GREENFIELD — They got it right.
Wednesday’s dual meet at Dellen Automotive Gymnasium was a battle between two of the 12 teams that will compete in Saturday’s Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association (IHSWCA) Class 3A team state duals at Franklin Community High School.
Host Greenfield-Central will go into Saturday’s meet seeded No. 7. Roncalli is No. 8.
With Roncalli’s state-ranked wrestlers, 106-pounder Peyton Schoettle and 113-pounder Blake Getz, waiting in the wings, Greenfield-Central made sure the match was decided before it got to two of the Royals top grapplers.
Down 2-1 going into the third period, Greenfield-Central’s Brayden Flener pinned Roncalli’s Zane Baker with just 53 seconds remaining in the match. It gave the Cougars a 35-19 lead.
Schoettle and Getz followed with pins to close out the match, but it was Saturday’s seventh-seeded Cougars finishing victorious, 35-31, over the eighth-seeded Royals.
“Roncalli is really good,” Greenfield-Central head coach Josh Holden said. “When you’re seeded seventh and eighth [in the state], on their side maybe, maybe not, they probably came in thinking they wanted to prove they should be the higher seed. We were wanting to prove people right.
“For years in this program we’ve been trying to prove people wrong. People didn’t think we were good enough or people didn’t think we could win and we wanted to prove them wrong. Now, I think people do believe in us, and it shows, and now we have to prove people right. Today we proved them right and this was the first time with our full lineup.”
After nine of 14 matches, the dual was tied 19-19. Roncalli elected to forfeit at 190 against Greenfield-Central standout Clay Guenin. The Royals moved their 190-pounder, Evan Nalley, into the 215 match against Cougar sophomore Tristen Lanum. That plan didn’t work as Lanum dominated the contest and got the Cougars more bonus points with an 8-0 major-decision victory.
With the score 29-19, and Schoettle and Blake Getz going in the final two contests, it appeared the match would come down to a battle of heavyweights and Flener got his team the win.
Holden thinks Flener, who he had coached during football season when he was the offensive line coach, got a little extra motivation.
“I think everybody heard how I felt,” Holden said of when he told Flener he didn’t think his senior heavyweight was wrestling hard enough. It was the perfect storm. As soon as Holden questioned Flener’s effort, the gym went quiet.
“I didn’t know it was going to get quiet, but he wasn’t wrestling hard,” Holden added. “Our kids, in big matches, don’t want to make mistakes and they think that means to slow down. It doesn’t. Go hard, but don’t do silly stuff. … I know him pretty well and have a great relationship when I was the O-line coach. I know what pushes his buttons. Yelling at him in front of everybody pushes his buttons. He went, ‘I’m gonna win it and prove you wrong.’ He’s been proving doubters wrong for a long time.”
The match started at 120 where G-C’s state-ranked Jett McGuire picked up a 5-0 victory against Jack Richardson.
The Cougars won three of the first five matches, but it was tied 12-12 going into the bout at 150. Both Roncalli wins came by fall. At 132, Alex Plahitko pinned G-C’s Cade Zuber in 4:27 and Will May, at 144, defeated Cougar senior Nate Miller in 4:42.
G-C had a pin at 126. Lincoln Parsons, with one second left in the second period, defeated J.R. Link. Cougar JJ Harlow added a 4-2 win in the 138 match against Andrew McHugh.
At 150, the third of three Roncalli state-ranked wrestlers, Braden Getz, won 11-2 over Kannon Zuber.
The Cougars followed with a big win at 157, cutting the Royals lead to 16-15. Aiden Briles won 4-1 against Tucker Billerman.
Holden said Briles’ victory was another key close-match win that helped the Cougars beat the Royals.
“He wasn’t a varsity kid last year and he’s come a long way,” Holden said of his junior wrestler. “He’s the hardest worker on our team. He’s starting to learn how to wrestle and that was the first match he didn’t make any silly mistakes. He just controlled the match and was calm, and listened. When we won that we looked at each other (on the sidelines) and said, ‘this is getting ready to go our way.’ We knew up top we had some dudes.”
Roncalli regained the lead with a 7-2 decision for James Dozier over Mason Thompson at 165.
G-C senior Silas Frye tied it up with an impressive 14-2 major decision, at 175, over Gray Wiley. It was the first of four straight wins.
