For the first time in school history, the wrestling team won the IHSWCA Team State Duals Championship at Franklin Community High School on January 11th. The last time that the team got to team state was in 2019.
Senior James Dozier was a big part of the championship match because of his leadership and motivation.
“The driving factor for this team was definitely the want and will to win,” Dozier said.” We recognized we had a special team this year and could do something amazing with our talent. This pushes us every day to become better individual wrestlers and better teammates to one another.”
They had a bye in the first round of the tournament and had a calm 60-12 win against New Have in the quarter finals.
The semifinals and championship on the other hand were closer than the past round. In the semi finals the team went down 14-0 before having 5 straight pins and winning the match 36-33.
In the championship, Roncalli would lose the first four matches but then came back and won the next six. With senior Will May icing the match with a fall.
“After that close win, our confidence was up as a team, however, for those individuals whose confidence was down after a loss in the previous dual, the team did a good job of putting everyone’s heads back in it to forget about that last loss and to move forward,” Dozier said.” The response in the finals was electric. Everyone had each other’s backs and was all in all excited to wrestle. ”
Another recent victory for the team was in the Circle City Conference Duals. The Royals went undefeated in the tourney, beating Guerin, Brebeuf Jesuit, and Bishop Chatard in their 9th consecutive Conference championship.
