Wood wrestling for 7th

INDIANAPOLIS -- Tony Wood will wrestle for seventh place.

Wood, a Jay County High School junior, lost his first two matches of the day during Saturday’s IHSAA Wrestling State Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, sending him to the seventh-place match.

Wood, who entered the weekend undefeated and ranked fourth at 138 pounds, will close his 2023 state finals experience against unranked Christian Arberry (37-6) of Warren Central. The consolation finals will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Wood and sixth-ranked Michael Major (27-1) of Carmel wrestled to a scoreless one-minute first period of their semifinal match before the former chose to go neutral to start the second period. He looked as if he was closing in on a takedown, only to have Major turned the tied to get one of his own at the 1:07 mark of the second period. Major then caught Wood in a cradle for a three-point near fall and a 5-0 lead.

Wood (42-2) closed the gap with a takedown 18 seconds into the final period but couldn’t find any more points, eventually releasing Major with 23 seconds to go. He got another takedown with two seconds left -- too little, too late -- in a 6-4 defeat.

Earlier in the day, Wood had dropped a 3-1 decision to Center Grove’s ninth-ranked Reese Courtney, who went on to win his semifinal match and will wrestle top-ranked Cole Solomey of Kankakee Valley for the state title tonight.

Arberry earned his state medal Friday night by beating Adams Central’s Logan Uhlman, who Wood has defeated six times this year including in the sectional, regional and semi-state championship matches. He then lost to No. 2 Cheaney Schoeff of Avon in the quarterfinals and No. 15 Gavyn Whitehead of New Castle in the consolation semifinals to set up tonight’s seventh-place match with Wood.

A win for Wood tonight would give Jay County the seventh-place finisher at 138 pounds for the second consecutive season after Cameron Clark earned the seventh-place medal at last year’s state finals.