LINDEN – Southmont wrestling saw its three-year Sagamore Conference championship streak come to an end on Saturday at the 2023 SAC Championships at North Montgomery. Lebanon brought home the title, scoring 242.5 points. Western Boone placed second with 220 and the Mounties earned a third place finish as they scored 211 points. Crawfordsville edged out North Montgomery for 4th as CHS scored 148.5 points to the Chargers 147.0
The Mounties had four wrestlers wrestle for a SAC title Brier Riggle at 106, Maddox Cade (126), Marlin Williams (128), and Wyatt Woodall (195). Riggle placed second overall while Cade, Williams and Woodall are were named SAC champions.
Besides that, every single wrestler for the Mounties placed on the podium as Taylan Dinius took home 7th at 113, Thomas Woods 5th at 120, Jeffrey Pine 3rd at 132, Justin Emerson 3rd at 145, Kaden Newgent 4th at 152, Max Musick 6th at 160, Micah Kiger 3rd at 170, Tyler Davis 7th at 182, Gavynn Hayes 5th at 220, and Ayden Dickerson 3rd at 285.
“Eveyone who wrestled today did some good things,” Southmont coach Jamie Welliever said. “Is hurt us not having Waylon (normal 220 wrestler), and with him out we just didn’t have enough to come out on top. I was happy with our three champions and all of them are only juniors so that’s plenty to build on and is pretty exciting. Even the guys that didn’t wrestle for a championship like Jeffrey Pine, Justin Emerson, Micah Kiger who all got third had very good days as well.”
Crawfordsville while they migh have started the day off slow, wrestled their best when it mattered most in the consolations and that allowed them to leap frog the Chargers to finish in the top half of the Conference.
Taiga Koyanagi brought home a a fourth place finish for the Athenians at 106 with Camron Teeple placing third at 113. At 126 Parker Wray placed third, Kollin Moore fifth at 132, Landon Vaught fourth at 138, Jaziel Gil-Herrera 5th at 145, Ahston Wilson third at 152, Braeden Hites third at 160, Austin Peters fourth at 170, Calvin Dittmar fifth at 182, Keegan Cokel fifth at 195, and Isaiah McNorton rounded out the lineup for the Athenians with a seventh place finish at 285.
“Sometimes your first match doesn’t fall the way you think it’s going to go and you have to be able to bounce back and so many of our kids did that today,” Crawfordsville coach Aaron Keller said. “I was proud of them for fighting back and giving us a fourth place finish. There’s something to be said ther for finishing in the top half of the confernce for sure. Camron Teeple stood out for me because he hasn’t wreslted his best so far but was able to place third. I’m excited to get back into the wrestling room with these guys as we look to round into form.”
North Montgomery produced two SAC Champions as Nolan Yarger at 132 and Dylan Braun at 285 both took home first place in their respecitve weight classes. The Chargers in total had four wrestlers competing for a title as Gage Galloway at 160, and Todd Laffoon at 195 both earned second place finishes. Other results for the Chargers included Robert Fitzgerald-Ryan placing fifth at 113, Christian Brown taking sixth at 120, Connor Koopman fourth at 126, Marisa Moffit seventh at 138, Brent Runyan eighth at 145, Jayden Thompson fifth at 152, Mikeal Kincaid sixth at 170, Israel Rose eighth at 182, and Kayden Hodges seventh at 220.
“I’m really happy for both Nolan and Dylan first off,” Charger coach Lincoln Kyle said. “They both wrestled really well today. Nolan had some pretty exciting matches but always found a way to end up on top. Where we lacked today was being able to fight back in the consolation rounds. It showed in the team scores where Crawfordsville beat us out. It’s something that we’re going to need to work on. Here in the last few weeks leading up into the sectional we’re just going to fine tune some things, but we also know now that in order to keep our season alive, we’re going to have to do better at wrestling back if we drop our first match.”
The next big meet for all three county teams as Kyle mentioned will be the beginning of the post-season as Crawfordsville hosts the sectional which will take place in two weeks on Jan. 28.
