The dream season for Crawfordsville wrestling continues. After having to re-schedule the county wrestling meet, the wait was well worth it for CHS. Wednesday the Athenians hosted the meet with the Chargers and Mounties and for the first time since 2009, Crawfordsville stands atop the county and were named county champions
In round one, CHS wrestled Southmont and the dual meet between the Mounties and Athenians was about as close at it could get. With Cville holding a 23-18 lead, South got wins from Tyler Davis, Wyatt Woodall and Ayden Dickerson with Woodall and Dickerson earning pins. That gave South a 30-23 lead. Southmont did have to surrender six points at 113 in the final match so that meant the final match came down to Taiga Koyanagi vs Cooper Scott at 106. Koyanagi picked up the decision win and Cville scored the final nine points to win the match 32-30.
Against North Montgomery in round two, Cville took down the Chargers 45-21 to secure the county title.
“Our kids wrestled really well and for them to win the county title for the first time in 14 years is pretty special,” Crawfordsville coach Aaron Keller said. “Against South, I thought we’d both be better in some areas. It ended up coming down to the wire and touché to our kids for coming out on top. Taiga wrestled the best he’s wrestled in a quite awhile and ended up going 3-0. It was a special night for him and for us as a program.”
In total Crawfordsville produced seven county champions. Koyanagi at 106, Armando Munoz at 120, Blayze Robbins at 126, Landon Vaught (138), Tristan Hodges (157), Braeden Hites (165), and Ashton Wilson (175) all went 2-0 vs the Chargers and Mounties.
“This has been a group that’s battled adversity with having to basically do nothing for an entire week with what happened with the skin situation,” Keller added. “They responded very well to that and you could tell they were getting back in the swing of things but battled through it all and we proved to have a great night.”
Southmont ended up in second place by defeating the Chargers in round three 60-15. The Mounties themselves produced five county champions as Marlin Williams (144), Hunter Alesi (150), Tyler Davis (190), Wyatt Woodall (215), and Ayden Dickerson (285) went 2-0.
With the Mounties being at their strongest they’ve been for most of the season, Southmont coach Jamie Welliever was up front in assessing his team’s performance especially in the opening round vs CHS.
“We just had about three to four guys who simply didn’t do their job,” Welliever said. “I was very blunt with all 13 of our guys what their jobs were and some of them didn’t get it done. Wrestling is still a team sport even though you’re out there by yourself. Our entire team is counting on everyone to go out there and do their job. Even if that job was to not get pinned or whatever it was, those guys have to do better because the match didn’t come down to 106. I thought Cooper wrestled very well and was one of those guys who did his job.”
North Montgomery came into the county meet with some holes in their lineup and ended up having four forfeits on the night which handed both CHS and Southmont 24 points. The Chargers did produce a pair of county champions with Nolan Yarger (132) and Kayden Cohee (113). Charger coach Lincoln Kyle was still proud of his wrestlers who did go out there and give it their all.
“We weren’t at our full strength, but I did tell the guys that I was proud of how they competed,” Kyle said. “We wanted to have a good showing but there are bigger goals that are ahead for us this month like conference and the sectional. I don’t want the guys to be too hard on themselves and just making sure that we were still giving it our all for those who were out there.”
All three teams also wrestled Riverton Parke on the night and all three picked up wins over the Panthers.
Crawfordsville with their three wins stayed a perfect 16-0 on the season and a big reason for Cville’s success has been their depth and the ability to field a full lineup night in and night out. Keller concluded his comments on the county title night by saying how important that depth has been for his team all season.
“Having a full lineup and not having to give up six points at any spot is huge,” Keller said. “It’s worked out great the entire year and came up big again when we needed it too tonight.”
Next Saturday CHS will look for yet another goal as the Sagamore Conference meet takes place at North Montgomery. Before then, both CHS and Southmont will be in action this upcoming Saturday. The Mounties will travel to Rochester to compete in the Team State Duals against the best in Class A while Cville will travel to compete in the Tipton Invite.
