Saturday was the finish of the first week of the IHSAA wrestling season, but two Hamilton County teams got what amounted to a sectional preview that day.
Hamilton Heights hosted its annual Super 6 tournament, with Noblesville also participating. This year’s event featured five teams, and the Millers beat them all, thus winning the team trophy.
The meet would come down to a dual between Noblesville and the Huskies, and the Millers prevailed 28-26. Austin Hastings sealed the victory for Noblesville, winning the 195-pound match by fall. The Millers had trailed 26-22 going into that final bout, and Hastings’ pin was worth six points, giving the Millers enough for the win.
There were five rounds at the Super 6, so each team received a bye for one round. Noblesville’s bye came at the beginning, so the Millers had to wait in order to start their competition. As it turned out, Heights was Noblesville’s first opponent.
“We came in and had a bye first round, so it’s kind of tough whenever you weigh in at 8 o’clock and then you’re basically going to end up sitting and not wrestling until 11 or 11:30,” said Millers coach Michael Weimer. “And after Hamilton Heights already had a first match. Their bodies are good and stuff. Very proud of our coaches of getting our guys prepared for that first match, because it was a very important, big dual.”
“If we would have won the last match, we would’ve won, but the thing is, it takes 14 wrestlers to compete,” said Huskies coach Gary Myers. “You can’t blame it on one guy. They all had a hand in this, so they all had to take the loss together.”
After the Heights match, Weimer said his team got progressively better and better. Noblesville cruised through its next three duals, beating North Central 45-25, Tipton 71-12 and Pendleton Heights 48-24.
“And that’s something I always tell our kids is, finish the day. We started strong, but we got to finish the day strong. And that’s something that they did today that I was really proud of the entire team.”
Five Millers wrestlers finished as undefeated champions. Gage Gulley went 4-0 at 145 pounds, and Carter Richardson also finished 4-0 at 152 pounds. Noblesville’s three heavyweights were also unbeaten: Austin Hastings at 195, Jacob Long at 220 and Jacob Etchison at 285.
“When you have five guys out of your 14 going undefeated on a day, you’re having a good day as a team,” said Weimer.
Noblesville, Hamilton Heights, Pendleton Heights and Tipton will all compete at the Elwood sectional in late January, so both Weimer and Myers are aware that this meet could impact seedings as the sectional draws near. North Central competes in the Arsenal Tech sectional, but both the Elwood and Tech sectionals feed into the Pendleton Heights regional, so the Panthers could see wrestlers from the other Super 6 teams in that round.
“Bonus points are going to win these duals,” said Weimer. “Getting them and also not giving them up.”
Three other Noblesville wrestlers finished with 3-1 records: AJ Kramer at 106, Josh Kauzlick at 113 and Keaton Sepiol at 132.
Hamilton Heights finished second in the team standings. The Huskies opened with a 75-6 win over Tipton before their dual with the Millers. After that, the Huskies beat Pendleton Heights 43-33 and North Central 39-29. Heights had two unbeaten champions: Carson Fettig at 138 and Evan Tilton at 182. Five more wrestlers went 3-1: Isaac Kuhn at 120, Michael Cane at 145, Jimmy Lacey at 160, Charles Brown at 170 and Andy Lienemann at 195.
“Everybody had tight matches today, so this was a very competitive Super 6,” said Myers. “Nobody’s getting away with just running over teams. Tipton’s lacking some weight classes, that’s their only issue. But it’s a good Super 6. Very even all throughout. It could’ve went either way.”
Heights is back in action right away, as it travels to Lapel – another team in the Elwood sectional – on Monday for a dual meet. Noblesville is off until Tuesday, Nov. 30 when it hosts Zionsville in a dual meet.