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So, I sit here at 4:40 am CST and I'm dead tired, but I can't sleep. I've already made the drive back to NWI, so that drive from hell is behind me. The hot dogs. Pretty damn good. The concession stand I used to buy my dogs made them to order, so, they were fresh. They grilled them on something, they had a nice char, nice buns even without yoga pants, a good overall product. Just one small gripe. They were expensive. $7 a pop for these bad boys. Oh well. 7 slices of pizza outta 8. Kinda a side note, I mentioned this in a reply, but I was told Hanover Central are looking into changing their hot dogs because of my review. One day my friends, we will have the hot dogs we deserve at all wrestling meets across the great state of Indiana! And, as always, thank you for reading.

Congratulations to Luke Penola for winning the mental attitude award at the state finals. Luke didn’t reach his goal of winning a state title but he walked out of the arena with his head held high. He is one of the best leaders, wrestlers, and people we’ve ever been around. We are forever grateful to of coached you and to have you in our Zionsville wrestling family.

This was an incredible weekend of wrestling, and the Brownsburg Bulldogs and coaching staff earned it. Congrats Coach Snyder and team. Love competing and coaching against you guys, and the purple dogs deserve all the praise and celebration. Brownsburg and Center Grove showed up and competed hard. Congrats to both of those great teams and coaching staffs. Coach Lorek Crown Point High School Wr.

Looks like the Brinks truck will be taking a detour to da Wayne today. I hope they updated their Google maps to stop at Victory Bay! Way to go Easton, Chase, and Mitchell representing the area. Also shout outs to Cressell and Krejsa who have deep ties to da Wayne.

Wow, I can't believe this topic is already 2 pages long & noone has mentioned... Julianna Ocampo! This fierce competitor not only made history but is a tremendous inspiration for all young girls everywhere. Congratulations young lady, you deserve it!

Watching this Iowa vs Wisc dual and Rathjen takes injury time as he’s getting taken down. Official gives the injury time, Rathjen continues after a short break and doesn’t give the 3 pt td. Reminds me of one of my biggest issues watching wrestling this weekend. Coaches allowing their kids to take a time out when the going gets tough. Weak. One of the countless things that separates wrestling from the stupid sports like basketball, no timeouts when it’s getting real, you have to deal with it. Dissapointing the programs that are ok with taking a breather for that mental break when adversity has set in.

Just a grateful post! Are we not blessed as fans, what a weekend! We seen a ton of indiana #1's go down, the 1st girl on the podium and Brownsburg take over as the new chiefs of the state! It is going to be a fun ride! As the season goes on i don't think we give enough credit to coaches, refs and media for their countless hours of devotion to the sport of wrestling for these kids! Can't thank you all enough! We do great at getting in an uproar with peoples post about how great their team is etc. Trying to get people worked up and hating. These kids that wrestle are all (typically) incredible athletes and better humans! They are competitive but grow a bond like no other sport. A prime example is crown point and bburg, we all know the history but what alot of people don't see is the bonds. Cp and burg kids love being around each other when not competing! We need to at times get better at not being upset with one side or the other because of ppl's post and just be excited indiana has nationally ranked teams! How great is it having 3 top 30 nationally ranked teams? I'm grateful for it and I'm grateful for how 99% of our athletes behave! Its truly something to be grateful for. Post on recruiting all the time, I know my 2 cents won't make a bit of difference but recruiting isn't a thing and I truly believe that people want to be a part of something special. When you have team cracking nationally ranked status and schedule kids and parents want to be a part of it and not only that typically these programs have coaches, community support and same goals. We all have heard saying about "if you are around 5 millionaires you will be the 6th" or "you are only as good as the people you surround yourself with" field of dreams "if you build it, they will come". We have to stop hating on programs like the burg, cg and cp. They have all built it right and they come. Im grateful we can travel outside of the US and have teams competing nationally to be recognized in the country. Here is to freestyle season, let's get excited for lace season as my son says! Its a beautiful time of the year! Fargo is getting closer. Time for world team and fargo dreams! Grateful for opportunity. Good luck to all our summer athletes! Thank you to all you coaches, refs, media, Especially indianamat for all the countless hours and effort you put in to these kids to help make indiana wrestling better and the sport to grow! Let's all build! Grateful for you all! Congrats to all the athletes who competed this past weekend and if you didn't reach your goals time to get back to the drawing board and work, if you are graduating this sport will stick with you for the rest of your life and you are a better person for doing it! College or workforce will love you! Keep your heads held high with pride, wrestling is life for all of us, but there is a bigger purpose for our life! Keep your eyes on the prize and hes got you! Thank you indiana wrestling

