South's Wyatt Cooksey hopes change to 132 is worth the weight
Even after moving up a weight class, Wyatt Cooksey is still hungry.
The Bloomington South freshman is 17-9, has competed at 126 pounds most of the season while leaning a bit more toward a 132 body type. So he moved up for Thursday's home dual against Edgewood where he was assigned Landon Clement, who was coming off a Western Indiana Conference title.
Cooksey got caught early, but then scored 14 of the next 17 points and ended it at 4:57 with a pin.
"It was really good for me because he's beat all the kids in the sectional," Cooksey said. "So I'll have the 1 seed if I were to go 132 at sectional. And I also used to go to that school, so I know all those guys."
Cooksey was third at the Conference Indiana meet and of his nine losses, eight have been to state-ranked wrestlers. The decision to move to 132 would mean spending less time battling his weight and he thinks it will result in better endurance. But his run through 126 toughened him up for the jump.
"I think I did a lot better because I bumped up tonight," Cooksey said. "I used to wrestle 126 all year, now I'm 132, so I had a lot more energy in me. And from the other matches this year, I've had really tough competition."
"He's definitely at the top of that class at 132," South coach Mike Runyon said of a potential sectional bracket with Cooksey at that weight. "Clement is solid kid. I think it's going to be a good move for him."
Cooksey keeps getting better each time out, but needs to expend more of his energy earlier in the match.
"I think we have to have a conversation about how slow he was starting out," Runyon said. "He's been doing that, getting himself in a hole. It's almost like he's got to get a little bit of grit to him so to speak before he gets going.
"And once that happened, he got frustrated a little bit and that's when things started happening."
Cooksey's was one of six pins South used to rally from a 22-12 deficit to post a 48-34 win in the season wrap up for both schools until the Bloomington North Sectional on Jan. 28.
Edgewood's John Orman on the rise
Edgewood has its own freshman phenom in John Orman at 113.
He was 16-5 coming out of Mooresville, then had a minor injury that kept him out of the dual against Bloomington North and the WIC meet as well. He returned to take care of South's Wayne Harden with an 11-1 major. He was up 6-0 after two periods and had no problems finishing it off.
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"John has stepped in as a leader, not as a freshman," Edgewood coach Daniel Coyne said. "He wants it. He loves the sport and he's feeds off his mistakes. He's blessed to have a good support system and that really makes a big difference."
Orman is aiming high.
"I have very high goals," he said. "By senior year, I want to be a state champion. It takes a lot of hard work in the room and the summers.
"My brother kind of drives me. My parents, they really drive me. But I want to do it for myself, also."
His older brother, Jay, was a two-time semistate qualifier for the Mustangs who stepped away from wrestling for a year, rediscovered his love for it and came back to win a sectional championship at 138 as a senior, but an injury scuttled the rest of his postseason. He'll pop into the practice room occasionally to keep John on his toes.
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"He had helped me tremendously," John said. "He makes me meaner. He's my brother. I want to beat up on him. We go hard when we go at it."
John battles Jay's superior strength with good technique, something he's had to do often this season while facing older wrestlers.
"I've definitely learned that high school is a lot different from middle school," Orman said. "It's a big learning experience. I've gotten beaten by older people and I really pay attention to the film to see what they did."
Working along side 145 senior Cash Turner, a two-time state qualifier is also a blessing for Orman.
"It's awesome to have him up there," Orman said. "I get to wrestle him a little bit and he's shows me a lot of moves and teaches me how to flow from one move to the next. It's a great opportunity to work with him."
South's Tristan Hicks getting after it
South sophomore Tristan Hicks was in complete charge of his match at 182, taking his opponent down five times, the last enabling him to finish it in just 1:35. Hicks is a football player by trade, a linebacker for the Panthers, and his athleticism has transferred well to the wrestling mat.
In turn, everything wrestling brings to him has translated as well in just half a season in his new sport.
"I have some senior friends on the football team who wrestle," Hicks said. "They told me to give it a shot. He said I didn't have to stay for the first day. I ended up staying and I love it.
"It's just the feeling you get when you have all these guys out here cheering you on. It feels special. And I love to give back to the seniors for everything they did for me. They helped me grow, they helped me become tougher. So I love to give it my all whenever I'm out here. It's my appreciation for them."
He's getting as much out of wrestling as he's putting in.
"I'm getting fit. I'm getting healthy," Hicks said. "I love it. Wrestling, there's no other sport like it. You get abused. Your body gets tormented. But you wake up feeling like you can go through anything. You feel like a monster, like you can do anything you want."
Hicks admits he suffers from anxiety, but when he's on the mat, he realizes the worst that can happen is he loses.
"But not if you work hard enough," Hicks said. "You work hard enough, you're not going to lose, so you don't have to worry about it. So the fear of embarrassment is moving me forward."
Onward to sectional
Coyne was proud of his team's effort but naturally a bit frustrated at the outcome.
Edgewood started off with two pins from Trenton Fender at 220 and Kegan Lane at 285 and got a third from Peyton Arthur at 126 for a 22-12 lead. Turner carded five takedowns in less than a minute before winning via pin in 1:25. That would be Edgewood's last win until Braden Hubbell pinned newly minted CI champ Drew Chandler in 1:46.
"That's his family, his cousin," Coyne said. "So win or loss, it was cool that family got to wrestle each other and on (Chandler's) senior night."
A run of pins by Hunter Fender (152), Evan Roudebush (160), Delaney Ruhlman (170) and Hicks (182) secured the win.
"A couple of them really came out aggressive," Runyon said. "I thought Tristan Hicks looked really good. He starting to come around. Duncan is as well. There at the end, hate to see Drew go down. He got caught, things happen like that. Other than that I think we performed fairly well."
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com or 812-331-4381 and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington South wrestlers post 48-34 win over Edgewood at dual
