blueandgold

Per Merriam-Webster, a dynasty in sports is a team or franchise “which has a prolonged run of successful seasons.” Using that definition as criteria, Bellmont, Brownsburg, Cathedral, Crown Point, EMD, Perry Meridian, and Warren Central all would be considered current dynasties. Bloomington South and Delta are former dynasties looking to re-establish themselves, and if Center Grove can maintain their momentum of this current run for the next few years, they’ll be a dynasty as well.

Brownsburg has probably been the most consistent team since 2016. From 2016-19 they won IHSWCA 3A Team State, were IHSAA champions in 2017, and IHSAA runners-up in 2016 and 2018; in 2020 they finished third at IHSWCA Team State, 4th in 2021, and runners-up in 2022 and 2023, and they were IHSAA runners-up once more in 2022, third in 2023, and champions this past season ending in 2024. In that time since Brownsburg has emerged, Warren Central has won an IHSAA championship, Cathedral has won three since 2016 but four overall, Mater Dei won in 2021, and Crown Point went back to back in 2022 and 2023. Center Grove has found some success under Coach Swain having been two-time IHSAA runners-up in 2023 and 2024 and back-to-back third place finishers at 4A Team State. Also, Warren Central has been pretty consistent as well having been IHSWCA runners-up in 2016, 2019, and 2021 and IHSAA fourth place finishers this past season ending in 2024. All of this makes me wonder about another team we’ve yet to mention: Mishawaka. Dynasty in the 2000s?

Bellmont also. They appeared in every IHSAA Team State Finals except for 1997 and finished runner-up twice. After that, they have either won or appeared at every IHSWCA 2A Team State since its inception.

Who would you consider the Indiana wrestling dynasties across all of time?

Right now, the blockbuster would be Hockaday vs. Shepherd; 3-time state champion vs. state runner-up and Fargo champion. Since Red vs. Lee, the only real match that had blockbuster potential in terms of drawing money and selling tickets to that degree they did was MAYBE Mendez vs. Boarman, but it happened in the semis and Jesse was expected to dominate, plus COVID-19 restrictions were in place. The following year, though, Mendez had a surprise match with Seltzer at Team State that ended up being great, but we all knew that was a one-off. A match that could’ve been an absolute blockbuster that a full arena didn’t get to see due to COVID-19 restrictions was Brody Baumann vs. Robert Major; they were #1 and #2 that season on a collision course and they met in the finals and had a banger of a match.

I know wrestling is neither football or basketball, but I think individual performance can be measured beyond titles won and/or tournament placements. That being said, I am curious to know if anyone has any idea on how many points were scored by a wrestler from their school in matches, dual meets, and tournaments. I would bet there are a lot of wrestlers who never won state, placed, or even qualified who could have some records in this area (looking at you New Castle).

The phrase “wrestling is wrestling” is both true and untrue at the same time. While Folkstyle, Freestyle, and Greco-Roman among other styles are all, in fact, wrestling, they’re all very different with the latter two requiring one to be disciplined enough to score without sacrificing position the way one could in Folkstyle and both can provide long term careers. Say a prep athlete in Indiana has had limited success under the Folkstyle rule set and tournament structure in Indiana but has seen success in Freestyle or Greco during the spring and summer by placing at tournaments such as Fargo, Flo, or the UWW Junior & Cadet World Team Trials and decides to opt out of scholastic competition. This, isn’t a wild scenario either as we’ve seen it over the years with talents such as Zach Pierson, Jade McCammon, Dylan Lydy, Sage Coy, and even Seer Godwise today, all wrestlers who placed in the international styles before Folkstyle, and some above never did. Some athletes such as Paul Konrath opted out of traditional school to continue wrestling national level Folkstyle events, but imagine if blue chip recruits solely focused on Freestyle or Greco from day one. How would/should coaches, programs, and governing bodies respond?

Pretty self-explanatory. Who is a wrestler that was just so athletic that you couldn’t even coach his type of style or movement? I’ll go first: Jalen Ward of Franklin Community.

Marshall Fishback in 2022. Ranked tenth and was only a semi-state qualifier the previous year. He beat a peak Jacob Johnson UTB 3-2 in the semis that year. Holden Parsons at Heavyweight in 2020 when Dorian Keys dominated most of the season before being upset by Irick in the semis. Rhett Hiestand and Katrell Moss in 2014 at 160 and 195 who beat Vinny Corsaro and Brian Wagner in the finals that year. Matt Hurford in 2013 at 182, a weight I thought would either go to Jake Masengale or Dakota Thacker.

