HANCOCK COUNTY — Alex Johns wasn’t necessarily pleased, but he wasn’t devastated either. Much like his New Palestine wrestling team, the Dragons head coach was motivated instead.
On Saturday night as the Hoosier Heritage Conference wrestling meet concluded inside New Castle Chrysler Fieldhouse, Johns already knew the probable result.
He crunched the numbers, quite a few times, and he understood the inevitable.
Greenfield-Central’s comfortable lead prior to the medal rounds was insurmountable even with six Dragons wrestlers in the championship finals. The Cougars only had five competing for weight-class titles, but they also had 14 wrestlers amassing team points, including four third-place winners.
The Dragons had 11 competitors going overall, so mathematically, the deficit proved too difficult to overcome, leading to a runner-up finish at the HHC by a 33-point margin to Greenfield-Central.
While agitated by the missed team opportunity, Johns didn’t ignore the obvious.
“That’s going to happen,” Johns remarked after the HHC. “Greenfield was the more complete team today, but, we shouldn’t be disappointed.”
The 2020-21 wrestling season has been like no other, and the Dragons realized that fact early, losing out on the first two weeks of the campaign in late November and the beginning of December due to COVID-19 quarantines.
The Dragons fell behind from the start, but they aren’t that far off the pace, now, six weeks after opening at home against Greenfield-Central on Dec. 10 with a 38-30 loss.
Their HHC tournament performance and steady progression leading up to the eight-team event this past weekend foreshadowed their potential this postseason.
At 15-4 overall this season, the Dragons are ranked eighth in IndianaMat’s Class 3A rankings. They have a trio of wrestlers ranked in their semistate, which will be held at New Castle next month.
Christian White, a senior 132-pounder, is a two-time state qualifier in his career and holds the fifth spot in the most recent rankings at a perfect 19-0 on the year.
Their four respectable dual losses have come against Franklin Central, 3A No. 1 Columbus East, Hamilton Southeastern and the 3A No. 10 Cougars.
“The goal is still to peak at the end of February at the state,” White said. “The season started out slow. I got two quarantines, and our second tournament (this season) with only four matches, I was tired, but I’ve been hitting my stride lately.”
On Saturday, White and several of his teammates backed up that assessment.
White won his first match of the season by pin in 1 minute, 53 seconds and hasn’t stopped winning since. A state-qualifier at 113 his sophomore year, White placed fifth at 120 as a junior and is one of a dozen state-place winners ranked in the top 15.
One of four HHC individual weight-class champions for New Palestine, White garnered his third-career league title and picked up the pace quickly after finishing 4-0 at the Roncalli Duals on Dec. 12 and later 5-0 at the New Palestine 6-Way Invitational on Dec. 30.
At the New Palestine Invitational on Jan. 9, White earned Wrestler of the Meet honors, which setup Saturday’s 3-0 run, including a pair of pins in 3:59 and 2:49.
In the HHC’s 1320-pound finals, White faced his first true test of the season, locking up with state-ranked Breven Thrine (24-1) of New Castle, a formerly unbeaten, 14th-ranked sophomore.
White ran out to an 11-0 lead before pinning Thrine in the second period.
“Mentally, he was broken. When you’re down 11-0, it’s hard to come back,” White said. “That win was huge going into sectional. That was my first ranked kid that I wrestled this season, and it showed my progress is working. Practices are paying off.”
Part of Sectional 22, the Dragons finished fourth last year at Shelbyville behind Warren Central, Franklin Central and Greenfield-Central.
White was second at 120, losing to Warren Central’s Carleton Perry by decision 3-1. He also lost to Perry in the 2019-20 regional final, but unlike his opponent, White advanced out of the New Castle semistate as a third-place medalist to reach state.
This year, White could, once again, see a Warren Central Warrior standing in his way at all three postseason levels prior to state in ninth-ranked David Pierson, who is a three-time state-place winner at 106 (4th), 113 (5th) and 126 (4th).
“At sectional, the Warren Central kid is good. I’ll probably have a good three matches with him before state even, so it’s one week at a time,” White said.
That’s the game plan for all of the Dragons with eighth-ranked Warren Central the favorite to win a probable 36th team sectional title and fourth consecutive inside their own gym on Jan. 30.
“(Christian) wrestled really well. That’s the best we’ve seen him all year and against a quality opponent,” Johns remarked on White. “That’s good. We’re not quite to tournament time yet, but it’s good that we’re wrestling at a high level leading into it. That’s great.”
Impressive is another suitable descriptor with seven varsity events canceled on the Dragons’ schedule this winter and only nine days until the sectional tournament.
Despite the lack of mat time, the Dragons showed to be playoff ready with sophomore Jack Rossell (8-3) taking first at 106 in the HHC, along with senior Zack Hoyt (16-3) at 152, senior Tucker Keevers (16-2) at 285 and White.
“Jack Rossell won his first conference title. Tucker Keevers won his first. He looked well. Zack Hoyt found his stride,” Johns said. “We had a couple of first-timers and for Christian that was his third.”
They nearly had two more with freshman Shawn Glass (13-5) finishing second at 160 and senior Richard Clevenger (14-3), a state qualifier in 2019-20, narrowly missing out at 195, losing by fall during the HHC finals after building a first-period lead.
For added depth, the Dragons have point-getters handy in freshman 113-pounder Sydney DeLois (4-11), who placed fifth at the HHC as one of two female competitors in her weight class.
Junior Porter Keevers (13-8) at 170, junior Jacob Tweedy (7-5) at 182 and senior Darin Johnson (11-6) at 145 each placed third at conference, which bodes well for the Dragons.
