LINDEN — Southmont wrestling was 2-5 early in the season and things weren’t looking good. They even dropped a heart-breaker at the county meet to Crawfordsville. But when faced with adversity, this Mountie team looked it in the face and didn’t waver one bit.
Saturday at the Sagamore Conference meet, the Mounties saved their best wrestling of the season for when it mattered most. The SAC champion came down to the final matches at heavyweight as Lebanon held a one point lead going into the match. After the Tigers fell in the third place match, that meant all the Mounties needed was win from senior Ayden Dickerson and he delivered. The final score read Southmont 217.5, Lebanon 216.5 and for the fourth time in the last five years, Southmont were champions of the Sagamore Conference.
Crawfordsville finished in third place with 204 points while North Montgomery was fifth with152.
“We had eyes on both matches because we needed to know what needed to happen,” Southmont coach Jamie Welliever said of the thrilling finish. “These guys just continued to grind it out when things weren’t going well early on. They come to practice ready to get better and believe in our coaching staff in what we’re trying to do and it showed out here today. Every single one of those 13 guys that wrestled today wrestled the best they have all season.”
In total Southmont produced five SAC champions with Maddox Cade at 138, Marlin Williams at 150, Hunter Alesi at 157, Wyatt Woodall at 215, and Dickerson at 285. Brier Riggle took third at 120, Camden Laney second at 126, Jeffrey Pine third at 132, James Elliot fourth at 144, and Tyler Davis third at 190.
There were a couple of historic milestone’s that were reached on the day for the Mounties as well. Woodall and Williams became the first wrestlers in Mountie history to win four SAC titles. The championship for Welliever was his eighth SAC title for the hall of fame coach.
“What those two did these last four year is unheard of,” Welliever said of the history making moment for Woodall and Williams. “This conference is really tough and I think every team is really good and the caliber of wrestling is better than it was the last few years. For Wyatt and Marlin to come in from day one as freshman and do what they’ve done is special.”
Williams pushes his record to 21-1 on the season while Woodall stays unbeaten at 16--0. The duo talked about their achievements in their careers and how it was great not only to go out of the conference on top as individuals but to be called team champions as well.
“This is special for sure and something I’m going to remember,” Williams said. “It’s an honor to get to be where I am and I’ve put in a lot of hard work. I’m just also so proud of everyone on this team. We all came in with jobs to do and we all did everything we could to bring this title home for us.”
“This is a culmination of a lot of hours of hard work that not many people get to see,” Woodall added. “Marlin and I are so close and to get to be able to share this with him is pretty special. This team as a while is the true definition of a brotherhood. We spent so much time together and we all did this today for each other. Our younger guys were doing it for the seniors and us seniors were doing it for those younger guys.”
Crawfordsville came in searching for its first conference title since 1986. While the Athenians wanted to overall title, Cville still had a great showing. After being near the bottom of the conference for many years, CHS has now been in the top half the last two seasons under coach Aaron Keller. On the day the Athenians had three champions with Taiga Koyanagi at 106, Ashton Wilson at 175, and Braeden Hites at 165. Camron Teeple placed third at 113, Armando Munoz took second at 120, Blayze Robbins as third at 126, Parker Wray fourth at 132, Landon Vaught second at 138, Kollin Moore third at 144, and Jaziel Gil-Herrera third at 150 .
“We wanted to come in and win this thing, but I know this group will learn from some of the mistakes we had today,” Keller said. “I know come sectional time we’ll be a better team because of this. I’m real happy with Ashton, Taiga, and Braeden for being individual champions Ashton’s was a revenge match from earlier this season. We were right there in a few more matches that I know kids want back. We’re going to piggy back off of this experience to make sure we’re a better team when they post-season rolls around.”
The Chargers on the day had a pair of conference champions with Dakota Glasson at 126 and Nolan Yarger at 132. North also got great showings from freshman Kadyn Cohee took fourth at 113, Tyler Thompson was fourth at 150, Mikeal Kincaid third at 165, Hudson Claypool fourth at 175, and Cale Anderson second at 285.
“Both Dakota and Nolan are really starting to click right now which is awesome heading into the post-season,” Charger coach Lincoln Kyle said. “You can see things are starting to go really well for them. We have some freshman in this lineup getting their first taste of what a conference meet is like and I was impressed with how most of them performed.”
All three MoCo teams will now get ready to gear up for the sectional which takes place at CHS on January 27.