This one still hurts. He outscored cash 15-2 that season, cut him twice. Also beat Joe Lee 8-2 earlier that year at Team State.

Based on both rankings and results, who were some wrestlers that weren’t on many, if anyone’s radar that would ultimately call themselves state champion at the end of the season?

I didn’t see him mentioned, but I wanted to give a shout out to former state qualifier for Hanover Central, Ashton Mutuwa. He wrestled at the Summer Olympics in Paris for Team Nigeria at 125 kilograms. An incredible feat and opportunity.

2022 Crown Point might actually have the most NCAA Division I athletes from a single team, though, with seven. 2021-22 Crown Point Bulldogs Division I Athletes Anthony Bahl (Indiana) Paul Clark (Buffalo) Will Clark (Buffalo) Orlando Cruz (Purdue) Logan Frazier (Virginia Tech/Indiana) Sam Goin (Indiana) Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) - NCAA Champion, 2-time All-American Not Graduated: Gavin Jendreas

Dang. That's unfortunate. Lots of respect for that team, though.

Been doing lots of historical research on college football as of late and my attention had been brought to the 2001 Miami Hurricanes football team. Often considered one of the greatest teams of all time, they averaged 43 points a game while only allowing 10 points per game and beat opponents by an average of 33 points per game, but what's even more impressive is this national championship team boasts a record 38 NFL draft picks, 43 combined trips to the Pro Bowl, and a combined nine Super Bowl championships, with many players likely going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. From the lens of high school wrestling, the logical next step is competing at the collegiate level, so I am curious as to which team from Indiana high school wrestling history not only dominated their competition, but also has the most collegiate wrestlers, national qualifiers, All-Americans, and even national champions or championships if with a team. My earliest bet would be 2003 Evansville Mater Dei Wildcats or the 2003 Griffith Panthers, but I am not too sure on the former. I know for sure the 2003 Griffith team while being runners-up to Mater Dei had three Division I All-Americans and an NCAA Champion in Angel Escobedo, Andrae Hernandez, and Alex Tsirtsis while Matt Coughlin of EMD would become a college teammate of Escobedo and Hernandez and also become an All-American for the Hoosiers.

Yeah, I know there was an incident years ago that resulted in Carmel and Center Grove being voted out. I don’t want to say what I read as I am not fully knowledgeable on the subject, but I’m sure the information is out there for me to obtain. As far as wrestling goes, I was just unsure if like how some schools in Indiana compete in football-only conferences the same could happen for it where schools are affiliate members of some sort. Just was curious. Always appreciate your insight on here Mr. Schott.

In my view of Indiana wrestling, and I could be wrong, conference match-ups seem to be fairly inconsistent and largely unimportant as compared to sectional, regional, semi-state match-ups. While we have conference tournaments, there aren’t many stakes to them unless they have sectional seeding, and a lot of them feel out of place. Some conferences such as the Duneland Athletic Conference or the SIAC are generally met with excitement from wrestlers and fans alike. In contrast, however, some conferences feel generally lopsided. The Hoosier Crossroads Conference features Avon and Brownsburg as their perennial programs while the MIC once featured Carmel and Center Grove alongside Ben Davis, Lawrence North, and Warren Central as a powerhouse that has been nationally recognized. I am not sure as to how the process works, but what is stopping all of these teams from joining together once more in either an established or entirely new conference to increase interest in conference match-ups? Is it the IHSAA, is it each school’s athletic department, or what? If Carmel and Center Grove rejoined the MIC and were also joined by Avon and Brownsburg, that in turn creates a 10-team conference featuring six schools who are generally in the mix at the Team State level and the IHSAA team race. Since 2019, Avon, Brownsburg, Carmel, Center Grove, and Warren Central have either been IHSWCA Top 8, IHSWCA Finalists, IHSAA Runners-Up, or IHSAA Champions, while Lawrence North has slowly, but surely been re-emerging. Sectional, Regional, and Semi-State implications also factor in between Avon, Ben Davis, Brownsburg, and Center Grove for Evansville, while Regional and Semi-State implications factor in for Carmel, Lawrence North, and Warren Central for New Castle. In addition, Ben Davis, Lawrence Central, North Central, and Pike generally have individuals in the mix at the semi-state or state level. Just some thoughts.