I will say on behalf of the Ford Center, we really did try and I personally worked my tail off for this one. As a wrestling fan I was pumped to see it coming to our place. I’m sorry the lighting wasn’t the greatest for the finals, it was the best we could do with what we had to work with while trying to keep that finals feel. Originally they were just gonna keep the sports lights on, but I didn’t think that felt right. Had a blast all weekend and had the best seat I’ve ever had for a wrestling finals weekend.

Got to imagine Aidan Kincaide will be in the mix after being a semi finalist at a high weight for a freshman.

They came right out and said it at the coaches meeting in Fort Wayne in November. Anything that looks pre planned gets hit, and I back flips would be pre planned. Which is still freaking lame. There’s nothing unsportsmanlike about doing a little extra celebrating in the greatest moment of these kid’s careers as long as it’s not directed at the other kid or coaches.

Thank you so much. If only that Krejsa kid didn't get lucky in their quarterfinals match, CJ could've won it all. I kid of course. CJ said Krejsa was the only kid that got faster as the match went on. Edit. I'm really proud of CJ because he fought through adversity at the beginning of the year. We lost my dad in late October, and he was a massive supporter of CJs wrestling career. He never missed any my son's matches.

Peyton Schoettle. Great composure,desire,and will to win every position. Impressive performance the entire weekend. Congrats!!

Has anyone checked on @DawgPoundRed, I’m concerned for his well being. 7 state champs? 1. All time team score? 3rd place. More state champs than 1 SS? Nope. I hope he didn’t partake in the casinos in Evansville.

Had it not been for the one loss he suffered at Al Smith to Shepherd, he’d be my pick for most dominant wrestler this season. Just absolutely insane strength on top and he wrestles with so much finesse. I’m happy he avenged that loss in top form, though. Congrats, Rello!

Yes, we did have an end of the season celebration/dinner. That happens win or lose. That is how we celebrate with our family/friends and honor our wrestlers at state. We have been doing that for the last four years. I am proud of our parents and Booster Club for doing an amazing job for my coaches and wrestlers. Coach Lorek

Honorable Mention: the music selection was horrendous.. nothing like warming up for one of the biggest matches of your career to the Disney on Ice soundtrack. #BringBackTheTights

#TheCounty and it’s 100,000’s of thousands fans like to send big congratulations to our Champions and Placers and also like to Congratulate YOUR….. 2x 2024 IHSAA Team State Champions …. BROWNSBURG BULLDOGS ! Our 2024 State Champs Brownsburg - 113- 2x State Champ Revin Dickman Avon- 126- State Champion Luke Rioux Brownsburg - 132- 3x State Champ Jake Hockaday As many of you #TheCounty Fans know we have produced Champions State Champions like Indiana produces Corn in our great State out of our 5 schools with in Hendricks County . Since 2011 Hendricks County has produced (21) State Champions Avon Champions : AsaGarcia(2016), Asa Garcia(2018), Asa Garcia(2019), Carson Brewer(2019) Luke Rioux (2024) Brownsburg Champions : Brayton Lee(2016), Brayton Lee(2017), Brayton Lee(2018), Dorian Keys(2019), Logan Miller(2020), Kysen Montgomery(2021), Jake Hockaday(2022), Jake Hockaday(2023), Jake Hockaday(2024) Revin Dickman(2023) Revin Dickman(2024) Leighton Jones(2023) Danville - Champions : Neal Molloy(2011), Neal Molloy(2013), Brock Hudkins(2015), Brock Hudkins(2016) Since 2015 our streak with a State Champion from our schools is up to 9 Years in a row .

