New Palestine’s Chris Bullock lifts the head of Mt. Vernon’s Caelan Alford so he can get the pin during the 126-pound match at New Palestine High School on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021. (Rob Baker/Daily Reporter)
NEW PALESTINE — The Mt. Vernon wrestling team isn’t putting much weight on its regular-season wins and losses.
For the Marauders, it’s an iron-on-iron mentality both inside the wrestling room and on the mat. With five returning semistate qualifiers on the roster and a trio of team regional runner-up finishes from 2019-21, they’re pure postseason focus has them motivated to take another step this winter.
Wednesday night’s decisive 50-20 dual meet win over Hoosier Heritage Conference rival New Palestine marked Mt. Vernon’s 12th victory on the season.
Yet, it’s the five losses that are most telling in regards to their plans for mid-January and beyond.
“Our schedule, we’ve beefed it up. We probably have a top-five schedule in the state right now, and the teams we’ve wrestled are all ranked,” Mt. Vernon first-year head coach Randal Hayes said. “Everyone we’ve lost to is ranked, and that’s what we want. We want these guys in as many of those tough battles where we’re the underdog and we have to figure out a way to win.”
Those loses have come against No. 14 Franklin Community, 39-28, on Nov. 20 at the Lawrence North Super Dual; No. 12 Zionsville, 36-31, on Dec. 4 at the Westfield Shamrock Duals along with No. 13 Westfield, 40-24; and Portage, 42-31, and No. 16 Mishawaka, 39-33, both at the Traicoff Memorial at Calumet High School this past Saturday.
“Last weekend at the Traicoff (Memorial), we took our lumps, but it showed what that did, and we came back and wrestled a team that hadn’t been through that,” Hayes said. “We were much more physical. We were ready to battle, got some adversity and rode through it.”
At New Palestine, the Marauders fired out fast, winning the first four matches by either pin or tech fall to build a 23-0 lead before the host Dragons could respond.
Zach Haughton (132 pounds) opened with a 17-2 tech fall before fellow 2020-21 semistate qualifiers Carson Johnson (138) and Aiden Kiner (145) used a combined 2 minutes, 2 seconds to increase the lead 17-0.
Kellen Kerr (152) needed 1:20 to record the third straight pin before Sam McCullough (170) won a tug-of-war decision, 16-13. Hunter Austel, a 2020-21 semistate qualifier, prevailed in a hard-fought 8-5 decision at 182 to give Mt. Vernon a 29-3 advantage.
“New coach and a completely different approach. Things have been a lot more intense and more driven on the goal, which is we want to punch that ticket and get our kids to state,” Johnson said.
“We’re really trying to seal the deal this year and get five or six to state. That would be big, especially my senior year. Obviously, we have some studs in the room. We’re iron on iron. We’re sharpening each other and getting better.”
Johnson, who is ranked 11th in the state by Indianamat, remains unbeaten at 16-0 and wasted no time, scoring the Marauders’ fastest pin at 42 seconds, which 10th-ranked Riley Anderson duplicated at 285 later in the dual.
Freshman Devin Kendrex, who is ranked seventh at 220, led 17-5 in his match before scoring Mt. Vernon’s fourth of six pins overall on the night.
Kendrex is 15-1 this season with his lone loss coming this past weekend to Portage’s 12th-ranked Corey Hill by decision, 3-1, at the Traicoff.
“When I’m winning all my matches, I think about that. I need to kind of lose sometimes to get better. I use losses to get sharper,” Kendrex said. “I’m definitely trying to make it to state, but even if I don’t I’ll just have to keep coming back harder. I know if I keep working hard in the room and keep on improving, nothing is going to stop me to get there.”
Not much stopped or slowed the Marauders except for four weight classes where the Dragons (4-9) won two by pin, one by tech fall and another by decision, 10-7, at 160 from Jaedyn Jeffries.
Jacob Tweedy won by pin at 195 in 1:32, Chris Bullock scored a fall in 1:51 at 126 and Bryce Doss dominated at 113 with a 20-3 tech fall in the second period.
“We have some young guys, but we’ll alright. We’re going to have some growing pains,” New Palestine head coach Scot Dawson said. “We preach attitude and effort. We don’t worry about the score. We control what we can control, and it’s those two things: attitude and effort. It didn’t come out our way, but I can’t be mad at a kid when they pour their hearts out like that.”
The Marauders final two wins came from Conner Bayliss by decision, 8-6, at 106, and from Gavin Muhlenkamp at 120 with the team’s last pin in 2:30.
“That’s the mentality we want to have. We’re in black. We’re wearing black. We’re here to be physical and we’re here not to back down from anybody,” Hayes said. “Win or lose, we’re going to take it to people. They’re going to know they were in a battle whether they won or lost. That’s how we’re going to do it the whole way through.”
The Marauders head to the Al Smith Invitational at Mishawaka on Dec. 29 but beforehand they travel to Hayes’ aluma mater Delta for another HHC match on Friday night.
Hayes will be recognized along with several former Delta teammates as part of the IHSAA team state championship wave the program enjoyed from 1981-85 under coach Don Patton.
Hayes graduated from Delta in 1987. The Eagles were state runner-up in 1986.
The Dragons host the New Palestine Invitational on Saturday before heading to the Connersville Spartan Classic on Dec. 28.
Mt. Vernon 50, New Palestine 20
132: Zach Haughton, MV def. Elijah Alonso, NP by tech fall 17-2
138: Carson Johnson, MV def. Connor Schatz, NP by fall 0:42
145: Aiden Kiner, MV def. Ethan Sleeth, NP by fall 1:20
152: Kellen Kerr, MV def. Issac Poetz, NP by fall 1:18
160: Jaedyn Jeffries, NP def. Vanden Vail, MV by dec. 10-7
170: Sam McCullough, MV def. Gavin Wilcher, NP by dec. 16-13
182: Hunter Austel, MV def. Brandon Brees, NP by dec. 8-5
195: Jacob Tweedy, NP def. Russell Weaver, MV by fall 1:32
220: Devin Kendrex, MV def. Juan Camacho, NP by fall 3:42
285: Riley Anderson, MV def. Porter May, NP by fall 0:42
106: Connor Bayliss, MV def. Cole Vandygriff, NP by dec. 8-6
113: Bryce Doss, NP def. Xaiden Jenson, MV by tech fall 20-3
120: Gavin Muhlenkamp, MV def. Trace Quillen, NP by fall 2:30
126: Chris Bullock, NP def. Caelan Alford, MV by fall 1:51
