GREENFIELD — New Palestine rode the momentum of six consecutive wins, all with bonus points, and defeated rival Greenfield-Central 41-27 in a matchup of two of the state’s top boys wrestling teams.
Both came in ranked in the Top 10 in the IndianaMat.com Class 3A dual ratings. G-C was No. 5 and New Pal was ranked No. 8.
“Our guys wrestled tough, wrestled hard and that’s exactly what we needed to do to walk away with the win in this one,” New Palestine head coach Andrew Frey said. “(We got) good momentum and it helped. Our tough guys came in and got that ball rolling hard for us. It was a great night for New Pal wrestling, our JV had awesome matches, the girls wrestled well, and the (elementary team), I think, only lost one or two matches.”
After Greenfield-Central opened with wins at heavyweight — a 56-second pin by Brayden Flener over William Glesing — and at 106, a 5-3 overtime nail-biter by Braeden Ayres over Blake Doss, New Pal won the next six.
New Palestine picked up six points in four of the victories, getting three pins and an injury default. There were also two major decisions.
The string of wins started when freshman Landon Stranger defeated Kylie Smith-Foster, at 113, 12-3.
At 120, New Pal freshman Wes Harbert beat G-C’s Jett McGuire, a sectional champion at 106 last year, by injury default. McGuire was up 4-3 when the match was stopped. There were two other stoppages in the match prior to the default.
The six points gave New Pal a 10-9 lead.
The Dragons followed with three straight victories by fall. State-placer Gunner Butt (126) won in 1:36 over freshman Devon Foster. Cole Vandygriff (132) defeated J.J. Harlow in a matchup of two 2023 semi-state qualifiers, in 1:24, and another Dragon frosh, Peyton Hornsby, beat Cade Zuber, another semi-state qualifier, in 2:39.
“We knew coming in they were much improved from last year,” Greenfield-Central coach Josh Holden said. “Coach Frey is doing a great job and has a really good staff. We knew they had a good junior high and had some good freshmen (coming up). They’ve got a lot of hard-working people in that town who expect to be excellent. I knew they were going to be good. We needed to wrestle our best to win it and we did not wrestle our best, that’s for sure.
“I don’t think we wrestled completely horrible, but to beat a team that good you have to pin them and you can’t get pinned. We got pinned too much.”
After New Pal’s Elijah Alonso won 17-9 over Nate Miller, at 144, the Dragons led 32-9.
Greenfield-Central won four of the final six matches, including two by fall, but it wasn’t enough to erase the large margin.
G-C’s Kannon Zuber, who advanced to last year’s semi-state meet at 138, beat Bryce Doss, a state-placer at 120 last season, 10-9, in the 150-class match. But, when New Pal’s Jaedyn Jeffries won by fall in 4:34 over G-C’s Aidan Briles, at 157, the Dragons clinched the meet.
The Cougars followed with three straight wins. Sophomore newcomer Mason Thompson won the 165-match over Gabe Flick, 6-4.
Two of G-C’s top returnees, 175-pounder Silas Frye and 190-class wrestler Clay Guenin — two of G-C’s five returning semi-state qualifiers in Wednesday’s lineup — won by fall. Frye beat Gavin Wilcher in 4:31 and Guenin made quick work of Brandon Brees with a pin in 1:11.
To wrap up the match, at 215, New Pal semi-state qualifier Shaun Glass won 4-1 over Tristen Lanum.
“We’ve got to get better,” Holden added. “We’ll see them in (the Hoosier Heritage) Conference meet, but they have caught up to us real quick. Last year the score was kind of reversed. We’ve got to work hard, and get better so we can go catch them.”
Greenfield-Central won 46-31 in last year’s dual at New Palestine.
“New Pal wrestling is definitely on the rise and did a great job tonight,” Frey added.
Prior to the boys varsity match, there were seven girls matches. New Pal won four. Olivia Lemus (125) won by decision and Ella Morris (145), Elizabeth Champ (155) and Madisyn Covington (140) won by fall. G-C’s three wins were all by pins. Asia Bowen (105), Jasmine Camacho (155) and Ella Harpold (170) all won in the first period.
Along with the girls match, the schools wrestled junior varsity and elementary school teams prior to the boys varsity contest.