It is so the day after state.

Refs are lameasses

Dude, this is the emptiest I’ve ever seen a place. No way should it ever be here again.

Watching IhsaaTv from home . The Announcers for all 4 mats are perhaps the best I've ever encountered watching a large Tournament. They are all past wrestlers and very knowledgeable .

I want to get here before Sloan has the chance! Congrats to the kid from Rossville! Super proud of this young man!

For all of you guys keeping receipts on what I am guessing is a kid who is shaking up the board. Do you think Crown Points coaches are going to keep these receipts and comments for if/when they are back on top. Coach Hawkins sent me a text this morning asking us to Ban @DawgPoundRed I’ll talk to Joe about it but I am not for censorship unless it’s something really offensive and not someone bragging on their squad everyone is celebrating CP failure and trying to minimize Brownsburg success. Cp didn’t lose a title The burg took that thing with 2 studs working on 4 titles, and if the rumor mill is correct they are adding another one real question how many people who are all worked up would take CP state finals this year(9 medals, a champ, a runner up, 12 qualifiers) for Their programs next 5 years? As a proud Calumet Alumni I would take that. we will announce on the state recap show what we decided

Mood Right Now

That was Older brother’s nuts he hit!!! For all those times in the garage during Covid on the 10X10 Mat!!!

The Not Top 10 as ESPN portrays it generally consider to be embarrassing blooper and ridiculous errors of well paid adult professional athletes. Most of yours is call out kids who already had an off day and give no credit to their opponents rising to the occasion and finding their own moment. Just because top CP wrestlers, and a few others, didn’t win a tough match doesn’t mean it should fall into this type of Not Top 10 embarrassing type call out. In my view most of your 10 are not good takes. Heck some of them aren’t even big upsets ranking wise. Your own picks may not have been Top 10 calls but no need to call any of these kids to task just because they didn’t live up to your picks. If this was a joke it was done way too poorly in taste. Get some sleep, you’ve had a long day. The following take (posted below) is more along the lines of the type of Not Top 10 criticism of this years state event that is worth pointing out. I can at least respect those thoughts cause it’s about the process and someone could actually consider those ideas when planning future events.

Congrats to Waylon Cressell. Several out of state studs have come into Indiana over the past several decades, but most don’t win out single class state title. If you take away Sergio Lemley’s Covid Year (and he’s actually a IN born and raised that jumped borders for school) I’m not sure we can find too many out of state studs that won a title here. Especially year one.

Its a tough one for me. I loved GA but I also love being able to get lunch on the break as oppose to going and standing in line at 215 of the semis to get good seats. I don't miss that at all.

Fort Wayne East Chicago New Castle Evansville 1st 3 1 4 6 2nd 1 5 1 7 3rd 2 3 3 6 4th 6 2 2 4 5th 1 6 2 5 6th 2 3 5 4 7th 3 0 6 5 8th 2 4 4 4 Im pretty sure I got this right. If anyone sees a mistake I will change it.

I concur with my brother @TeamGarcia .. it was a great experience. Soooo happy I booked a room for last night. I love the venue. The wrestling was amazing. Not allowing people leave is ridiculous. It’s not a 2 hour basketball game. I just kept buying new tickets to leave. Sooo good seeing all of my friends. @Y2CJ41 @ontherise219 @TripleB and crew were everywhere! You guys did a great job covering the event and keeping us in the know. The broadcast from Chasers was a great time! All the young dudes enjoyed Buds!!!! They had very cold “soda” at Tiki!!!! Would not be mad if it’s there again!

Funny thing happened this morning. i was behind the Ford Center this morning noticed a BRINKS TRUCK AND HAD A CHAT WITH THE DRIVER. For security purposes, he could not tell me his exact destination. He told he was going to "The Degion". i think that is code for another word. He expected to arrive early, because he was not going to be compelled to re-fuel. i asked him, "why"? "Light load".

What time at the square?

