!  I voice these things because this year was the “Target year” when the team was comprised and taking shape 5 yrs ago.  Fun to think about.......but only if it’s fleeting.  Stings too much to dwell on it 😏.

Wow!

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13 hours ago, Perseverance said:

Cathedral and Columbus E would be my personal picks as front runners. Cathedral.....because of their QUALITY depth.  If they have 5-6 guys in the finals it wouldn’t be some crazy over-accomplishment.  I voice Columbus E due to them having what I personally believe to be a couple solid front runners to get it all the way done.  Strong arguments could be made for each of these teams.  Especially Avon if things go their way.  But when you look at the depth of MD, the coaching and possible State Champs of other programs mentioned......draws are going to be paramount in the team race.  Semi-final matches could literally determine the Team Champs.  

In fact.......has there ever been a Team Championship won by a program without an individual champion?  Just curious due to my relative infancy following high school wrestling.

 Now humor me if you would....and play “What Could Have Been!”  Had things went differently at barely big enough for 4 syllables Shenandoah........our just over 400 enrollment would be right in the mix.

AJ Black....Jordan Slivka......Silas Allred.  In turn, if Lohrey & Pugsley make a run towards the top of the podium, it could’ve been historic!  I voice these things because this year was the “Target year” when the team was comprised and taking shape 5 yrs ago.  Fun to think about.......but only if it’s fleeting.  Stings too much to dwell on it 😏.

Belmont won in 1987 without an individual champion.

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1 hour ago, MD92 said:

Belmont won in 1987 without an individual champion.

Thank you.  That’s ridiculously impressive to me.  Would love some additional details of that team if anyone reading this has any?

Were they literally just that balanced from a talent standpoint?  We’re they pushed by any other talented schools that year?  Surely......they were a nightmare to dual right?

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3 minutes ago, Perseverance said:

Thank you.  That’s ridiculously impressive to me.  Would love some additional details of that team if anyone reading this has any?

Were they literally just that balanced from a talent standpoint?  We’re they pushed by any other talented schools that year?  Surely......they were a nightmare to dual right?

Mater Dei was runner up and had one champ, 2 4ths and a 6th

Looks like Belmont had a 6th, 3 2nds and a 4th.

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1. Forgetting about Warren Central 

2. The Top 2 teams of each coming out of Evansville, New Castle SS will be highly favored to win . My picks all have multiple Top 5 ranked wrestlers and #1’s. all have ran the gauntlet on there schedule. Throw in some teams like Roncalli, Doah, EMD, Center Grove in the brackets and they going weed out some brackets with SS Champions themselves. 

(alphabetical order)

New Castle SS - Cathedral, Warren Central 

Evansville SS - Avon, Columbus East 

 

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