One more win

Combined, they have 102 victories this year to just a dozen losses.

None of that matters now. What’s important to the trio of Jay County High School freshmen — Cody Rowles, Tony Wood and Cameron Clark — is the next one.

They’ve already made program history by becoming freshmen state qualifiers. One more win puts them in Patriot lore.

Each will be trying to become a state medalist as they compete in the IHSAA Wrestling State Finals at 11 a.m. Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

“It’s going to take a really strong effort,” said JCHS coach Eric Myers. “Talked about this going into semi-state (on Saturday), from here on out you’re going to have to grind out every single match. We don’t have a lot of matches you’re going to get a pin.

“They’re just going to have that mindset that they’re able to and willing to grind out a 6-minute match and maybe more.”

Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the opening round will be a split session. Weight classes of 106 pounds through 145 will be at 11 a.m., and 152 through 285 will wrestle at 7 p.m. to limit the number of people at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

A win on Friday guarantees a top-eight finish and a state medal. The quarterfinal round will resume at 9:30 a.m. Saturday with semifinals to follow. Consolations will start at 5 p.m. and the championships at 7:30 p.m.

Wood and Rowles followed in their father’s footsteps — Bruce Wood and Pat Rowles — by becoming sectional and regional champions. They were the first two father-son duos in program history to accomplish the feat.

Tony Wood, who is just one of two freshmen in the 120-pound state field, had a chance to one-up his father by becoming a semi-state champion, but he lost in the final to sixth-ranked Aidan Sprague of East Noble.

As a semi-state runner-up, Wood has the best draw of the three Patriots as he meets a wrestler who was third at his respective semi-state. So Wood has an opening-round matchup with Brownsburg junior Braden Haines (17-8), who is No. 15 and has the most losses of the 16 qualifiers in the weight class.

“Tony has a little more favorable draw,” Myers said. “Brownsburg is always a tough program. Those are two guys that are somewhat evenly matched. Some of the (Haines) strengths play into Tony’s strengths. I’m hoping we can take advantage there.”

The rest of Wood’s bracket features the top four wrestlers in the state, including top-ranked Chesterton sophomore Sergio Lemley (33-1), who was a 113-pound state champion in Illinois as a freshman.

Rowles, who is 37-2 at 106 pounds, meets fifth-ranked Nathan Smith (27-5) of Southport in the second overall match Friday morning. Rowles is one of four freshmen at 106, and only three of the other 12 wrestlers are returning state qualifiers.

“He’s wrestling with a lot of confidence right now and he feels good about that matchup,” Myers said.

Rowles made easy work of his opponents on his way to the sectional and regional championships, but at semi-state he dropped a 9-5 decision to Vicente Eckman of Goshen. After that loss, though, Rowles rebounded by pinning No. 16 Keegan Malott of East Noble in 57 seconds for third place.

“Cody is not one to back down to anyone,” Myers said. “He’s going to give it everything he has.”

Cameron Clark, the only freshman in the 16-wrestler field at 132 pounds, has the toughest first-round matchup. Clark, who is 28-6 and placed fourth at semi-state Saturday, meets fourth-ranked Brownsburg senior Kysen Montgomery (27-3) in the opening round.

“He’s a good wrestler, obviously,” Clark said of Montgomery, a three-time state medalist who was third at 126 pounds last year, fourth at 120 as a sophomore and fifth at 106 as a freshman. “I’m going to go out and wrestle my best and if I beat him that’s awesome. If he beats me and I wrestled good, at least he beat me because he out-wrestled me and it’s not because I wrestled bad.

“I’m really excited.”

The rest of Clark’s 132-pound field has no shortage of past successes. Combined, the 15 are owners of 17 total state medals.

Despite Clark and Rowles going up against stacked fields, Myers’ goal this week — the wrestlers weren’t able to practice Monday or Tuesday because of the weather conditions and had a short practice Wednesday — is just making sure his wrestlers are concentrating only on who is in the circle with them.

“Really we just continue to focus on one match at a time,” Myers said. “Just wrestle the guy that’s in front of you. Those three freshmen have wrestled tons of high-level matches — whether it’s (Indiana State Wrestling Association) or national duals — they’ve wrestled those high-level matches.

“I don’t think the atmosphere or the arena is going to bug them at all.”

And should they win Friday, they can make more history for themselves. The Patriot program has produced 16 state medalists who’ve combined for 25 medals. Only two of them came from freshmen — Mason Winner in 2017 and Ethan Reiley last year.

“It would be really nice to place and show everyone what I’m made of,” Clark said.