Crown Point wins second straight Indiana wrestling championship
By Phillip B. Wilson
INDIANAPOLIS — There wasn’t any doubt about Crown Point making school history with its second consecutive wrestling state championship on Saturday night after a school-record four wrestlers delivered impressive wins.
Sam Goin started the statement at 160 pounds when the 43-2 senior pinned Evansville Central’s Luke Kemper in 1 minute, 30 seconds. Next on the mat, 170-pound senior Cody Goodwin knocked off previously unbeaten Delaney Ruhlman of Bloomington South 2-1.
The Bulldogs made it three titles in a row when senior 182-pounder Orlando Cruz edged De’Alcapon Veazy of Fort Wayne Snider 5-4. Then 220-pound junior Will Clark pinned McCutcheon’s Cole Chicoine in 1:48.
Crown Point finished with 167 points to celebrate its third championship, also winning in 2009. Center Grove was runner-up with 131 points and Brownsburg finished third at 129.5.
“It’s historic for us,” Crown Point coach Brandon Lorek said. “We’ve never won back-to-back titles in wrestling and we’re just the second team in our school history to win back-to-back titles. At the end of the day, you come down to Indy and it means a lot for us from our area, to compete against all these tough Indianapolis and Southern Indiana schools. Center Grove, Brownsburg, they had phenomenal tournaments.”
Clark said he and his teammates were well-prepared.
“All the big moments our coach set up for us this year, the tough tournaments, it made state less intimidating,” he said. “I came out here and believed in my training and my matches this year and kept doing what I’ve been doing.
“I was hoping we’d have more champions. It was awesome. My goal was to come here and win, so I’m extremely happy. I love these guys. Every day in the room makes this worth it.”
Lorek was ecstatic about how his foursome responded in the finals.
“Two pins in the finals is incredible,” he said. “Our ’82 pounder beat the No. 12 guy in the country and our ’70 pounder won his first title. It was a huge upset, but we knew he could do it.
“We were getting anxious because it’s been a challenging weekend. We took some hard losses, but we wanted to keep these guys motivated. We’ve got a lot of seniors. We wanted to win this state title for our team and all these boys. Trying to repeat is hard. Until you have to do it, you don’t realize how hard it is.”
Brownsburg had three state champions in freshman Revin Dickman at 106 pounds, Jake Hockaday at 120 and Leighton Jones at 285.
Brownsburg coach Alex Skipper accentuated the positives of three wins and gave credit where it was due to Crown Point.
“They’re really good,” Skipper said. “So are we. We had a few guys fall off and it happens. We’ve got to get better. That’s the way it is.
“Three out of four in the finals, I think we’d take that any day of the week.”
Jones was sure the results would motivate the Bulldogs who will follow him.
“Our coach says it almost every week, ‘It’s a standard to be the best in Indiana,’” Jones said. “Although we didn't do it today, I know those boys will be back in the room on Monday, ready to work.”
Center Grove had one winner in junior 113-pounder Charlie LaRocca, but four other finalists lost.
