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2018 Dream Team Classic Indiana came ready to scrap with the best in the country. Ty Mills PINNED the #1 ranked guy in his home gym and almost blew the roof off the place. Brayton Lee had an epic match that was decided in overtime. Every match was great and it was awesome seeing the whole Indiana community cheering for our guys.

C'mon! Does college wrestling really cost that much? Serious question. It can't be anymore expensive as lacrosse.

It's hard to narrow down, but I'll give a solid few. IHSWCA Team State Duals (2015) | Highlight(s): Evansville Mater Dei vs. Perry Meridian, Perry Meridian vs. Penn The third ever IHSWCA Team State Duals headed to Muncie for the first time, leaving its old grounds at Westfield, and the best the state had to offer in three classes were set to do battle. In Class 3A in particular, it was a three-team race between top-ranked Perry Meridian, second-ranked Evansville Mater Dei, and third-ranked Penn. After pool play had finished, Perry Meridian and Penn went to war in an all-time classic dual meet that swayed in momentum from start to finish. Complete with upsets, surprises, and one of the most incredible comeback sequences ever, Perry Meridian was able to escape Penn by the skin of their teeth, winning 33-32 on the sixth criteria for which team had the most bonus points which was ultimately decided on Brandon James' technical fall. With a Falcon victory, the two most storied programs of the 21st century in Indiana collided in a showdown of epic proportion when the Nick Lee-led Wildcats took on the Brandon James-led Falcons. The Wildcats took the lead early, but the ever-resilient Falcons kept finding a way to sway the momentum until the gas ran out. The Wildcats narrowly won 31-27, upsetting the top-ranked Falcons to earn their first IHSWCA Team State Dual Championship after finishing runner-up the year prior. Al Smith Classic Wrestling Invitational (2018) | Highlight(s): Jesse Mendez vs. Hunter Watts, Brayden Littell vs. Riley Bettich Something was in the air at Mishawaka that day. Everyone was competing at an extremely high level. The finals matches were a treat to behold, though. Matt Gimson vs. Geremia Brooks, Alex Mosconi vs. Aiden Warren, Jordan Slivka vs. Brooks Davis, and Nick South vs. Joe Walker were all phenomenal, but the two matches of the tournament were Brayden Littell vs. Riley Bettich and Jesse Mendez vs. Hunter Watts. With the former, we saw two elite grapplers go toe-to-toe in an overtime thriller that was won by Littell's high mat IQ, and in the latter we saw the birth of a legend in a freshman Jesse Mendez effectively controlling a returning state champion in Watts, an elite competitor in his own right. IHSAA Semi-State Championship at New Castle (2014) | Highlight(s): Brandon James vs. Deondre Wilson Perry Meridian's stranglehold on the state had been broken a month prior as the Falcons suffered their first defeat in over three years at the IHSWCA Team State Duals to the Bob Hasseman-led Grizzly Cubs of Franklin Community. That didn't discourage Coach Jim Tonte, however, as he put his Falcons in position to reclaim their place on the top of the mountain after winning their regional a week prior, but what stood in the way was a stubborn Cathedral team looking to win their first state championship in program history, and with no better way to make a statement, the Fighting Irish wanted to make a statement to the rest of Indiana at New Castle. Although, the Falcons qualified more wrestlers, Cathedral walked away with more champions led by top-ranked Wes Bernard at heavyweight, thus winning by a narrow 3½ point margin over Perry Meridian, 117.5-114.0, and had placed themselves in position to capture the gold next weekend at Bankers Life. The New Castle Fieldhouse was no short of great matches either, headlined by a Deondre Wilson and Brandon James rematch from the prior weekend in the 132-pound championship that saw Wilson prevail in an ultimate tiebreaker thriller. IHSAA Regional Championship at Mooresville (2022) | Highlight(s): Logan Miller vs. Reese Courtney, Gunner Henry vs. Drake Buchanan This year's state tournament series was unforgettable. The always brutal and unforgiving Mooresville regional didn't disappoint either and started out the gate hot with a ranked match-up between Martinsville's Trevor Hott and Brownsburg's Braiden Haines. Brownsburg, who took the title in dominant fashion, had some great finals match-ups with runner-up Center Grove, including the 120-pound and 182-pound championship contests. Logan Miller, in his final career victory, found a way to upend Center Grove's Reese Courtney in overtime with a beautiful surfboard that saw him take the crown with a 7-2 decision. The 182-pound match and this year's match of the year saw the arrival of Gunner Henry. The Brownsburg freshman was able to be the first and only wrestler all season to knock off the top-ranked Trojan and returning state runner-up in Drake Buchanan. A carefully wrestled match-up that told a great story, Henry was able to smell blood as the bout progressed and Buchanan waned, eventually pulling off the upset in spectacular fashion that sent Mooresville up to the point the event could be measured on the Richter scale.