On another note every single employee of the Ford Center that I came across was very nice and helpful. Some venues that I go to such as gainbridge or Lucas Oil that is not the case. Instead of helpful they are aggressive and abrasive. It truly was a nice change of pace to be able to talk to someone that didn't act like they had better things to do than help you out. And I mean that for every single employee that I encountered.

I'm sure that the location had something to do with it, but I'm pretty confident that the ticketmaster fiasco was the biggest factor. How is it that a company that only handles ticket sales, can't properly handle an event of 11,000? Completely inexcusable!

Agree 100%! It's the absolute pinnacle of Indiana wrestling. If he's not puting his opponent down, flipping the bird, or doing anything obscene then let the kid have a moment. We all love a good back flip, if they made it this far you know darn well they worked for it.

There are more of them. lol. They all have a lot in common - incredibly humble, talented, and sportsmanlike. Like you hate losing to them but always find yourself rooting for them against anyone else. It’s a really awkward feeling that I still can’t wrap my brain around. Seriously, really weird. Win or lose they always show class and they are also always ridiculously good at wrestling. So much respect for that family….and we are their “rival”. I can’t root against them when they aren’t wrestling Brownsburg. Again, very strange. I’m going to go see a psychologist.

Been attending since 1982 and probably the worst state experience ever. First the ticketing issue, then the vibe of the stadium was very low key all weekend. Probably because the stadium was half empty. Lastly, it seems that if the community was backing the tourney that there would be food available on the blocks around the venue after 10 pm. On a positive note we ate at Turoni’s , Kite and Key , Gerst Haus and Peephole and all were really good. Will be glad to be back to Indy next year.

Guys that have never wrestled or will ever understand what these kids and families sacrifice make up rules on how a kid and team can celebrate. Word is that they tell kids that they can’t eat PB&J during faceoff … no matter how hungry you are!!!

I would say they had more

Been to Indy and Evansville now. Overall EVV hosted it better imo. You could tell they went all out for it.

I think the team race proved you have to show up in numbers, have your head on right, and survive a gauntlet of tough competition if you want to win it. Crown Points a heck of a team but it just wasn’t the weekend most envisioned they would have. No knock on Crown Point as they may have had a couple bad beats but are still a crazy good team. This should really be about putting more respect on just how impressive many of or other individual wrestlers are in this state. Some have been overlooked due to the shine of these “super teams.” There are lots a land mines to run into at state and Crown Point unfortunately hit a few today. When the competition is good enough to make matches razor thin then you have to be close to perfect on the day or you are done. Also gotta say I’m very impressed that Brownsburg and even Center Grove never lost faith. They kept grinding and let the energy build for them as the tournament progressed. CP deserves the Team Dual State Championship, but when thrown in an event against all the individual talent our state has they just couldn’t find a smooth path through in this particular weekend. The state of Indiana wrestling has shown once again that it is growing stronger.

If I noticed correctly there were first time school champs tonight. That’s awsome for their programs.

Who thinks @DawgPoundRed should win IndianaMat Rookie of the Year award?

I’m definitely passing that along to the staff.

All five champs from 144-175 have some kind of ties to the Wayne. Obviously the three champs in Doster, Betz, and Leech, but also Kresja who started his high school career at Delta, and Cressell whose brother goes to Wabash and has Wabash listed on his own track profile.

No one was badgering any kids on the Doster/Walker thread. I'm not gonna comment on the actual call that started the topic, but I will say that it is not very good logic to say "if you don't like the call, you suit up". Bad calls happen, that's a fact of life. And people should be able to criticize bad calls. On an adjacent topic, I personally don't like the "don't be in a position to let the ref dictate the match". By it's very nature, the ref dictates matches and games. NFL teams actually game plan for different referees because each crew calls games differently. Just like different refs call matches differently.

Absolute dog, congrats to the weavers and Rossville.

And also, if you ever get a poorly-cooked meal, put on your chef apron and hat and save the restaurant. Not happy with your haircut? Grab some shears and take over for the stylist. You think a movie was awfully-written? Well, I guess that’s your fault for not going to film school and becoming a better writer. If you’re not a professional, always remember to just keep your mouth shut and not have any controversial thoughts.

3 > 1 Fort Wayne > East Chicago