Indian Lake’s wrestling team delivered a solid fourth-place performance Sunday during the Central Buckeye Conference meet and were Mad River division runners-up at Graham High School.
It wasn’t a typical conference meet this year, though. Benjamin Logan did not wrestle because it is currently in quarantine. Nationally-ranked Graham was also with out several starters, who were resting from wrestling in the Division II state duals on Saturday, which it won. Other teams were also without a handful of wrestlers because of coronavirus.
Graham was first overall and won the Mad River division with 228 points. Jonathan Alder was second overall and won the Kenton Trail division with 198 points.
London was third overall and runner-up in the KT with 161.5 points. Indian Lake took fourth overall and runner-up in the MR with 125 points. Bellefontaine was 10th overall and sixth in the KT with 49 points.
Indian Lakes’s performance saw 11 individual placers, including one champion and a runner-up with a fairly young team.
“We wrestled solid and our younger guys were able to get some wins,” said IL head coach Ryan Dickson. “It was a good day. We still have a lot left and the part of the season that matters is coming up. We’ll be ready to go.”
Bellefontaine brought just six wrestlers, but placed four of them. It was the Chiefs first tournament of the year because of school rules.
“It’s our first tournament of the year, so ideally don’t want that to be league,” said BHS head coach Brady Hiatt. “Our kids competed and fought hard.”
Highlighting local wrestling was Indian Lake senior standout Hayden Pummel. The Division III projected state champion at 160 pounds, he held off former London state placer Antwan Burns 4-3 to win the league title. Pummel had also beaten Burns 3-0 earlier this season.
“Burns is tough,” said Dickson. “It was good to go at it with him again. We got two takedowns on him and he was able to get us. It was a good match.”
The Lakers’ Lane Mefford (182) also reached the CBC finals, but was bested by Springfield Shawnee’s Adam Myers 7-4.
Placing third for Indian Lake were Jackson Young (126) and Nate Cummins (138), while fourth-place finishes came from Tony Cummins (120) and Emery Wagner (170).
Coming in fifth was Eli Hughes (285) and taking sixth were Isabel Brunson (113), Gavynn Lowery (132), Ryan Culp (145) and Wyatt Daisy (152).
Bellefontaine was led by Trent Kelly with a runner-up finish at 170 pounds. He lost to Graham’s Timmy Greenhouse by a 19-2 technical fall.
Placing fifth for the Chiefs were Devin Whaley (120), Zane Tevis (126) and Josh Steiner (220).
“Trent wrestled well first two matched and was a little overwhelmed on bottom in the finals,” said Hiatt. “Josh made incredible improvement and could have been in the third-place match. Zane and Devin both wrestled hard, so did our freshmen. We just need more mat time.”