This is tough news to hear. They finally hired a full-time coach after about 10 years of having a program. The school was not easy to recruit for and that made it a tough job for anyone.

When you refer to IHSAA state finals I assume you are referring to the individual state finals. The old team state finals had their barn burners ( I may be a bit biased) MD vs Caramel in 97 MD vs Hobart (not sure the year) and MD vs Portage in 04 (hated to lose that one but it was a hell of a match). Old old Indiana's best tournament MD vs Lawrence North in 91 I believe, MD VS Belmont in 93. MD vs Evansville Central in 92 or 93 (at MD PACKED HOUSE Central was very confident that year). All great duals!

Good job to all of our representatives, some tough competition for sure.

Some background on the Western PA All-Stars our Indiana boys faced: Final results: And Seltzer and Mendez' results in the big USA vs PA matchup (Chletsos headed to Rutgers; Priest going to Pitt):

Very cool hopefully we can continue to build this list. Obviously I'd like to see MD's #'s continue to rise (and I believe they will soon) but to see all this success is impressive. CP should be adding more very soon as well.

Might have to make it a few more cases than just one!

I'm watching on FLO I'll try to update.

Oh man that sucks. They brought in a new coach a little over a year ago Tom Malony. He wanted to fix the culture of the program and increase recruitment of some solid “region” wrestlers. Sounded like he was making some progress in that department but not much time was really given him to right the ship with this announcement. Looks like I’ll be wearing my Crimson Wave wrestling shirt tomorrow in the programs honor.

Congratulations to Dominic Litchfield from Bellmont for signing with Wabash. Projected to wrestle 141. View full signing

I think Mendez could AA next year as well if he is not redshirted. I'm not saying he couldn't win it but I think AA is a safe bet.

Very cool that historically we've had 3 or more AAs in a single season every 9 to 10 years. But we've got a streak of 4 tournaments in a row with 3+ AAs right now. Next year with Parris, B Lee, Davison, etc seems promising to potentially keep it going.

Jason Tsirtsis (National Champion) Northwestern

IndianaWrestlingGuy is Ryan Hasbrook from Cathedral. He is obsessed with Brownsburg Wrestlers. They find him hilarious, but also say his focus on them as high school athletes makes them uncomfortable. Snyder

Hey, as a former Brownsburg wrestling parent, I know these boys. For an adult to take the time to come in this forum and make a snide remark about two 8th graders is inappropriate and classless. Who are you, buddy???

IHSWCA Hall of Fame inductee Coach George "Giggy" Gardner passed away on March 24 in Myrtle Beach, SC. Giggy was a talented wrestler at Lawrenceburg and after a stint in the United States Navy graduated from Northern Kentucky University. He was a long-time teacher and coach at South Dearborn. Giggy has a 359-150-1 record as a head wrestling coach at South Dearborn and was inducted into the IHSWCA Hall of Fame in 2022. Visitation services for Giggy will be on Sunday, April 3 between 5:00-8:00 PM at South Dearborn High School gymnasium in Aurora, Indiana.

Sounds like Calumet College in the region is cutting its wrestling program. They had an All American Last Year in Nick Fowler and they sounds like they had a solid recruiting class coming in. A pretty unfortunate turn