Brach Carrington claims semi-state title; No. 1 seed at Wrestling State Finals

JASPER – Greencastle will be sending a wrestler to the IHSAA Wrestling State Finals for the first time in nearly a decade after Brach Carrington continued his undefeated senior campaign with a title at 195 pounds at the IHSAA Jasper Wrestling Semi-State.

As a result of his results throughout the day, the Tiger Cubs finished 14th overall in the team race with 24 points. Evansville Mater Dei ran away with the team title with a score of 172.5 while Brownsburg was second with 106 points.

Carrington will go it alone after brother Logan Carrington lost his opening bout to then-undefeated Ben Phillips of Charlestown by decision at 152 pounds.

In his opener, Logan Carrington was on the wrong end of a takedown and back points in the opening period, finding an escape late but trailing 5-1 after two minutes.

Phillips secured an additional pair of takedowns in the second period to put Carrington into a significant hole and there was no route for the Tiger Cub grappler back into the match, finishing his final campaign with a record of 28-6.

Brach Carrington, by contrast, needed less than a minute to advance from his first round match, dispatching of Castle’s Jason Palamarhuck by fall.

In the ticket round, Carrington shook off two years of past disappointments with a second fall of the day, this time taking out the hosts’ Ashton Schuetter, by pinning the Wildcat junior just inside the first period.

The win set up a major bout with the only other undefeated wrestler at 195 pounds, North Posey’s Wyatt Willman, in the semifinal.

Neither wrestler was able to score in the first period of the bout with Carrington opting to take bottom position to start the second period.

After an escape, Carrington secured a takedown and back points for a 5-0 lead after two periods and rode out Willman in the third period to claim a spot in the semi-state finals.

Awaiting Carrington was an all-too familiar face in Avon’s Ke’Shawn Dickens, the same wrestler Carrington defeated for the sectional and regional titles.

Three periods of hard wrestling eventually netted Carrington a 3-0 win and a semi-state title to add to his collection this year.

Carrington sits at 37-0 heading into the state finals and will open the finals on Friday night against Kokomo freshman Chad Washburn (20-6).

Should Carrington win the bout, he will be guaranteed a top-eight finish with the rest of the quartile containing Hamilton Southeastern junior Max Broom (30-5), whom Carrington tech falled earlier this year, and West Lafayette junior Connor Barket (19-1) who suffered his first loss of the season in the East Chicago Central Semi-State Saturday.