INDIANAPOLIS — Southmont senior Riley Woodall earned redemption with a 10-5 win over Tri-West senior Dominic Pugliese in the opening round of the IHSAA Wrestling State Finals on Friday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
“It’s definitely the end all be all of Indiana High School wrestling,” Woodall said of his first state finals experience. “It’s a dream come true. Wrestling out there with everybody watching me and with the caliber of guys that are there and being able to move on to tomorrow and being a top-eight 182 wrestlers in the state is incredible.”
Woodall, who is ranked No. 10 in the state at 182, was able to avenge a 5-3 regular season loss to No. 9 ranked Pugliese suffered in the Sagamore Conference finals, with a dominating performance on Friday to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals. Woodall secured three takedowns and earned third period nearfall to secure the victory.
“I’ve been working on constantly getting on a guy and enforcing in and out ties up, take downs, and anything like that,” Woodall said. “I knew coming from the first time I wrestled him I was much more passive and wasn’t moving my feet or changing levels at all, and I knew this time that was the key and I went in and did that every single chance I got. I went from there and he had no answer for it.”
Woodall took Pugliese down at the midway point in the opening period and led 2-1 after one, before taking a 4-3 lead into the third period with another takedown in the second. The senior escaped in the third period, and earned a takedown, before finishing Pugliese off with back points on a Leg Turk pinning combination.
“He has been so locked in at practice and at meets,” Southmont coach Jamie Welliever said. “He just keeps dialing it in a little bit better and better. He executed the gameplan almost perfectly. We wanted a lot of action, a lot of motion and not a lot of time spent up not doing anything. Be efficient on your shots. I think he was three for four, because one of them was out of bounds because he didn’t finish. We were practicing that turk from the top position too, and he finally got that and that kind of sealed it up.”
With the win, Woodall (25-2) will wrestle Warsaw’s Brandon Estepp (20-7) after he upset No. 14 ranked New Haven’s Jacob Saylor in the opening round 8-1. The winner will face the winner of No. 4 ranked Chesterton’s Gavin Layman (38-0) and No. 1 ranked Center Groves Drake Buchanan (33-1) in the semifinals.
No matter the outcome Saturday morning, Woodall will be guaranteed three matches and a podium finish.
“I mean it’s really what every high school athlete dreams of,” he said. “It’s been a goal and a dream of mine to get here since freshman year, and being able to have my name put up on the board that we have on the wrestling room with the top eight-places, wherever I land tomorrow, it’s a dream come true and it’s something that still is kind of sinking in a little bit.”
Woodall will be the first Mountie to finish on the podium since Boone Welliever placed third in 2017 at 145.
And the goal will be to take it one match at a time.
“One at a time,” Welliever said. “We kind of like that matchup (With Estepp). He’s not overly active, so once again we’ve got to be the most active guy out there and work it work it work, and give ourselves a chance at the end. And the longer a match goes, the more it tilts his way.”
Wrestling starts at 9:30 a.m.