Heard a lot about this team, but obviously wasn’t around as I’d yet to be born (or thought of). What were they like?

This is really simple. All 16 state qualifiers receive a certificate from the IHSAA recognizing them as All-State. I know because I have one. That is your “All-State” in wrestling.

This is a topic I originally posted on the InterMat board and I wanted to bring it here. You can see the original post and responses in this link: https://intermatwrestle.com/forums/topic/4384-is-goat-talk-in-wrestling-only-centered-around-championships/#comment-147755 With all of the recent media coverage of Caitlin Clark in Women's Basketball and what she's done during her tenure at Iowa despite never winning an NCAA Championship, I am curious if the same kind of conversations can be held in wrestling even if they rarely are. As a Hawkeye, Caitlin Clark has been a three-time NCAA season scoring leader, named player of the year twice by three different publications, a Sullivan Award winner, Big Ten player of the year three times, first-team All-Big Ten four times, a three-time unanimous first-team All-American, and the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer among other accolades. Despite her elite résumé, she is a two-time national runner-up. Now, I understand basketball is a team sport, but take a career like Daton Fix's into consideration; he is a five-time Big 12 champion, a four-time NCAA runner-up, a U.S. Open champion, Pan Am and Pan Am Games champion, and UWW world silver medalist while part of the Cowboys. Is he considered to be in GOAT/All-Time Great talks the same way athletes from other sports are, or is it negated due to his lack of NCAA championships? For a hypothetical, let's say a wrestler in the Big Ten won everything imaginable minus the Hodge and NCAA title (ex.: Fix), could he still be in contention with a résumé like this? Fictional Career (For Post) 131-4 career record Four-time NCAA Finalist Four-time Big Ten Champion Three-time Most Dominant Wrestler Three-time Gorriaran Award NCAA season takedowns leader NCAA season escapes leader NCAA Division I all-time takedowns leader Three-time Big Ten Wrestler of the Year Big Ten Freshman of the Year NWCA All-Rookie Team If this were an Indiana high school wrestler, take someone like Delaney Ruhlman, Vinny Corsaro, Tristen Tonte, or even Brandon James who are frequently mentioned amongst the greats or for a fictional example, say a wrestler won four semi-state, regional, sectional, conference, county, and holiday tournament titles but always got beat every season by the same person like a Jesse Mendez or Andrew Howe, can he still be in GOAT contention?

The title says it all. What is the best takedown you have ever seen and who was it by? My Pick: Wesley Bernard’s arm drag to a double leg to a half on the way down against Shawn Streck in the 2014 State semifinals.

CA runs both the perfect state tournament and qualifiers in my opinion. I like the way the CIF has its league championships which help for seeding for its section championships, then its section masters, and finally their state championships. They have a 64-man bracket, seeding, wrestlebacks, and wrestle under the lights in sunny California. I’ve been to CA twice now and I hope to watch their state championships in the future.

Bored and haven’t done this in awhile. Obviously we’ll never see them, but take your picks on these fantasy matches. 113: Revin Dickman (Brownsburg) vs. Alex Cottey (Perry Meridian) 120: Charlie LaRocca (Center Grove) vs. Drew Hildebrandt (Penn) 132: Jake Hockaday (Brownsburg) vs. Zeke Seltzer (Cathedral) 165/170: Waylon Cressel (Warren Central) vs. Dylan Lydy (Ben Davis) 215/220: Will Clark (Crown Point) vs. Gelen Robinson (Lake Central)

Sometimes, I’ll go back and look at old brackets to see how things have played out in high school years later. This Novice 70 bracket from 2018 stood out to me as well as several others. Here were the top eight finishers. It’s interesting to see what all of these kids have done in the six years since then. Novice - 70 Guaranteed Places 1st Place - Parker Reynolds of Contenders Wrestling Academy 2nd Place - Evan Stanley of Region Wrestling Academy 3rd Place - Landen Haines of Red Cobra Wrestling Academy 4th Place - Chase Stephens of Maurer Coughlin WC 5th Place - Camden Baumann of Maurer Coughlin WC 6th Place - Jeffrey Huyvaert of Rochester WC 7th Place - Gavin Jendreas of Bulldog Premier WC 8th Place - Asher Harter of Greenwood WC

They must not wanna see him repeat.